Five best camera phones priced under Rs 30,000

Ten years ago, having a camera phone meant something different. First of all, very few phones were part of this category. Despite this, the quality of the camera was not very good. At the same time, today you will get many such phones for less than Rs 10,000 with which you can use the pictures taken without any hesitation.

But we would say that the quality of pictures taken from affordable phones does not matter. If you are willing to spend more money, you will get features like phase detection autofocus, slow motion video capture, 4K video recording and optical image stabilization. You can also buy a smartphone equipped with these features for less than Rs 30,000.

To make this list of the best camera phones, we have chosen only those phones which have been reviewed by us, so that we can say something about their camera quality with confidence. Apart from this, we have limited ourselves to phones launched this year only. It is not that better camera phones than these are not available in the market, but you will have to spend more money for it. These are the five phones available under Rs 30,000 which have the best camera quality.

1) Xiaomi Mi 5
Xiaomi Mi 5 is an affordable handset equipped with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. It has a 16 megapixel Sony IMX298 camera sensor. At the same time, the front camera is of 4 megapixels which is equipped with 2 micrometer pixel size. During testing, we found that in good lighting the image quality was bright, colorful and quite sharp. Auto HDR mode results were good. The quality isn’t the best in low light, but the results are still satisfactory.

We were particularly pleased with the camera’s 4K recording output. All the details were present in these. The front camera also goes in this phone’s favor. It is capable of taking excellent selfies even in low light. However, its camera is not the fastest in focusing and slow motion videos can only be shot in 720 pixel resolution.

2) OnePlus 3
It seems that the OnePlus 3 smartphone has hit the lottery for the Chinese startup company. Four months have passed since the launch of this smartphone. Despite this, the price has not been reduced by even Rs 1. Even in the e-commerce sale season, this phone was sold for Rs 27,999 only. This smartphone is a strong rival of Xiaomi Mi 5. It also has Snapdragon 820 chipset. And it comes with 6 GB RAM and Oxygen OS based on Android.

Sony IMX298 sensor has also been used in OnePlus 3 like Xiaomi Mi 5. The front camera sensor is 8 megapixels, although it has a smaller 1.4 micrometer pixel size compared to the Mi 5. We found in the review that its camera takes excellent photos outdoors in good light. The quality of the pictures was sharp and there was no lack of detail in them.

The phone is not as fast in focusing as expensive phones, but once the focus is locked it takes excellent pictures. Videos shot great in 4K resolution. The slow motion video mode also gave interesting results, although a frame rate of 240 frames per second would have been better. Since it is Google’s camera app, there is no problem in using it. The front camera also takes good pictures.

The weakness of the OnePlus 3 camera is low-light photography. Its output is a bit grainy. But overall it is a satisfactory smartphone for most people.

3) Honor 8
Honor 8 is the only phone in this list which comes with dual camera. Honor 8 achieves excellent picture quality due to the combination of color and monochrome lenses. Dual sensor is used for Bokeh effect. It is also possible to control it through the camera interface.

We found in the review, “Landscape and macro photos have good detail and good colors in natural light. The camera blurs a good amount of background but this can be improved with wide aperture mode. Apart from this, blurry The background can be adjusted using a slide near the focus. Photos taken in low light appear to lack detail but the quality is still decent.” Video output is also good, but the lack of ability to record videos in 4K resolution is a bummer.

4) Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL
The Zenfone 3 ZE552KL is the third generation handset of Asus’ Zenfone series. Asus’ Pixelmaster 3.0 features a combination of Sony IMX298 sensor, six-element Largan lens, f/2.0 aperture, subject tracking, OIS, and sapphire lens protection.

We found in the review that the pictures taken indoors turned out to be excellent. These had abundant detail and were accurate. The credit for this goes to the second generation laser autofocus technology. The camera also focuses quickly. Colors were vibrant in the outdoor shots. The lack of detail was not visible upon zooming. The performance of Zenfone 3 in low light is not very good.

The 8 megapixel front camera does not disappoint. It is capable of taking clean and well detailed pictures. If you are looking for an all-round handset with an attractive design then this is a good option.

5) Moto Z Play
Moto Z Play is the newest phone on this list. Through this, the company is trying to capitalize on the popularity of last year’s Moto X Play. This year’s version also has the same excellent battery life as last year. The credit for this goes to the large 3510 mAh battery with decent specifications.

Apart from this, the camera of Moto Z Play should also be praised. It has a 16-megapixel sensor equipped with phase detection and laser autofocus. According to our review, landscape shots in daylight come out with good detail. The same can be said about color reproduction. Continuous focusing works as expected, but objects very close to the sensor sometimes struggle to focus. Apart from this, there is not much noise in the photos even in low light. If you want a phone with great battery life along with camera quality then this is a good option.

So these are the five best smartphones whose cameras you can trust.