The Phone Shrink

Here we give you our opinion on the best phones in the market under different price ranges, updated regularly. These descriptions are meant to be very short and concise, highlighting only the key differences. We shall be providing at least two options, which we believe are the best in this price, along with a brief description of each, and our verdict, highlighting the differences between the two. Note: The writer has no affiliation with any company, and does not promote or support any brand or smartphone. The following are his genuine thoughts and opinions, meant to help the reader. Note: Prices may vary slightly based on memory options, or general market fluctuations. The Best Smartphone: 1. Under Rs. 10,000 2. Under Rs. 20,000 3. Under Rs. 30,000 4. Under Rs. 40,000 5. Under Rs. 60,000 6. Under Rs. 80,000 7. Ultra Premium and Foldables Share this post with your friends. Leave a comment with your thoughts and opinions. Subscribe to The Phone Shrink, t

Apple just announced their latest iOS update, the iOS 14. We have always complained about Apple providing superficial updates in the past, with no real changes to the user experience, and which do not impact the user in a substantial way. This time however, things are different, and Apple has brought some interesting updates, which, although have been around in Android for quite sometime now, it's still good that Apple embraces it. Here is what's new in iOS 14. Widgets: Finally Apple brings widgets to the home-screen. They provide information from various apps like news, calendar, fitness, etc. right to your home-screen. Although this feature has been around in Android for years now, iOS goes a step ahead and has added a Smart Stack. It intelligently curates the widgets you use the most during a particular time of the day, based on past usage, and displays that during that time. This feature, if executed well, can actually be pretty impressive, and a really meaningful and uti

In the past, Motorola had been manufacturing some amazing smartphones in the budget and mid range market, in the range of Rs 15,000 -17,000. After the G6 though, things took a turn downwards for the company. The phones they made were not nearly as good as they used to, and the competition was offering much better options. They launched some flagship smartphones like the Moto Razr and the Moto Edge Plus. But they were not huge success stories for the company too. However, the new Moto One Fusion Plus seems to check all the boxes. Coming in at Rs.17,000, the phone is available at a very good price and might be just the thing the company has been looking for to be back in the budget game. Here is an overview of the phone and our thoughts on it. Display : The Motorola One Fusion Plus comes with a 6.5 inch IPS LCD FHD+ display with a 60Hz refresh rate. The best part about this display is that it is a full view, notch-less design. They are able to achieve this by a pop up front camera, whic

After the grand success of the poco F1 in 2018, Xiaomi is back with the next generation flagship smartphone, the poco F2 pro. Although it is not as cheap as the poco F1, the improvements this phone brings to the table are also pretty impressive and it does seem like a significantly refined product from the company. Here is what we have to say about the Poco F2 pro. The display : this time the company has given us a full screen notchless design. It is a fairly large 6.67 inch super Amoled FHD+ display. The display in general is great and a significant improvement over the IPS LCD display on the last phone. Although it is just a 60Hz refresh rate, which for a 2020 smartphone is a bit uncommon, especially in the midrange segment. Nonetheless, the notchless design offers some great media consumption experience, and overall it is quite impressive. The performance : the phone, just like its predecessor, comes with top of the line hardware at amazing prices. Yes, the phone too comes wi

There was a time when the phones by Motorola were one of the best budget- mid range phones out there. They were ahead of the competition and offered a lot more than the others in this price. However, the G8 power does not lie in the same category. Here is why we feel, this phone really doesn't bring anything interesting to the table and is frankly a disappointment by the company. First of all, we want to give some perspective. A few years back, till around 2018, the Moto G series of smartphones was one of the best budget smartphones in the market. I am talking specifically about the moto G5+ and the moto G5s+. These phones, coming in at around Rs 15,000 had really great processors, at par with some of the more expensive smartphones. They had fantastic cameras and great battery life. Not to mention the near stock android experience they provided with their UI was also something which other companies like Xiaomi just could not provide. And being Motorola, the durability on these

