With the capabilities of mid-range smartphones increasing exponentially and the growth of sales of luxury and high-end phones decreasing with time, the sub Rs 20,000 market has been flooded with hundreds of smartphones. However, not all phones are created equal. And not every smartphone has the perfect camera to capture the best photos.
So, we here at Tech88, narrow the list down to the 5 Best Camera Phones under 20,000Rs. Since most people have some sort of brand loyalty and prefer certain OEMs over others and the fact that the sub Rs. 20,000 market is flooded by a sea of phones with many not being a lot different than the rest, we are listing the best phone which we feel that you should purchase, one for each manufacturer. This would enable you to make a better decision.
So, here are our Top 5 Best Camera Phones under Rs. 20,000:
1. Samsung Galaxy A50s
Samsung Galaxy A50s is a mid-range smartphone that benefits users a lot with its premium features. The major highlights are the long-time battery that will save power when required.
Other than that, it has screen protection, an AI-powered camera, and a strong processing front. Overall, the smartphone is astonishing within the budget.
Display and Camera:
Samsung Galaxy A50s comes with a 6.4-inch tall display with Super AMOLED type. It has a screen resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels and a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. It has a pixel density of 403 PPI, which is enough for the sharpness of the content.
Besides, the smartphone has a triple camera bearing 48MP, 8MP, and 5MP rear lenses. At the front, it has a 32MP lens, which would be the perfect selfie lover’s choice.
Storage and Connectivity:
Samsung Galaxy A50s can internally store 128GB of files, data, apps, and games, which is adequate for all the users. And, there is a hybrid slot that would allow the user to expand the storage up to 512GB via a MicroSD card.
In the connectivity section, the smartphone has 4G VoLTE support Wi-Fi 802.11, b/g/n, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS with A-GPS, Glonass, USB Type-C, etc.
Configuration and Battery
Samsung Galaxy A50s has been furnished with Samsung Exynos 9 Octa 9611 chip along with an octa-core (2.3GHz quad-core Cortex A73, 1.7GHz quad-core Cortex A53) processor. The combination is managed by a Mali-G72 MP3 GPU and a 4GB RAM that differentiates it from its previous models.
In terms of charged capacity, the smartphone depends on a Li-ion having a huge capacity of 4,000mAh which is provided with the Fast Charging technology. The power backup would be sufficient so that the user doesn’t have to carry the charger everywhere or anywhere.
2. Xiaomi Poco X2
Featuring the RealityFlow display, a quad rear camera system (64 MP Sony IMX686 sensor, 8 MP ultra-wide sensor, 2 MP depth sensor, and 2 MP macro sensor), and the liquid cooling system, this smartphone has everything in place to help you do anything most suitably.
Get ready to stun everyone with your picture-perfect selfies, thanks to this smartphone’s dual in-screen cameras. That’s not all, with the presence of the 4500 mAh battery, you can be sure that this smartphone will be with you throughout.
Design and build
On the face of it, POCO is a former Xiaomi sub-brand but no matter how much the company wants to carve out an independent identity, the POCO X2 still gets its design cues from Xiaomi.
You might have heard of the Redmi K30 being launched in China and the POCO X2 is pretty much the same device. A curved Corning Gorilla Glass 5 back adorns the back of the POCO X2 covering the breathtaking Purple color design and the textured circular pattern around the camera housing.
The curve on the sides means that this is a phone which is easy to grip but the slippery design slightly negates this advantage.
The quad lenses themselves are arranged vertically along with the LED flash and the POCO branding is prominent at the bottom. It is quite clear to me that I’ve never held a more premium feeling device in the sub-20,000 category.
Props to POCO for considering a flashier design for its new phone as the POCO F1 was anything but flashy. However, the POCO X2 is not exactly light at 208g and I had problems in operating the device with one hand.
The top of the phone comes with an IR blaster to turn your POCO X2 into a universal remote, a feature quite standard in Xiaomi phones and was also present on the POCO F1. At the bottom, a Type-C port is present along with a headphone jack and a speaker grill.
The X2’s left side has the capacitive fingerprint reader which doubles up as the power button and above it is the tactile volume rocker buttons. The reasoning for not including an in-display fingerprint sensor, which has become a novelty on many mid-range smartphones, was quite simple: the technology requires an OLED display which will drive the cost high and that is not what the POCO brand is about.
Add to that the necessity of a 120Hz refresh rate and you can see why POCO opted for an LCD panel. On the right of the phone is the hybrid SIM slot which supports microSD cards up to 512GB.
Cameras
Quad-cameras have become a prominent feature in so many smartphones in the mid-range category that it comes as no surprise that the POCO has also hopped onto the bandwagon. You get a 64MP primary sensor with f/1.9 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor with an f/2.2 aperture, a 2MP macro camera with f/2.4 aperture and a 2MP depth sensor.
The same camera arrangement is seen on the Redmi Note 8 Pro (review) as well. There is one difference though. The primary 64MP camera on the POCO X2 is Sony’s IMX686 sensor which is a first for a smartphone in India, while the Redmi Note 8 Pro utilizes an ISOCELL GW1 64MP sensor.
The camera UI on the POCO X2 is the same as seen across all Xiaomi phones running MIUI. It is easy to navigate through and you can generally find the different modes to click photos in by swiping left/right on the screen. Coming now to the image quality on the device, the phone uses the familiar pixel-binning technology wherein it takes four 16MP shots and then stitches them together to make one high-res picture with more details and better exposure.
