5G or fifth-generation wireless technology will offer significantly faster and higher bandwidth wireless data. But to access a 5G network, users will need devices that have 5G connectivity. For that reason, we’ve listed the best smartphones with 5G connectivity currently available to buy in India. This list shows smartphones priced under Rs. 15,000, and is sorted as per overall review rating – all the phones on this list have an overall rating of 8 or above. All the smartphones have been recently launched as well, so you can expect the latest tech from them.
Alongside each phone, you will see its overall rating and key specifications, besides links to its full specifications, full review, and other smartphones by the same manufacuturer. If you didn’t find what you were looking for, check out our other very helpful pages
Samsung Galaxy F22
Samsung’s Galaxy F22 is a rather basic budget smartphone that goes big on battery life and offers a vibrant 6.4-inch 90Hz HD+ Super AMOLED display, but cuts down on everything else. The 90Hz refresh rate is not useful when it comes to gaming, but definitely makes the software experience feel fluid. The big battery easily lasts two days, but takes more than two hours to charge when using the bundled 15W charger. The camera performance is quite average for its segment, but daylight video quality was good, despite being limited to 1080p. The Galaxy F22’s design can be best described as practical, with a display that is made of Gorilla Glass 5 and a plastic unibody. While the phone comes loaded with many presinstalled apps, Samsung seems to have done a good job of optimising One UI 3.1 to run smoothly even on the base 4GB RAM variant that we tested.
Realme Narzo 30
The Realme Narzo 30 is a good budget smartphone keeping in mind the hardware that it offers and its competitive price. The design and finish are a big leap from its predecessor, the Narzo 20, and this phone looks attractive despite being made from plastic. The 90Hz display is a nice addition and makes the software experience fluid. The Narzo 30 is good enough for mid-level gaming, handling most graphics-intensive mobile titles well. However, the phone does get quite hot when stressed. Camera performance is quite average for its segment. The Narzo 30 can take good photos in daylight, but only manages noisy and murky shots in low light. Video performance is decent at best when shooting in 4K. The Narzo 30 with its 5,000mAh battery offers good battery life, managing 1.5 days on a single charge. Charging is relatively quick, going from a dead battery to a full charge in 1 hour and 10 minutes using the bundled 30W charger.
Redmi Note 10
The Redmi Note 10 isn't pathbreaking in terms of features and specifications for the sub-Rs. 12,000 segment, but it does cover all the bases and offer a few nice extra touches. It's slimmer and lighter than the Redmi Note 9, and debuts a new 'Evol' design language which makes it look quite smart. The 6.43-inch full-HD+ AMOLED screen is a major highlight, producing crisp details and colours that pop. You get a Qualcomm Snapdragon 678 SoC which is powerful enough for casual gaming as well as everyday tasks. Battery life is good enough to get you through at least a full day, and charging is quick. The cameras are quite ordinary, with the 48-megapixel primary one taking good shots in the daytime ad acceptable ones at night. The ultra-wide and selfie cameras are also serviceable, but the macro one is just for amusement. MIUI is still full of promotional content and ads, but the company promises to remove these with a future update
Motorola G30
Motorola G30 was alongside the Moto G10 Power and is targetted at the budget segment in India. The Motorola Moto G30 has a new design, it has a 6.5-inch display with a dewdrop notch at the top. The frame of the Moto G30 is made of plastic and all the buttons are on the right side.Its volume buttons are higher, and the Google Assistant button is right on top, making it somewhat hard to reach, Motorola offers an IP52 rating for water resistance and the SIM tray has a rubber seal.
Motorola has picked the Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC and offers 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You can expand storage using the hybrid SIM slot. The Moto G30 has an HD+ display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It has a 5,000mAh battery and gets a 20W charger in the box. Motorola ships the G30 with Android 11 out of the box with a few customisations. The software is clean with no bloatware apps preinstalled on it. Battery performance too is good and the phone can go beyond a day and a half quite easily.
Motorola has equipped the Moto G30 with a quad-camera setup consisting of a 64-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor.. Daylight photos clicked from the primary camera had good detail. The ultra-wide angle camera offered a wider field of view but at a loss in details.. the Macro camera lets you go close to the subject but was limited in terms of resolution. Lowlight camera performance was decent in regular mode with some loss in details in the shadows. Night mode was too aggressive making the image unusually bright with blown-out highlights. Video recording tops out at 1080p for the primary as well as the selfie shooter and had stabilisation.
Poco M3
The Poco M3 is a budget smartphone and is priced under Rs.15,000. It has a 6.53 inch full-HD+ display with a dewdrop notch at the top. It has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, and an IR emitter to control appliances. This smartphone has a triple camera setup at the back. It is quite well designed and looks far more premium than it is actually priced. The rear panel has a textured finish which helps keep fingerprints away.
The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 processor and gets 6GB of RAM. There are two storage variants available, 64GB and 128GB. Storage is expandable via dedicated microSD card slot and it accepts cards up to 512 GB. It packs in a 6000 mA battery which is good for the price. It has support for 18W charging and gets a 22.5W charger in the box.
The Poco M3 is capable of handling day to day tasks and the battery managed to last for a day and a half. The big battery does help with battery life, but it takes over two hours to charge it completely. With 6GB of RAM onboard it is capable of multitasking very easily. You can play most games but with heavier games, it tends to get warm to the touch. You get a 48-megapixel primary camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor on the Poco M3. The camera performance was average overall with the phone managing decent photos in daylight but lowlight performance wasn’t impressive. The Poco M3 does click better photos with Night mode enabled, but it takes about four seconds to take a shot.
