Best Gaming Smartphones Under Rs 15,000: Realme 5 Pro, Vivo Z1 Pro, Realme 3 Pro, Note 7 Pro, Galaxy M30, Honor Play

With another new launch in the budget, the fight at the under Rs 15,000 range continues to intensify. Realme 5 Pro will start to rule in the segment followed by the Vivo budget killer, Vivo Z1 Pro and the Xiaomi bestseller Redmi Note 7 Pro. Realme 3 Pro will also be in the game, while Samsung continues to play strong with Galaxy M30.

Our new entry to the list of budget smartphones has Honor Play from last year.

It remained one of the most underrated smartphones in spite of being a great budget gaming device. The company is also planning to launch its recently released 9X smartphones in the country soon. Gaming budget smartphones had been rare, but this year we have some great smartphones at under Rs 15,000 offering some top-notch gaming experience.

If you want a great budget gaming smartphone at under Rs 15,000, here’s a complete list of all the top budget gaming devices under Rs 15,000.

Vivo Z1 Pro

Starting with the newly launched Vivo Z1 Pro, it’s the latest to join the under 15,000 list. A good overall budget smartphone, the device houses a massive battery powered by fast charging. The smartphone comes with a 6.53-inch Full HD+ display offering a screen-to-body ratio of 90.77 per cent and a punch-hole inside the display. Z1 Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 processor with a 3 camera system at the back panel.

Gaming Performance: Vivo Z1 Pro offers the best gaming experience on any smartphone at under Rs 15,000. The new Snapdragon 712 offers some sleek gaming performance backed by some good heat management. The top game now, PUBG Mobile can be played at a steady 30fps. You can play almost all top games as FIFA Mobile, Fortnite, Modern Combat 5 or Asphalt 9: Legends and on high graphics.

There’s a dedicated gaming button and assistant to block different functions while gaming. We didn’t face any issue in terms of hardcore and extended gaming. With the massive 5,000mAh battery and full-scale panoramic display, Vivo Z1 Pro offers amazing gaming experience on a budget.

Coming to optics, Vivo Z1 Pro uses a 16-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel super-wide secondary sensor and finally a 2-megapixel depth sensor. Upfront, the Vivo phone packs in a 32-megapixel selfie shooter. Vivo Z1 Pro runs on Android 9 Pie with Funtouch 9.0 on top.

As a plus for every task, Vivo Z1 Pro comes with a huge 5,000mAh battery. It supports 18W fast charging technology and also packs in a fast charger inside the box. It takes around 2 hours to fully charge from 0 to 100 perfect. Charging it for around 40 minutes can ease you through the day.

Realme 5 Pro

The new Realme 5 Pro comes with a Qualcomm 700 series chip. The Qualcomm 700 series chip will have some definite advantage over the other smartphones in the same range given hardcore gaming performance. With enhanced capabilities, Realme 5 Pro will be able to blast off well. The new Snapdragon 712 offers some sleek gaming performance backed by some good heat management.

Gaming Performance: Realme 5 Pro will offer some top-notch gaming experience with the Snapdragon 712 chip backing it. Playing top games like PUBG Mobile or FIFA Mobile, Fortnite, Modern Combat 5 or Asphalt 9: Legends on high graphics will be able to fan smooth at 30fps.

Realme 5 Pro also has a dedicated gaming mode to block different functions while gaming. 

Just as other Realme smartphones, Realme 5 Pro will also come with a dedicated gaming mode to block different functions while gaming with adequate heat management.

On the imaging front, Realme 5 Pro will come with a quad-camera setup featuring a 48MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture and 1.25 micron pixel size. The three additional sensors are going to be a 8MP wide-angle lens with a 119-degree field of view, a 2MP super macro lens and a dedicated 2MP depth sensor for portrait shots.

Honor Play

The toned-down Honor View10 was launched in India as Honor Play, one of the first mid-range gaming smartphones in the country. With a metal unibody design on the outside, Honor Play features a 6.3-inch Full HD+ IPS LCD notched display in an aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The smartphone is powered by the previous generation flagship Kirin 970 processor with a dedicated Neural Processing Unit or NPU for crunching machine learning algorithms and tasks like image recognition.

Honor Play runs Android 8.1 Oreo-based EMUI 8.2 and packs in features like in-game network optimisation so that the phone will be able to seamlessly shift from Wi-Fi to mobile data to ensure uninterrupted gameplay.

Gaming Performance: Honor Play was the first smartphone in the world to come with GPU Turbo tech out-of-the-box, and also the first to support 4D gaming. The GPU technology helps to offer better frame rates and stable gameplay resulting in faster and seamless frame rates. 4D gaming helps to offer a more enriching gaming experience by detecting gaming scenes to feature vibrations and nuances to enhance the gaming experience further. 

