You might have already come across the India-China border skirmishes in the news and the related boycott China products slogans trending across the social media.

Can we completely boycott Chinese products? The honest answer is No. All if not most of the electronics products in the market comes with components sourced from China. This is true even with the products manufactured under the Make in India program.

However, there are smartphones from brands originating from countries outside China free of Chinese bloatwares and trackers available in the market.

In this article, we’ll suggest the nine best non-Chinese smartphones that you can get your hands on right now!

1. Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Best Android Smartphone

• Best in class performance
• Excellent camera output quality
• Long-lasting battery life

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The Galaxy S20 Ultra is one of the latest 2020 flagship smartphones from Samsung which was introduced recently in the Indian market.

This device was one of the most anticipated releases of the year, and we all can admit that the device has lived up to its expectations.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra has been manufactured with the utmost precision and care to deliver the best product in terms of hardware as well as software to the end-users.

The glass back is flat except for the square hub camera hardware. It is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass to prevent accidental scratches.

The aluminium railing around the smartphone houses the regular power and volume rocker buttons.

The Bixby button on this device can be reprogrammed to initialize action of your choice.

Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra scores a 9/10 in terms of build quality and design.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra features one of the best displays available on a mobile device currently on sale in the market.

This 6.9-inch 120Hz dynamic AMOLED display has curved edges which seamlessly integrate with the rest of the shell.

This is a punch-hole display where the camera hole is precisely cut out on the screen instead of housing them on a notch.

This is an HDR10+ certified display with excellent colour and contrast levels matching some of the high-end televisions in the market.

The wider 20:9 aspect ratio makes this display apt for immersive media consumption and gaming.

Processor and Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra features the latest 8nm Exynos 990 octa-core SoC clocked at 2.73GHz.

This Exynos 990 is a 5G enabled SoC and provides excellent performance across the spectrum – be it gaming or intense multitasking.

But the thing to note here is that except in the Asia Pacific, the S20 variants come with Qualcomm chips inside, which performs way better than its Exynos counterparts.

The base variant of S20 Ultra has 12GB of RAM and comes with 128GB of high-speed UFS 3.1 storage.

With the power of the latest Android 10 Q and One UI 2.0, this phone feels so smooth and quick for all kinds of tasks you throw at it.

Camera

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra features a quadruple rear camera setup involving a 108MP primary sensor with OIS, a 48MP periscope telephoto lens with 4x optical zoom with OIS and a 12MP ultrawide sensor along with a 0.3MP time of flight sensor for depth data.

This camera setup delivers excellent quality stills and videos with amazing details and excellent colour accuracy.

At the front, a 40 MP sensor runs the show when it comes to selfies and video calling.

The camera on the S20 Ultra is one of the best in business, both in terms of photo and video quality.

Low light photography has been improved significantly. Samsung also advertises a 10x hybrid optic zoom for long-distance photography.

The Samsung S20 Ultra is one of the very few smartphones which support video recording with 8K@24fps.

Miscellaneous

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra packs in an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor beneath the display.

This sensor is much more accurate and foul proof than the conventional optical in-display fingerprint scanners found on other smartphones with in-display fingerprints.

Battery Life

This premium Android smartphone is powered by a 5000 mAh Li-ion battery with fast wired and wireless charging capability.

This battery is rated to last over two days of light usage and a single day of heavy use.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is one of the most complete packages in terms of features and builds quality you can get in the market right now.

2. Apple iPhone 12 Pro

Best iOS Smartphone

• Gorgeous OLED display
• State of the art camera system
• One day battery life

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The iPhone 12 Pro is the latest iteration of the much-awaited iPhone refreshes this year. 

This all-new iPhone has a refreshed design, improved internal hardware and much more when compared with the iPhone 11 Pro of the yesteryear.

Design and Build Quality

The iPhone 12 Pro has a glass sandwich design with a stainless steel frame in the middle for rigid structural integrity.

This smartphone from Apple looks more like the iPhone 5 series with its slab design featuring sharp corners in comparison to the rounded iPhones of the past.

However, this unique design is very striking and delivers one of a kind premium in-hand feel.

The front display has a special glass + sapphire coating which the company makes it more scratch and shatter-resistant but this is yet to be tested. 