You might have heard about the new budget offering by Realme, called the Narzo 10. It is apparently meant for all the gamers out there, looking for a budget phone which can run popular heavy games like PUBG and COD. While the phone does kind of do that, but overall it is more of a disappointment considering the other phones out there. Here we discuss why this phone really is not all that appealing. Starting off, we talk about why this phone is making the news. The company claims this is one of the cheapest gaming phones out there, coming in at Rs 12,000. To back this, they have a Mediatek Helio G80 chipset, which is capable of performing fairly well, especially while gaming, and especially considering the price of the phone. So what really is wrong with the phone? The biggest problem we have, the display. It comes with a very basic HD+ (720p) display. Now this leads to a noticeable difference as compared to FHD+ (or 1080p). The details, as would be required while playing any heav

What was our primary complain from the OnePlus 8 series of smartphones? They were just too expensive for the brand. We thought they had forgotten about their core audience, and moved away from the values they held as a company in the start, But no, they have been working on something which is rather impressive, and comes in at a much lower price. Here we give you all we know about the OnePlus Z. To start things off, nothing has been officially announced, we do not have all the specifications at hand, and all the information has been based off rumors and speculated reports only. So we do not claim that the information here will be a hundred percent accurate and true, but more or less this is what we should be expecting, given the consistent reliability of these leaks. To start things off, the display . It is going to be something similar to the OnePlus 8, with a FHD+ 90Hz Amoled display, featuring a punch hole design, but this time maybe in the center. The other specifications of

Xiaomi recently announced the price of its latest Mi 10 pro smartphone. The phone itself is pretty incredible, and offers quite a lot, but the price, is just not justified for a Xiaomi smartphone, and at Rs 50,000 , it goes right against the OnePlus 8 pro, which as you all know, is probably the best Android phone out there. Here is what we have to say about the Mi 10 pro, and why this phone, might not be a good move by the company. Xiaomi has been known to provide budget friendly smartphones, basically whatever they had to offer, would perform really well, but owing to a less optimal UI and weaker cameras, and basic refinements, they were able to keep the prices really low, and that would appeal to the masses. For example, the Poco F1. Although not "Xiaomi", but Poco is a sub brand of the same, so the core principal remains. They were able to price it so very low, and it had the latest flagship processor at the time. Now the Mi 10 pro, offers something similar, but a mor

People have many opinions of how to charge a smartphone. Not all these opinions are correct, and you might be overly worried about your charging for no reason. In this post, we bust few of the common myths about charging smartphones, and what is the ideal way to do it. Does it even matter that much, and should you be worried? Here is everything you need to know about this. There is a popular myth, that you should not leave your phone plugged in all night. Now yes, there is some amount of truth to this, especially while using fast charging technology. But for the most part, the effect is not really large. Most people are through with their battery by the end of the day and would need a full charge the next day. So it is just natural to want to charge it overnight. To have the best of both worlds, you should be using a slow charger, if you were to charge your phone overnight. Another myth which is really popular, is that you should wait for the battery to drop down to almost 0, an

The Pixel Buds are here, and these are one of the best truly wireless headphones you can get. They obviously are not perfect, but considering the price they are available for, they actually do a lot, and provide great value and amazing performance. Here is what we have to say about these headphones by google. To start things off, these buds will be available at a price of $179, which translates to around Rs 13,000. To give you some perspective, the Airpods pro, by Apple are available at around Rs 25,000 and the Galaxy Buds+ by Samsung are available at Rs 14,000. So definitely the Pixel Buds are not really cheap, but they are not insanely priced, considering what it brings to the table. The buds come with a sleek, small case, capably of supporting wireless charging. On the other plus side, the case also charges via USB C while many of the other buds use the typical micro-USB. The battery life of these buds on a single charge can last you around 5 hrs of listening time. Although i

