Top Budget Dual-Camera Phones You Can Buy Right Now
Dual cameras, a trend that started in 2016 in flagship phones trickled down to budget smartphones in 2017. From the iPhone 7 Plus in 2016 to Lenovo K8 Plus in 2017, the trend of dual-camera smartphones is here to stay and has become a norm for a top-performing budget Android device. In a sea of budget smartphones with identical specifications and price, which dual-camera phone should you buy this holiday season? iGyaan brings you its pick for the best budget dual-camera phones you can buy right now:
Xiaomi Mi A1
One of the best budget phones to be launched in 2017, the Mi A1 combines Xiaomi’s hardware and Google’s stock Android OS in this perfectly priced budget phone.
The smartphone has a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 px display with Corning Gorilla Glass on top for protection and metal unibody build.
The phone has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, 2.0GHz octa-core processor, 4GB RAM and 64GB of onboard storage which is expandable via microSD card. Handling the graphics under the hood is the Adreno 505 GPU. The pyrolytic graphite sheet will help in heat management as well, Xiaomi claims. The Xiaomi Mi A1 has an IR blaster to control appliances in your home or office. Powering the device is a 3,080 mAh battery and fast charging through the Type C port
The fingerprint sensor sits at the back of the device below the camera. Xiaomi has also included a dedicated headphone amplifier for better music listening experience.
The Mi A1 runs pure Android 7.1.2 Nougat OS and thanks to Android One program, the Mi A1 will get software to Android 8.0 Oreo and Android P as well.
It’s worth noting that despite the stock Android OS, Xiaomi has still introduced a few apps of its own like the Mi Camera app, since Google’s app doesn’t support dual-camera right now. Other apps like the Mi Remote and the Mi Store are also present in the Xiaomi Mi A1.
In terms of optics, the smartphone features a 12MP dual-camera setup with 1.25-micron pixel size. Out of the two cameras at the back, the primary one is equipped with a telephoto lens and the secondary camera has a wide-angle lens. The telephoto lens allows the user to take bokeh effect shots with blurred background and a 2X optical lossless zoom. For landscape shots, Xiaomi has introduced a wide angle lens while on the front is a 5MP camera.
Moto G5s Plus
Successor to one of the best budget camera smartphones the Moto G5 Plus, Moto G5s Plus was launched close to the Xiaomi Mi A1 and carries an identical price tag as well.
The Moto G5S Plus has a 5.5 inch 1920 x 1080 px display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top for protection.
The smartphone has the Qualcomm 625 chipset, an octa-core processor clocked at 2.0 GHz with 4GB RAM and 64GB of onboard storage which can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. The fingerprint sensor is housed inside the home button which sits below the display. The device is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery with included turbo charge capabilities.
The Moto G5S Plus runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat with little customisation done by the manufacturer resulting in stock Android OS experience.
The Moto G5S Plus features rear-mounted 13MP dual-cameras with an f/2.0 aperture. The dual camera captures Bokeh, and selective focus shots, along with other capabilities of background replacement and exposure management. On the front is a wide angle 8MP camera with a single LED flash and a panoramic mode. The rear cameras capture videos in 4K at 30 FPS and the front camera records videos in 1080P at 30 FPS. According to Motorola, additional features such as Night Display and Quick Reply enhance the software experience. The implementation of the dual-camera setup on the Moto G5S Plus is different than that on the Mi A1.
Lenovo K8 Note
The Lenovo K8 Note features a 5.5-inch 1920 x 1080 px display with a pixel density of 441ppi and a Corning Gorilla Glass with oleophobic coating for scratch and smudge resistance.
The K8 Note is also splash resistant due to its P2i coating, although the resistance might decrease with time due to wear and tear of the nano coating. The fingerprint sensor sits at the back of the device under the cameras.
The Lenovo K8 Note is run on a MediaTek MT 6797D Helio X23 a Tri-cluster, 64-bit chipset with a 2.3 GHz high-performing deca-core processor and the Mali T-880 MP4 GPU. The device has either a 3GB or 4GB RAM and 32GB or 64GB onboard storage which is expandable via a microSD card.
The Lenovo K8 Note has a 13M Pure cell sensor mated with a 5MP Samsung BSI sensor dual camera setup and dual LED flash at the back. The phone is capable of depth mode effects along with 1920 x 1080 px Video capture. A 13MP camera with LED flash and an f/2.0 aperture sits on the front of the device above the display. The camera UI will also feature a stock Android layout with no customisation offered by Lenovo apart from the depth mode.
Honor 9i
The Honor 9i has a 5.9-inch 2160 x 1080px display with an 18:9 aspect ratio.
It also has Huawei’s in-house octa-core Kirin 659 chipset, octa-core 2.36 GHz processor, along with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB onboard storage. Powering the device is a 3340 mAh battery which charges via a micro USB port.
The device runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box with Huawei’s EMUI 5.1 skin on top
This is the only smartphone on this list which has four cameras. The rear of the phone contains a 16 MP main sensor and a 2 MP secondary sensor, while the front has a 13 MP camera and another 2 MP secondary sensor. A fingerprint sensor is placed at the back of the phone since the phone has thin bezels and no physical button at the front of the phone.
