Top 10 Camera Smartphones Under Rs 30,000: Redmi K20 Pro, Honor View20, Galaxy A70, Redmi K20, Realme X, Poco F1

Led by the Redmi K20 series, the under 20,000 segment has some great entry-flagship and mid-range camera smartphones. All the smartphones in the list offer superb camera performance without compromising on premium performance. Xiaomi leads the list with three great smartphones: Redmi K20, K20 Pro and Poco F1. 

Honor and Realme each have single devices in the list: Honor View20 and Realme X.

Then we have two tri-camera devices from Samsung: Galaxy M40 and Galaxy A70. Motorola has its newly launched Moto One Vision, while Vivo has its under 30K bestseller, V15 Pro. Finally, a new addition to the best camera smartphones list is the just-released Vivo S1 with a triple camera system.

Here’s the top camera smartphones you can buy under Rs 30,000 in India.

Redmi K20 Pro

Xiaomi is currently ruling in entry-premium flagship segment. The company unveiled its first flagship series under Redmi in the country in mid-July, the Redmi K20 Pro, and it turns out to be the best and most value-for-money smartphone in the segment. While it remained in the news for the next few days as fans alleged the new flagship to be overpriced in India. In spite of being priced higher than China, the Redmi K20 Pro is the cheapest option in the entry-flagship range.

Talking about the camera performance, the smartphone does a fantastic job. It houses a three camera setup at the back with a pop-up sensor selfie on top.

Rear Camera: K20 Pro features a triple camera system at the back housing a 48MP Sony IMX586 camera as primary lens with an f/1.75 aperture, an 8MP telephoto secondary sensor with an f/2.4 aperture and a tertiary 13MP wide-angle sensor with an f/2.5 aperture and a 124.8 degree field of view.

Front Camera: Redmi K20 Pro comes with a 20MP sensor supporting wide-angle shots. The pop-up sensor is considerably slow, rises at under 0.8 seconds.

Camera Performance: If compared to other flagships, Redmi K20 Pro misses out on OIS. But still the device manages to capture the right frames and timing for shots. In bright daylight conditions, Redmi K20 Pro does a super job taking bright and crisp images. The device produce accurate details and macro shots are very good.

The wide-angle shots are great, and better than most of the devices we have tested. Coming to low light, it does a fair job, while the dedicated Night Mode does help improve the overall quality and details.

Redmi K20 Pro comes with the latest Qualcomm flagship processor Snapdragon 855 with a notch-less display and an in-display fingerprint sensor. The smartphone supports the latest Android Q beta version backed by a 4,000mAh battery supporting 27W fast charging and special gaming features to offer the best of smartphone gaming experience.

Redmi K20

Xiaomi takes on Realme X in the sub-20,000 segment with Redmi K20. While it still costs Rs 5,000 more than the Realme mid-ranger, it has its own reasons to be sold at a higher price. With a glass body on the out and an extra lens, Redmi K20 does a reasonable job at Rs 21,999. While many would still argue it being overpriced, let’s see how it performs when it comes to photography. It has the same camera setup as Redmi K20 Pro (except the different 48MP lens).

Rear Camera: Redmi K20 packs in a triple rear camera featuring 48MP Sony IMX582 sensor along with 8MP and 13MP sensors. The Sony IMX582 and IMX586 aren’t very different. The only difference is that IMX582 only supports up to 4K at 30fps video, while the IMX 586 supports 4K at 60fps.

Front Camera: Redmi K20 comes with the same K20 Pro 20MP selfie sensor. It supports wide-angle shots and rises at under 0.8 seconds.

Camera Performance: Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro offers largely similar photography results. As the K20 Pro has a better processor, you will see some differences in terms of image processing, while everything is almost the same. In bright light, Redmi K20 does a good job while the low light are above average. The Night Mode helps to add in mode details.

It runs on Android 9 Pie based MIUI 10 with a 4,000mAh battery backing it supporting 18W fast charging.

The Redmi smartphone will come with Snapdragon 730 processor featuring an 6.39-inch AMOLED Full HD+ display with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage. The device packs in some flagship level features available at a budget cost running on Snapdragon 730 chip. Realme X will fight Redmi K20 in India with such similar features. 

Samsung Galaxy A70

The Samsung entry-level premium smartphone comes with a panoramic display featuring a notch on top with in-screen fingerprint sensor. Galaxy A70 boasts a notchless all-screen display with a 91.64% screen-to-body in an 6.7-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-U display. Galaxy A70 is currently available in two colour options: Black and White in a single storage option with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Rear Camera: In terms of optics, Samsung Galaxy A70 features a triple camera setup at the back. There’s a 32MP main camera, 8MP super wide-angle and a 5MP depth-sensing shooter. 