The special oleophobic coating on top of the glass also helps in keeping water and sweat away as well.

The Apple iPhone 12 Pro features a MagSafe magnetic charging arrangement in the rear which makes it easy to wirelessly charge and to attach accessories such as a wallet behind the back.

Note that Apple had taken a controversial decision this year not to include a charger in the box, so there is none to talk about.

This phone feels very sturdy in hand and the sharper edges feel a bit weird at first, to be honest. 

The button placements and the tactile feedback remains the same as usual and is very comfortable to use with.

Display

The iPhone 12 Pro features almost the same display as that of the iPhone 11 pro. This 6.1-inch super XDR OLED display has a resolution of 1170 x 2532 pixels with an impressive 460ppi.

This panel is very sharp and colour accurate and supports Apple True tone colour technology. 

It has ample brightness to be used both indoors and outdoors without any legibility issues.

However, one major feature lacking with this otherwise perfect display is the lack of high refresh rate.

This OLED display has a standard 60Hz refresh rate when compared with the 120Hz and 144Hz displays of the Android smartphones out there. 

Processor and Performance

The Apple iPhone 12 Pro features the homegrown Apple A14 Bionic Hexa core SoC which is arguably the most powerful mobile processor currently in the market.

Thanks to the 6GB RAM and 128GB high-speed internal storage onboard, the Apple iPhone 12 Pro runs buttery smooth with apps and games as well as with multitasking.

The new iOS 14.1 OS works well in tandem with the hardware inside to deliver excellent everyday performance without consuming too much power.

Camera

This smartphone from Apple packs a triple rear camera module with three 12MP sensors – a primary wide-angle lens, a telephoto lens with 2x optical zoom and an ultra-wide lens.

Both these primary and ultrawide lenses have Optical Image Stabilization (OIS). The quality of images and videos that comes out of these lenses are very pleasing and have natural colours and a wide dynamic range.

The videos are stabilized and can shoot up to 4K at 60fps.

The front camera consists of a 12MP sensor which delivers high-quality selfies and portrait mode snaps.

The overall image and video output from these cameras are top-notch and possibly one of the best among smartphone cameras these days.

In addition to these, there is a LiDAR sensor on the back to improve low light portrait photography and for AR( Artificial Reality) usage. 

Battery Life

The iPhone 12 Pro is powered by a relatively smaller 2815mAh Li-Po battery that will give you a screen on time of 9+ hours with moderate to heavy usage.

This device supports 20W regular charging and 15W Qi wireless fast charging.

Apple claims that the battery inside will get charged up to 50% within 30 minutes. 

Verdict

If you are an Apple fan or if the budget isn’t an issue, the Apple 12 Pro is indeed one of the best smartphones you can get your hands on right now in the Indian market.

3. Samsung Galaxy S20 FE

Premium Mid-Range Smartphone

• Gorgeous 120Hz OLED display
• Decent battery life
• Powerful octa-core SoC

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The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is the trimmed down version of the popular S20 flagship smartphone.

Samsung has cut corners here and there to reduce the final price but almost all the marquee features have been retained with this device which retails for just Rs.44,999 in the Indian market.

Design and Build Quality

This premium mid-range smartphone has a glass front, plastic back design with an aluminium frame in between.

The use of plastic back may be a question mark for many, but we liked this matte finish back.

The use of plastic also helped Samsung to cut down the overall weight of this device to 190g. 

The overall fit and finish of this smartphone remain top-notch, as expected from a Samsung smartphone. 

However, the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack is still one thing we can’t get over that easily.

This device comes with a hybrid SIM slot meaning you can either use two SIM cards or a SIM and an SD card for memory expansion but not both. 

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE comes with IP68 dust and water resistance, making it very usable outdoors no matter the weather condition.

Display

Samsung is known for their OLED displays worldwide. The Galaxy S20 FE features a 6.5-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels.

This is a 120Hz refresh rate panel with buttery smooth visuals and UI transitions.

Thanks to a small single punch hole camera cut out in the top, this panel has an impressive 84.8% screen to body ratio with minimal bezels, delivering an immersive media consumption experience. 

This 407ppi display is plenty of sharp and clean with visuals and texts. 

