Update: The price segment under Rs 30,000 was particularly an interesting segment for our jury. Smartphone manufacturers loaded the Rs 30,000 segment with many launches in 2022. It was tough to select a few phones for this segment as nominees. After discussing a lot, the prestigious jury of the Indian Gadget Awards 2022 has awarded:
Winner: OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
The OnePlus Nord 2T has been picked as the best phone of 2022 under Rs 30,000. It has the most balanced package among all devices in the segment.
Original story follows…
The Indian Gadget Awards (IGA) is back in its third avatar. This year, we have included all the best phones under the Rs 30,000 price segment for this award category. The Rs 20,000 – Rs 30,000 segment for smartphones boomed in 2022. We saw various mid-range phones with flagship processors, fast charging, high-resolution camera, 120Hz AMOLED display, and much more. Ideally, the smartphones in this category provide a consumer with the best value for money. Smartphone manufacturers loaded the Rs 30,000 segment with many launches in 2022. It was tough to select a few phones for this segment as nominees. After discussing a lot, the prestigious jury of the Indian Gadget Awards 2022 has handpicked these phones as the nominees for the best phone of 2022 under Rs 30,000.
Best Phone of 2022 Under Rs 30,000 – Indian Gadget Awards 2022 Nominees
- TECNO CAMON 19 Pro Mondrian
- POCO F4 5G
- Redmi K50i 5G
- OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
- Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G
- Motorola Edge 30
- Samsung Galaxy M53 5G
- Realme GT NEO 3T 80W
- iQOO Neo 6
- Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G
- Realme 9 Pro+
TECNO CAMON 19 Pro Mondrian
The TECNO CAMON 19 Pro Mondrian is ideally the unique-looking design phone in this segment. The Mondrian edition But when the light falls on it, the back panel changes it colour, and a different pattern appears, as shown in the above image. The company says that this happens because of the Sunlight drawing technology, also known as polychromatic photoisomer technology.
Specs-wise, the phone sports a 6.9-inch tall IPS LCD with a Full HD+ resolution and 120Hz refresh rate support. It flaunts a triple-rear camera setup, including a 64MP primary shooter, a 50MP portrait lens, a 2MP sensor, and a quad-LED flash. It comes equipped with a 32MP selfie snapper.
Under the hood, the Mondrian Edition sports an octa-core MediaTek Helio G96 processor. The system-on-chip comes coupled with a Mali G57 GPU, 128GB UFS 2.2 storage, and 8GB LPDDR4X RAM. It boots the company’s proprietary HiOS 8.6, based on Android 12. The Tecno Camon 19 Pro Mondrian Edition is fueled by a 5000mAh battery unit. It supports 33W fast charging support over a Type-C charging port.
POCO F4 5G
The POCO F4 is considered as the original successor of the POCO F1, the iconic smartphone from the company in India. The phone’s USP is its performance as it is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 870 chipset with a peak clock speed of 3.2GHz. The handset offers Liquidcool 2.0, which is a cooling system with a 3112 mm sq. vapour chamber and a 7-layer graphite sheet to meet the thermals under check. The device comes with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage as well.
It sports a 6.67-inch E4 AMOLED panel with a 120Hz screen refresh rate, DCI-P3 gamut, 1300nits brightness, 360Hz sampling. Interestingly, it was the first phone from the company to offer Dolby Vision and HDR10+ support.
It comes with a triple rear camera setup with a 64MP main sensor which is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro snapper. On the front, it sports a 20MP selfie camera.
The POCO F4 draws power from a 4500mAh battery unit with support for 67W fast charging. It launched with Android 12 based on MIUI 13 out of the box.
Redmi K50i 5G
The Redmi K50i 5G marks the return of the iconic K-series in India that disappeared after the K20 series. The K50i’s MediaTek Dimensity 8100 SoC even managed to beat the iPhone 13’s A15 Bionic on the AnTuTu benchmark. It offers a 6.6 Full HD+ LCD display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and 270Hz touch sampling rate support. The handset boots Android 12-based MIUI 13 out of the box.
Moving on to the optics, the Redmi K50i packs a triple-rear camera setup which includes a 64MP primary shooter. Accompanying it is an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro camera. For selfies and video calls, it relies on a 16MP front shooter. The phone packs a 5080mAh battery unit with 67W fast charging support.
OnePlus Nord 2T 5G
The OnePlus Nord 2T 5G launched at such a time when performance centric phones like POCO F4 5G and iQOO NEO 6 arrived in markets. Still, the phone managed to leave its mark in the segment. For those who are not into gaming, the phone has emerged as one of the top choices.
The Nord 2T 5G has a 6.62-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate support. The phone boots Android 12 based Oxygen OS 12.1 out of the box. The Mediatek Dimensity 1300 chipset is paired with 12GB LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. The phone packs a 4,500mAh battery unit and supports 80W fast charging.
