Celebrating the holiday, Amazon is holding a Holi Fiesta from March 21 to the 26th. It has some great discounts on older phones along with offers on brand new models, plus we picked out some tablets.
The iQOO Z9 launched last week. It is a Dimensity 7200-powered mid-ranger with a 6.67” 120Hz FHD+ OLED display. The 50MP main camera has OIS (but no ultra wide companion) and there is a 16MP selfie on the front. The phone has a 5,000mAh battery with 44W fast charging and an IP54 dust and water resistance rating.
The iQOO Neo9 Pro is a bit older (it’s from February) but brings the massive power of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the ₹30-40,000 range. You can get double the storage for ₹2,000 more. Besides the powerful chip, this phone has a 6.78” 144Hz LTPO display with 1,260 x 2,800px resolution, a 50MP camera with a larger 1/1.49” sensor (with OIS) and an 8MP ultra wide. The 5,160mAh battery is super fast to charge at 120W.
The Lava O2 was unveiled this week and is currently on pre-order. This sub-₹10,000 phone has 4G connectivity (Unisoc T616 chipset) and a 6.5” 90Hz IPS LCD with HD+ resolution. It has expandable storage and a microSD slot, plus a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging.
The Honor Pad 9 was first released in December, but it took a while to reach India, so now it is on pre-order. The slate has a 12.1” IPS LCD with 120Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colors. It is powered by the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 chipset, packs 8 speakers and an 8,300mAh battery with 35W charging. We will look at more tablets in a moment.
Motorola’s foldables are deeply discounted – the Moto Razr 40 Ultra is down 42%, the vanilla Razr 40 is 55% off. The Ultra brings the better chipset (Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 vs. 7 Gen 1) and a bigger 3.6” cover display (vs. a line display).
The Honor 90 is equipped with a 200MP camera with a large 1/1.4” sensor (no OIS, though). There’s no dedicated zoom lens, but the in-sensor zoom is quite good. There is also a 12MP ultra wide and (more impressively) a 50MP selfie camera with a 100° wide lens. The front and back cameras can record 4K video at 30fps. The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 “Accelerated Edition” is paired with a 6.7” 120Hz display (1,200 x 2,664px, 10-bit) and a 5,000mAh battery with 66W fast charging.
For around the same price, you can have the iQOO Neo 7 Pro. This one trades camera prowess for a more powerful chipset – you a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. To be fair, the 50MP main camera isn’t bad (1/1.57” sensor, OIS) and it has an 8MP ultra wide by its side, though the 16MP selfie looks basic. The 6.78” OLED panel also has 120Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colors, but it is lower resolution at FHD+. The 5,000mAh battery is faster to charge at 120W.
The iQOO Z6 Lite is an older model, but offers 5G connectivity at just over ₹10,000 (Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 chipset). It has a 6.58” 120Hz IPS LCD (FHD+) and a 50MP camera, plus a 5,000mAh battery with 18W charging.
A ₹300 coupon is just enough to bring the Poco M6 Pro 5G under the ₹10,000 mark. As you can probably tell, this is one of the cheapest 5G phones around. It uses the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset and offers a large 6.79” IPS LCD (FHD+, 90Hz). It has a 50MP camera on the back and 8MP on the front, both capped at 1080p video capture. The 5,000mAh battery supports 18W fast charging.
For an even lower budget, you can ditch the 5G and get the Poco C55. It runs on the old Helio G85 chipset and its 6.71” IPS LCD has only HD+ resolution and 60Hz refresh rate. On the plus side, there is expandable storage, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a decently big (but slow) 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging.
We’re going back to look at tablets. The Xiaomi Pad 6 uses the old-but-gold Snapdragon 870 and is around the same price as the Honor Pad 9. It has a smaller IPS LCD at 11”, but it still has 10-bit colors and runs faster at 144Hz. There are four speakers on board and a comparable 8,840mAh battery with 33W charging.
Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE is a pricier option with a 10.9” IPS LCD – 90Hz this time – and an Exynos 1380. This one is powered by an 8,000mAh battery and, uncharacteristically for Samsung, it has faster charging than the competition at 45W.
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