Looking for a smartphone under 10K?

If you’ve been looking for a solid smartphone for under 10K but need a few candidates for your hard-earned money? We got your back, fam – we’re ticking off five Android smartphones under 10K that we’ve tested and we wholeheartedly recommend for people who are on a tight budget. Let’s not beat around the bush, here’s our top pick:

ASUS 5.5-inch Zenfone 3 Max

When we reviewed the 5.5-inch version of ASUS’ Zenfone 3 Max last year, it was put in a tight spot because of its pricing, despite its metal design, large battery and decent camera. But with the recent price cut dropping the price to just Php 9,995, the 5.5-inch Zenfone 3 Max just became our top pick for people who want an Android phone under 10K. It’s one of the best value smartphones that you can get under 10K, especially when you consider its excellent battery endurance as well as its decent performance thanks to the Snapdragon chipset.

You can read our full review of the 5.5-inch, Zenfone 3 Max here. 

If you don’t like the ASUS Zenfone 3 Max (or the Taiwanese company’s uber bloated ZenUI) we have other picks for you:

Vivo V5 Lite

If you’re looking for a smartphone that delivers a great selfie experience without breaking the bank, you might want to consider the Vivo V5 Lite. With a 16-megapixel front camera, premium metal build and relatively capable MediaTek 6750 octa-core processor, the V5 Lite is a solid pick for those people who puts a premium on great selfies.

You can read our initial review of the Vivo V5 Lite here.

Cherry Mobile Cosmos 3

The Cherry Mobile Cosmos 3 is the most powerful of all the smartphones in this list, packing MediaTek’s Helio X20 processor in a very stylish metal body. It has a relatively decent featurelist aside from that fast X20 processor though, packing a capable 13-megapixel rear camera, a fingerprint scanner, 700MHz LTE capability and a USB Type-C connector.

You can read our full review of the Cherry Mobile Cosmos 3 here.

Meizu M5 Note

Meizu’s the newest entry into this top 5 smartphone lineup, and from their budget M5 series of devices the best of the bunch definitely has to be the M5 Note. It has a beautiful and tough unibody aluminum construction, as well as a large 4000mAh battery, relatively powerful MediaTek P10 octa-core processor plus 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM.

You can read our initial review of the Meizu M5 Note here.

OPPO A39

Ain’t competition grand? After rival Vivo announced the V5 Lite, OPPO decided to directly counter their Chinese compatriot’s efforts by cutting the price of their selfie-focuse A39 smartphone to compete. Like the V5 Lite, the A39 is aimed at selfie lovers, and packs a metal body as well as 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, 5.2-inch display and a 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6750 octa-core processor. The selfie camera isn’t as high resolution as Vivo’s though, but in our tests the A39 still managed to deliver good selfies during use.

You can read our OPPO A39 review here. 

That’s it for this round-up, honestly it’s not hard to see the value of ASUS ZenFone 3 Max in terms of value for money it delivers, especially with its reduced pricing. From all the contenders that we’ve seen it delivers the most value-for-money in the recent devices we’ve tested under the 10K segment.

Read also:
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Meizu M5, M5S, M5 Note Initial Review: Meet Meizu’s Budget Devices