Indian smartphone market is one of the highest growing markets across the globe. In India, we are seeing a slew of launches in the smartphone market ranging from budget segment to high-end premium one. Manufacturers are leaving no stone unturned to project their smartphone(s) as one of the best in the market. The competition is intense as we have seen many phones like Asus Zenfone 5Z offering some top-of-the-line specs at a pretty aggressive price point.
Whereas, brands like Apple with its popular iPhone X has changed the design of a smartphone. Then we have brands like Vivo that brought new innovation and truly bezel-less display. The year 2018 saw Xiaomi bringing loads of smartphones that were hard to beat by its competition.
So, with this sea of options, it becomes a difficult task to select a smartphone that is best suited for you. But you need not worry! We have handpicked the best smartphones that give some top-of-the-line performance in almost every department under different price segments. So, without further ado, here is the list of the top 5 smartphones available in India.
Starting with Apple latest innovation, the iPhone X. It is safe to say that this smartphone alone changed the whole smartphone industry with its fullscreen display, but with a notch. After iPhone X, we have seen manufacturers dynamically shifting to this new design language. And this result is that you will find the notch in different price ranges ranging from budget to premium flagship devices.
The Apple iPhone X is a first in many departments. The phone features a new TrueDepth Camera, which the company claims is used to map user’s face and unlock it using FaceID, thus removing the fingerprint sensor from the phone. This was a bold move and recently we saw phones like Xiaomi Mi 8 and Oppo Find X blatantly copying this feature.
Phone X features a bezel-less display and sports a 5.8-inch Super Retina Display, which is made out of OLED screen. The screen comes with a resolution of 2436 x 1125 pixels and has a Pixel density of 458ppi. The new iPhone X is powered by the latest A11 Bionic chip with a neural engine, which the company helps improve machine learning algorithm. The neural engine comes with a dual-core processor.
The device sports a dual-camera setup at the back, which is aligned vertically. The dual rear cameras come with a combination of 12-megapixel wide angle lens with Aperture f/1.8 and 12-megapixel telephoto lens with aperture f/2.4 with both the Sensors support Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS). Overall, with its premium design, smooth experience and an expensive price tag, the Apple iPhone X is probably one of the best smartphones you buy right now.
On one hand, where multiple manufacturers were copying Apple iPhone X design, Samsung stood out of the crowd and retained its Infinity Display with the latest Samsung Galaxy S9+ and Galaxy S9. The former comes with more features, better display etc that’s why we have taken this one in the top 5 list.
This is the first device in Galaxy S-series that comes loaded with a dual-camera setup at the back. The rear comes with a combination of two 12-megapixel sensors with one of them featuring variable aperture along with a secondary sensor with f/2.4 aperture. Both the sensors present in Galaxy S9+ feature optical image stabilization (OIS) and both of them come loaded with laser and Dual Pixel autofocus. For the front, there is an 8-megapixel camera with f/1.7 aperture.
The smartphone comes loaded with a 6.2-inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Infinity Display with an aspect ratio of 18:5:9. The Indian units of the Galaxy S9+ are powered by Exynos 9810 SoC, which is based on 10nm process clocked at 2.9GHz. The Galaxy S9+ support three different biometric authentication options – iris, fingerprint, and facial recognition. On the battery front, you get a 3500mAh battery with wireless charging. That said, the phone is available approx. Rs 60,000 on the online platforms, which makes it a pretty sweet deal.
Asus has drastically changed its strategy for the Indian market. The company recently introduced the most affordable smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Processor with its Zenfone 5Z. The smartphone comes loaded with pretty insane specifications and it is priced quite aggressively.
The device comes with a price tag of Rs 29,999 for the 6GB RAM with 64GB storage variant, Rs 32,999 for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage option and Rs 36,999 for the 8GB RAM with a 256GB storage option. In our review, we found out that the phone was able to give some solid performance and the camera took some exceptional shots as well. You check the camera samples here.
The Asus Zenfone 5Z (ZS620KL) has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ display with a 19:9 aspect ratio and a screen resolution of 1080 x 2246 pixels. It runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) with ZenUI 5.0 which is said to be upgradable to Android P. The company has introduced a host of interesting AI features like AI Boost, Smart screen, AI ringtone and more that makes it a really interesting piece of technology. It comes with 3300 mAh battery with ASUS BoostMaster Fast charging and AI charging.
Vivo latest flagship device comes loaded with a host of interesting features. The major highlight of the Vivo Nex phone is its pop-up selfie camera that slides up and down whenever required. Another major highlight of this smartphone is the under-display fingerprint sensor. The Vivo NEX also features a third generation in-screen fingerprint scanner which the company claims to 10 per cent quicker to respond with 50 per cent better precision than its preceding technology.
The phone features a 6.59-inch Super AMOLED Ultra FullView “Zero Screen” display with a resolution of 2,316 x 1,080 pixels and a screen-to-body-ratio of 91.24 per cent. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Chipset with an Adreno 630 GPU and 8GB RAM with 128GB internal storage. You can check the picture gallery of Vivo NEX here.
On the imaging front, there’s a Sony IMX363 12-megapixel sensor with an aperture of f/1.8, 4-axis optical image stabilization and 1.4μm pixel size which is coupled with a secondary 5-megapixel lens of f/2.4 aperture. The pop-up front camera is of 8-megapixel resolution and supports AI scene detection. It runs on the latest Android 8.1 Oreo with the company’s Funtouch OS 4.0 on top and a 4,000mAh battery which supports 22.5-watt quick charging. Overall, with a price tag of Rs 44,990, the smartphone is a pretty interesting proposition to consider.
he first in this list is the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Pro. The phone comes in two variant, 4GB + 64GB for Rs 14,999 and 6GB + 64GB for Rs 16,999. That said, you get some really good specifications with this smartphone. There is a 5.99-inch Full HD+ display with a screen resolution of 2160 x 1080 pixels, a colour contrast ratio of 1500:1 and 450-nits brightness. In our review, we found out that the Redmi Note 5 Pro offers impressive performance and you can thank the Snapdragon 636 processor for that.
The camera of this smartphone is good as well. The phone is backed by a dual-camera setup, making it first smartphone under Redmi series to feature dual rear cameras. The phone features 12-megapixel primary lens with 1.25-micron pixel and f/2.2 aperture along with a 5-megapixel secondary sensor with 1.12-micron pixel and f/2.0 aperture.
For the front, there is a 20-megapixel camera with Sony IMX376 sensor, LED flash and Beautify 4.0. The bokeh effects are quite natural in this smartphone and the selfie camera simply seizes to impress us. This coupled with 4000mAh battery, which can easily last one full day, the Redmi Note 5 Pro can be considered as one good option.