Best Smartphones Under ₹10,000 (2021) Awards

Last Updated on January 1, 2022 by Asif Iqbal Shaik

Are you looking for the best smartphones under ₹10,000? Look no further as we’ve narrowed down dozens of smartphones into a list of a few phones that you could choose from. As we approach the end of 2021, we have shortlisted the best smartphones under ₹10,000 that you can buy in India right now. Over the past year, multiple brands have launched dozens of new phones in this price segment, but only a few stand out. Let us look at the list and the winners of our Best Smartphones Under ₹10,000 Awards.

Best Smartphones Under ₹10,000 (2021) Awards – Contenders

1. Realme Narzo 30A – ₹8,999
2. Micromax In 2B – ₹8,999
3. Motorola Moto E40 – ₹9,999
4. Realme C25 – ₹9,999
5. Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime – ₹10,499
6. POCO M2 Reloaded – ₹9,999

1. Realme Narzo 30A

The Realme Narzo 30A is among the best phones that you can buy for under ₹10,000 in India right now. It has an interesting design and choice of colours. There’s a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with 570 nits of peak brightness. It runs Android 11 and uses the MediaTek Helio G80 processor, 3GB/4GB RAM, and 32GB/64GB internal storage. There is a microSD card slot, too.

It has a 13MP rear camera with 1080p video recording and an 8MP front camera with 1080p video recording. It has 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. It is powered by a 6,000mAh battery and supports 18W fast charging. It has a fingerprint reader, too. It isn’t missing anything important—definitely a strong contender for one of our awards.

2. Micromax In 2B

Micromax’s surprising entry in this list is with the In 2B. It is a decent phone with a 6.5-inch LCD display and HD+ resolution. The phone runs Android 11 and comes equipped with the Unisoc T610 processor, 4GB/6GB RAM, 64GB storage, and a microSD card slot. It is powered by a 5,000mAh battery and supports 10W charging.

The phone has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera. There is a fingerprint reader, dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, GPS, USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack.

3. Motorola Moto E40

The Motorola Moto E40 is among the few phones in this price segment to feature a high-refresh-rate display and a 48MP primary camera. The phone has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. It has a fingerprint reader, too. At the front, the phone has an 8MP selfie camera. At the rear, it has three cameras: a 48MP main camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth camera. Both front and rear cameras of the phone can record Full HD videos.

At the heart of the Moto E40, there is a Unisoc T700 processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB storage. There is a microSD card slot for storage space expansion. The phone has a dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, GPS, Wi-Fi b/g/n, USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery and supports 10W charging. Apart from its 10W charging speed, the phone looks impressive for its price.

4. Realme C25

The Realme C25 is yet another Realme phone on this list. It is eerily similar to the Moto E40, featuring a 6.5-inch LCD display with HD resolution, an 8MP selfie camera and a triple-camera setup. However, it uses a faster processor (MediaTek Helio G70) and a bigger, 6,000mAh battery. It even features faster charging speeds at 18W.

At the rear, it has a 13MP primary camera as opposed to the Moto E40’s 48MP primary camera. However, the phone has Wi-Fi 5 compared to the Moto E40’s Wi-Fi b/g/n. Other features of the phone include Android 11 (Realme UI 2.0), GPS, dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack.

5. Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime

The Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime is a pretty loaded phone in terms of features. It has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display, which misses out on a high refresh rate, but features sharper, Full HD+ resolution. It has a rear fingerprint reader, a USB Type-C port, and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging. It uses the MediaTek Helio G80 processor, 4GB RAM, and 64GB/128GB internal storage. There is a microSD card slot, too.

At the rear, it has a 13MP+8MP+5MP+2MP quad-camera setup. The 13MP camera takes decent images, while the 8MP ultrawide camera is among the only few such cameras available in this price segment. There is a decent 5MP macro camera as well. At the front, the phone has an 8MP selfie camera. Both front and rear cameras on the Redmi 9 can record Full HD 30fps videos. It has GPS, a dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, a USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack.

6. POCO M2 Reloaded

The POCO M2 Reloaded is the rebranded Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime, which means that they have the same design and specifications. It has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD+ resolution and Gorilla Glass 3. The phone is equipped with the MediaTek Helio G80 processor, 4GB/6GB RAM, 64GB internal storage, and a microSD card slot.

At the front, there is an 8MP selfie camera. At the rear, there is a 13MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide camera, a 5MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth camera. The POCO M2 Reloaded can record 1080p 30fps videos using both front and rear cameras. It has GPS, a dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, a USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. It has a water-repellent coating, a fingerprint reader, and a 5,000mAh battery with 18W fast charging.