The device houses a 50MP Sony IMX766 triple camera setup on the back for the optics. Accompanying the main sensors are 8MP ultrawide and a 2MP mono lens.
Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G is the fastest charging device on the list. It comes with a 4,500mAh battery and supports a whopping 120W HyperCharge fast charging. It flaunts a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and 360Hz touch sampling rate support.
The Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 920 processor that is fabbed on a 6nm fabrication process. It is paired with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM, up to 128GB UFS 2.2 storage, and up to 3GB Virtual RAM. The device was launched with MIUI 12.5 Enhanced based on Android 11.
It offers a 108MP triple-rear camera setup on the back. Accompanying the 108MP Samsung HM2 sensor is an 8MP ultrawide angle lens and a 2MP tele-macro sensor. You get a 16MP shooter on the device for selfies and video calls.
Motorola Edge 30
The Motorola Edge 30 is one of the slimmest as well as the lightest 5G phones in the segment. It also happens to be the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G+ powered smartphone in the country. For those who wish to get a cleaner stock Android experience can pick the Motorola Edge 30, the phone boots Android 12 out of the box. It flaunts a 6.55-inch Full HD+ pOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate support.
Coming to the optics, it sports a 50MP tripler rear camera setup with OIS support. It gets accompanied by a 50MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro sensor. It comes equipped with a 32MP front shooter for selfies and video calls. The Moto Edge 30 is backed by a 4020mAh battery unit. It supports 33W fast charging over a Type-C charging port.
iQOO Neo 6
The iQOO Neo 6 emerged as one of the best choices for gamers in this segment. It is powered by a Snapdragon 870 processor coupled with Adreno 650 GPU. The System-On-Chip (SoC) is paired with up to 12GB of LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It boots FunTouch OS 12 based on Android 12.
It has a 6.62-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, 1300 nits peak brightness, and HDR10+ certification. It packs a 4,700mAh battery unit with 80W fast charging support.
For the optics, it has a 64MP primary sensor which gets accompanied by an 8MP ultrawide angle lens and a 2MP macro sensor. For selfies and video calls, it has a 16MP front shooter.
Samsung Galaxy M53 5G
The Galaxy M53 5G happens to be Samsung’s first handset under Rs 30,000 to feature a 108MP camera setup. Along with it, the handset also offers an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. The phone has a 32MP front camera sensor. It sports a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED display with support for a 120Hz refresh rate.
Under the hood, the phone has a Dimensity 900 SoC. It comes with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There is support for virtual RAM up to 8GB. The phone packs a 5,000mAh battery. There is support for 25W fast charging but the adapter is not included in the box. The device also has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner and support for AI face unlock. It comes with Android 12 out of the box and has a layer of One UI 4.1 on top.
Realme GT NEO 3T 80W
Realme GT Neo 3T has a honeycomb-like pattern on the back which differentiates it in the segment. It is probably one of the cheapest flagship handsets that come loaded with a Snapdragon 870 processor. Besides that, it comes loaded with a 6.62-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The screen also supports a 360Hz touch sampling rate, 1300nits peak brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut. In terms of optics, Realme GT Neo 3T offers a triple-camera setup a 64MP primary sensor, 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, and 2MP macro lens. On the front, there is a 16MP camera for selfies and video calls. The handset packs a 5,000mAh battery with 80W fast charging support.
Redmi Note 11 Pro + 5G
The iconic Redmi Note Series is one of the most popular selling smartphones series in India. In 2022, the company launched the Redmi Note 11 Series in the country. The topmost variant in the series, the Redmi Note 11 Pro+ 5G has been nominated in the best phone of 2022 under Rs 30k title.
The Note 11 Pro+ features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 1200nits peak brightness, and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Under the hood, it packs an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor paired with an integrated Adreno 619 GPU, up to 8GB LPDDR4X RAM, and up to 256GB UFS 2.2 storage. The handset boots MIUI 13 which is based on Android 11.
The Note 11 Pro+ offers a triple-rear camera setup including a 108MP primary shooter which gets accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2MP macro sensor. For selfies, it relies on a 16MP front shooter. It is equipped with a 5000mAh battery unit and supports 67W fast charging.
Realme 9 Pro+
The Realme 9 Pro+ has been termed as one of the best camera phones in the segment. Many claimed that the phone can capture magnificent shots compared to other mid-range phones. The phone has a 50MP Sony IMX766 main camera with OIS, an 8MP ultrawide camera and a 2MP macro camera. For selfies, Realme has equipped the smartphone with a 16MP front shooter.
The phone draws power from a MediaTek Dimensity 920 SoC which is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. The phone packs a 4,500mAh battery with 60W fast charging support. There is a 6.4-inch Full HD+AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate support. It comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and runs Android 12-based Realme UI 3.0 out of the box.
