30-40k Under 40k phone with good camera and battery

mallik

Forerunner
Questions:-
1. Budget?
A: INR 40k and below

2. Preferred display size, type and resolution?
A: Around 6 inch, OLED

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

4. Preferred connectivity options?
A: 5g with wireless calling

5. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them.
A: No preference. Phone should be good for at least 2-3 years

6. What is your intended use for this phone (internet, camera, multimedia, mails etc.)?
A: Camera, mails, internet

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

8. New or Used? Online or Offline?
A: New. Don’t mind buying online

9. Any other requirements?
A: Need good battery backup, wireless calling

10. If you have already considered a phone, then please mention the model
A: Asus Zenfone 8z

Need to help a friend buy a phone who will be using it mainly for calls WhatsApp, and routine functions. Not much gaming, if any. The camera should be good (I love pixel, but battery sucks), and so should the battery life. Wi-Fi calling and 5G also needed

Thanks for the help folks!
 
If you're on 12 there are some improvements to the gallery app that allow to remove objects, shadows and reflections from photos. I find its 50-50 depending on the photo but when it works its 100%. The way to get those improvements is a bit roundabout involving another module called photo editor so watch the video


If you upgrade to one UI 4.1 there is a further improvement that allows to turn any photo into portrait mode.

The S20FE does not allow portrait with telephoto only the main camera.

What i find amazing is portrait video (!) How do they manage that :oops:
Some more hidden goodness using the style option in gallery

 
Did some drain tests to evulate how much battery savings can be had with various settings. So at 120Hz display setting, looped a video at 480p resolution until the phone died. Then at 60Hz and finally with the power saving mode.

Volume at 33%. Brightness at 25%. The brightness slider was just under the bottom of the wifi symbol point.

Video ran under wifi. No sim card in the phone. GPS off

Ambient temperature around 28-30 degrees C

Battery Level (%)
Default 120 Hz (hh:mm:ss)
60Hz (hh:mm:ss)
Power Saver Enabled (hh:mm:ss)
100​
90​
1h 23m 45s​
1h 52m 50s​
1h 46m 19s​
80​
1h 37m 18s​
1h 38m 47s​
1h 54m 51s​
70​
1h 37m 18s​
1h 36m 16s​
1h 53m 21s​
60​
1h 35m 47s​
1h 33m 16s​
1h 50m 50s​
50​
1h 33m 47s​
1h 31m 15s​
1h 48m 49s​
40​
1h 28m 16s​
1h 31m 16s​
1h 47m 50s​
30​
1h 20m 14s​
1h 26m 45s​
1h 49m 19s​
20​
1h 11m 12s​
1h 25m 44s​
1h 47m 19s​
10​
1h 8m 42s​
1h 25m 14s​
1h 45m 20s​
0​
42m 8s​
51m 9s​
1h 00m 41s​
SOT
13h38m
14h52m
17h24m

Now these are synthetic measurements. IRL you won't get even half this duration.

The phone was left by itself with the screen on with no interruptions. But that is also the idea to reduce variables and get a feel for what makes a difference to SOT.


Going from 120hz to 60Hz yields a 5-10% longer SOT so if you average 5h SOT you get upto 5h30 SOT. Not a whole lot of savings to be had reducing your screen refresh rate

Going from 120hz to power saver yields a 37% longer SOT so if you average 5h SOT now you get 6h40 SOT. Limiting the CPU to 70% yields a larger saving.

The biggest killers of standby are high ambient temperature and a poor cell signal. If you're stationary and have a good to strong cell signal your standby and consequent SOT is going to be good.

I notice when charging from flat at 15W the battery temperature can rise from 29 all the way to 37 degrees C which is quite a jump :oops:

And this is with an ambient temperature of 28 degrees C. Sammy seems to fast charge all the way up to 90% before slowing. My LG V20 slowed charging speed around 70% which gave the battery more time to cool down.

If your ambient is hotter than that then it would be better to use a slow charger that worked at half the speed so 8W.