Winners Of Best Smartphones Under ₹10,000 (2021) Awards

Joint Gold Award Winner – Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime

The Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime is our joint Gold Award winner, thanks to its full-featured specifications, good design, great battery life, and fast charging. It even has water splash resistance and an ultrawide camera, something that very few phones have in the sub-₹10,000 price segment.

The Redmi 9 Prime has a big, sharp, and bright display. Its primary camera is among the best in the price segment. And it offers decent performance, thanks to the Helio G80 processor and decent RAM and storage capacity. It even lasts long, thanks to its 5,000mAh battery. What’s more. It even has a USB Type-C port, complete with 18W fast charging.

Joint Gold Award Winner – POCO M2 Reloaded

The POCO M2 Reloaded is exactly similar to the Redmi 9 Prime in terms of design and specifications, which means that it is our joint Gold Award winner in the sub-₹10,000 price segment. It has a Full HD IPS LCD display with good contrast, brightness, and touch response. It captures decent images and videos using the front and rear cameras. It offers smooth day-to-day performance and even the capability to play decently graphics-intensive games. Plus, it lasts a day or two on a single charge, depending on the usage. It offers fast charging as well.

Silver Award Winner – Realme Narzo 30A

The Realme Narzo 30A has an interesting design and a big screen. Compared to our Gold Award winners, the Narzo 30A uses a slightly more powerful MediaTek Helio G85 processor, which, combined with 4GB RAM, 64GB storage, and a lower resolution (HD) display, offers a decent gaming experience. However, its lower-resolution display hinders the experience a bit while browsing the web or viewing images and videos due to lower pixel density. Other than that, the phone is as good as the POCO M2 Reloaded and the Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime. It has the same 13MP+2MP rear camera setup and an 8MP front camera. Plus it features the same connectivity options, including a dual-SIM card slot, 4G, GPS, Wi-Fi 5, a USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It even lasts longer on a single charge, owing to its bigger battery (6,000mAh), and offers 18W fast charging.

Bronze Award Winner – Motorola Moto E40

The Motorola Moto E40 is our Bronze Award winner. It has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD display with HD+ resolution and a 90Hz display, which offers a relatively smoother experience while scrolling and gaming. However, it uses the Unisoc T700 processor, which is not as common as Snapdragon or MediaTek processors, which could mean slightly buggy apps and experience. Plus, Motorola isn’t known for offering software support as well as Realme or Xiaomi.

It has a 48MP main camera, which offers better image quality than 13MP cameras on POCO M2 Reloaded, Realme Narzo 30A, and Xiaomi Redmi 9 Prime. Its front-facing camera has an 8MP resolution. Both front and rear cameras can record 1080p videos. It has a 5,000mAh battery but its charging speeds top out at just 10W, which isn’t just good enough for 2021. Other features are what we expect from a phone in this price segment, which means that it has a fingerprint reader, GPS, a dual-SIM card slot, 4G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0, USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. Lower resolution display, relatively unpopular processor, and slow charging speeds cost the Moto E40 the Silver Award.

How Did We Choose The Best Smartphones Under ₹10,000 (2021)?

There are dozens of smartphones in the ₹15,000 price segment, and we set a few benchmark features that a phone needs to have, and the ones that go above and beyond those benchmarks were chosen as the best ones. Let us see what the baseline specifications that we expect from a good sub-₹15,000 smartphone in 2021 were.

1. Build Quality: Even if the phone has a plastic build, it should be strong, have a good glass-based screen protection panel, and its design should be ergonomic.
2. Display: 5.5-inch (or bigger) IPS LCD panel with HD resolution and at least 400 nits of brightness.
3. Processor: A modern octa-core 64-bit processor with decently powerful graphics to be able to play casual games and use day-to-day apps without any significant slowdowns.
4. RAM: 3GB or more
5. Storage: 64GB or higher
6. Front Camera: 5MP or higher resolution with Full HD video recording at 30fps.
7. Rear Camera: 12MP or higher resolution with Full HD video recording at 30fps
8. Connectivity: Dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, dual-band Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2 (or newer), 3.5mm Headphone Jack, and USB Type-C port.
9. Battery: 4,000mAh (or higher) capacity
10. Charging: 10W or faster.
11. Software: Running Android 11 (or newer) when writing the article with the promise of at least one more Android OS update.
12. Extras: Fingerprint Reader

Most smartphones in our contender list pass all the criteria listed above. Some phones go above and beyond and offer additional features like a high-refresh-rate display and HDR10, IP53 rating for dust and water resistance, stereo speakers, 48MP/64MP primary cameras with 4K video recording, and 5G connectivity.