5 Best camera phones under Rs 20,000

India currently has the second highest smartphone ownership in the world after China. While the number of feature phone users are taken over by smartphone users, the features that once were restricted to high-end phones are also coming to cheaper phones too. 

One major feature that most of us look for is the camera, not just rear but users look for a convincing front camera as well. No wonder OEMs are well aware of this fact, so they refrain from making any compromise in the camera department these days. 

There are some brands who are marketing their devices as camera phones to target a specific segment of customers. We would advise you not to fall for such marketing tricks and read as many reviews as possible before you choose your smartphone. 

It is quite easy to pick a good smartphone when you have enough funds to spend but getting a good camera under a budget is a task. To make it a little easier for you, here is a list of smartphones with impressive cameras under Rs 20,000. 

The Mi A1 is Xiaomi's first stock Android phone, which is well received by not just Xiaomi loyalists but also those who always wanted to see a Xiaomi phone void of MIUI. 

Moreover, it was the first Xiaomi phone to feature a dual camera setup in Indian market. But unlike rest of its competitors, the secondary camera on Mi A1 has a telephoto lens similar to the OnePlus 5 or iPhone 7 Plus. That said, it does a 2X optical zoom using the secondary lens. The main wide angle camera is also great and when used in tandem there’s a creamy and effective portrait mode which is very impressive.

It is the cheapest phone to come with such dual camera setup, making it the best dual camera phone under Rs 15,000 price range. 

Read: Xiaomi Mi A1 review

It was the first mid-range smartphone in 2017 from Moto that created ripples in the smartphone market soon after its roll out at MWC 2017. Moto G5 Plus comes with impressive cameras on both the sides, making it a complete package for camera lovers looking for a phone under 15k.

Motorola later launched Moto G5s and G5s Plus with better cameras on paper but we found the Moto G5 Plus being the best in the line-up during our usage.

The Moto G5 Plus features a 12MP primary camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and f/1.7 aperture. The camera comes with features such as geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, panorama and auto-HDR. On the front, the device sports a 5 MP secondary camera with f/2.2 aperture.

Read: Moto G5 Plus review

Honor 7X features a dual-camera setup on the back. It has a 16-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera on the back.

The 2-megapixel lens on board the Honor 7X works in the Portrait mode to achieve bokeh-like images. It essentially identifies the edges of the subject in focus and blurs out everything else.

The front camera is an 8MP shooter that also boasts a Portrait mode feature, which we found worked, but not as well as on the rear camera. The selfie shooter will take decent snaps for social media and the like, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

Read: Honor 7X review

The Honor 8 is the oldest phone in the lot, which was first launched at Rs 29,999 but now sells for just Rs 19,999. While the UI on the phone received backlash from the reviewers, it was the camera and design of that phone that was the main talking point of the phone. 

At the current price, the camera on Honor 8 has everything you can ask for. It pairs two f/2.2 aperture cameras right next to each other in a bump-free design, and they're identical to the Huawei P9 cameras. One shoots rich color photos and the other snaps monochrome images. The combined photos provide more light and increased sharpness.

Read: Honor 8 review

The iPhone SE has the same iPhone 5S like boxy, yet premium design as the metal-clad iPhone 5S and the same powerful Apple A9 processor and rear camera as the iPhone 6S.

Apple iPhone SE is now available at Rs 18,999, which brings it to the best camera phones category under 20k, but only if you can do away with the tiny display and the boxy design. 

Read: iPhone SE review

posted by Campus94