[section label=”List of Phones (6 to 10)”] [section label=”6. OnePlus X”]

6. OnePlus X:

After killing the Flagship phones & writing history, OnePlus has now entered the budget segment with its OnePlus X. The new phone comes with a beautiful design and solid build quality. The phone has got a metallic body and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back which feels really good and premium. It comes in two build options Onyx black glass back and fire-baked Ceramic. It comes with a dedicated physical key for Notification toggle, just like the OnePlus 2. It weighs at 138 grams and has a thickness of just 6.9mm. It comes with a 5 inches Full HD AMOLED display which is very good and at the same time, due to its smaller form factor it feels comfortable to use, even with one hand. The OnePlus X runs on the old flagship Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Processor clocked at 2.3 GHz and coupled with 3 GB RAM. It has good performance and you can use it for everything. It comes with Android v5.1.1 Lollipop out of the box with OnePlus’s own Oxygen OS running on top. The Oxygen OS which was designed after the company’s breakup with Cyanogen has near stock Android UI but comes with added features and customization options. It features a 13 MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and clicks good images, it can record Full HD videos. It has got an 8 MP front facing camera with f/2.4 aperture which also clicks good selfies. Great thing is, the phone clicks images very quickly without shutter lags, the built-in camera app comes with necessary features and is easy to use. The phone supports Dual Sim and 4G and comes with 16 GB internal storage which is expandable upto 128 GB with the help of a microSD card but sadly, it eats up the second sim slot. It is backed by a non-removable 2525 mAh battery. The phone is great but a fingerprint sensor would have made it an irresistible deal. Overall, with great design, display and power, the OnePlus X is one hard phone to ignore. Specially, after the price cut, it is now available under 15000 Rs. and can be a good buy.

PRICE	Rs 14,999 @
OS	Android v5.1.1 Lollipop | UI - Oxygen OS
CPU	Quad-core 2.3 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 Processor
RAM	3 GB RAM
SCREEN	5.0 inches, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
DISPLAY	Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels), 441 ppi pixel density
SIM	Dual Sim (Nano-Sim)
CAMERA	Rear Camera: 13 MP, Flash: Yes | Front Camera: 8 MP, Flash: No
STORAGE	Internal: 16 GB | Expandable: upto 128 GB via microSD (Hybrid slot)
BATTERY	Non-removable Li-Po 2525 mAh battery
BODY	Weight: 138 grams, Thickness: 6.9 mm
OTHERS	4G, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS

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[section label=”7. Lenovo Vibe S1″]

7. Lenovo Vibe S1:

Surprised to see another Lenovo phone in this list? The other Lenovo phones in this list are offered around the same price but they are completely different from each other and are targeted towards different types of users. So, listing all the phones separately was necessary. There are two USP’s in the Vibe S1 – Design & Front camera. Starting with the design of the Lenovo Vibe S1, it looks really beautiful and feels premium, it has got metallic body and curved glass on the back (which attracts fingerprints easily though!) and with its 5 inches screen and 7.8mm thickness it feels compact and comfortable in hands. It is offered in Dark Blue & White color variants, in Dark Blue it looks more premium & different. Design wise, it is one of the finest phone around this price and feels much better than a typical 15-16k phone. The Vibe S1 features a 13 MP rear camera with PDAF, dual-LED flash and has decent picture quality but when it comes to the front, it boasts of Dual Selfie cameras, one of 8 MP and other of 2 MP and both work together. The 8 MP front camera comes with f/2.2 aperture & BSI sensor and captures the selfies as usual whereas, the 2 MP front camera captures the DOF (Dept of Field). Basically, it can differentiate between the subject and background and once you click a selfie, you can blur the background (with many creative effects) and it also allows you to cut out the subject and change the background. Overall, it will be a great fun experience for selfie lovers. A 1.7 GHz Mediatek MT6752 Octa Core Processor paired with 3 GB RAM gives a good performance to the phone. The 5 inches Full HD display with 441 ppi pixel density is very good. Corning Gorilla Glass 3 covers front and rear glasses. A 2420 mAh battery powers the phone, it doesn’t provide a great battery life but will run throughout the day. Overall, the Lenovo Vibe S1 is a premium compact phone with good performance & great features for selfies lovers, can be another good choice at this price.

