Budget smartphones are inordinately popular in India, especially under the ₹15,000 price segment. Users are spoilt for choice in this price range – you can get budget smartphones that not only perform well but are also packed with features. But can you find a good camera phone under ₹15K? Usually, the camera is where manufacturers make compromises to offer their phones at inexpensive price points. So, you definitely won’t get cameras as proficient as the ones found on smartphones between ₹30-₹50K. But can these budget phones’ cameras satisfy the average user who usually just takes point-and-shoot images?
To find that out, we tested three popular camera phones under ₹15,000 – the Realme C33, Infinix Hot 12 Pro, and Motorola Moto G42 – that launched in India in 2022. All three phones come equipped with a 50 MP primary camera. The Infinix Hot 12 Pro and the Realme C33 have a secondary depth/AI lens while the Moto G42 comes with an 8 MP ultrawide shooter and a 2 MP macro lens. In this detailed comparison, let’s find out if you can get a reliable camera system under ₹15K.
In daylight, we get good pictures from the Realme C33 and Motorola moto G42 but the Infinix Hot 12 Pro falters in some scenes. Moto and Realme do a good job of capturing details, even in gloomy and overcast conditions, whereas Infinix often returns a soft shot which lacks details. This is especially apparent in the corners of daylight pictures on Infinix where the details are minimal. Realme, while doing a good enough job in most daylight photos, can appear a bit too oversharpened due to excessive post-processing.
Note: All image samples are compressed for the web.
Infinix Hot 12 Pro (Left), Realme C33 (Middle), and Motorola Moto G42 (Right)
Colours look the most true-to-life on the Motorola Moto G42; they are slightly cool-tone but look the most natural. The colours are a bit saturated on the Realme C33 but look quite pleasing and social-media-friendly, nonetheless. However, Infinix falters yet again with pale, unnatural-looking colours with overblown highlights. All three phones have good natural background blur, which is great at this price point.
Infinix Hot 12 Pro (Left), Realme C33 (Middle), and Motorola Moto G42 (Right)
Another gripe we have with the Infinix Hot 12 Pro is the difficulty it faces to focus on a subject properly – even in bright daylight. There were times when we took close-up shots of flowers and while the other two phones focussed on the central point quite easily, we had to manually tap the screen to focus on the flower on the Infinix, and it still struggled. Realme does have some issues maintaining the details in the corners of close-up shots – the pictures we took had quite a bit of blurring and noise in the corners.
Infinix Hot 12 Pro (Left), Realme C33 (Middle), and Motorola Moto G42 (Right)
As for detail retention, we took an image of a tree’s bark and Moto, yet again, managed to extract the most detail in its shot. Realme’s image was also sufficiently detailed, especially in the centre of the picture, but Infinix’s overexposed highlights clipped the details in the shot yet again. Realme and Moto also have great dynamic range in daylight, with the Realme C33 capturing a lot of detail even in the shadow areas of the photo. Infinix struggles to due overblown highlights and crushed shadows in most images.
So, in our opinion, both the Realme C33 and Moto G42 are reliable budget cameras in daylight – there are some areas where Motorola’s shooter is stronger and in some other areas, the Realme shines.
All three phones don’t excel when it comes to portrait photography. However, out of the three, the Motorola Moto G42 has the best edge detection, while the Realme C33 and Infinix Hot 12 Pro struggles with object/subject edges. However, the background bokeh effect is also the least on the Moto G42, so it comes down to your preferences.
When it comes to shooting human subjects, the Realme C33 and Infinix Hot 12 Pro often produce inadequate results with the edge detection missing out too many spots. While the Moto fares slightly better in edge detection, you will still notice some distortion around the edges that make the result look choppy. Still, it is the best at snapping portrait shots in comparison to the other two phones in the mix.
In portrait photos, Infinix’s shots have a whitewashed look and Moto has quite a cool tone. Realme’s colours are the most pleasing for human subjects in most cases. Nevertheless, for the overall accuracy of portrait photos, we would still have to give the edge to the Motorola Moto G42.