Thanks to the OLED technology, the deep blacks and the vivid, punchy colours with excellent contrast ratio makes up for a very pleasing visual experience. 

With games supporting high refresh rate playback, this 120Hz panel performs the best. 

Processor and Performance

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is powered by the flagship Exynos octa-core processor with comparable performance as that of the Snapdragon flagship SoCs.

With 8GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage onboard, the S20 FE delivers exceptional performance when it comes to dealing with apps as well as the modern games.

This processor breaks no sweat when dealing with resource-intensive apps multitasking in the background. 

To be honest, most of the premium mid-range, flagship smartphones offer an almost similar level of performance, thanks to the SoCs inside getting powerful and cheaper at the same time. 

Camera

The Galaxy S20 FE from Samsung features a triple rear camera consisting of 12MP primary camera, an 8MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide sensor. 

Out of this 12MP primary and the 8MP telephoto lens comes with OIS to reduce shakes and jitters while capturing photos and recording videos. 

The quality of photos and videos from these cameras turns out to be with ample details and sharpness as well as colour accuracy. 

Speaking of the video, this device can record 4K videos at 60fps.

In the front, the Samsung S20 FE has a 32MP single selfie camera with HDR and gyro EIS support. 

Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy S20 FE is powered by a 4500mAh Li-Po battery that is supposed to last a day even with heavy usage at 120Hz screen refresh rate.

This device supports 25W fast charging which will juice up the battery fairly quickly.
There is also support for 15W wireless charging and 4.5W reverse wireless charging for topping up devices such as TWS earbuds.

4. Google Pixel 4a

Stock Android Smartphone

• Gorgeous FHD+ AMOLED display 
• Excellent camera output quality
• One day battery life

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The Google Pixel 4a was launched in the International market almost over a year ago with a lot of excitement behind it.

This smartphone has been officially launched in India just recently ironically following the latest Pixel 5 launch overseas. 

Priced at Rs.29,990, is the Pixel 4a still a winner in the sub. Rs.30,000 price segment? Let’s check out.

Design and Build Quality

The Pixel 4a has the most minimal designs we have ever seen on a premium mid-range smartphone to date. 

The unibody plastic construction weighs just 143g and feels extremely lightweight and easy to use.

The fit and finish as expected from Google are top-notch but obviously, the extensive use of plastic makes the overall structure a tad bit rigid than those devices with metal frame and back.

The power button and the volume rockers are located on the right side of the frame and offer excellent tactile feedback to the presses. 

There is a 3.5mm headphone jack up top for wired audio connectivity while the USB type C charging port and the loudspeaker can be found in the bottom. 

This device comes with a single nano-SIM slot and with the help of an e-SIM you can use two numbers at the same time. 

Even though this smartphone comes with an AMOLED display, Google has resorted to the tried and tested physical fingerprint scanner on the backside. 

Display

As we mentioned above, the Pixel 4a by Google features a 5.81-inch FHD+ AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.

This 19.5:9 aspect ratio display comes with a punch-hole camera towards the left side and has a screen to body ratio of 83.3%.

With a relatively smaller display and FHD+ resolution, this panel has an impressive ~443ppi pixel density with sharp and clean visuals and text reproduction. 

Thanks to the OLED technology, the colours look bright and vivid and the dynamic range remains impressive as well.

If you are a media consumption enthusiast, you will love this panel for its colour accuracy and sharpness. 

Do note that this is a standard 60Hz refresh panel, unlike the other smartphones in its price segment with high refresh rates. 

Processor and Performance 

The Google Pixel 4a is very modest when it comes to the processor firepower. 

Even though this device retails around Rs.30,000 in India, it features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G octa-core processor found on devices almost half the price. 

This octa-core processor coupled with 6GB RAM and 128GB of UFS2.1 storage runs the stock Android 10.0 OS very well without any lags or stutters.

Even gaming feels smooth and lags free but during multitasking with resource-heavy applications running in the background, a few occasional stutters are happening in between.

This device doesn’t come with an SD card slot, so remember 128GB is all you get in terms of storage. 

Camera

This is one area where Google is possibly the best in terms of hardware as well as software.

The Pixel 4a features a single 12.2MP sensor assisted with a flash in the rear. Thanks to the complex image processing algorithms running in the background, the image and video output from this single-camera put to shame those devices with triple and quad cameras.

