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Friday, January 19, 2018

The best smartphone under Rs 5,000 in India and why you should not buy it




India has a whole host of smartphones to suit almost every budget segment in the market. Be it under Rs 15,000 or Rs 10,000, the options are wide and varied. However, what if your budget is only Rs 5,000? What smartphone could you possibly buy?

People looking for a Rs 5,000 smartphone are usually those who want their first smart device or those who are looking for a second one to keep around. 

To make their work easier, we went out in search of smartphones under Rs 5,000. We found numerous options - some were brands you would not even have heard of - and there were Micromax and Honor as well. 

Frankly speaking, you should not buy any phone if you are on a budget of Rs 5,000. Most every smartphone under that price in the market today is a sub-standard one.

There, we said it. 

Disguising a phone under the "affordable" banner doesn't necessarily make it a good phone. First, the companies start compromising on storage and performance which makes things poor. Second, it makes for a really bad investment six months down the line, because these phones tend to slow down.

So, ideally, we would urge you not to buy any smartphone under Rs 5,000 and instead put in Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 more and make a more value for money investment. However, if you still want one under that price range, there is basically only one option -

  • Weight: 137g 
  • Dimensions: 140.4 x 70 x 8.35mm
  • OS: Android 7.1 Nougat 
  • Screen size: 5-inch 
  • Resolution: 1280 x 720 
  • CPU: Snapdragon 425 
  • RAM: 2GB 
  • Storage: 16GB 
  • Battery: 3000mAh 
  • Rear camera: 13MP 
  • Front camera: 5MP


Value for moneyGood build and design fingerprint sensor

Xiaomi's most affordable smartphone, the Redmi 5A was launched late last year and has been making waves ever since. The phone has 2GB of RAM and internal storage of 16GB, which isn't much to begin with. The lack of storage is the major reason why we would refrain from recommending phones under Rs 5,000. 

Even though you can expand this using a microSD card, it doesn't absolve the phone. Android doesn't allow many apps to be moved to the SD card, so it basically becomes a way to store photos and videos. And though that's a lot of storage space, phones do run out of space really fast. In essence, you might find yourself unable to update apps, download new ones, or in the off chance that you get an Android update, download that.

Yet, the Redmi 5A has a decent 5-inch HD display, a good 13-megapixel rear camera, and a capable Snapdragon 425 chipset. Its battery life is not bad either, meaning it will probably give you a good taste of what slightly more expensive phones can achieve. It's for the absolutely basic user. 

But trust us, if you have to buy a smartphone under Rs 5,000 - don't. 



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