PRICE	Rs. 12,999 @
OS	Android v5.0 Lollipop| UI - Vibe UI
CPU	1.7 GHz Mediatek MT6752 Octa Core Processor
RAM	3 GB RAM
SCREEN	5.0 inches, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
DISPLAY	Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels), 441 ppi pixel density
CAMERA	Rear Camera: 13 MP, Flash: Yes (dual-LED flash) | Front Camera: 8MP + 2MP (Dual selfie camera), Flash: No
SIM	Dual Sim
STORAGE	Internal: 32 GB | Expandable: upto 128 GB via microSD (uses second sim slot)
BATTERY	Non-removable Li-Po 2420 mAh battery
BODY	Weight: 132 grams, Thickness: 7.8 mm
OTHERS	4G, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS

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[section label=”8. Samsung Galaxy J7″] [label variation=”label-danger”]New[/label]

8. Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016):

Samsung has updated its Galaxy J7 with the new Galaxy J7 (2016). In the very highly competitive market, let’s see where this phone stands and if it is worth buying. Starting with the design, the Galaxy J7 (2016) features metallic sides but on the back there is textured plastic. It looks good but not the best and it feels decent to hold but doesn’t feel premium. It sports a 5.5 inches Super AMOLED HD display, it is decent but at this price today, a Full HD screen is a must. The phone runs on Samsung’s own 1.6 GHz Exynos 7870 (S5E7870) Octa Core Processor coupled with 2 GB RAM, it delivers very good lag free performance for everyday usage and can handle gaming also. In the camera department, the Galaxy J7 (2016) packs a 13 MP rear camera and a 5 MP front camera, both with f/1.9 aperture. The phone includes a LED flash for both the rear and the selfie camera. Talking about the picture quality, the cameras click decent images but we had expected better. The phone runs on Android v6.0 Marshmallow based company’s own TouchWiz UI which looks dull and boring although, Samsung has added theme support but currently it includes only few themes. Samsung is aggressively marketing the ‘S Bike Mode’ for the new J series, well it is a very good and useful feature and works exactly like it is expected, it can be a very helpful tool for frequent riders. Sadly, the phone doesn’t include a fingerprint scanner, which is the trend in even under 10k phones these days. It is a dual sim phone with 4G support and packs 16 GB of internal storage which is expandable upto 128 GB via a dedicated microSD slot. The pone packs a Removable Li-Ion 3300 mAh battery which gives a good battery backup. It weighs around 170 grams and feels heavy. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy J7 (2016), in the current scenario feels a much overpriced phone and it will feel the same even if it is priced at Rs. 10,000. It’s not like that it is a bad phone and those who specifically want the brand name of Samsung for its reliability and are ready to pay a higher price can go with it. Those looking for a little smaller phone can go with the Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016) at Rs. 13,990.

PRICE	Rs 15,990 @
OS	Android v6.0 Marshmallow | UI - TouchWiz
CPU	1.6 GHz Exynos 7870 (S5E7870) Octa Core Processor
RAM	2 GB RAM
SCREEN	5.5 inches, Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
DISPLAY	HD (720 x 1280 pixels), 267 ppi pixel density
CAMERA	Rear Camera: 13 MP, Flash: Yes | Front Camera: 5 MP, Flash: Yes
SIM	Dual SIM
STORAGE	Internal: 16 GB, Expandable: upto 128 GB via microSD
BATTERY	Removable Li-Ion 3300 mAh battery
BODY	Weight: 169 grams, Thickness: 7.8 mm
OTHERS	4G, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS

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[section label=”9. Asus Zenfone 2″]

9. Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML (4GB RAM):

Wow! 4 GB RAM!! In India, still a large population hasn’t got 4 GB RAM even on their computers but this budget device from Asus let’s you carry the enormous power of 4 GB RAM in your pockets. It runs on 1.8 GHz 64-bit Intel Atom Z3580 Quad Core Processor which is just amazing and with 4 GB of RAM, it’s needless to say the phone is performance powerhouse and can handle every bit of heavy gaming and multitasking pretty smoothly. It sports a 5.5 inches Full HD display which is very good and it is also protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The phone has a 13 MP rear & 5 MP front camera, the picture quality of both the cameras is very impressive. They are bright & colourful. It allows FHD video recording & produces good quality videos. It also has Dual-LED Flash and many other features. It runs on the Android v5.0 Lollipop with Asus’s ZenUI running on top of it. It supports Dual Sim & 4G (LTE). It comes with good 32 GB internal memory which is also expandable upto 64 GB, well that’s great! It also has a good 3000 mAh battery, with fast charging feature (60% in 39 minutes of charging). When it comes to design, the phone looks very good and more importantly it’s different from other phones in the market. Overall, the Zenfone 2 is a beast with its 4 GB RAM, it also offers a complete value for money package and can be a great choice without any doubts. The Asus Zenfone Selfie (2GB RAM) with 13 MP front camera and dual-LED front flash is also available, it also comes with laser auto-focus for the 13 MP rear camera. So, if camera, specially the front camera is your primary concern, the Zenfone Selfie can be a great option. If you need a huge battery life, you can go with the Asus Zenfone Max (2016) with 5,000 mAh battery.