The images turn out to be very colour accurate, detailed and with excellent dynamic range. 

Even the low light photos come out vivid and bright and the bokeh mode photos have excellent edge detection simulating artificial depth effect without a dedicated sensor. 

Thanks to the OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), the videos and still photos remain largely shake free.

In the front, there is a single 8MP sensor with auto HDR capability for selfie shots with good dynamic range and white balance. 

Battery Life

The Google Pixel 4a is powered by a relatively smaller 3140mAh Li-Po battery. This will last you for a day comfortably with moderate to heavy usage.

This smartphone supports 18W fast charging and the battery gets juiced up pretty quickly as well.

Verdict

If you want a smartphone with pure stock Android, excellent camera quality and decent everyday performance, the Pixel 4a is a great choice for a budget under Rs.30,000.

5. Samsung Galaxy M51

Smartphone with Best Battery Life

• Powerful Snapdragon 730G processor
• Long-lasting 7000mAh battery
• Vivid and punchy sAMOLED Plus display

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Samsung M series devices are online exclusive smartphones that are priced aggressively to compete with the Redmi and Realme devices in the market.

The all-new Galaxy M51 has many firsts in the segment and for the first time features a Qualcomm processor instead of the homebrew Exynos chipset.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy M51 comes with a glass front and plastic back, which is not uncommon for smartphones in this price range.

The plastic back on this device looks and feels similar to the glass, but makes it lightweight and less brittle in case of an accidental fall.

This smartphone from Samsung weighs just 213g, and considering the massive 7000mAh battery inside this device is surprisingly lightweight.

The single speaker, USB type C charging port and the 3.5mm headphone jack is present in the bottom portion of the phone while the right side has the fingerprint sensor embedded into the power button and the volume rockers on top.

The Samsung Galaxy M51 features a 2+1 SIM configuration meaning you can insert two SIM cards and a dedicated SD card for storage expansion. 

Display

The Samsung Galaxy M51 boasts of a 6.7-inch FHD+ sAMOLED Plus display with an effective resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.

The company claims that the sAMOLED Plus panel is thinner and lighter than the conventional AMOLED panels found on other M series devices from the past.

This display is protected by the Corning gorilla glass 3 to prevent accidental scratches.

With a punch-hole camera upfront, this display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio display has a pixel density of 385ppi.

The colours look very vivid and punchy and the contrast levels, being an OLED display is outstanding.

Speaking of the brightness levels, this display gets adequately bright indoors as well outdoors.

Processor and Performance

As we mentioned earlier, Samsung has decided to go the Qualcomm route with this device.

The Samsung Galaxy M51 is powered by the Snapdragon 730G octa-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz and is assisted by the Adreno 618 GPU.

The 730G is one of the power-efficient processors with exceptional performance metrics in this price segment.

Together with the 6GB RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage, this smartphone will deliver buttery smooth performance no matter what you throw at it. 

The One UI2.0 on top of Android 10 is optimized very well not to create any sort of performance bottlenecks whatsoever.

Camera

This premium mid-range smartphone comes with a quad rear camera setup with a primary 64MP Sony sensor accompanied by 12MP ultra-wide, 5MP macro and 5MP depth-sensing unit.

The images and videos that come out of these cameras look very rich in details and colour accurate. 

You can record 4K videos at 30fps with the rear camera while the front camera maxes out at 1080p @ 30fps.

The front camera is a 32MP shooter with HDR support and an aperture size of f/2.0 for good daylight selfies and decent low light photos.

Battery Life

Samsung Galaxy M51 is one of them, perhaps the only 7000mAh battery-powered smartphone available in India at present.

This monstrous battery helps this smartphone to last easily for two days even with heavy usage. 

Samsung has also added support for reverse charging. With this feature, you can use the M51 to charge other devices in the vicinity via the supplied USB type C cable.

The company has also included a 25W fast charger in the box which will completely juice up this battery from zero to hundred within two hours.

Verdict

The Samsung M51 is one of a kind smartphone for those who want a battery monster device without any compromise on performance.

The AMOLED display and the non-Chinese brand factor is also a big factor worth considering while purchasing this device.

