Best camera phones 2022 under 30,000 rubles | Articles | Phones

Mod­ern smart­phones have replaced land­lines, PDAs, note­books, play­ers and even cam­eras. The rat­ings of the best gad­gets with cool cam­eras usu­al­ly include phones from the expen­sive seg­ment.

But are there bud­get devices for pho­to and video shoot­ing? Yes. The rat­ing of the best inex­pen­sive cam­era phones was col­lect­ed in this mate­r­i­al. Are there mod­els that are not men­tioned in the list of the best? Write about them in the com­ments.

Even inex­pen­sive gad­gets today have good cam­eras. Pho­to: mavink.com

Impor­tant: this col­lec­tion col­lect­ed mod­els that were released in 2022. The old and beloved by all the flag­ships of past years will not be here.

How to choose an inex­pen­sive phone
TECNO Camon 19 Pro
Realme 9
Sam­sung Galaxy A53
One­Plus Nord 2T 5G
Poco X4 Pro 5G
Xiao­mi 12 Lite

How to choose an inexpensive phone

Cam­era. It is worth pay­ing atten­tion to 3 cri­te­ria: the num­ber of megapix­els (more is bet­ter), image sta­bi­liza­tion (neu­tral­izes shak­ing when shoot­ing), addi­tion­al pho­to pro­cess­ing options (AI, col­or enhance­ment tech­nolo­gies, etc.).

Read also why you can’t look only at the num­ber of megapix­els:

Cam­era phones 2022: how to choose a phone with a good cam­era

Auton­o­my. Tak­ing pho­tos and videos quick­ly drains the bat­tery. Bat­tery capac­i­ty from 4000 mAh is the opti­mal size.

Dis­play res­o­lu­tion. It depends on how clear the pic­ture on the screen will be. 1920×1080 (Full HD) is the min­i­mum rec­om­mend­ed val­ue. Such a pic­ture will be pleas­ing to the eye, the image will be more con­ve­nient to edit.

Screen size. The para­me­ter is indi­vid­ual. But if you plan to retouch pic­tures, it is bet­ter to choose a screen from 6.5 inch­es. It will be more con­ve­nient to do this on such a dis­play.

The amount of RAM. Its quan­ti­ty affects the speed of the smart­phone, the quick launch of pro­grams. The more it is, the more pro­duc­tive the gad­get. We rec­om­mend choos­ing from 4 GB of RAM.

The amount of built-in mem­o­ry. Min­i­mum 128 GB to fit all files on the device.

What is the difference between a budget camera phone and an expensive one?

He shoots worse. The qual­i­ty can­not be iden­ti­cal for a smart­phone for 20,000 and 100,000 rubles. The dif­fer­ence is not always vis­i­ble when shoot­ing with good light­ing and cor­rect­ly set set­tings in PRO mode. But in the evening, at night, in the bright sun, it is notice­able. Also, the col­or repro­duc­tion may not be as sat­u­rat­ed and real­is­tic as we would like.

Why?

In expen­sive mod­els, almost always improved arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and addi­tion­al fea­tures, new tech­nolo­gies. They auto­mat­i­cal­ly improve the pic­ture. For exam­ple, they even out the bright­ness through­out the pho­to. As a result, there will be no high­lights or very dark areas.

For exam­ple, the Pho­ton­ic Engine option on the Apple 14 Pro and Pro Max improves expo­sure in those areas of the frame where it is need­ed.

Mod­els in the mid to high range often have spe­cial modes for dif­fer­ent types of shoot­ing. For exam­ple, Xiao­mi Mi 11 Ultra has a spe­cial mode for astropho­to. Pic­tures are tak­en with­out noise.

Now let’s move on to our top. All prices are valid at the time of writ­ing.

TECNO Camon 19 Pro

This is the first mod­el in the rank­ing of the best cam­era phones in 2022 for 18,650 rubles. Cam­era is always On (the cam­era is always on) is the slo­gan of the prod­uct line from this brand. His phi­los­o­phy is to take cool shots with­out much effort.