Front Camera: Upfront, Galaxy A70 features a 32MP wide-angle selfie sensor with an f/2.0 aperture.

Camera Performance: Galaxy A70 performs well above average in good lighting conditions. Scene detection works fine, and the pictures throw in good amount of details. The dynamic range is okay, and does a decent job. Under artificial lighting, most shots come out clean with optimum details. 

The Galaxy A70 runs on Snapdragon 675 chip with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The system has Android 9 Pie with OneUI skin with a 4,500mAh battery backing it. It also supports 25W Super Fast Charging technology.

Honor View20

Honor View20 is currently available at Rs 24,999, making the Honor device a good option to buy at under Rs 30,000. After being launched at Rs 37,999, it does make a lot of sense the buy the device now. Honor View20 was the first phone in India to come with an in-display selfie shooter in a punch-hole styled display. Honor View20 runs on an octa-core Kirin 980 chipset, based on a 7nm process with Dual NPU and GPU Turbo 2.0 technology, coupled with 6GB and 8GB of RAM.

Rear Camera: The smartphone comes with a dual-camera setup at the back including the 48-megapixel primary Sony IMX 586 sensor and a secondary ToF depth sensor.

Front Camera: Honor View20 comes with a 25MP selfie wide-angle shooter upfront inside the punch hole.

Camera Performance: The 48MP lens images with Honor’s AI Ultra Clarity shooting option does bring out some awesome results. In good lighting conditions Honor View20 can take great shots with excellent levels of details and colours. 

The 6GB RAM base variant comes with 128GB of internal storage, while the 8GB RAM top model comes with 256GB of internal storage. Honor View20 has a 4,000mAh battery supporting 18W fast charging and a 25-megapixel upfront. 

Vivo V15 Pro

The Vivo V15 Pro is currently available starting at Rs 23,990, making it a good option under Rs 40,000. Vivo V15 Pro comes with up to 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, a rising selfie camera of 32-megapixel resolution, and a triple camera setup at the back. Vivo V15 Pro comes with a 6.39-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Ultra FullView Display and include a Snapdragon 675 SoC, paired with 128GB of onboard storage.

Rear Camera: The triple camera setup on V15 Pro includes a 48-megapixel primary camera coupled with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide secondary sensor and a 5-megapixel depth sensor.

Front Camera: On top the smartphone features a rising selfie 32-megapixel camera capable of some great wide-angle shots.

Camera Performance: The primary 48-megapixel shooter does a fair job in capturing above average images in good to decent lighting conditions. The colors are accurate, details are fine, and the texture is above average. Vivo V15 Pro manages a decent job in all lighting conditions. There’s also a dedicated Night Mode for very-dim conditions. 

The device has a 3,700mAh battery along with “Dual Engine” fast charging technology. The device also features a fingerprint scanner embedded in the display screen itself. Vivo V15 is available in two colour options: Topaz Blue and Ruby Red in two storage options: 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 128GB storage.

Realme X

Realme finally been launched the much anticipated Realme X smartphone country India last month. It has been trending in the country since then, and the pricing of Redmi K20 has worked as a favour for the new Realme smartphone. Backed by some sleek features, the new Realme X device turns out to be a top contender on a budget with a full-screen AMOLED display, pop-up sensor, in-display fingerprint sensor, 48MP camera and more.

Rear Camera: The device comes with a 48-megapixel primary camera along with a 5-megapixel secondary sensor on the back.

Front Camera: Up front, Realme X has a 16-megapixel selfie camera.

Camera Performance: Realme X can take good detailed and sharp pictures in bright light with accurate colours. In poorly lit conditions, the device manages to click decent photos with almost accurate details and colours. Some images come out oversaturated at times due to over-processing. This can be corrected via future updates.

It’s the first Realme notch-less smartphone runs on the Snapdragon 710 chip featuring a full-screen AMOLED display with an in-display fingerprint sensor embedded beneath the display.

Realme X is available via Flipkart starting at Rs 16,999 for the base model with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage. At the back, Realme X comes with dual cameras featuring the 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor as the primary shooter. The company also launched a couple of special Realme X variants: Spiderman and Onion Garlic.

