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| The Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro |
Various Smartphone brands announce their new phones every now and then with some becoming immediately available in the country while others taking months to begin selling in Kenya.
You can get a phone for almost every price you desire, beginning with cheap feature phones, entry-level smartphones, budget Smartphones, mid-range as well as flagship phones that cost well over a 100K.
Of all the Smartphone price segments the most competitive in the country is the 10-20 k, with a number of brands doing their best to dominate this budget smartphone segment which is apparently the one with high demand.
In order to make your hustle of getting a new phone much easier, we have listed some of the best under 20k smartphones you can get right now in Kenya and while we did our very best we admit that this might not have captured all the phones available in the market.
There are a number of factors to consider when buying a new phone, the most important being the type of processor, memory size, the display, cameras and the battery with some other additions including the USB port type, the built, design as well as sensors and wireless conncetions.
However in the under 20K we are largely limited with the number of options we can choose from with many brands giving much attention on the battery size and screen size.
Since almost all of the phones we have listed below have big battery capacities of over 4,000 mAh, the battery will not be a much deciding factor here, but it still feels good to go for the biggest and those with slight additions like USB-C port and fast charge support, though the 18W that you find in this segment might not really have much difference.
Most of the budget phones listed here also have big screens with over 6 inches, but are all IPS LCD except the Tecno Camon 12 Pro which has an AMOLED panel. However it's low display resolution of 720p won't make any much difference. For no clear reason Infinix have also decided to downgrade the display quality of their Note phones and decided to go for 720P IPS LCD displays instead of the 1080p AMOLED in the Note 6.
It would be great if you can lay your hands on a FHD 1080p display, and thanks to Xiaomi we have one or two in the list. We don't expect anything as far as screen protection is concerned at this price, but Xiaomi also comes to our rescue and we have two phones in the list with Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Otherwise if you have an under 20K phone you have to still be extra careful with it. You might also be lucky to get one or two brands with splash resistant coating and a 450 nits and above is a sweet icing on the cake.
Many of the budget phones now come with a standard built design of a glass front, plastic back and plastic frame, with Infinix also silently doing away with metallic Note phones. Most of them are fingerprint magnets and get scratched easily, but sometimes we find one or two that are fingerprint resistant and tough enough to withstand a number of falls without breaking the back casing, but not sure about the Glass display.
In order to keep prices as low as possible, many manufactures still go for Mediatek processors, and while there are a few with Snapdragon 4 series chipsets, we would prefer Mediatek chipsets at this price. our favorite being the Mediatek Helio G70 which has a good performance, but if you can get a Hellio G80 that will be a good deal and the G90T will be the best.
We also considered the Memory size with a major focus on RAM. Many phones at this price come with 3 or 4 GB RAM, but we got a number with 6GB. Infact we limited ourselves to not less than 4GB when coming up with this list. Internal memory also range between 32 and 128GB, and since the slogan is always 'the bigger the better', we limited ourselves to 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage.
You can choose between a wide range of camera setups with varying camera resolutions, right from dual camera setups all the way upto quad cameras. You will notice that many secondary cameras are 2MP, and we still feel that they are just added for the sake of sales but don't make any much difference.
We don't recommend judging a phone's camera performance by its Megapixels, we don't have a choice here apart from go for the bigger ones and a 64MP here is more than perfect with 48MP primary camera still a good offer.
1. Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro.
Released September 2019, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 Pro is one of the best budget Smartphones you can get right now if not the best, and it is easier to see why it tops our best under 20k Smartphones list.
The Redmi Note 8 Pro has some best specs you can ever come across at it's price, with many of it's Competitors at the 30K mark. It features a 6.53 FHD display of 1080 x 2340, with HDR support and 450 nits of brightness.
It also comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 5 both in front and back, the only with such level of protection in this list. It's 350 ppi pixel density is quite good and you will enjoy watching videos and playing games with this phone.
Talking of games, the Redmi Note 8 Pro was the first phone to feature theMediatek Helio G90T processor, a mid-range gaming chipset that can comfortably handle all games you throw at it including high graphic ones. Other phones with the Helio G90T include Infinix Zero 8, realme 6 and Tecno Camon 16 Premier all costing some shillings shy of the 30K mark.
Launched:. September 2019
Dimensions:. 161.4 x 76.4 x 8.8 mm
Weight:. 200 g
Build: Glass front, Glass back, Plastic frame.
Screen size: 6.53 inch, 104.7 cm2, 88.7 Screen-to-body ratio.
Display type: IPS LCD
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
Pixel density: 395 ppi
Aspect ratio: 19.5:9
Protection: Gorilla Glass 5.
OS: Android 9(pie) upgradable to Anroid 10; MIUI 12.
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G90T (12nm)
CPU: Octa-core (2 x 2.05 GHz Cortex-A76 & 6 x 2.0 Cortex-A55)
GPU: Mali-G76MC4
RAM: 6/8 GB
Storage: 64/128 GB.
SD support: Yes via shared Sim slot.
Rear Cameras:. Quad 64 MP+8MP+2MP+2MP
Video: 4K@30fps,1080p@30fps, 720p@30fps.
Selfie: Single 20MP.
Battery: Non removable Li-po 4500 mAh with 18 W fast charge
Fingerprint: rear mounted.
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass.
