BEST MOBILE PHONES UNDER 25000 IN INDIA

The OnePlus Nord is a new budget offering from OnePlus, which manages to deliver a similar Android experience as the OnePlus 8, but at a more affordable price. OnePlus has kept all the staples such as the AMOLED display, Warp Charge fast charging, and a big battery in the Nord. However, it has made some cuts when it comes to the SoC and the build quality. The OnePlus Nord still has glass on the back, but instead of a metal frame, it's plastic.

The SoC used is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, and not an 800-series chip as we're used to seeing. However, the Nord does support 5G, which is a cool bonus. As an overall package, it's really hard to find fault with the OnePlus Nord. App and gaming performance is good, it captures good photos and videos in daylight, and the display supports HDR10+.

Low-light image quality suffers a bit, but that's pretty much this phone's only major weakness. Battery life is very good and the single speaker gets decently loud. One impressive feature of the OnePlus Nord is its ability to shoot selfie videos at 4K 60fps, which is something even the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro can't do.

The Realme X3 SuperZoom features a periscope-style telephoto camera, which is the first we've seen in this price segment. The 8-megapixel telephoto camera features 5x optical zoom and a maximum of 60x hybrid zoom. Camera performance is very good during the day, but not so much at night. To help with the latter, there's Night mode, which is quite effective. The main 64-megapixel camera captures good photos in daylight, but struggles a bit in low light. The X3 SuperZoom can record video at 4K and the quality is good in the day, but could be better when shooting at night. 

The X3 SuperZoom uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ SoC, which offers plenty of processing power for apps and games. The phone also featrues a 120Hz refresh rate LCD panel, so scrolling through menus feels fluid. Battery life is also solid. The X3 SuperZoom is also very well built and looks stylish. It's mising stereo speakers but the single bottom-firing speaker gets pretty loud. The phone runs Realme UI, based on Android 10. 

The LG G8X ThinQ sports a 6.4-inch AMOLED display with a tiny water drop notch at the top. The bezels are thin on the sides of the display while the bottom chin is slightly thicker. It has a dedicated Google Assistant button and is among the few phones to still retain the 3.5mm headphone jack. LG also bundles a dual screen accessory with the device which helps connect a similar display to the phone.

The LG G8x ThinQ smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC and it comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB storage. It packs in a 4,000mAh battery and has support for fast charging. The LG G8X ThinQ runs LG UX 9.0 on top of Android 9 Pie. The device also has a Hi-Fi DAC feature and supports DTS:X 3D Surround sound. It offers good performance and the device is capable of handling anything you throw at it.

LG has stuck with a dual-camera setup on the LG G8X ThinQ with a 12-megapixel primary camera and a 13-megapixel wide-angle-camera. The phone clicks decent photos in daylight and low-light photos were also good. Video recording is another strong point for the LG G8X ThinQ.

The K20 Pro is a part of the new K series of smartphones from Redmi. It is the flagship smartphone and sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC. This smartphone sports a 6.39-inch AMOLED display which makes it the first Redmi smartphone with an AMOLED display. The big display dominates the front of the smartphone and the K20 Pro has a 91.9% screen-to-body ratio. It is a FHD+ HDR panel and has good viewing angles and adequate brightness to be visible outdoors.

Xiaomi has also opted for a unique gradient pattern for the back which helps the device stand out. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection at the front and the back which helps the smartphone resist wear caused by daily use. The Redmi K20 Pro is available in two variants, 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 256GB storage, priced at Rs. 27,999 and Rs. 30,999 respectively.

It sports a triple camera setup at the back consisting of a 48-megapixel primary sensor, 13-megapixel ultra-wide angle sensor and an 8-megapixel tele-photo sensor. It has a 20-megapixel pop-up selfie camera. These cameras deliver good photos during the day and we liked the smartphone's macro performance. Portraits were very good and the phone did manage edge detection well.

The Redmi K20 Pro runs MIUI 10 on top of Android 9 Pie. The UI does have useful features but is riddled with spammy notifications throughout the day. The Redmi K20 Pro packs in a 4,000mAh battery that delivers more than a day and a half of battery life. It ran very well in our HD video loop test and we manage to go beyond a day with our usage.

The advantage the K20 Pro has over its competition is in terms of price. It is the most affordable smartphone with a Qualcomm 855 SoC in India. However, Xiaomi's sale model might make it hard to get your hands on one.

The Samsung Galaxy M51 is the first smartphone from the company to pack in a massive 7,000mAh battery. The Galaxy  M51 also gets a bigger 6.7-inch SuperAMOLED display with a full-HD+ resolution. Samsung has opted for the 20:9 aspect ratio which makes the device tall and narrow. The Galaxy M51 has a hole-punch camera at the center towards the top of the display. A few users could find this distracting while watching content.

Powering the Galaxy M51 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G SoC which is a first for a Galaxy M series smartphone. It is capable of loading apps quickly as well as multitasking without any issues. Samsung has launched two variants, one with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and the other with 8GB RAM and 128GB of storage. The Galaxy M51 has two Nano-SIM slots and a dedicated slot for microSD. The Galaxy M51 offered good performance without any lag or stutter when we used it.