PRICE	Rs 14,999 @  Rs 14,999 @  Rs 14,999 @
OS	Android OS, v5.0(Lollipop)
CPU	Quad Core, 64-bit, 1.8 GHz Intel Atom Z3560 processor
RAM	4 GB RAM
SCREEN	5.5 inches, IPS capacitive touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
DISPLAY	1920 x 1080 pixels, 403 ppi pixel density
SIM	Dual SIM (GSM + LTE) (Dual Active)
CAMERA	Primary Camera: 13 MP, Secondary Camera: 5 MP, Flash: Dual-LED Flash
MEMORY	Internal Storage 16 GB, microSD Expandable upto 64 GB
BATTERY	Non-removable Li-Po 3000 mAh battery
OTHERS	4G, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, NFC

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[alert variation=”alert-error”]Comparison: Xiaomi Mi 4i Vs Asus Zenfone 2 : New Mid-Range Flagship War[/alert] [section label=”10. Huawei Honor 5X”]

10. Huawei Honor 5X:

Huawei has finally launched their much awaited smartphone the Honor 5X in India. The Honor 5X packs a great premium metallic design which feels good in hands as well as looks beautiful & stylish. It features a 5.5 inches Full HD display with 401 ppi pixel density and has good display quality, the viewing angles are also good. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa Core Processor out of which four cores are clocked at 1.5 GHz and the other four are clocked at 1.2 GHz. The phone has got 2 GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU, the overall performance of the phone is good and smooth but it may lag a little during heavy gaming. It sports a 13 MP rear and a 5 MP front camera, both have good depth and colors. The Honor 5X features a fingerprint scanner on the back below the camera, it is very fast and works with good accuracy. The phone runs on Android v5.1 Lollipop with Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 skin running on top. It is a dual sim smartphone supporting 4G on both the slots. It comes with 16 GB internal storage which is expandable upto 128 GB. It is backed by a non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery which gives average battery backup and will last for around a day. Overall, the Huawei Honor 5X offers very good design, decent performance and good features. It is a good package but the competition is far ahead. If you need more power, you can also go with the Huawei Honor 6.

PRICE	Rs 12,999 @  Rs 12,999 @
OS	Android v5.1 Lollipop | UI - EMUI 3.1
CPU	1.5 GHz + 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 Octa Core Processor
RAM	2 GB RAM
SCREEN	5.5 inches, IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen
DISPLAY	Full HD (1920 x 1080 Pixels), 401 ppi pixel density
CAMERA	Rear Camera: 13 MP, Flash: Dual-LED Flash | Front Camera: 5 MP, Flash: No
SIM	Dual Sim (4G + 4G)
STORAGE	Internal: 16 GB | Expandable: upto 128 GB with microSD
BATTERY	Non-removable Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery|Fast charging: No
BODY	Weight: 158 grams, Thickness: 8.15 mm
OTHERS	Fingerprint Scanner, 4G, 3G, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS

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[signoff]There are few more…

The Obi Worldphone SF1, Gionee Elife S7, Oppo F1, LG K10, and LYF Water 1 are some of the other phones under 15,000 Rs. which are also good but couldn’t make into the Top 10, you can consider these also.[/signoff] [section label=”<< First 5 Phones”]

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[alert variation=”alert-error”]Might be helpful:

5 Best Power Banks under 1,500 Rs in India (2016)

List of Service Centres of all Smartphone Companies In India

3 Best Mobile Insurance Companies in India

[/alert]

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[signoff]Did you know?

Best Tech Guru’s Smartphone Buying Guide with more than 1 crore readers till now is the best way to find your next smartphone. It is the most updated and one of the most trusted Buyer’s Guide in India.[/signoff]