Budget 25-30k Need a new phone for a friend

Rezep

Rezep

Adept
A friend of mine is buying herself a new phone sometime this month. Finds her current phone vivo Y17 a bit old and is disappointed with the camera performance now. Her main priorities are that it should have good battery life, a good/great camera, and good performance is expected (no gaming aside from simple ludo king :p ), she also wants the phone to have various color options but it is not a priority at all (told her she can just slap a case on). She is kinda leaning towards Oneplus but I wasn't too sure if Oneplus is worth it and I was hoping the community here might have a better Idea about it than me. Hope you can help me out!
Thanks in advance!

Questions:-
1. Budget?
A: INR 25k-30k (Not sure if she can push it to 35k but prefer to keep it to under 30K for now)

2. Preferred display size, type and resolution?
A: She's currently using a vivo Y17 which is around 6.3 inches, so somewhere around that. 6-6.5 inches. No preference in type and resolution

3. Preferred operating system? (Android (with version), iOS, Windows Phone etc).
A: Should be Android

4. Preferred connectivity options? (4G, 3G, 2G etc).
A: 4G and 5G

5. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: No preference, but is leaning towards oneplus and likes phones that has a good look or design. Doesn't seem to like samsung design tho but doesn't mind if the camera performance and software and specs are good

6. What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Camera, social media, etc what any person uses his phone for in this day and age

7. Single SIM/ Dual SIM?
A: No preference

8. New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New, online and offline

9. Any other requirements?
A: Good Battery, Good camera and Good lagless experience.

10. If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
A: Nord 2, Oneplus 10R, Samsung A52, Realme GT Neo 3
 
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Rezep said:
And if it's not too much to ask, are none of the other chinese brands competitive anymore? Only name I saw popup in the under 30k list was an Mi 11 which was on no one's list and the realme gt neo 3 which is basically the OP 10r but a little bit better with more bloatware?
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If she's okay with miui then consider mi 11x pro. She can get 10k exchange value for Vivo y17 which should bring it in her budget. It has good front and rear cams. If front cam is the only priority Vivo v23 is great.
 
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Rezep said:
Ok I shall keep this in mind thank you
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There is less throttling with the SD than the Exynos. I've not heard any one say the new Exynos 1280 heats up. So people who play games prefer SD.
Rezep said:
She uses face unlock. Yes, quite rare to see someone using that
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Common in the iphone world where people swear its the future. Or in cold countries where people wear gloves. Fingerprint sensors and screens don't like wet fingers.

You get less standby as a result as the phone has to be awake more often than otherwise.
Rezep said:
Thank you I shall keep that in mind, currently I guess we have basically landed on samsung more or less
It's either the samsung m52 5g, Samsung A52s, or if that deal comes back, Samsung S20 FE 5G (is it better than the rest even without the deal? It's currently at 35k)
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The m series is known for battery but its lower end compared to the A series. I picked up the S20FE for 35k. Wait for the weekend. prices seem to dip then.

Was watching some reviews comparing Nord with sammy phones and was surprised to find people comparing it with the M series. Nord beat the M in terms of design and cpu speed but this Nepali girl (Gadgetbyte) rated the M camera (which has no OIS) better than the one on the Nord. The A camera is better than the M and the S20FE beats the A.

This is mostly due to more processing power so you get more features. In terms of picture quality the difference between A & S20FE is slight. The latter has 3x optical which is missing on the A.
Rezep said:
And if it's not too much to ask, are none of the other chinese brands competitive anymore? Only name I saw popup in the under 30k list was an Mi 11 which was on no one's list and the realme gt neo 3 which is basically the OP 10r but a little bit better with more bloatware?
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One in four phones sold in India is a Mi phone apparently. They are competitive.

What is interesting is compare to five years ago and the first phone people would say to go for would be the Moto G. There would be twenty people all saying the same thing for the 20-25k price bracket. Who remembers that ?

Sammy was never that great in the midrange so Moto had an opening then the Chinese phones replaced them and started edging everyone else out. Chinese phones always appear competitive on paper, but how well the software works is always an open question. It will get fixed people say, yeah sometimes otherwise not. Then there is always ROMS which isn't the answer.

Today Sammy seems to have consolidated the mid-range thanks to their software. They replaced touch wiz with OneUI and rolled it out to the lower end. Features that launch on the flagships, slowly show up months later in updates on lower end phones if they can handle them.

They extended updates. Security as well as OS. Sammy has made a commitment here. So and so phones will get updates by such time. Check how long others will offer updates if that matters.
 
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Rezep said:
t really is hilarious, although after some discussion we took off the motorola edge due to lower battery size
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Lower battery can be discriminating for Moto phones especially since they have near stock OS. Because of it's clean OS, it has no unnecessary apps or services running in the background so it allows them to go for smaller capacity battery, unlike Chinese phones which will have something or the other running in the background.To compensate that, they have to use larger battery. Just for comparison, my Moto Edge 20 Fusion has a deep sleep percentage around 96-97%(higher the percentage, lesser is the battery drain), while my previous Poco X3 always had less than 90% of deep sleep(meaing something running in the background, draining the battery). Another fun fact... Whenever, Miui released a software update, it was always in beta stage(not a final build), so we would always encounter bugs, despite final release.
Chinese phones have a decent camera but a terrible UX. If she's fine with the likes of miui(aka memeui), coloros then you can give it a try. The cmaera features tonnes and tonnes of filters which I find it overwhelming. Can't say for your friend though.
 