Poco F1

After the recent price cut, Poco F1 is now available starting at Rs 17,999 in India. Poco F1 remains one of the best entry-level premium smartphones on a budget. Poco F1 comes with a 6.18-inch Full HD+ display offering a resolution of 1080 x 2246 pixels in an 18.7:9 aspect ratio. Under the hood, Poco F1 runs on the previous Qualcomm flagship Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with Adreno 630 GPU.

Rear Camera: In terms of optics, Poco F1 comes with a dual rear camera setup offering a combination of 12-megapixel and 5-megapixel secondary camera

Front Camera: Upfront, Poco F1 features a 20-megapixel selfie camera.

Camera Performance: The dynamic range is good and it captures quite accurate details and produce good colours. Poco F1 made headlines back when it matched up the iPhone 8 score at DxOMark in terms of imaging capabilities. It does an awesome job managing some great contrast, good details and quite accurate and natural colour procurement. 

It’s backed by a non-removable Li-Po 4,000 mah battery running on Android 8.1 Oreo with a special Poco customised MIUI 9.6 skin on top. The Xiaomi flagship is backed by 6GB or 8GB RAM and 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage respectively. The memory can be further expanded up to 256GB via an additional microSD card.

Motorola One Vision

The recently-launched Motorola One Vision is takes the second spot to join the top camera smartphones under 30,000 list in the country. Available at Rs 19,999, the new Moto device runs on Google’s Android One program offering Pixel-like seamless user interface. Moto One Vision flaunts a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with 21:9 aspect taller display ratio and 3D Corning Gorilla Glass on the back. 

Rear Camera: The device comes with a 48-megapixel primary camera along with a 5-megapixel secondary sensor on the back.

Front Camera: Up front, Motorola One Vision has a 25-megapixel selfie camera.

Camera Performance: With the 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor, the device takes some great shots. All photos come out sharp and well detailed with top contrast and almost accurate colors. The HDR mode works well adding details in shadows and highlights. 

Motorola One Vision is powered by Samsung’s Exynos 9609 processor with 4GB RAM and 128GB built-in storage. The storage can be further expanded with an external microSD card. The device runs on Android 9.0 Pie with guaranteed upgrade till the next two versions, Android Q and Android R. It houses a 3,500mAh battery supporting 15W fast charging technology.

Samsung Galaxy M40

The newly launched Samsung smartphone comes with a punch-hole display, an Infinity-O Display panel. It was the first smartphone to be launched with a hole-punch camera design in the midrange segment. The smartphone packs in a fingerprint sensor at the back with a triple rear camera setup. On top, Samsung Galaxy M40 comes with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels with the Infinity-O cut.

Rear Camera: In terms of optics, Galaxy M40 packs in a triple camera system featuring a 32-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.7 aperture. Additionally there’s a 5-megapixel secondary depth sensor with an f/2.2 aperture.

Finally there’s an 8-megapixel tertiary sensory with an ultra-wide-angle lens with an f/2.2 aperture and 123 degree wide angle view with AI supported features.

Front Camera: Upfront, the smartphone has a 16-megapixel selfie camera.

Camera Performance: The Galaxy M40 offers some great camera performance on a budget. One of the only smartphones to come with a three camera setup, the price justifies for the performance it offers. The wide-angle lens come in handy at times. The contrast is great, details are good, colors are accurate and natural. 

Galaxy M40 runs on Snapdragon 675 SoC coupled with 6GB of RAM, 128GB storage on Android 9 Pie with company’s own One UI on top, backed by a 3,500mAh battery supporting 15W wired fast charging technology. The device is available exclusively via Amazon India in a single variant at Rs 19,990.

Vivo S1

The newly launched Vivo S1 comes with a great set of camera specs. The smartphone comes with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED display offering a screen-to-body ratio of 90.77 per cent and a punch-hole inside the display. The just released Vivo S1 is the first smartphone in the world to be powered by MediaTek Helio P65 chip with a 3 camera system at the back.

Rear Camera: Coming to optics, Vivo S1 uses a 16-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel super-wide secondary sensor and finally a 2-megapixel depth sensor.

Front Camera: Upfront, the Vivo phone packs in a 32-megapixel selfie shooter.

Camera Performance: Vivo S1 does a good job for its price in terms of overall photography. Maybe not be better than Note 7 Pro, but not bad either. The contrast is great, details are fine, colors are great and the sensors do their job well. HDR improves dynamic range and the wide-angle camera does use the lens correctly to come in handy at times.

S1 runs on Android 9 Pie with Funtouch 9.0 on top. As a plus, Vivo S1 comes with a huge 4,500mAh battery. It supports 18W fast charging technology and also packs in a fast charger inside the box.