Top up either at 70% or 30. Avoid deep discharges.

One way to fast charge in hot temperature is to use a fan and blow it at the phone. There is one catch though.

If humidity hovers around 30% all you will do is push more hot air at it. However if humidity is 50% and above then the fan wil work.
 
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Saki shows how to create a bixby routine to switch screen to 60hz from 120Hz when watching youtube so as to save battery.

Well, above table shows savings will be negligible doing this. Instead of changing screen refresh rate, chose battery and enable power saving when youtube app is opened.

Now the savings only apply so long as the youtube app is active on the screen. You can use the same routine to add more apps say netflix if you use that with screen on.

But if you were to use Vanced then you could turn the screen off and listen that way. But you could also be doing something else with Vanced minimised so I'm not sure as to the utility of a routine with Vanced in this case. I usually listen with screen off so this has some utility.


This next bixby routine might be redundant if you leave location on all the time. In case you want find my phone to work in case you misplace it. My standby testing shows leaving location on all the time adds 0.1%/h extra drain to standby than without. That is on a system where not too many requests for location are made.

But if you have location off all his routine does is turn on location the moment you open maps and turns it off when maps is either in the background or closed. Something you think should have been there a long time ago. It helps to download maps so you can reduce network traffic. Just rely on GPS.

I used to open maps , then switch on GPS, then when closing maps remember to switch off location.

No need to do that with this routine. It's nifty in that sense.
 
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The one-handed operation+ module from the good lock app is very useful.


I used the pop-up widget screen to store all widgets and clear out the home screens

The diagonal thumb swipes bring up the task switcher so no need to go into recents

and then there is the quick tools group which allows for easy screen shots as well as access to the screen timeout timer.

With a bit of practice, this is the best way to use a galaxy phone :)
 
New image enhancer out on the S22 called Galaxy Enhance X.


Won't find it in the Galaxy store but a link to apkmirror is provided in this XDA article that you can use to sideload the app.


It's interesting and provides some extra features. It's still a very impressive version 1 so improvements will come with time.
 
No end to reveals for this phone.

The latest hidden feature is Labs in the Gallery app.

Open up the Gallery app, go to the settings, scroll down to About Gallery and tap it. It will display a screen showing the version number.

Keep tapping on that version number until you see a toast that says Labs enabled. Then go back to the setting and check out the new Labs option in there :oops:

This was mentioned in the context of S22U but it works on any phone with OneUI4.0
 

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Why would you buy a 2 yr old device?
Best camera under 50k, most likely + S870 is still powerful enough + most importantly efficient, thus lower temps & better battery life than S888 or SD Gen1. Can argue for Dimensity 8100 being better overall, but no good D8100 phones with such good cams.

IMO only con of S20 FE 5G is that android 13 is the last update. So if that doesn't matter much, still a solid choice, esp for cams (selfie cam is sadly not that great).
 
Best camera under 50k, most likely + S870 is still powerful enough + most importantly efficient, thus lower temps & better battery life than S888 or SD Gen1. Can argue for Dimensity 8100 being better overall, but no good D8100 phones with such good cams.

IMO only con of S20 FE 5G is that android 13 is the last update. So if that doesn't matter much, still a solid choice, esp for cams (selfie cam is sadly not that great).
I would probably put the camera of s21fe above s20fe. Both are under 50k nowadays. I thought the s21 Fe would be a better choice but was surprised it seemingly fares worse than its predecessor, overall. At their current price points, s20 Fe seems a better vfm, so you're right
 
I would probably put the camera of s21fe above s20fe. Both are under 50k nowadays. I thought the s21 Fe would be a better choice but was surprised it seemingly fares worse than its predecessor, overall. At their current price points, s20 Fe seems a better vfm, so you're right
Interesting to know that S21FE lost, I thought they would be the same as the cam is the same on paper, but maybe superior ISP of S865 helps. I won't recommend S21 FE because of Exynos, even S888 wouldn't have helped much with thermals or battery though.
 
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