In this comparison, the Moto G42 is the only phone graced with an ultrawide camera. The 8 MP ultrawide lens on the Moto G42, however, is lacking in detail retention. The dynamic range is subpar and shadows look very crushed via this lens. We took the same picture from the main lens and the ultrawide shooter and the disparity in detail and dynamic range was massive – with the shadows being completely crushed on the ultrawide lens’ shot. There’s also quite a bit of barrel distortion in pictures clicked from the ultrawide shooter.
Moto G42 Primary Camera (left) vs Moto G42 Ultrawide Camera (right)
The Moto G42 also comes with a 2 MP macro shooter, but the shots taken from this lens are not really usable. There’s a lot of softness and noise in pictures clicked with this lens. While we debate the usability of the low-resolution macro lens on this phone, the ultrawide lens is still useful to have despite its shortcomings, in some situations.
In low light, sadly, none of these phones perform particularly well. However, the Infinix Hot 12 Pro’s low-light photos are definitely the least usable since the camera often fails to lock focus and produces soft and blurry pictures almost every single time. The Moto G42’s night shots have decent detail retention in the shadows but look somewhat overprocessed and unnatural. The Realme C33’s low-light shots are decent but there’s a lot of detail missing in the shadows.
Shooting human subjects in low-light produces images with a ton of noise but, yet again, Infinix comes out with the weakest result of the three. The photos are inordinately dark, even with Night Mode turned on, and are pretty unusable with little detail. So, for low-light images, the Realme C33 and Moto G42 are better options than the Infinix Hot 12 Pro. Both Moto and Realme have their own strengths and weaknesses in low-light photography, so we can’t definitely say one trumps the other here.
Surprisingly, selfies are the Infinix Hot 12 Pro’s strongest suit when it comes to its camera setup. There’s no pressing issue with overexposure, as we faced on the main camera. The Realme C33’s selfie camera outputs very noisy and grainy selfies in both daylight and low light.
Out of the three, the Moto G42 has the best selfie camera that packs detail in daylight images. There’s a tad too much contrast in Moto’s selfies, at times, but that’s not a deal-breaker.
All three phones in this comparison can shoot video at 1080p at 30fps. But out of all three phones, the Realme C33 tops the charts with the cleanest footage. Noise is minimal and the video looks great with quite a bit of detail for this price point. Moto’s footage, on the other hand, has quite a bit of noise. There’s also constant jitter in the footage, which may be either a software or hardware issue. Selfie videos are grainy on all three phones, but the Realme C33 does have the brightest footage out of the three.
As for autofocus, Moto is snappy and locks focus the fastest among the three phones. Realme and Infinix struggled with locking focus on objects and on multiple occasions, the focus needed to be manually set. For low light, all three phones output very dark and noisy footage but Moto does the best job at focusing on objects despite the noisy footage, so the videos from the G42 look the cleanest out of the three. So, we’d definitely give the Moto G42 a slight edge over the Realme C33 in the videography department.
So, the question remains, which phone gives you the most reliable camera performance under ₹15,000? The answer is pretty straightforward to us – not the Infinix Hot 12 Pro. This phone is not meant for those who utilise their smartphone cameras a lot since it fails to provide decent photography and videography results even in brightly-lit conditions.
Between the Realme C33 and the Moto G42 – we would say the Moto G42 is more reliable at this price point. While the Realme C33 does a good job of capturing pictures in daylight and clicks pretty good low-light pictures as well, the Moto G42’s camera stack is more reliable. Not just for daylight photos, but also for low-light videos, portraits and selfies. Additionally, you also get the added benefit of an ultrawide camera even though the one on the Moto G42 may not be able to click the most detailed shots. But, it’s good to have the option nonetheless.
So, we’d recommend the Moto G42 if you have a strict budget of ₹15K and you want a decent camera phone. But, we truly believe that options under the ₹30K mark provide a more holistic smartphone camera experience. You’d get options such as the Samsung Galaxy A53, OnePlus Nord 2T, and Oppo Reno 8 at this price point that offer a far better camera experience than these entry-level phones can be expected to provide.