With every great Smartphone, comes the unending list of potential rumors and possible features we might get to see in the final product. The Note 20 is no exception to that, and the rumors for the phone have already started pouring in. By the looks of it, Samsung has heard us, and is trying to rectify the mistakes they made with the S20 in their upcoming flagship. Here is what we know, and why this phone might be a substantial improvement over the S20, especially in India. Starting off, one of the biggest problems we faced with the S20, was the Exynos 990 chipset. Yes it is very powerful, but surely does not match up against the Snapdragon 865. There were several issues especially while gaming for an extended period of time. Samsung has reportedly been working on a new chipset, the Exynos 992, which is based off a 6nm process rather than the 7nm on the 865. This should lead to better performance, and higher efficiency from the chip. This could be Samsung's answer to the 865,

If you have been following smartphones recently, you might have heard of the company Tecno making it big in the news for providing the Pop-Up front camera for possibly the cheapest we have seen so far. In a time when companies which earlier experimented with the motorized camera set-up are ditching it for the punch - hole design, we have the Tecno Camon 15 Premier which is offering the full screen experience for a very affordable price. Here is what we have to say about this phone. The phone offers some descent specs at a very sweet price. At around Rs 16,000 , this becomes probably the cheapest phone to feature a pop-up style camera. The other specs on this phone too are pretty impressive for the price, although they aren't really anything revolutionary. The design of the phone is pretty standard, what you would expect from a budget phone at this price. It has a plastic back with a rear mounted fingerprint scanner, and the phone also retains a headphone jack. Sadly the

Sony, has its fair share of expertise when it comes to manufacturing TV sets, audio systems, cameras, and a whole lot of other electronics, but when it comes to smartphones, they haven't really managed to make a mark. There was a time when these phones were fairly popular, but not so much in recent times. All that might change this time with the Xperia 1 ii, which bring some massive camera and sound upgrades, and seemingly better than the competition in this price range. Here we take a look at the Xperia 1 ii, a phone which might just be the success story Sony was looking for. Recently Sony announced their latest flagship, the Xperia 1 ii (Xperia 1 Mark 2). The phone looks great, with all the features you would want from a 2020 flagship, and a couple more pretty exclusive to this phone. Here we take a look at the specifications. Design and Build: The phone is extremely premium, with a beautiful glass back, and a tall, cinematic 21:9 aspect ratio. The phone is protected by Go

With phones becoming more similar than different in 2020, here we have Xiaomi doing something really ambitious with its Black Shark line-up of gaming smartphones, and at a very compelling price. The target audience of this phone is the mobile gaming community, the ones who take it a little too seriously. Many of the features on this phone are targeted to appeal the gamers out there. Here we take a look at an overview of this phone and our thoughts on this phone. The Black Shark line-up consists of 2 phones, the mid-ranger: Black Shark 3, and the more expensive Black Shark 3 pro. Being a 2020 budget flagship, the phone has it all, with a specific emphasis given to gaming and thus optimizations on the CPU and GPU front. The Black Shark 3 has a large 6.67 inch FHD+ Super Amoled display, with a refresh rate of 90Hz. The display is smooth and fluid, everything you would expect from a phone in this segment. Although it is not at 120Hz, it is still a very fluid display. On the process

All of us know that Realme has been making some amazing smartphones at some really affordable prices. Their phones have really been the buzz around town, and this growth has boomed quite recently. Here we take a look at this company, and why Realme might be the next big brand to watch out for. A sub-brand of Oppo, Realme started off by launching its first phone, the Realme 1, as recently as May 2018. Instantly it became a rage, and the sales numbers of the company even in its recent years were incredible. The company was started as a rival to the vastly popular and the budget king - Xiaomi. The idea was simple, to offer everything that Xiaomi did, and more at a price point which was just as affordable. The phone was instantly a success. They managed to provide a particularly great camera experience, far better than the ones offered by the rival companies in this segment. This appealed to the young crowd, the main target of this budget category, and the company saw great profits by