Looking for the best performing phone of 2021?
Phones that deliver a perfect balance between performance and value
Here are the best phones that offer a power-packed performance in India
With the onset of the festive season in India, there couldn’t be a better time to buy a phone. People wait for the festivities to kick in every year and prefer to shop during the Diwali season to benefit from the deals and offers on products. With so many phones launching in India every other week, the demand for best-performing phones has increased because not all phones can deliver the perfect balance between performance and value. That said, if you are looking to buy a phone that offers top-of-the-line performance with lots of computing power, there are only so many phones that make the cut when it comes to offering dependable and sustained performance. From playing a graphics-heavy game to watching a movie in HDR quality to editing a spreadsheet or making a video, our list includes the creme-de-la-creme phones that do not compromise on performance in any way and you can expect a solid experience from these as they pack in all the latest hardware that enable a premium experience.
OnePlus 9 Pro
The OnePlus 9 Pro (review) features a 6.7-inch QHD+ resolution AMOLED curved display with LTPO technology and supports a 120Hz refresh rate. The LTPO technology allows the OnePlus 9 Pro to consume lesser power and gives dynamic refresh rate control ranging from as low as 1Hz to 120Hz. Furthermore, the display offers upto 367Hz touch sampling rate which comes in handy when gaming on the 9 Pro. The OnePlus 9 Pro is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor and is paired with upto 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and upto 256GB UFS 3.1 storage options to choose from. The core hardware comes together to provide top-notch gaming performance, with Gamebench data showing that the phone is more than capable of handling demanding titles such as CoD Mobile and Asphalt 9 at their most demanding graphic settings. During our tests, both these titles threw up an average median frame rate of 60 FPS that too at a very high stability level. So if you’re a gamer, or are looking for something power-packed to get you through your day for the next few years, then OnePlus 9 Pro is the perfect device for you.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (review) is one of the most powerful phones you can get your hands on right now. This is because it brings with itself a 6.8-inch QHD+ AMOLED panel which features a 3200×1440 resolution and a pixel density of 551ppi. The panel also gets support for a 120Hz refresh rate for improving the experience while playing games. The hardware on-board the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is top-of-the-line as it gets the company’s Exynos 2100 chipset which has been paired with 12GB RAM and 256GB of storage. This chip is built using the 5nm process, however, not more powerful than the Snapdragon 888, as the phone trails the Snapdragon 888 in benchmark tests. This is also true for gaming, with Gamebench data showing that the S21 Ultra 5G has lower stability numbers in comparison to the Snapdragon 888 totting OnePlus 9 Pro. But, benchmarks aside, the general performance of the phone is nothing to complain about, with the device providing a flawless experience largely thanks to its highly optimised OneUI 3.1 software.
Mi 11X Pro
The Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro is a phone that offers powerful performance but at an aggressive price point. It hides powerful hardware inside a shell that's 7.8 millimetres in thickness with the complete phone weighing 196 grams. The phone features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ display which uses an AMOLED panel with up to 120Hz high refresh rate and HDR10+ playback certification. Powering the Mi 11X Pro is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 660 GPU. This is paired with up to 12GB RAM and up to 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. If you’re looking for a new flagship that offers pro-level performance, the Mi 11X offers just that as it blows away in benchmarks such as GFXBench and MobileXprt, competing phones such as the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro. The Mi 11X Pro gets a 64MP primary camera with the other two cameras being an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera with a 119-degree field of view and a 5MP macro camera. The phone is equipped with a 4,520mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging out-of-the-box.
Vivo X60 Pro
The Vivo X60 Pro (review) is another powerful device that offers the best possible hardware that money can buy right now. It features a 6.56-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display. The display on the device is a 120Hz refresh rate panel and is certified for HDR10+ playback. The Vivo X60 Pro brings a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.5 aperture, a 13MP telephoto camera with 2X optical zoom and a 13MP ultra-wide-angle camera with 120-degree field-of-view. Powering the phone is a Snapdragon 870 SoC which does not offer the same level of performance as the Snapdragon 888 chipset phones, but still manages to handle anything and everything you throw at it. This was also proved when we tested the phone using our battery of benchmark tests. The test results showed the Snapdragon 870-powered Vivo X60 Pro came out consistently ahead of the Snapdragon 865 powered OnePlus 8T, but consistently fell behind the Snapdragon 888 powered OnePlus 9. Keeping the lights on the phone is a 4,200mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging out-of-the-box.
iQOO 7
The iQOO 7 is the successor to the iQOO 3 which was launched in 2020 as one of the first 5G phones in the country. The iQOO 7 features a 6.62-inch AMOLED display that offers a Full HD+ resolution and has a punch-hole cutout in the centre for the selfie camera upfront. The display has minimal bezels and offers upto 1300 nits peak brightness. The iQOO 7 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 processor with an octa-core CPU. The CPU has a prime core running at upto 3.2GHz followed by three performance cores at upto 2.42GHz and four power-efficient cores clocked at 1.80GHz. This is backed by Adreno 650 GPU for graphics rendering and is paired with upto 12GB LPDDR4x RAM and upto 256GB UFS 3.1 storage options to choose from. Although not on the same level as the iQOO 7 Legend, this device also offers the promise of a superb gaming experience and the power to multitask without breaking a sweat.
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