Cam­era Advan­tages:

• For this mod­el, TECNO has devel­oped an RGBW matrix togeth­er with Sam­sung. It increased light absorp­tion by 200%. The amount of noise is reduced to a pos­si­ble min­i­mum. There­fore, pho­tos at night, in the evening, in cloudy weath­er and indoors will be clear, and the col­or repro­duc­tion will be nat­ur­al;
• opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion — the frame will be clear, even if you shoot on the go;
• laser aut­o­fo­cus is very fast. You can eas­i­ly focus even on an ani­mal in low light;
• there is arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence — a rar­i­ty for the bud­get seg­ment. It auto­mat­i­cal­ly cor­rects the bright­ness, white bal­ance and con­trast of the pho­to.

TECNO Camon 19 Pro is the best inex­pen­sive cam­era phone under 20,000 rubles. Pho­to: www.gsmarena.com

Realme 9

Realme smart­phones are very pop­u­lar in Rus­sia. Users are attract­ed by the low price, high per­for­mance and strik­ing design. Realme 9 is a uni­ver­sal mod­el with:

• capa­cious bat­tery — 5000 mAh enough for 10–12 hours of active use;
• large dis­play (6.4 inch­es) with high res­o­lu­tion (2400x1080) and a refresh rate of 90 times per sec­ond. This means that the move­ments of the char­ac­ters in the video or in the game will be smoother;
• RAM (6 GB) and built-in (128 GB) mem­o­ry, which is enough to work with­out slow­downs and store impor­tant files.

Cam­era Advan­tages:

• new Sam­sung ISOCELL HM6 sen­sor for the main rear cam­era mod­ule. He knows how to com­bine sev­er­al pix­els into one, because of this, the pho­tos are clear­er in low light;
• There is dig­i­tal sta­bi­liza­tion. It reduces shak­ing, which is why pho­tos and videos are obtained with­out smear­ing;
• high detail when shoot­ing with the main and wide-angle lens­es. Both can record video in 1080/30p for­mat.
• When shoot­ing dur­ing the day, the frames are bright, with rich, not arti­fi­cial­ly bright col­ors. There will be noise in very low light, but this is nor­mal for a bud­get smart­phone. Pic­tures tak­en with the front cam­era are clear and bright.

The bud­get Realme 9 cam­era phone is a ver­sa­tile mod­el with a bright Super AMOLED screen, a capa­cious bat­tery and a good cam­era. Pho­to: anpoimages.com

Samsung Galaxy A53

The next in the top of the best cam­era phones is a new prod­uct with opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion from Sam­sung for 36,500 rubles. This is an improved ver­sion of the A52 mod­el, which is in great demand.

The main mod­ule is 64 MP. Opti­cal sta­bi­liza­tion is bet­ter than dig­i­tal to com­pen­sate for motion. There is a night mode. It auto­mat­i­cal­ly reduces the amount of noise and increas­es the bright­ness of the pic­ture.

The 12MP ultra-wide-angle lens cap­tures well in good light. If it is not enough, it can “think” for a cou­ple of sec­onds, it is impor­tant to keep the cam­era sta­t­ic at this time.

There is an aux­il­iary depth sen­sor for shoot­ing por­traits. The image is not flat, but three-dimen­sion­al, real­is­tic.

Front cam­era 32 MP. Pho­tos are clear and bright with enough light. Objects in the dim­ness are not very detailed.

Sam­sung has not only cool expen­sive smart­phones, but also bud­get ones. Galaxy A53 is an exam­ple of an inex­pen­sive but pro­duc­tive smart­phone with an excel­lent cam­era. Pho­to: phonearena.com

OnePlus Nord 2T 5G

The next in the rank­ing of the best cheap cam­era phones this year is Nord for 27,990 rubles. Anoth­er ver­sa­tile mod­el with:

• good dis­play: AMOLED, bright, with a res­o­lu­tion of 2400x1080 and a refresh rate of 90 Hz. By the way, the refresh rate is float­ing, adjust­ing to the image on the screen. This helps con­serve bat­tery pow­er. For exam­ple, in games, the update is 90 Hz, and when read­ing a book, 24 Hz;
• Medi­aTek Dimen­si­ty 1300 proces­sor, the per­for­mance of which is enough to run not only video, but also mod­ern games and appli­ca­tions;
• 4500 mAh bat­tery with fast charg­ing func­tion. In 25 min­utes, you can ful­ly restore the bat­tery.

