Since the pandemic, the input costs have been rising for the smartphone companies. The rise has been so significant that smartphone manufacturers are finding it hard to pack good value within the Rs 20,000 mark.
This has led them to introduce phones that are above this mark but pack great value. A good value phone packs a powerful processor. One such processor that has been rocking in this segment is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G.
Today in this article, we will be covering the best Snapdragon 778G phones that are priced under 25, 000 and offer great value to the customer.
1. Realme 9 SE 5G.
The Realme 9 SE 5G is the cheapest Snapdragon 778G phone that’s available in the Indian market. This phone has only performance on its side, and that is its only strength. It runs on Realme UI 2.0, which is topped with Android 11.
It comes with a 6.6″ FHD+ IPS LCD display that has a 144Hz refresh rate. The panel quality is decent and, being an LCD, the color accuracy isn’t as great as an AMOLED. However, the brightness levels are up to the mark and peak brightness is around 600 nits, making it apt enough for almost all situations.
The Realme 9 5G SE scores extremely well when it comes to gaming. The performance is great and there are no lags whatsoever. The cameras on this phone aren’t very great though.
You get a 48MP main lens with an f/1.8 aperture, and the rest are 2MP+2MP of macro and depth cameras that are pretty useless in the real world.
The photos from the main camera are decent; the colors are saturated but not unacceptable, and the dynamic range is good but not the best in the segment. Video can be recorded at a max of 4k @ 30fps or 1080p @ 120fps, which is quite good considering the segment.
The front houses a 16MP lens that shoots good photos with decent clarity and dynamic range. The battery is a 5000mAh unit that will not run out of juice in a single day, even for heavy users.
The 30W charger that is bundled in the box is also quite fast and can charge up to 50% in 25 mins. This phone also supports 5G and has five 5G bands available in the Indian variant.
The Realme 9 5G SE is priced at Rs 19,999 for the 6GB/128GB variant, while the 8GB/128GB variant will cost you Rs 22,999. In our opinion, the former makes more sense than the latter, especially since it has a very limited purpose and caters to a very niche audience.
2. Motorola Edge 20
Launched somewhere in the middle of 2021, this phone is still relevant and has been a game changer for Motorola in India. The phone runs on Android 11 out of the box, and being a stock Android UI, the phone is free from any kind of junkware and runs pretty smoothly in day-to-day usage.
This phone has its display and performance as its strength. The edge 20 sports a 6.7″ FHD+ OLED panel with a 144Hz refresh rate.
The display supports HDR10, meaning that it can display many more colors than a normal display, and that is actually evident even in real life. The color accuracy is extremely good and consuming content is a pleasant experience.
No stereo speakers is a huge miss in our opinion, as it could have upped the content watching game significantly. The camera hardware is also very good. It comes with a primary 108MP lens with an f/1.8 aperture.
Apart from this, we get an 8MP 3x optical zoom lens and a 16MP ultrawide lens with integrated macro capabilities as well. Sadly, all the good hardware specs do not convert to good photos because of the lack of good software optimisation.
The camera performance is kind of inconsistent; sometimes it gets the dynamic range right, sometimes it gets horribly wrong.
The scope of improvement is huge in this area. The 32MP front-facing camera, however, deserves a mention because the performance from this camera is good, the skin tones produced feel natural and the dynamic range is also good.
The Edge 20 is a proper 5G phone with 11 5G bands. The battery life with its 4000mAh battery is good and the 33W charger tops it up pretty fast.
The Motorola Edge 20 is priced at Rs 24,999 and comes in only one variant, i.e., 8/128 GB. However, there is always some offer available with certain credit cards on this one, and you can get it for Rs. 24K easily.
3. Samsung Galaxy M52
This is Samsung’s competitor to the Motorola Edge 20. The strength of the M52 5G lies in its display and camera to some extent. This phone comes with a 6.7″ FHD+ super AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
The display is crisp with colors. Being an AMOLED, the blacks are pretty accurate and the colors look very natural. With the one UI 4.1 that’s on top of Android 12, the experience is very sorted; it isn’t too busy or filled with unnecessary bloatware.
Moving on to the cameras, it gets a 64MP main lens, a 12MP ultrawide and a 5MP macro. The performance of the camera, although not ground-breaking, is sufficient with more consistent photos and good clarity.
The dynamic range is good as well, and there is uniformity in image quality between the main and the ultrawide lens. Video recording is decent as well. At the front, there is a 32MP lens that clicks decent photos with good dynamic range and true-to-life colors.
The place where the M52 5G isn’t as good is gaming. The frame rates drop and there is an evident lag frequently. This one also carries 11 5G bands and is future-proof in that regard. The battery capacity here is 5000 mAh, which will last a day easily. However, the 15W charger seems like a blatant cost cut.
The Samsung Galaxy M52 5G is priced at Rs 24,999 for the 6/128 GB variant, while the 8/128 GB variant will cost you around Rs 26,999.
Conclusion
The sub-Rs 25k segment has a lot of mid-range phones, but the ones that can really be called premium mid-range are very few. All the phones that come with the Snapdragon 778G are genuine premium mid-range and do offer great performance with little to no compromise in hardware. In our opinion, these phones will be able to sustain their performance very well across their age, which might not be the case with other processors. We hope that you liked the content. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop them below in the comment section.