Honor has announced its new budget smartphones from the Honor 7 series, the Honor 7A and Honor 7C in India today. Huawei’s sub-brand has brought these two new smartphones at a competitive price starting at Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999 respectively with the aim to take on popular Chinese OEMs, Xiaomi and Oppo’s latest smartphones in the budget segment. Both the Honor 7A and Honor 7C shares quite similar design, dual camera setup, same front camera resolution and battery capacity. What differs is the screen size and SoC underneath their hood. The Honor 7A features a 5.7-inch HD+ (1440 x 720 pixel resolution) IPS display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. Meanwhile the Honor 7C sports a slightly bigger 5.99-inch IPS LCD screen with similar pixel resolution and aspect ratio. The Honor 7A carries a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset paired with 3GB RAM while the Honor 7C packs the mid-tier Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC paired with either 3GB RAM or 4GB RAM. Both the smartphones offer dual camera array of 13MP+2MP at the back and an 8MP front-facing camera with soft selfie light. There’s EMUI 8.0 based Android Oreo, Face Unlock feature and industry standard 3000mAh battery. While the specification sheet of both the Honor 7A and Honor 7C looks quite decent at least on paper, there are some alternatives available in the budget segment with features at an affordable price tag. We have handpicked some of the best smartphones that can be grabbed for a price less than Rs 12,000 (the price of the 4GB RAM variant of the Honor 7C). Let's take a look. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 (Rs 9,999) When it comes to a smartphone with good build quality, decent display and durable battery life, you just can’t scorn the popular Chinese brand Xiaomi which is known for offering some of the best handsets in the affordable segment. The company’s recent budget smartphone, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 provides some of the trendy features, for instance, a tall 5.99-inch (2160 x 1080 pixel resolution) 18:9 display. The phone has Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 processor fabricated on 14nm process capable enough to handle daily tasks and outrun devices in the budget segment. The metal unibody smartphone runs Android Nougat OS and carries a huge 4000mAh battery. As for the optics, the phone pegs a 12MP primary camera sensor and a 5MP camera sensor up front. You can purchase the Redmi Note 5 3GB RAM/32GB storage model at a price of Rs 9,999. Realme 1 (Rs 8,990) If you prefer style along with performance, Oppo’s newly introduced Realme 1 can be a good pick. The Realme 1 features an elegant design with fibre-glass body and glossy diamond effect on the rear side. The Oppo Realme 1 features an elongated 6-inch full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixel resolution) display with 18:9 aspect ratio. Powering the phone is Helio P60 octa-core processor clocked at 2GHz. The smartphone features a 13MP primary camera with LED flash. Up front, it has an 8MP camera that incorporates AI Beauty 2.0 technology offering 296-point facial recognition. The phone further offers AR stickers available both on the front and rear optics. The Realme runs ColorOS 5.0 based Android 8.1 Oreo and packs 3410mAh battery. The phone doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor but supports Face Unlock feature. The Realme 1 will be available for purchase from May 25 on Amazon India. You can grab the Realme 1 3GB RAM/32GB storage model for a price of Rs 8,990. Honor 9 Lite (Rs 10,999) The Honor 9 Lite flaunts a glass back with mirror effect that gives a premium look to the phone. The ergonomic phone from Honor embraces a tall 5.65-inch full HD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by Huawei’s in-house Kirin 659 octa-core processor decent enough to handle day-to-day tasks. The Honor 10 offers dual camera setup of 13MP+2MP sensors, both at the back and up front. The rear dual cameras come with PDAF, and LED flash support. It runs custom EMUI 8.0 based Android Oreo right out of the box. Expandable storage support on the phone is up to 256GB using microSD card. The Honor 10 has a battery capacity of 3000mAh. The base variant of the Honor 10 that comes with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage can be purchased for a price of Rs 10,999. 10.or G (Rs 9,999) The 10.or G is one of the best smartphones you can consider for a price under Rs 10,000. The phone has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 CPU paired with Adreno 506 GPU capable enough to deliver fluid and lag-free experience. The additional benefit of picking the 10.or G is its stock Android UI that delivers clean and neat experience. In terms of display, the phone sports a 5.5-inch full HD screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. The phone is equipped with dual camera setup packing two 13MP sensors with f aperture and phase detection autofocus. The camera app offers bokeh effect along with 12 other customised shooting modes and multiple filters. Up front, it has a 16MP camera accompanied by an LED flash for enhanced selfies in low light. The 10.or G runs Android 7.1.2 Nougat which is upgradable to Android Oreo. This budget smartphone from Amazon is available for a price of Rs 9,999 for the 4GB RAM/64GB storage version. Moto G5s [4GB RAM] (Rs 9,999) The Moto G5s is another smartphone in the list that offers near stock clutter-free Android experience The phone runs Android Nougat OS. Another good aspect of the smartphone is that it comes with a 5MP front-facing camera with LED flash to deliver better low-light images. The Moto G5s houses a 5.2-inch full HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on top. The dual-SIM smartphone comes with a capable 16MP rear camera with f aperture and PDAF. Powering the phone is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 430 processor, same as the Honor 7A, which is decent enough to handle casual games and day to day tasks. The Moto G5s carries a 3000mAh battery that promises a day’s worth of usage for moderate use. The smartphone is listed online at a price of Rs 9,999 for the 4GB RAM/32GB model.
