Smartphone under 20K - October 2020

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mhsabir

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Very Moderate User. Currently using Redmi 3S Prime and if not for an accidental fall causing a significant crack in the screen and not getting screen replacement easily, would have probably dragged in another year or two with this. Absolute no use of camera, except to maybe take a picture of something to send to someone like document or something. Not a gamer. Used to play games like Temple Run - but now, I do not have a single game in my phone. I sometimes watch media on mobile, but its mostly its on Streaming services on TV. My brother has been using the Samsung Galaxy J7 Nxt and I loved the Super Amoled there. Want to keep the new device a bit future proof considering my last phone completed 4+ years, I would like to have 6 GB RAM & 128 GB Storage. All new phones are heavy tipping 200g - I would have liked to keep it around 150-160g which is very tough.

Price Points:
Preferred Limit : 10k Soft Limit : 15k Hard Limit 20k

Phones I have shortlisted, keeping the upcoming sale discount in mind and the criteria I have set. I have the required cards so should be able to get 10% if I am able to get the device in hand.

Poco M2: This is what I feel is most close to what I am having and fits well into my preferred budget of 10-11k. Wont have Super Amoled, has emmc storage, performance I presume will be ok-ish. I get to retain IR Blaster and overall its decent (I also heard ads are less/none compared to Redmi 9 Prime, of which this is a clone)

Samsung M21/Samsung F41 : Clearly may not be the best in performance, but gets me an SAmoled in around 15k with 6/128 combo.

Oppo F17: Its more of a left field choice. Considering the performance is below par & I guess is more for the offline market. And too expensive for what it gives around 15k. But its slim and lightweight and I prefer to keep the phone mid-sized & lighter. And actually I would prefer a smaller sized phone in itself then the 6" ones - but cannot seem to find anything.

Realme 7 Pro : Its the most expensive & probably the most preferred in terms of performance. I believe it meets most of my needed criteria and many would probably recommend this But it also is the most expensive of the lot. So need to think about that

To people who intend to suggest some devices - If you are going to suggest something at say 16k, but does not have SAmoled, then I might say - hey If I have to let go of SAmoled , I might as well go for Poco M2. So the point I am trying to make is, each of these have been chosen as to they offer something that is more for the price is being paid.
 
Screenshot_2020-10-14-20-31-58-73_e4424258c8b8649f6e67d283a50a2cbc.jpg

Rs.1999 discount valid till 15Oct.
 
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Will wait for Flipkart sale.... I expect the sale to continue after that perhaps
 
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To add, there are 2 additional reasons why I did not jump right into the above and purchase from the Reliance Digital site - a) Instant Discount is always preferred over cashback in 90 days b) I am thinking about trying for the Special Edition, should I choose Realme Pro 7

P.S - I am without smartphone for ~2 days and it feels refreshing for a change. But yeah because of apps and stuff will surely need to get some device.
 
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Redmi 3S Prime screen replacement at official service center was 2600. For a 4 year old phone for which I paid ~8k, this seemed way too much.
I guess with Samsung it will always be a risk that it will always be expensive.

I know my media consumption and usage is moderate. But I quite liked what I saw on Galaxy J7 Nxt, which is a budget device - hence the thought of a Samsung SAmoled device. Considering that even with moderate usage its going to be more than an hour a day easily.
Well the Samsung M21 6GB/128GB looks good enough if you dont want to spend close to your hard limit. Comes with sAMOLED and 6GB will carry you over the years. One UI is quite good (you'll have to uninstall/disable some bloat when you first set up the device), though samsung doesn't offer customisation features such as good lock on M series phones . The Exynos chip does not have much ROM support if you're into flashing custom ROMs but I don't think you'd need that One UI is quite sufficient. The 5000mAh battery on my M30 gave me close to two days on a single charge with an use case similar to yours, so battery will be great too. Camera was more than enough to scan documents, click random pictures here and there but don't expect the world from it in low light and all.

The realme one has everything you need and more even if it is close to your hard limit. The only caveat I can think of is how their software holds up.
 
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The real reason I'd support m51 is the battery. With your use case, you could easily squeeze whole day because of the huge battery.
 


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I am moderate user - Software seems ok-ish. There is feedback that November this device should see an upgrade to Realme UI 2.0. This is still on 1.0. Will try & give some feedback in the weekend. By that time I would have finished two weeks I guess.
 
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