Samsung has gone with a quad-camera setup on the Galaxy M51 consisting of a 64-megapixel primary camera, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a macro camera and a depth sensor. The camera clicked good photos in daylight with abundant details. Photos clicked using the wide-angle camera has distortion at the edges. Video recording tops out at 4K for the primary as well as the selfie camera but video stabilisation isn't great.

Battery performance was excellent and we could go beyond two days without needing the smartphone to be charged. The supplied charger is also quick to charge the device. 

The Vivo V19 is the successor to the Vivo V17 and is yet another selfie-focused smartphone from the company. Vivo has focused on the design and the build quality of the device and the V19 feels like a premium device. The body is made out of Corning Gorilla Glass 6 and feels premium to the touch. Vivo also offers it in some interesting colours.

The 6.44-inch AMOLED display has full-HD+ resolution and sharp output. It has excellent viewing angles, and the panel gets bright enough when outdoors. Vivo also offers an in-display fingerprint scanner on the Vivo V19 which is quick to unlock the device. Powering the smartphone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC which is weak. There is 8GB of RAM which helps the smartphone handle day-to-day tasks well.

It has a quad-camera setup at the back and a dual-camera setup for selfies. We found the camera performance to be good and the software easy to use. Daylight camera performance is good and the phone manages good edge detection in portrait shots. Low-light camera performance is acceptable but shooting in night mode is a tad slow. 

Oppo Reno 3 Pro was launched on 2nd March 2020 in India. This smartphone has a 6.4-inch AMOLED display along with an in-display fingerprint scanner.  The Oppo Reno 3 Pro is sold in three colours, Auroral Blue, Midnight Black and Sky White. It is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P95 SoC. It comes with 8GB of RAM and has two storage options, 128GB and 256GB.

The Oppo Reno 3 Pro has a 4025mAh battery and also has support for 30W VOOC charging. It runs ColourOS 7 on top of Android 10. The AMOLED display has good viewing angles and the in-display fingerprint scanner is fast to unlock the device. It also has the face unlock feature which can be used to unlock the smartphone. 

It sports a quad-camera setup at the back consisting of a 64-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.8 aperture, a 13-megapixel telephoto camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with a 119-degree field of view, and a 2-megapixel mono camera. At the front, this phone has a 44-megapixel selfie shooter along with a 2-megapixel depth sensor. We found the photo quality to be good in daylight conditions and average in low-light conditions. The Reno 3 Pro has a night mode as well that helps take a better shot. Low-light video recording was a little disappointing. 

Battery performance on the Oppo Reno 3 Pro was good and the phone lasted us for about a day and a half easily before needing charge. 

The Oppo Reno 2Z is one of the smartphones the company launched as the part of the Reno 2 series. This smartphone has a quad-camera setup at the back and is among the few in the market to sport the MediaTek Helio P90 SoC.

Oppo has opted for a 6.5-inch full-HD+ AMOLED display on the Reno 2 which houses an in-display fingerprint scanner. We found the display to be legible outdoors and the in-display fingerprint scanner is quick to unlock the smartphone. There is no notch on the display and the phone has a pop-up module for the selfie camera. 

The phone runs ColorOS on top of Android 9 Pie and has some useful features added to it. There is some amount of bloatware preinstalled on the device and it is best to uninstall them since they are a source for spammy notifications. 

We found the MediaTek Helio P90 SoC to be a decent performer but it does not offer the same value for money as some of the other processors available at this price point. Oppo offers the Reno 2Z in one variant only with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. 

The quad-camera setup at the back helps the Reno 2Z deliver good photos during the day but the performance takes a dip in low-light. It has a night mode as well which helps improve low-light images. The selfie shooter clicks good photos which can go on to social media directly.

Oppo has packed in a 4,000mAh battery that is capable of delivering about a day and a half of battery life. The company also supplies a 20W charger in the box to top the battery up. 

The Honor 20 sports an eye-catching design and has a very compact form factor, which makes it quite easy to hold the phone in palms, but the glossy rear panel is a fingerprint magnet. The side-mounted fingerprint sensor is extremely fast and does not pose any issue with its positioning either. The phone runs Magic UI 2.1 based on Android Pie and it is loaded with features, although it comes with a healthy amount of bloatware and has a learning curve to it. 

The 6.26-inch full-HD+ (1080x2340 pixels) All-View display renders vibrant colours and offers good viewing angles, but its temperature is slightly warm by default. Honor 20 is powered by the Kirin 980 SoC, which proves to be a capable performer in all scenarios, be it heavy multi-tasking or gaming. But the phone quickly gets hot while gaming, and the Honor 20's sound output is also not up to the mark either. 

Honor 20's quad rear cameras are led by a 48-megapixel sensor, which captures detailed photos with an ample amount of detail and sharpness, however, the colours are a bit oversaturated and there are some consistency issues as well. The selfie snapper gets its job done quite well, but not all people will like the smoothening done to the photos. The phone easily lasts a full day of usage, and its 3,750mAh battery can be fully charged, thanks to the bundled 22.5W fast charger.