Best 5G Mobile Phones Under 20,000 in India (November 2024)

• 1.

With one of the best benchmark scores on any sub-₹20,000 smartphone and a nice 64MP rear camera with OIS, the iQOO Z7 5G leads our top 10 list of 5G smartphones under Rs 20,000. The iQOO Z7 5G is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC paired with up to 8GB RAM. This helped the iQOO Z7 5G achieve a score of 479779 on AnTuTu (highest ever on a sub-₹20k smartphone). The iQOO Z7 5G has a familiar “iQOO” design, which comes with a rather lightweight build, weighing at just 173 grams.

The battery on the iQOO Z7 5G is also pretty decent with the 4,500mAh battery that is good for a day and a half backup with support for 44W fast charging. In our charging test, the iQOO Z7 5G charged from 0 to 100 in just about an hour.

• 2.

Motorola’s Moto G82 was the winner for last year’s Zero1 Award for the best performing budget smartphone (under ₹20k) of 2022, and with good reason. The Moto G82 offers more than most smartphones in this range, since the smartphone was launched at a higher premium, only to see a price drop later. Powered by the popular Snapdragon 695 chip, the Moto G82 was last year’s second-highest scoring smartphone on AnTuTu according to our tests.

Motorola’s Moto G82 also has one of the best displays in the segment, with a 6.6-inch 10-bit pOLED display and a 144Hz refresh rate! This is the only smartphone in this list to come with a 144Hz refresh rate.

• 3.

OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G comes second in our list, given the overall complete package the smartphone offers. The latest sub-Rs 20,000 offering in our market, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G also showed pretty decent numbers in our tests, making the smartphone good for multitasking and gaming. Powered by a Snapdragon 695 chip, the OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G put out a score of 399,997 points on AnTuTu.

The OnePlus Nord CE 3 Lite 5G also gets a nice LCD display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display crisp and responsive, but not the brightest in this segment. The display is also super responsive with up to 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that comes with 6 different refresh stops between 30Hz to 120Hz, which is good for preserving the battery.

• 4.

The most popular series of budget smartphones, from one of the most popular brands in the segment. The Redmi Note 12 5G was the first smartphone from Xiaomi in 2023 and the smartphone secures a solid third spot in our list due to the reliability factor that comes with Xiaomi’s track record in the budget segment. Further, the Redmi Note 12 5G offers a proper Android experience with a nice AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, a Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chip which offers a good balance of power to efficiency.

We get a pretty decent set of triple camera setup with the Redmi Note 12 5G, which is tuned very well for the Indian user. The 48-megapixel primary shooter clicks very good shots in ideal lighting conditions, and the low light shots are also very good from the Redmi Note 12. In terms of battery, the Redmi Note 12 5G is backed by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. The smartphone easily lasts for more than 1.5 days, and the 33W charger fills-up the Redmi Note 12 5G in about 75 minutes.

• 5.

Moto G73 is the latest sub-Rs 20,000 offering from Motorola. The smartphone comes with several improvements over its predecessor, but a couple of rough edges as well. This includes a new MediaTek Dimensity 930 chip which held its own in our tests, along with an improved camera that includes a 50MP primary shooter, an 8MP ultrawide-angle lens, and another depth sensor. While the smartphone clicks good photos in pretty much any lighting condition, the portraits aren’t the best we have seen.

Coming to display, the Moto G73 doesn’t take Motorola’s image of offering one of the best displays forward. Despite competing devices offering AMOLED panels, the Moto G73 settles for an IPS LCD display (6.52-inch).

• 6.

Vivo’s latest sub-₹20,000 5G offering has been launched with familiar features and specifications that we have seen on many other smartphones in this category. We get the conventional Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC paired with up to 8GB RAM. Now, this is not completely a bad thing since the Snapdragon 695 is the go-to choice for most OEMs in this category, given the balanced output of the Qualcomm chip.

The Vivo T2 5G also has the better display in this list, with an FHD+ AMOLED display, which is considered superior in terms of picture quality and details, but we don’t get a high refresh rate. For optics, we get a 64MP + 2MP dual rear camera setup with OIS, which is very similar to the camera setup on the iQOO Z7 5G.

• 7.

Realme 10 Pro 5G was launched alongside the Realme 10 Pro+ late last year, marking the beginning of Realme’s new series of mid-range smartphones. The Realme 10 Pro 5G has one of the most unique design in this list, with the almost bezel-less display layout. Realme has managed to make an LCD display almost bezel-less with just a 1mm chin, something we don’t usually see in this segment.

Apart from the design, the Realme 10 Pro 5G is also quite a performer. The smartphone, powered by Snapdragon 695 beat out its closest competitor, the Redmi Note 12 5G in many benchmark tests when we compared the two head-to-head. The Realme 10 Pro also has a 5,000mAh battery and there is a triple rear camera with a 108MP primary shooter. The photos out of the Realme 10 Pro 5G are not the best in the segment, but images in the 108MP mode are super detailed.

• 8.

Predecessor to this year’s gaming champ in the sub-₹25,000 budget, the Poco X4 Pro 5G had a similar reputation than its successor. The smartphone was launched with a nice Super AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate last year. This not only enhances the gaming experience, but also makes watching content on the smartphone a more immersive experience. While we are on gaming, the Poco X4 Pro 5G is a super capable device. Another device powered by the Snapdragon 695 which does gaming well.

The camera on the Poco X4 Pro 5G is also very good. We get a quad camera setup with a 108MP primary shooter, a 64MP wide angle lens, another 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle shooter, and a 2-megapixel macro lens. The images from the Poco X4 Pro 5G’s camera are highly detailed with a wide dynamic range. In low light also, this camera performs very well, but struggles in wide-angle shots.

• 9.

Samsung Galaxy M33 5G features on our top 10 list for the best under-Rs 20,000 5G smartphones since this was a bit of a hidden gem last year. The Samsung Galaxy M33 5G, during our side-by-side testing, showed the highest scores among all sub-₹20k smartphones in CPU-based benchmarks, despite being powered by an Exynos 1280 SoC. Apart from performance, it is the battery that is most impressive on the Samsung Galaxy M33. The 6,000mAh battery easily lasts for more than 2 days on the Samsung Galaxy M33 5G, but we get 25W fast charging, which feels kind of slow by today’s standards.

• 10.

Realme Narzo 50 Pro 5G is the last in our list of best 5G smartphones under Rs 20,000. The Realme Narzo 50 Pro 5G was launched last year as a gaming-centric budget offering. The smartphone, powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC takes on gaming like a champ with 8GB of RAM. If that feels slow, you can expand the RAM to give you more headroom. Realme also put a vapour cooling chamber in the Realme Narzo 50 Pro 5G, making it one of the only smartphones in this range to come with this feature.

To make the gaming experience better and to facilitate entertainment purposes, the Realme Narzo 50 Pro 5G also has a Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. Camera and battery are pretty standard across this segment. We get a 64MP + 8MP + 2MP triple rear camera setup, which is good for casual users who only take photos for social media, and we get a 5000mAh battery which lasts a full day and more.