12 Budget Smartphones Under ₹10,000

Smartphones have come a long way from what they used to be. They no more take ages to reboot and they don’t stutter when you access an array of apps. And honestly, budget smartphones are only going to get better from here on. As of now, what most of us are in need of is a beefy battery because everything else, in this time and space, falls perfectly in place. You have the brilliant, post 2017, Snapdragon 600 series that are exceptionally good mid-range processors. And when you club it with high throughput memory and decent graphics chips, what you get is performance comparable to smartphones almost double the price. Unless you are a hardcore gamer and you want to make a statement with an overly expensive phone, you don’t need anything other than the phones listed here.

This article touches on some of the best phones you can get your hands on for under 10k and not a rupee more. However, there is one worthy 10k+ contender towards the end.

Chipsets /SoCs built before 2017 have been overlooked as it makes absolutely no sense in investing in a processor that’s over 2 years old. You end up paying almost the same, that too for performance that just doesn’t stack up. However, we have made an exception to the Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite (launched July 2018). Even though it is based on a much older SoC, it has been listed mainly because it is Android One based. And all Android One based phones are guaranteed to receive updates for at least 3 years from their release date.

Asus and Xiaomi are also the best possible choice in terms of performance and build quality, reason why a number of them have been listed in this article. Also, since none have been tested personally, a definite answer as to why you should buy them cannot be given. The best recommendation has been carried out based on their components and specs. They have also been listed out in order of preference. However, this order is a personal preference, so feel free to shift them to your liking.

Do keep in mind, Xiaomi branded smartphones tend to come with a bit of bloatware. There have been complaints of random pop-up ads too. So if you want a stock Android experience, settle for a smartphone that is Android One based. The Zenfones are also a good bet and the only pre-installed apps are Facebook, Messenger and Instagram, which can be disabled from the Apps & notifications menu.

Also, smartphones listed with 64GB of storage also feature a 32GB version and are approximately ₹1,000 cheaper. So please do check them out before making a decision.