6. Samsung Galaxy M31s

Feature-rich Smartphone

• Vivid and bright AMOLED display
• 6000mAh long-lasting battery
• Capable cameras

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The galaxy M31s is one of the latest mid-range online-only M series android smartphones from Samsung to take on the competition from the likes of Xiaomi and Realme.

The Samsung Galaxy M31s is a device like nothing else from the past, especially the previously ridiculously overpriced A series phones.

It is loaded with features which stack well against its competition for the price tag at which the phone retails.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy M31s has a polycarbonate outer shell with a textured finish that looks elegant.

The phone feels very light in hand considering the battery size and thanks to its rounded corners, it feels very lightweight and easy to hold in one hand.

This phone comes with minimal bezels on all four sides and offers an immersive visual experience with its notch display.

Overall the quality of construction is very good and is on par with its competitors.

Display

The Samsung Galaxy M31s features a 6.5-inch super AMOLED display with an infinity U notch at the top.

This full HD+ display has a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and has a pixel density of about 405 ppi which renders the screen very sharp and clear output.

Samsung is the best OLED manufacturer in the world and the quality of this AMOLED display justifies that claims effortlessly.

This smartphone has an 86.1% screen to body ratio and supports L1 wide wine certification which lets you watch online streaming services in full HD resolution.

Processor and Performance

The Galaxy M31s is powered by the Samsung Exynos 9611 octa-core processor supplemented by the Mali-G72 GPU.

With the integrated 6GB LPDDRX RAM and 128GB UFS 2.1 storage, this device performs excellent when it comes to multitasking and gaming.

Whether it be PUBG or Fortnite, this budget Android smartphone from Samsung will let you play it in full HD resolution without any dropped frames or lags.

The latest Android 10.0 Q OS with Samsung’s One UI 2.0 on top is very well optimized for performance improvements when compared to the previous iterations.

Camera

This smartphone comes with a quad-camera setup in the rear. Yes, a quad camera under sub. Rs.20,000, that too from Samsung.

The primary camera on the rear is a 64MP shooter with an aperture size of f/1.8 for better low light performance.

The secondary sensor is a 12MP ultrawide shooter, which is one of a kind in this price bracket.

The third one is a 5MP depth sensor for high-quality portrait and bokeh mode photos followed by a 5MP macro mode sensor for closeup photography.

These cameras deliver detailed and colour accurate stills and videos in good lighting conditions.

The front camera is a 32MP sensor with HDR support for wide-angle selfie shots.

Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy M31s is powered by a whopping 6000mAh Li-ion battery which is rated to last for up to two days of heavy usage.

Samsung does include a 25W fast charger in the box which will let you charge this device in under 2 hours.

Verdict

The Samsung Galaxy M31s is the most feature-packed Android smartphone with the best battery life, priced under Rs.20,000.

With its AMOLED display, triple camera setup and the 6000mAh battery, this smartphone is difficult to pass up in this price bracket.

7. Samsung Galaxy F41

Budget Camera Centric Smartphone

• Gorgeous FHD+ OLED display
• Capable 64MP rear camera module
• Long-lasting battery life

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Samsung Galaxy F41 is the newest smartphone offering from the South Korean multinational conglomerate in the budget price segment in India.

Samsung markets this sub. Rs.15,000 smartphone as a camera-centric device targeting photography enthusiasts on a shoestring budget.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy F41 looks and feels almost similar to many other M series models that we had reviewed on our site in the past.

The plastic back with glossy finish has been retained here as well to cut the cost as well as reduce the overall weight of the device.

The power button and volume rockers are located on the right side of the plastic frame. These buttons are very tactile and offer responsive feedback.

The physical fingerprint scanner is located on the rear section beside the rectangular-shaped camera module.

This scanner is very accurate and feels much faster to lock and unlock the device.

As with any other modern device, the Galaxy F41 features a USB Type C port for charging and data transfer as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack for wired audio connectivity.

Display

Samsung is known for its quality OLED panels in the budget smartphone segment which very few other smartphone OEM dare to offer.

The Galaxy F41 features a 6.41-inch FHD+ sAMOLED display with a native resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels.

This is a 19.5:9 aspect ratio panel with an infinity U shaped notch up top.