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Alright @blr_p and @Kaleen Bhaiya , She has more or less settled for the a52s. She went to croma a day back and checked the cameras there only, compared it with the nord 2 as well and she said that the a52s just looked better and camera was also better on it too. Was going to buy it from there only, before I realised it was the 6gb version that @blr_p said not to buy, hopefully the samsung opera house in bangalore will have the 8gb ram version in stock, doesn't want to buy online, she had a terrible experience and been scarred ever since apparently lol. The S20 FE as you said is the best option of the 3 but I'm not too sure if it's highly possible to find it offline. I shall get back with any updates! Thank you!
 
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babhishek said:
there is a new a73 also launched recently....
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Newer ones are costly and does not have good processors
Like 33,53,73

Last gen like 52 has SD778 which is quite good.
Again Exynos processor like 9611 was used in about 20 different phones
Newer Exynos chip is good but used in flagship phones only so quite costly.

No to Chinese phones like Xioami, Realme, Iq, Motorola since we dont get software & security updates as promised by Samsung, Nokia, LG.

LG is out of phone arena. So won't recommend that. Nokia isn't offering any good processors so this also out.

And I phones are real costly but SE is somewhat affordable but has quite a good amount of corners so not recommended unless an iPhone fan boy.

That leaves with Samsung with its several offering ranging from F series, M Series, A Series which are mid range.

While S Series are high end offerings.

PS: My Sammy M31s got its Android 12 update yesterday. They kept their word. I received 2 Android updates including this one.

Again Mediatek chipsets also not recommended since they generate heat. I don't know about the latest Dimencity chips but I used one with a Xolo phone and it's horrendous in those days.
 
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bssunilreddy said:
Motorola since we dont get software & security updates as promised by Samsung, Nokia, LG.
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Wanted to clarify.. Moto does give security patches once in 2 months. Definitely not fast as Samsung or Pixel but still better than other brands.
Regarding OS updates, yeah, I agree. They are slow. But honestly, don't feel the need for any as the phones functions smoothly.
When things ain't broke, why fix it!!
Regarding camera updates, it comes directly from Google Store. They definitely have good hardware, need to work on post-processing.
Just my 2 cents..
 
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Rezep said:
Alright @blr_p and @Kaleen Bhaiya , She has more or less settled for the a52s. She went to croma a day back and checked the cameras there only, compared it with the nord 2 as well and she said that the a52s just looked better and camera was also better on it too. Was going to buy it from there only, before I realised it was the 6gb version that @blr_p said not to buy, hopefully the samsung opera house in bangalore will have the 8gb ram version in stock, doesn't want to buy online, she had a terrible experience and been scarred ever since apparently lol. The S20 FE as you said is the best option of the 3 but I'm not too sure if it's highly possible to find it offline. I shall get back with any updates! Thank you!
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I did not want to buy online either but in the end got the S20FE from seller Appario for 35k. That was the only seller i could trust out of the lot.

The phone was just two weeks old. Meaning that is how long ago the OS was installed at the factory as one of the apps i ran confirmed. Bought a month ago so manufacture date was March '22.

Appario has the A52s at 8GB in black and mint for Rs.32.5k (without exchange)

Call up the Opera house and confirm if they have the model or when they can get it.

The samsung online store does not have it so that's out.

i recomended the 8GB version because why not for little extra. You can never have enough RAM.
 
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Alright a big thank you to @blr_p and @Kaleen Bhaiya , I went ahead and find a retail store near her that had the A52s 5G 8GB ram, She didn't like the back design of the S20 FE , while the A53 not having a headphone jack and having to buy an additional charger wasn't ideal for her too. So she went ahead and bought the A52s 5G for around 27k retail after exchange. Thank you very much, would have bought off a oneplus 10r if it weren't for yall!
 
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Rezep said:
Alright a big thank you to @blr_p and @Kaleen Bhaiya , I went ahead and find a retail store near her that had the A52s 5G 8GB ram, She didn't like the back design of the S20 FE , while the A53 not having a headphone jack and having to buy an additional charger wasn't ideal for her too. So she went ahead and bought the A52s 5G for around 27k retail after exchange.
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A53 means an extra year of updates. I could not decide between that and the A52.

SD is good if you need the performance as it won't throttle like the Exynos.
Rezep said:
Thank you very much, would have bought off a oneplus 10r if it weren't for yall!
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What price can you get the OP 10R ?


Reviews seem mixed

Selfie camera on 10R is F2.4 which is surprising. The vivo would be better
 
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Ssreek said:
If anyone here has bought Samsung A52s, is it dual 4g or only 1 sim lte/4g and other is 3g/2g?
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1652909825400.png


That's a bit of an odd doubt imo, which phone that is recently released doesn't support 4G on both the sims?
 
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@Rezep
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G (Cloud Navy, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage)
Rs.4000 Coupon + Rs.1000 HDFC card offer
Around 31k + @Kaleen Bhaiya
Rezep said:
Alright a big thank you to @blr_p and @Kaleen Bhaiya , I went ahead and find a retail store near her that had the A52s 5G 8GB ram, She didn't like the back design of the S20 FE , while the A53 not having a headphone jack and having to buy an additional charger wasn't ideal for her too. So she went ahead and bought the A52s 5G for around 27k retail after exchange. Thank you very much, would have bought off a oneplus 10r if it weren't for yall!
Click to expand...
Sorry missed this post. Cheers
 
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