The mod­el received updat­ed cam­eras:

• main 50 MP with f / 1.8 aper­ture;
• ultra wide-angle 8 MP — f / 2.2, view­ing angle — 120 degrees;
• mono­chrome 2 MP — f / 2.2.

Sony IMX766 is the main one. The pic­tures are clear, bright, and the col­ors are nat­ur­al. The edges of the pho­to are not blur­ry. There is AI. It auto­mat­i­cal­ly improves the qual­i­ty of pic­tures. This is espe­cial­ly notice­able in night shots.

One­Plus Nord 2T 5G is a smart­phone for enter­tain­ment: games, pho­tos, videos. Pho­to: smartprix.com

Poco X4 Pro 5G

Cam­era phone, which the man­u­fac­tur­er calls the “Uni­ver­sal Hero”. This is true, because it has absolute­ly every­thing that a mod­ern user needs:

• bright AMOLED dis­play with a res­o­lu­tion of 2400x1080, a refresh rate of 120 Hz. Move­ments in games and videos are smooth, with­out jerks;
• there is Corn­ing Goril­la Glass 5 on the screen — it will pro­tect against 80% drops from a height of up to 1.5 meters;
• 5000 mAh bat­tery and fast charg­ing func­tion. The bat­tery will last for 10–12 hours, and you can ful­ly charge it in 40 min­utes;
• new Liq­uid­Cool cool­ing sys­tem — even with con­stant use, the device will not become hot;
• great cam­era. The main mod­ule is 108 MP + ultra wide-angle and for macro pho­tog­ra­phy. Video record­ing 1080p, 30 frames per sec­ond. There is an auto­mat­ic image enhance­ment. Thanks to this, the image will be clear at any time of the day;
• front cam­era 16 MP. The pic­ture is bright and clear. The only draw­back is the rough treat­ment of the area around the hair in por­trait mode.

The Poco X4 Pro 5G smart­phone is a uni­ver­sal mod­el for chil­dren and adults. Pho­to: mysmartprice.com

Xiaomi 12 Lite

The top best cam­era phones of 2022 can­not be made with­out a new prod­uct from Xiao­mi. This brand offers a wide range of gad­gets in dif­fer­ent price cat­e­gories. The Lite ver­sion of Xiao­mi 12 is bud­get, the price is 30,000 rubles.

The man­u­fac­tur­er made an empha­sis on the main unit of the rear cam­era (108 megapix­els). The pic­tures are clear, bright and detailed. Dur­ing the day, out­doors and indoors, it’s easy to take beau­ti­ful shots. 8 MP ultra wide-angle cam­era, juicy col­ors, cor­rect white bal­ance, the frame is not blur­ry at the edges.

Video record­ing is avail­able in dif­fer­ent res­o­lu­tions. Max­i­mum — 4K at 30 fps. The pic­ture is smooth and nat­ur­al. Var­i­ous “Movie Effects” are avail­able. For exam­ple, you can shoot video from the rear and self­ie cam­eras at the same time.

It is worth say­ing that the bud­get gad­get is prac­ti­cal­ly not infe­ri­or to the Pro-mod­el from this line. Worse in the Lite ver­sion is shoot­ing at night. More noise than the flag­ship Xiao­mi 12 Pro (applies to both the main unit and the ultra-wide angle). But this is the prob­lem with all bud­get mod­els.

A nice bonus is the front cam­era (32 MP) with aut­o­fo­cus. Xiao­mi 12 Lite is posi­tioned as a gad­get for stream­ers, tik­tok­ers and youth. There­fore, the pic­ture qual­i­ty when shoot­ing a self­ie is high.

Xiao­mi 12 Lite is a great alter­na­tive to expen­sive smart­phones. Pho­to: tek.id

We col­lect­ed the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the best bud­get cam­era phones in 2022 up to 30,000 rubles in one table.