With an impressive pixel density of 403ppi, this OLED panel has inky deep blacks, vivid and bright colours and excellent overall dynamic range.

This display gets quite bright at 420nits which makes it quite easier to use even outdoors under direct sunlight.

Processor and Performance

This is one area where the Galaxy F41 disappointed us.

This smartphone from Samsung still packs the older Exynos 9611 processor that we have seen in the likes of M21 and M31.

This octa-core processor works just fine for everyday usage but lags a bit when it comes to intense gaming.

We wish Samsung had gone with a newer version of an Exynos chip or even a comparable Qualcomm equivalent.

The base variant of this device comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of UFS 2.1 storage.

This is very much enough for the lag-free experience even with multitasking.

There is a dedicated SD card slot for increasing the storage further.

Camera

As we mentioned above, the Samsung Galaxy F41 features a triple rear camera setup.

The primary camera is a 64MP sensor with an aperture size of f/1.8 with PDAF support.

Assisting this sensor is the 8MP ultrawide sensor and 5MP depth sensor for wide-angle shots and portrait mode bokeh clicks.

The quality of pictures comes out detailed and sharp in favourable lighting conditions.

The colours look natural and vivid.

Speaking of video, the F41 supports 4K and FHD video recording with decent frame rates.

The front camera is a 32MP shooter with HDR support for excellent quality selfie shots.

Nighttime photos are a hit and miss depending upon the lighting and the choice of the lens.

Battery Life

The Samsung Galaxy F41 is powered by a 6000mAh Li-Po battery that is rated to last for a day and a half with heavy usage.

You can expect a screen on time of anywhere from 8-10 hours with this device.

Samsung has included a 15W fast charger in the box that juices up this device within 2.30 hours from zero to a hundred per cent.

Verdict

If you want a capable non-Chinese smartphone with capable hardware, a gorgeous OLED display and long-lasting battery life, the F41 is worth checking out.

The camera module in the rear can take excellent quality day time photos and videos which make this smartphone further appealing to the budget-conscious customers.

8. Samsung Galaxy M01

Best Budget Smartphone

• Long-lasting 4000mAh battery
• Intuitive One UI 2.0
• Dedicated SD card slot

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Samsung has been consistently outnumbered in sales of budget segment smartphones by Xiaomi for a while now.

This was mainly because the Samsung budget phones were specced abysmally and the price for the same was significantly higher than its Chinese counterparts in the segment.

Samsung tries to bridge this gap by introducing the affordable yet feature-rich M series smartphone of which the M01 is the entry-level offering.

Design and Build Quality

The Samsung Galaxy M01 is made from a polycarbonate plastic shell with a glossy finish which looks decent for the price tag it carries.

The build quality seems quite OK for the price and matches the competition.

The rounded corners and edges help this phone to be easily held in the hand and aides better one-hand usability.

The rear side of the phone houses the dual cameras assisted with an LED flash.

The Galaxy M01 comes with a micro-USB port for charging and data syncing and has a 3.5mm jack for plugging in earphones and headphones.

Display

This budget entry-level smartphone has a 5.7-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels.

The company fondly calls this display as an infinity V display, thanks to the waterdrop notch in the front.

The 19:9 display has a screen to body ratio of 77% and comes with a pixel density of around 295 ppi.

The display is sufficiently bright and the colours look vivid for the price.

Processor and Performance

The Samsung Galaxy M01 packs in a Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 chipset clocked at 2.0GHz.

This processor coupled with 3GB of RAM runs all the casual applications with relative ease and no stutters.

However, the limited RAM might exhibit lags if you are planning to heavily multitask or play memory-intensive games on this device.

Apart from the 32GB internal storage, this device comes with a dedicated SD card slot which can take cards up to 128GB.

Connectivity

This dual SIM budget Android smartphones have two SIM slots and support dual VoLTE.

Camera

This smartphone has a 13MP + 2MP rear camera setup of which the 2MP is a depth sensor which helps you take portrait mode shots.

The front 5MP shooter does its job in well-lit conditions to say the best.

Battery Life

Powering the Samsung Galaxy M01 is a 4000mAh Li-Po battery which is rated to last for two days worth of moderate to heavy usage.

Thanks to the non-full-HD display, the battery life on this device is quite impressive.

