Best Smartphones under 13,000 INR [February 2016]

If you are looking for a smartphone ranging between 10,000 and 15000 INR, their are several worthy options which you can consider. Though none of these is perfect, you can surely find something that delivers gratifying user experience suited to your specific needs. Here are our top picks.

Le 1s:

Le Eco’s Launch of Le 1s has certainly heated up the smartphone segment under Rs. 12,000. The Chinese internet giant has made a lasting first impression by packing some powerful hardware specs at a reasonable price.

To recall, the Le 1s (Full review) sports a 5.5-inch FHD IPS display with 401ppi, MediaTeK Helio X10 SoC ticking at 2.2 GHz, PowerVR G6200 GPU, 3GB and 32GB ROM. The phone runs on Android Lollipop based EUI which takes advantage of LE Eco’s ecosystem, as per company claims. It also carries 13 MP primary camera and 5MP secondary camera at the front. The back panel fingerprint sensor is also pretty accurate and responsive.

Also read: Should you buy the Lenovo K4 Note or LeEco Le 1s? – Comparison, What Matters, What Doesn’t

Pros:

• Fast charging
• Premium design
• Overall excellent performance

Cons:

• Display brightness is low

Lenovo K4 Note:

Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has made quite a buzz in the market just like its predecessor K3 Note. The successor tries to fill the gaps which existed in the still popular mid-range K3 Note. It packs in MT6753 coupled with Mali T720 and 3GB of RAM and runs on Vibe UI which is based on Android 5.1 Lollipop. The K4 Note flaunts new Vibe series design (unlike its predecessor which comes with a chunky look), dual frontal speakers and fingerprint scanner at the back. Lenovo has also introduced its latest TheaterMax technology in K4 Note which gives a delusion of a bigger screen while watching it via an ANT VR kit (available in bundle offer).

Also Read: All Lenovo K4 Note Questions Answered – FAQ, Benchmark Scores and Photo Gallery

Pros:

• Fast fingerprint scanner
• Decent camera hardware
• Good display

Cons:

• Plastic made exterior
• Gaming performance is poor

Honor 5X:

Honor too launched its budget friendly 5X and have to same it boasts of some impressive specs. The honor 5X features a 5.5-inch display with 1920x1080p resolution and 401 ppi (pixel-per-inch). Unlike Le 1s, there are no brightness concerns here, and images appear sharp, with well-saturated colors.

At the heart of it lies a 1.5 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 chipset coupled with Adreno 405GPU and 2GB of RAM. At the back, it also features a fingerprint sensor just below 13MP primary camera and LED flash. On the downside, It’s camera lacks optical image stabilization (OIS) but does a decent job in capturing 1080p videos. The phone comes out of the box running on Huawei’s EMUI 3.1 which is based on Android 5.1.1.

Pros:

• Sleek design
• Gorgeous display
• Good camera hardware

Cons:

• Loudspeaker volume is low

Moto G Turbo:

If you are looking for good Marshmallow based phone and don’t mind living without a fingerprint sensor than with Moto G Turbo is certainly worth considering. Barring the chipset and turbocharger it is identical to Moto G 3^rd generation.

The phone packs a Snapdragon 615 chipset coupled with 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM. It comes with 5-inch TFT display with 294ppi and comes with IP67 splash repellent certification. In the photography department, Moto Turbo gets the same 13MP primary sensor with f/2.0 aperture which was part of Moto G3. The rear camera also features an LED flash. A 5MP selfie camera finds its place at the front. It comes bundled with a turbocharger.

Pros:

• Stock Android Marshmallow
• Water and dust repellent
• Decent performance

Cons:

• Bulky design

Upcoming:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3:

Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is expected to land in India any time now and expected to price it under Rs. 12,000. It is more likely to be Qualcomm variant as Xiaomi is battling with Ericsson over MediaTek patent row. Redmi Note 3 is powered by a hexacore Snapdragon 650 SoC which is accompanied by 2GB / 3GB RAM.

The phone packs in powerful camera hardware which includes 16MP rear camera with dual-tone flash and phase detect autofocus. Xiaomi for the first time included a fingerprint sensor in its back making it a tough competition to all the aforementioned smartphones.

Pros:

• Metal body
• Fingerprint sensor
• Decent camera hardware
• Dual SIM 4G support

Cons:

• No Media expansion slot
• No Gorilla Glass Protection

Also Read: Best Smartphones Under 20,000 INR

Wrap-up:

In this first quarter of 2016 things have moved at a rapid pace in smartphone world. From a consumer’s perspective, this is certainly a good thing. To assist our valued readers in making a right choice we picked up aforementioned phones as the best smartphone under Rs. 13,000 INR. If you have any unanswered questions, ask us in the comment section below.