Realme Narzo 20 Pro
The Realme Narzo 20 Pro shares the same design as the Realme 7. It sports a 6.5-inch 90Hz full-HD+ display with a camera hole in the top left corner which some might find to be distracting. The Narzo 20 Pro has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner placed on the power button. The volume buttons are moved over to the other side of the device, which makes them easy to hit.
The Narzo 20 Pro has a quad-camera setup and the back panel has a V-shaped pattern that shines when light bounces off it at the right angle Realme has used a 4,500mAh battery for the Narzo 20 Pro, consisting of two 2,250mAh cells, in order to enable faster charging. It supports Realme's proprietary 65W SuperDart charging, with a suitable charger bundled in the box. The Narzo 20 Pro weighs 191g which is acceptable given its size and the battery it packs in.
Realme has opted for the same MediaTek Helio G95 for the Narzo 20 Pro. It has two variants with 6GB of RAM with 64GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM with 128GB of storage, The Narzo 20 Pro gave me no reason to complain in everyday use. It was quick to load apps, and switching between them was a breeze. The fingerprint scanner and face recognition were quick to unlock the device.
The quad-camera setup on the Narzo 20 Pro consists of a 48-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2-megapixel black-and-white portrait camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. the phone clicks 12-megapixel shots by default and had good dynamic range. Photos from the ultra-wide-angle camera had a lower resolution output. Close-ups were good, and the Narzo 20 Pro managed sharp results with a soft blur for the background. Portrait shots were decent.
Low-light camera performance was strictly average but switching to Night mode returned slightly brighter results.Selfies taken with the Realme Narzo 20 Pro were decent, and the output was smoothened. Video recording tops out at 4K for the primary camera, while the selfie camera can shoot up to 1080p footage. Daylight videos shot at 1080p had a mild shimmer while 4K footage wasn't
Realme 7
The Realme 7 brings in three main upgrades over the Realme 6 — a new SoC, a bigger battery, and a new primary camera sensor. It features a mirror-split design, which creates some interesting patterns when light hits it. The Realme 7 is actually thicker (9.4mm) and heavier (196.5g) than the 6, due to its larger battery, and this is very noticeable in daily usage.
The Realme 7 is the first phone to debut with the MediaTek Helio G95 SoC. This is an updated version of the Helio G90T, which was seen in the Realme 6, but it's not a major upgrade. Performance is pretty satisfactory. The Realme 7 uses Realme UI, based on Android 10, which worked smoothly. Face recognition and the side-mounted fingerprint sensor are also quick. The Realme 7 is good with games too. Battle Prime looked great at the highest graphics settings and gameplay was smooth.
The Realme 7 gets a chunky, 5,000mAh battery and you can charge the battery fairly quickly too, thanks to the 30W Dart Charge fast charging.
The new primary rear camera in the Realme 7 offers a noticeable improvement in pixel-binned images, comapred to the Realme 6. It exhibits improved dynamic range and exposure, with better details too. Low light photos look cleaner too, with less grain. Shots captured using Night mode look more pleasing, compared to what the Realme 6 can produce. The Realme 7 can shoot videos at up to 4K, but without stabilisation. Colours are a bit on the warmer side
Moto G9
The Moto G9 is a budget offering from Motorola with some powerful hardware. It sports a 6.5-inch LCD display with HD+ resolution and a tall 20:9 aspect ratio. The phone has flat sides which make it comfortable to hold and its rear-mounted fingerprint scanner is easy to reach. Motorola has packed in a 5,000mAh battery which has caused it to tip the scales at 200g.
It runs clean stock Android 10 with Motorola's My UX on top. There are very few useful customisations on top. You also get a dedicated Google Assistant button on the G9. The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC and is available in one variant only with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
The Moto G9 gets a triple camera setup consisting of a 48-megapixel primary camera with an f/1.7 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. It clicks decent photos in favourable light with good details. It is missing a wide-angle camera that most of its competition sport. The macro camera is good but it is of a lower resolution. Lowlight camera performance was average but the Night Mode is very effective.
Poco M2 Pro
The Poco M2 Pro has an attractive design and is built well, but it also looks very similar to the Redmi Note 9 Pro. It features a P2i water-repellent coating, which is said to make it splash-proof. Poco has used a 6.67-inch full-HD+ LCD display, with a cutout for the selfie camera. You also get Gorilla Glass 5 on the front, back, and the rear camera module. One feature that's missing is a high refresh rate.
The Poco M2 Pro runs on MIUI 11, which is based on Android 10, and my unit had the June security patch. Apart from having the Poco Launcher as a default, the features and functionality are very similar to what you get on Redmi devices.
MIUI and app performance were superb thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC. Navigating through MIUI's interface felt snappy, multitasking worked well, and apps in general were quick to load. Gaming performance was very good too. The 5,000mAh capacity easily lasted for an entire day, even with lots of gaming and camera usage.
The Poco M2 Pro has four rear cameras, which include a primary 48-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. You get a 16-megapixel hole-punch selfie camera. Overall, the cameras of the Poco M2 Pro performed decently under good light, but struggled to deliver satisfactory results in low light.