Verdict

If you are in search of a branded budget smartphone with unmatched reliability, the Samsung Galaxy M01 is one of the best phones available under Rs.10,000.

9. Nokia 5.3

Honourable Mention

• Good battery life
• Decent everyday performance
• Capable quad-rear cameras

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Nokia isn’t the old Nokia anymore. With HMD making the Nokia phones rather than the Microsoft, they’ve decided to go en route Android.

The Nokia 5.3 is a stock Android smartphone priced well under Rs.15,000 that bears the Android One tag – making this a suitable candidate for those who prefer assured future software support.

Design and Build Quality

The Nokia 5.3 has a glass front and plastic back design this time, instead of the signature aluminium unibody chassis of the yesteryear devices. 

The Finnish design exudes confidence and stands on par with the design of any other smartphone available at this price range.

The Nokia 5.3 comes with an edge to edge display that is protected by 2.5D curved Gorilla Glass 3 that blends in with the chassis seamlessly.

The backside of the chassis is adorned by a unique rounded quad-camera module with a centrally located flash and a fingerprint scanner beneath.

The power button and the volume rockers are situated on the right side of the plastic frame. The notification LED is tucked under the power button, which is a wise decision as it is easily visible when we keep the phone down, in its resting position.

Nokia has also added a dedicated Google voice assistant button, which is a nice gesture and an essential one considering the phone comes with the Android one tag. 

Yes – the charging port is USB type C and not the outdated micro USB port as we had seen with some Nokia devices in the past.

Processor and Performance

The Nokia 5.3is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC, a yesteryear processor which was one of the mid-range champions when it comes to the efficient mix of performance and battery life.

To be honest, there are other smartphones in the same price category with much more powerful processors out there.

With 4GB high-speed LPDDR RAM onboard, this device can blaze through apps and can handle multitasking without any sort of lags or stutters.

The Adreno 610 GPU inside lets you play high-end games such as COD mobile and Fortnite, but at low graphics settings.

The built-in 64GB ROM provides you with a sufficient starting point to store all your data – be it movies or songs on the phone offline, without the fear of running out of memory too soon.

This device also comes with a dedicated SD card slot which is another luxury that we are used not to expect from budget smartphones nowadays.

Display

The Nokia 5.3 features a 6.55-inch HD+ display with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels.

This notched display has a 20:9 aspect ratio and has a pixel density of around 268 ppi.

The colours appear vivid and the contrast levels despite being an LCD is excellent. The texts appear sharp for the normal untrained and clear so do the images.

This being an IPS LCD, the viewing angles are great and there is no colour shift when viewed from extreme angles as well.

However, we feel that Nokia should have gone with an FHD display instead of a 720p one at this price range. 

Camera

The Nokia 5.3 comes with a quad rear camera setup which consists of a 13MP primary sensor accompanied by a 5MP ultra-wide sensor, 2MP macro mode shooter and a 2MP depth-sensing unit for accurate edge detection and portrait mode photos.

On the front, there is an 8MP shooter which has autofocus capabilities and an aperture size of f/2.0.

The pictures from both the front and rear cameras come out detailed and colourful in daylight conditions but suffer from oversharpening in photos shot at low light environments.

When it comes to the video, this phone does support capturing up to 4K videos at 30fps.

Battery Life

The Nokia 5.3 is powered by a non-removable 4000 mAh Li-ion battery which easily lasts over a day of moderate to heavy usage.

The Snapdragonv665 is very much an energy-efficient processor and combined with the stock Android 10.0 Q OS running on this smartphone, energy consumption is very minimal when sitting idle.

However, Nokia has only included a regular 10W charger with this phone and considering the price, this is not just disappointing but outright atrocious.

Verdict

For those who love Nokia, this device is one of the best devices that the company has launched this year.

Under AndroidmOne programme, promised future updates up to two years will make this device one of the most desirable gadgets to own in its price segment.

This concludes our article for the nine best non-Chinese smartphones available for you to purchase in the Indian market.

At the time of writing this article, many smartphones including the ones from Nokia are either out of stock or unavailable due to the logistics issues from COVID 19 crisis.

Check out this article frequently to get the updated list as soon as they get back on stock.

If you have any doubts or queries regarding this article, let us know in the comment section below.

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