While in principle this is sound, the actual results are only useful if you really wish to zoom into a photo. Normal daylight photos, however, happen to be best in class. The contrast is great in photos and so is the detailing.
The lens also handles exposure well however the dynamic range can be spotty in some photos. When compared to the Realme X2, the POCO F2 had more natural-looking colors and there was also slightly less oversharpening which I liked. There is no telephoto lens but you can digitally crop into the 16MP photo.
The ultra-wide lens is good only in well-lit conditions, although that is the case for most ultra-wide sensors in the category. The 8MP ultrawide cam snaps good photos with enough level of detail but there were distortions at the edges than what I could see on the Realme X2.
The macro camera churns out usable shots but again lighting plays a big hand in it. One major factor on the POCO X2 is that it has autofocus capabilities on the macro sensor which makes it easier to click detailed photos. Even so, you do see some color distortion in photos albeit not that often.
There is a 2MP depth sensor on the phone as well which can be used for accurate depth detection between the subject and the background. In my testing, the background separation was quite good with the subject almost always in focus.
Nighttime photography is also quite good on the POCO X2 and it is really aided with the dedicated Night Mode. As such, there is a lot of software-based noise reduction in low-light photos with the subject in focus most of the time.
Exposure calibration can be slightly problematic but the Night Mode takes care of it. Ultra-wide is only slightly usable in low-light situations.
There is also a 20MP f/2.2 shooter on the front of the phone and it is accompanied by a 2MP depth sensor. Photos from the selfie camera are crisp and detailed with good exposure handling behind the subject.
The added depth sensor means that background separation on the portrait mode shots is much better than what we see on mid-range phones like the Realme X2 or the Galaxy A51. The POCO X2 also has the ability to shoot 960 fps slow-mo video recording capabilities along with 4K video at 30 fps.
3. Realme X2
Realme X2 is a beautiful handset that comes with exotic colors on the back panel to add a vibrant look to it. It has a strong processor that can deal with heavy games and multitasking. The battery is also up to the mark with fast charging support. The camera is superb and is one of the main highlights. Considering the budget, there is no drawback.
Display and Configuration
Realme X2 comes with a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED display that has a screen resolution of 1,080 x 2,340 pixels along with a pixel density of 403 PPI. It has Corning Gorilla Glass protection, which is good to provide shielding. It can provide a quality vision while protecting it against falls and bruises.
The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset on which a Kryo 470 octa-core (2.2GHz dual-core, 1.8GHz Hexa Core) processor setup is placed. There is an Adreno 618 GPU, that ensures the graphical performance while the 6GB RAM ensures multitasking with lag-free speed.
Camera and Storage
Realme X2 is a camera-centric smartphone that features quad-rear camera setup with 64MP + 8MP + 2MP + 2MP lenses. It has a 32MP front camera. The camera of the device is provided with great features and filters. The front camera is good enough to capture sharp images.
In terms of storage, the device houses a 64GB internal memory, which serves as a lot of space to keep the files and data of the users including apps and games. There is an external memory slot that supports up to 256GB with the help of a microSD card.
Battery and Connectivity
Realme X2 comes with a 4,000mAh Li-ion battery with VOOC fast charging technology. The battery allows the users to stay active whether it is office hours or in a case of extensive use in free-time, for which the fast charging technology can give full support.
For connectivity, the device supports 4G VoLTE networks, Wi-Fi 802.11, ac/b/g/n/n 5GHz, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS with A-GPS, Glonass, USB Type-C, etc.
4. Vivo S1 Pro
Vivo S1 Pro is a mid-range smartphone that offers excellent surpassing the limit of its price-point. The device provides an unnotched display where users can enjoy the full view without any disturbances.
In terms of performance, the device has perfect internal hardware that is made to offer excellent gaming experience. Other than that, the camera and battery are also good. Overall, it is one of the best smartphones that one can come across.
For the primary camera, Vivo S1 Pro has the 48MP Samsung GM1 sensor in the lead, which is considered second-rate to other popular quad-pixel sensors like Samsung GM2, Samsung GW1(64MP) and even Sony IMX586. The primary snapper is accompanied by an 8MP wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro sensor, and a 2MP depth sensor.
The camera app is well laid out and easy to maneuver.
In outdoor situations with sufficient lighting, the 48MP primary sensor manages to capture rich details and dynamic range.
Indoors and in low light, the camera performance deteriorates steeply. Vivo is working on a Super Night mode but it should be available via OTA update.
The wide-angle camera can shoot 108-degree wide images (after correcting for edge distortion) and the quality is fairly decent when shooting in a well-lit outdoor environment.
A macro camera is a fun option and it works reasonably well. The 32MP selfie camera is again a decent performer.
So, overall the camera performance is about average. It’s not outright impressive but in light of available alternatives, it shouldn’t be deal-breaker either.
5. Apple iPhone 7
The four-year-old iPhone supposedly has two more years until it is discontinued.
This should only be a choice if you desperately require and need an iOS device. The camera is good, though not as good as the others on the list.
iOS is still well optimized and you can play the snappiest of games with just a little to no heating and lag.
For a four-year-old phone, the phone performs extremely well and iOS is lightning fast as well. Though you wouldn’t get a great phone for 2020 the user experience, in general, is like some of the flagships in the market and it still outperforms mid-range phones in GeekBench results.
If you wish to buy an Apple phone on a budget, this should be your go-to phone.
These are our top picks for the top five manufacturers and we feel that these are the best camera phones below Rs. 20,000. Let us know your favorite in the comments.