Best Mobile Phones Under ₹15,000 in India (June 2023)

The iQOO Z6 Lite 5G was the first smartphone in India to come with Qualcomm’s new entry-level chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. The iQOO Z6 Lite 5G also has a 120Hz refresh rate display, which is a feature that isn’t really mainstream in this range yet. The new Qualcomm chip with a highly responsive display makes the iQOO Z6 Lite 5G one of the best value for money options in this list. We also get a pretty decent set of cameras with the 50MP primary and 2MP macro dual rear camera setup. Furthermore, with 5,000mAh battery we get about a day and a half’s backup, but the 18W charging isn’t the fastest we have seen in this range.

One of the most recent budget smartphones in this list, the Samsung Galaxy M14 5G impressed us with the performance the device is able to achieve, thanks to the 5nm Exynos 1330 chipset. Paired with 6GB of RAM, the Exynos 1330 SoC helps the Galaxy M14 5G achieve an AnTuTu score of 411,340. The display on the Samsung Galaxy M14 5G is a PLS LCD display with 90Hz refresh rate. What makes the Samsung Galaxy M14 5G one of the top devices in our list of the best smartphones under ₹15,000, is the smartphone’s brilliant battery backup with the 6,000mAh battery that supports 25W fast charging, apart from the impressive performance figures and software.

Another recently-launched smartphone, the Poco X5 5G has a tried and tested Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which has kind of become the go-to choice for budget 5G smartphones. The Snapdragon 695 chip allows the Poco X5 to achieve an AnTuTu score of over 400,000, which is great for a sub-₹15,000 smartphone. Apart from the performance figures, we also get a segment-leading Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,200 nits of peak brightness! Apart from this, the Poco X5 also has a pretty standard 5,000mAh battery which supports 33W fast charging, which takes about an hour to charge the smartphone to full. In terms of optics, we get a triple rear camera with a 48-megapixel primary shooter, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens, and a 2-megapixel macro shooter.

Moto G62 5G makes it to another top 10 list on Digit.in! The smartphone’s performance figures, paired with a vibrant display and cleanest Android experience makes the Moto G62 5G hard to ignore in any top 10 list that talks about sub-₹15,000 smartphones. The device comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC paired with up to 8GB of RAM. We also get a 120Hz IPS LCD display, which is pretty decent in terms of brightness and colour accuracy. Apart from this, we also get a 50MP triple rear camera setup, which turned out to be rather mediocre in our review. The battery life, however, is very good with the 5,000mAh unit, but the charging is quite slow.

The Realme 9 5G is last year’s popular budget-centric 5G offering. The Realme 9 5G, with the MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC is good for an AnTuTu score of 369,800 points. In our review, the Realme 9 5G also showed good performance on other CPU benchmarks like on Geekbench, the Realme 9 5G scored 609 in the single core test and 1,828 points in the multi-core test. The smartphone also has a good 48MP + 2MP + 2MP triple rear camera setup that clicks very good photos. The 5,000mAh battery makes the smartphone last for 1.5 days easily, but the 18W takes too long to charge it to 100 percent.

Being a 4G offering, the Realme 10 deserves a spot in our top 10 list of smartphones under ₹15,000, since the smartphone still offers a lot (except 5G, of course). The Realme 10 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, a tried and tested chip for performance in the entry-level segment. The Realme 10 5G is also one of the very few devices in this range that come with a Super AMOLED display. Yes, we get a 6.4-inch super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. Further, there is a 50MP dual rear camera setup that takes really good black and white images. We also get a 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging, a very familiar spec in this segment.

Like the 4G version of its rival, the Redmi Note 12’s 4G version also makes it to our list, mostly because of similar reasons to the competitor (Realme 10). Even without 5G, we get a very good package in the Redmi Note 12. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 685 chipset which is also a 6nm chip like the SD 695, but comes without 5G connectivity. The Snapdragon 685 SoC is paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. While UFS 2.2 may seem slow by today’s standard, most smartphones in this range and even in a segment above are still using UFS 2.2. On AnTuTu, the Redmi Note 12 4G scores just under 320,000 points. We also get very good battery backup with a 5,000mAh unit that lasts about two days. With 33W fast charging, you can charge it up in about an hour.

The Infinix Zero 5G 2023 features in our list of the best smartphones under Rs 15,000, despite being priced just above the mark. This is because the smartphone offers way more than most competitors in terms of the performance numbers and the specifications you get with this device. For example, we get a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 5G smartphone paired with up to 8GB of RAM. This is something we see in smartphones priced over Rs 10,000 more than the Infinix Zero 5G. Further, the smartphone comes with a nice premium faux leather design, and we get a very nice IPS LCD display with 120Hz refresh rate. The battery specifications on the Infinix Zero 5G 2023 is the similar 5,000mAh battery with 33W fast charging.

The Vivo T2x 5G is another recent sub-₹15,000 5G offering that makes it in our top 10 list of smartphones under ₹15,000. The smartphone offers up to 8GB of RAM with the MediaTek Dimensity 6020 SoC, which makes it a good performer. However, the display on the smartphone disappoints, with a 6.58-inch IPS LCD panel which is limited to 60Hz refresh rate. The low refresh rate, however, helps the smartphone achieve very good battery life with the 5000mAh unit that charges at a rather slow 18W speed.