The phone is further backed by a 3,750mAh battery and supports fast charging, making it easy to play for hours without hiccups. The overall ergonomics is perfect, and at this price you get the beat.

Finally coming to optics, the Honor Play comes with a dual rear camera system featuring a 16MP sensor paired with a 2MP sensor for depth sensing. It does reasonably well in good lighting, while upfront Honor Play comes with a 16MP camera with f/2.0 aperture.

Realme 3 Pro

Up next, Realme has it’s mid-range winner under 15,000, the Realme 3 Pro. The super budget smartphone from Realme scores high in almost all the departments. Realme 3 Pro comes with a high polycarbonate body on the featuring a 6.3-inch full HD+ water drop notched display on top. It has added Gorilla Glass 5 with a gradient design at the back. At the back, the smartphone has a dual camera setup featuring a 16MP Sony IMX 519 sensor.

Gaming Performance: Realme 3 Pro has been much marketed as a budget device on which you can play the high-end Fortnite, first of its kind on a budget. It does offer great gaming experience with Snapdragon 710 managing the gaming performance like a pro. PUBG Mobile on high graphics ran smooth at 30fps. Other top games run well. Realme 3 Pro also has a dedicated gaming mode to block different functions while gaming. 

The device is comfortable to hold, and hardly you will face any lag even on high-end gaming for extended sessions. Heat management is above average.

The main sensor has an f/1.7 aperture coupled with a 5MP depth sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. Up front, Realme 3 Pro uses a 25MP selfie shooter with an f/2.0 aperture.

Running on Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor, Realme 3 Pro available in multiple variants with the new ColorOS 6.0 on top based on Android 9 Pie. The whole Realme 3 Pro package is backed by a 4,045 mAh battery supporting VOOC 3.0 fast charging (20W) with a Micro USB powered brick inside the box.

Redmi Note 7 Pro

Starting with the most-popular smartphone in the list, Redmi Note 7 Pro continues to top the list of current best smartphones under 15,000 rupees. The top mid-range smartphone from Redmi comes with a premium glass design body on the out sandwiched between Corning Gorilla Glass 5 body. Redmi Note 7 Pro on top has a 6.3-inch Full HD+ dot notched display. It does double as a gaming smartphone without compromising in any other department

Gaming Performance: Redmi Note 7 Pro has been able to deliver seamless gaming experience over these months. With the much-improved Snapdragon 675 taking up the charge, the device has delivered great performance while playing top games on high graphics as FIFA Mobile, Modern Combat 5 or Asphalt 9: Legends or PUBG Mobile. PUBG Mobile on high graphics ran smooth at 30fps.

As other device, Redmi Note 7 Pro also has a dedicated gaming mode to block different functions while gaming. 

The glass and curved body is comfortable to hold, and hardly you will face any lag even on high-end gaming for extended sessions. Xiaomi has done a great job with the interface, and the heat management is also on point.

Note 7 Pro runs on the 11nm Snapdragon 675 processor with on MIUI 10 top based on Android 9 Pie backed by a 4,000mAh battery supporting 18W fast charge. At the back, Redmi Note 7 Pro packs in a dual camera system comprising of the 48MP Sony IMX 586 sensor as its primary lens coupled with a 5MP secondary depth sensor. The smartphone is available starting at just Rs 13,999 via Flipkart and Mi.com.

Samsung Galaxy M30

Taking the list further, it’s the hit Samsung Galaxy M30 smartphone last on the list. Samsung Galaxy M30 is one of the only smartphones in list to feature a triple camera setup at under Rs 15,000. Galaxy M30 dons a 6.4-inch Super AMOLED Full HD+ display featuring a water drop notch on top called the Infinity-V display. On the outside, it’s a high-quality plastic polycarbonate body with gradient finishes.

The smartphone runs on Samsung’s own in-house Exynos 7904 SoC octa-core chip coupled with 4GB or 6GB of RAM.

Gaming Performance: Maybe not as good as Realme 5 Pro or Redmi Note 7 Pro, but Galaxy M30 can offer considerable gaming performance on a budget. Mid-end games run smooth, but games as PUBG and FIFA Mobile will face some lag on high graphics. Extended gaming sessions show some heat, but not much that you won’t be able to play. 

With the massive 5,000mAh battery and full-scale Super AMOLED display, Galaxy M30 offers above average gaming experience on a budget.

The triple camera system on Galaxy M30 features a 13-megapixel f/1.9 primary shooter coupled with a 5-megapixel ultra-wide lens and a third 5-megapixel depth lens. Galaxy M30 runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with One UI on top backed by a massive 5,000mAh battery with support for 15W fast charging (ships with the fast charging supported adapter in the box).