2. Xiaomi Redmi Note 9. Ksh. 20,499.
The Redmi Note 9 was released May 2020 with the 4GB + 128GB Variant currently available at Ksh. 20,499 at Jumia. It is also available in 3GB + 64GB and 4GB +64GB Variants, so you must be careful when buying the phone to ensure you get the best deal.
Just like the Redmi Note 8 Pro, it features a 1080p display but has a Gorilla Glass 5 protection in front only with a plastic back.
It also features a Mediatek Helio G85 Wich is slightly lower than the G90T in the Redmi 8 Pro, but still much better than many processors of the phones in this price category.
Launched: May 2020
Dimensions:. 162.3 x 77.2 x 8.9 mm
Weight: 199 g
Build: Glass front, plastic back Plastic frame.
Screen size: 6.53 inch, 104.7 cm2, 83.5% Screen-to-body ratio.
Display type: IPS LCD
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
Pixel density: 395 ppi
Aspect ratio: 19.5:9
Protection: Gorilla Glass 5.
OS: Anroid 10; MIUI 12.
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G85 (12nm)
CPU: Octa-core (2 x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6 x 1.8 Cortex-A55)
GPU: Mali-G52MC2
RAM: 3/4 GB
Storage: 64/128 GB.
SD support: Yes.
Rear Cameras:. Quad 64 MP+8MP+2MP+2MP
Video: 1080p@30fps.
Selfie: Single 13MP.
Battery: Non removable Li-po 5020 mAh with 18 W fast charge
Fingerprint: rear mounted.
Sensors: Accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass.
3. Infinix Hot 10.
The Hot 10 is the latest of the Infinix Hot series and the best so far in the hot series. At Ksh. 14,900, the Hot 10 best feature is the Mediatek Helio G70 , a good entry level gaming chipset. It also comes with a nice punch-hole display and 3GB RAM which is good enough for your smartphone needs. It is the only 3GB phone in this list, but it's specs are hard to come by at it's asking price.
3. Infinix Hot 10 specs/ features.
Launched:. September 2020
Dimensions: 171.1 x 77.6 x 8.9 mm.
Weight: 195 g.
Screen size: 6.78 inch.
Display type: IPS LCD.
Resolution: 720 x 1640 pixels
Pixel density: ppi.
Aspect ratio: 20.5:9
Screen to body: 82.2%
OS: Android 10; XOS 7.0
Processor: Mediatek Helio G70 (12nm)
RAM: 3/4/6 GB.
Storage: 64/128 GB expandable.
Cameras: Quad, 16 MP + 2 MP + 2 MP+QVGA.
Video: 1080p@30fps.
Selfie Camera: 8 MP with LED flash.
Battery: Non removable Li-po 5,200 mAh with fast charge 18 W.
Sensors: proximity, light sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, .
Fingerprint: Rear mounted.
4. Xiaomi Redmi 9.
Launched:. June 2020
Dimensions:. 163.3 x 77 x 9.1 mm
Weight:. 198g
Build: Glass front, plastic back, Plastic frame.
Screen size: 6.53 inch, 104.7 cm2, 83.5% Screen-to-body ratio.
Display type: IPS LCD
Resolution: 1080 x 2340 pixels
Pixel density: 395 ppi
Aspect ratio: 19.5:9
Protection: Gorilla Glass 3.
OS: Anroid 10; MIUI 11.
Chipset: Mediatek Helio G80 (12nm)
CPU: Octa-core (2 x 2.0 GHz Cortex-A75 & 6 x 1.8 Cortex-A55)
GPU: Mali-G52MC2
RAM: 4 GB
Storage: 64 GB.
SD support: Yes.
Rear Cameras:. Quad 13MP+8MP+5MP+2MP
Video:. 1080p@30fps.
Selfie:. Single 8MP.
Battery: Non removable Li-po 5020 mAh with 18 W fast charge
Fingerprint: rear mounted.
Sensors:. Accelerometer, proximity, gyro, compass.
Launched:. September 2019
Dimensions: 158.6 x 75.5 x 7.8 mm.
Weight: 161 g.
Screen size: 6.35 inch.
Display type: AMOLED.
Resolution: 720 x 1600 pixels
Pixel density: 276 ppi.
Aspect ratio: 20:9
OS: Android 9.0 (pie); HIOS 5.5
RAM: 6 GB.
Storage: 64 GB expandable.
Cameras: Triple, 16 MP + 8 MP + 2 MP.
Video: 1080p@30fps.
Selfie Camera: 32 MP with LED flash.
Battery: Non removable Li-po 3,50mAh.
Sensors: proximity, light sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, .
Fingerprint: In-display.
7. Vivo Y20.
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Display type: IPS LCD
Resolution: 720 x 1600 pixels
Pixel density: 270 ppi
Aspect ratio: 20:9
Protection: None
RAM: 4GB
Storage: 64GB.
SD support: Yes
OS: Andoid 10; Funtouch 10.5
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 460(12nm)
Battery: Non removable Li-po 5000 mAh with 18 W fast charge
Cameras: Triple, 13MP + 2MP + 2 MP
Selfie: Single 8MP.
Fingerprint sensor: Rear mounted.
Face Unlock:
9. Samsung Galaxy A21S.
10. Samsung Galaxy A12.
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