Budget 30-40k Suggest a phone with these features

nRiTeCh

nRiTeCh

Skilled
My dear partner phone died after 4+ years and now is the time for a change...

1. Budget?
A: INR 30k-40k

2. Preferred display size, type and resolution?
A: AMOLED or higher

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

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

5. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: Strongly dislike: Iqoo/Poco and Samsung is the last in-line (due to their updates affecting camera negatively)

6. What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Camera, social media and everything except gaming

7. Single SIM/ Dual SIM?
A: Dual Hybrid

8. New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New/Used. Online/Offline

9. Any other requirements?
A:
  • Camera performance and Battery Life & Capacity/fastest charging in budget is utmost priority
  • Camera shall have all the modes possible: Normal/Wide/Macro/Telescopic
  • FM and 3.5mm jack will be good to have
  • IP rating will be icing on cake
  • Wireless charging if possible
10. If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
A: NA

My peers and families have a bad epx. with Samsungs as their ota updates kills the camera performance making it dull and crap eventually.
Poco x5 would have been fine but the ota updates is rending hardware useless on this phone and this has been the case since X3.
 
Last edited:
Sort by date Sort by votes
Maybe the Realme GT Neo 3? There's an 80W and a 150W version, and it has all the camera types except macro. Not sure of the quality, but GSMArena thinks they're good and I usually trust them.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OP 11R or NP2, check detailed reviews from GSMArena, Geekyranjit, Beebom, Techwiser, C4ETech, Trackin Tech English, etc.

I used S835 S8 for 4 years, shifted to S20FE 5G 2 years back. I am yet to see any camera quality reducing updates. I don't install any new update ASAP though, usually I wait a week (not sure how much this helps). Samsung has the best software experience IMO, 4 OS updates on new phones + subjectively the best UI. Sadly no good Samsung phone under 40k. I will avoid S888, SD 8 Gen 1 or Exynos SoCs (all made at Samsung fab). 8+ Gen1 is made at TSMC.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
OMEGA44-XT said:
OP 11R or NP2, check detailed reviews from GSMArena, Geekyranjit, Beebom, Techwiser, C4ETech, Trackin Tech English, etc.
Click to expand...
The guy wants camera as a priority, NP2 camera is pretty bad. To the OP, if you can stretch the budget a little get the Pixel 7A or atleast wait for Diwali sale in a couple of months and grab it then since pixel 8 series will be launched by then and the phone will be under a good discount
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
altair21 said:
The guy wants camera as a priority, NP2 camera is pretty bad. To the OP, if you can stretch the budget a little get the Pixel 7A or atleast wait for Diwali sale in a couple of months and grab it then since pixel 8 series will be launched by then and the phone will be under a good discount
Click to expand...
7a has an average battery life, which is much more important in daily life IMO. Because of inefficiency, I mentioned certain SoCs which should be avoided, Pixel uses a custom Exynos SoC.

A friend of mine has iQoo 9 with S888 & another has S21FE, both have inefficient chips. In real life, they get like ~3hr SOT & phone barely lasts from morning till evening. This is on 4G/5G. My S20FE lasts longer with ~4hrs SOT on 4G/5G. Battery life gets worse on mobile data, so does the heating issue. The friend with iQoo carries around his charger, which is 120W, so helps in quickly topping up. My friend with S21FE keeps his phone in battery saver where performance is reduced & display is at 60Hz.

Another friend has Pixel 6a, he is able to extract 3.5hrs SOT or so with phone lasting the day more easily compared to my other 2 friends, I assume 60Hz helps. But I have heard of below-average battery life from many people about Pixel 7, so should apply to 7a as well.

1691974979606.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
altair21 said:
The guy wants camera as a priority, NP2 camera is pretty bad. To the OP, if you can stretch the budget a little get the Pixel 7A or atleast wait for Diwali sale in a couple of months and grab it then since pixel 8 series will be launched by then and the phone will be under a good discount
Click to expand...
Pixel is simply crap in terms of battery and processor too. as it tends to heat up as well on mobile data contributing more to the drain.
In fact I extended my budget till 50k and found great camera phones having just 4500 mah batteries and in most of them have draining issues both ideally, overnight or typical day usage.
Was thinking getting pixel 7 pro from US but the what if certainty makes importing phones a questionable option (except for iphones) due to their no global warranty and service issues here incl. out of region phone drama by the service centers.

Seems the good old sub 30k era has gone where one used to get a balance between everything.. now its either a great battery, ip rating, camera or splurge 60-70k + just to get that perfect phone.


Today visited reliance and got hands-on on Vivo v27, Oppo reno 10 pro and pro plus and Xiomi 11.

Camera wise winners:
Oppo reno 10 pro plus
Oppo reno 10 pro
Vivo v27 and Xiomi 11

Battery wise its samsung but again extremely slowest charger of the budget range esp. compared to these phones as well.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
nRiTeCh said:
Pixel is simply crap in terms of battery and processor too. as it tends to heat up as well on mobile data contributing more to the drain.
In fact I extended my budget till 50k and found great camera phones having just 4500 mah batteries and in most of them have draining issues both ideally, overnight or typical day usage.
Was thinking getting pixel 7 pro from US but the what if certainty makes importing phones a questionable option (except for iphones) due to their no global warranty and service issues here incl. out of region phone drama by the service centers.
Click to expand...
we have pixel 7 in my family and while the heating issues are present on the phone, its not as exaggerated as peeps say online, I'll agree with you that their bullshit Exynos processor is dragging the phone down but honestly in day-to-day usage, there's barely any lag whatsoever, and the camera is the pixel's strength, as for battery drain, its present on almost all phones I have seen with 5g, Pixel easily lasts over a day with an average of 7-8hours SOT, not the nest but certainly not the worst imo. If you want to make your phone last through the day, either disable 5G or use Wi-Fi, 5G is supposed to be draining, its a given considering you are using such a high frequency band, so unless OEMs make a breakthrough in battery tech or optimize their software for 5G, the issue will be present,

Seems the good old sub 30k era has gone where one used to get a balance between everything.. now its either a great battery, ip rating, camera or splurge 60-70k + just to get that perfect phone.
Click to expand...
you need to go even higher, the base s23 costs around 75k without offers, forget about s23 plus and ultra, iPhone is potentially something you can get on a lower budget if you can make do with older models but its Apple so its automatically no for me, I didn't even want to buy my edge 30 fusion but at that point, it made the most sense, NP1 had Pei's bullshit about their accessories and the phone being already overpriced, making it a bitter pill to swallow, plus I asked around on the NP subreddit, a lot of peeps were having issues with bugs on it so I avoided it, and the only other choice left was Moto since I needed stock android. Moto is actually pushing out decent phones if you can ignore their curved display bullshit and the lack of speedy updates (in return, their updates are really stable with nil bugs whatsoever).
OMEGA44-XT said:
7a has an average battery life, which is much more important in daily life IMO. Because of inefficiency, I mentioned certain SoCs which should be avoided, Pixel uses a custom Exynos SoC.

A friend of mine has iQoo 9 with S888 & another has S21FE, both have inefficient chips. In real life, they get like ~3hr SOT & phone barely lasts from morning till evening. This is on 4G/5G. My S20FE lasts longer with ~4hrs SOT on 4G/5G. Battery life gets worse on mobile data, so does the heating issue. The friend with iQoo carries around his charger, which is 120W, so helps in quickly topping up. My friend with S21FE keeps his phone in battery saver where performance is reduced & display is at 60Hz.
Click to expand...
It depends on the software optimization too, I have 888+ on phone and I easily get atleast 7 hours of SOT with like 25% battery left over easily, granted mine is always on wifi and I rarely use mobile data. I cant say much about 7a but I have had a 6A and 7 in my family and both had stellar battery lives, not gonna say that GSMarena is wrong but my experience with them has never matched up in regards with 7 atleast, and even 6A to an extent. That said google really needs to get their together in India, I never encourage buying a Pixel here because of shit after-sales service and the fact that the Tensor is a bullshit chip, the really should have gone with SD by now, its telling that even samsung didnt include their Exynos processors in the S23 series
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
If I had that kind of money, I would just get any older iPhone from iPhone 12 or above or the brand new iPhone SE. I am at this stage that I don't even have to compare any specs because they don't seem to matter much in iOS. All iPhones from 12 are either 5nm or 4nm. They are practically the latest along with all their other specs.

But as the famous saying goes, to each his own.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Back
Top