Top 5: Affordable camera phones in India

Let your phone do the clicking! Check out these really inexpensive camera phones.

A smartphone is one of the best innovations to happen to today's world, way ahead of what mobile was initiated as. In fact, it has brought a revolutionary change in our perception of technology, completely transforming the outlook of the tech enthusiasts towards the definition of a multi-purpose device. Every new day, there pops up a new technological innovation, a new phone, tightening the ever-so-tough competition. Among the many features and supports that render a smartphone smart, camera is almost the most-required one.

Recognising the market, the major players have been paying much of their focus on their phones' cameras and its resolutions, be it a low-budget and mid-ranged smartphones. Though middle class consumers still don't prefer high-priced camera phones, they have the options to experience good camera phones at a bit lower budget as well.

It was Nokia that initiated bringing the experience of a digital camera in a smartphone, and ended up introducing the best camera phone ever -- Nokia PureView 808. This phone holds a gigantic 41MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens and Xenon flash. Nokia Lumia 920 is another product with 8MP camera sensor, which can be called the best innovations by the company due to its crystal clear output. Not only Nokia, but some of the other major players like Samsung and HTC too put in the best quality camera in their smartphones, an example of which is Samsung Galaxy S4 glorified by a 13MP cam, while HTC One proudly boasts of an ultra-pixel image sensor with 4MP camera.

We start out with:

Micromax Canvas HD A116

This smartphone has proved to be a game changer for Micromax. Before its launch, the company had been struggling hard to prove its worth in the smartphone segment. And then arrived the Canvas HD A116, blessed with a whooping 8MP primary camera with an autofocus feature and an LED flash support for better picture quality in low-light ambiance. For video calls, a secondary camera is also made available at the front.

The images are captured in a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels along with 720p videos at the rate of 30fps. With a display size of 5-inch, Micromax Canvas HD A116 runs on the latest Android Jelly Bean OS and is powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz processor coupled with 1GB RAM. 4GB of internal memory is provided with an expandable memory of up to 32GB along with a battery power of 2,000mAh.

Price:Rs 13,319

LG smartphones have carved a niche for themselves. The company has built a segment for itself where it does good business. The LG Optimus L7 II Dual is a step ahead of the very successful Optimus L7 with some additional and advanced features and supports.

The smartphone holds a 4.3-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with multi-touch feature and Android Jelly Bean platform. The camera department is taken care of by an 8MP rear camera that adds fun and entertainment to the device with supportive features such as autofocus, Cheese shutter, continuous shot, LED flash, etc. There is a secondary camera too VGA quality to enable video chats.

Other features of the smartphone are dual-core 1GHz processor, 4GB internal memory with 768MB RAM, expandable memory up to 32GB and a battery of 2,460mAh for long life.

Price: Rs 13,491

Here comes the brand that is already ruling the hearts of many of Indians with its quality products available in every price range. Considered to be the successor of Samsung Galaxy S, the Galaxy S Duos is an Android Ice Cream Sandwich-powered smartphone with dual-SIM support and comes with a screen size of 4 inches and 233ppi of pixel density.

Apart from the smooth functioning screen, the device marks its presence with some remarkable features that include a 1GHz processor, 4GB internal storage space, microSD card slot for expanding external memory up to 32GB, various connectivity options like 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc., and a 1,500mAh battery. The Galaxy S Duos is bestowed with a 5MP lens and is quite appealing with the support of LED flash, autofocus and CMOS sensor. There is a secondary camera, VGA quality, to help in capturing self-portraits and making face-time calls.

Price: Rs 11,150

Though the market value of Nokia smartphones has declined over the last few years, the company is still considered to be one of the best among the major players existing in the market and with the popular Lumia series, it sure is about to win its aura back. Nokia Lumia 800 is another addition in the Lumia line-up, which is doing its best to improve the position of the company in the market.

It runs on Microsoft Windows Phone v.7.5 Mango operating system, drawing power from a single-core 1.4GHz processor. It features an great 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, autofocus support and dual-LED flash making the pictures and videos super clear and bright even when shot in low light. However, the lack of secondary camera, which limits video calls, is quite a drawback.

The internal memory is 16GB with 512MB RAM but there is no slot to expand the external memory. Blessed with almost all connectivity options, Lumia 800 has 1,450mAh battery, under the hood, to handle the regular and heavy operations simultaneously.

Price: Rs. 15,190

Perhaps an oldie in the list, but HTC One V is, according to us, one of the best from the manufacturer in its price range. It has an Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS, the smartphone provides a simultaneous HD video and image capturing feature with its 5MP camera, which also comes supported with autofocus, BSI image sensor and LED flash features for better low-light captures.

The camera also features a continuous shooting mode resulting in options to select the required and the best click, while the Zero shutter lag reduces the reloading time of the camera. No secondary camera is supported, which can be ignored in this case considering a reasonable price. HTC One V has a 3.7-inch diagonally wide capacitive touch display with a pixel density of 252ppi.

To top Android ICS platform, it has HTC Sense v.4.0 UI. Internal memory is 4GB with external memory space up to 32GB whereas the 1,500mAh battery is non-removable, which means that the microSD slot is hot-swappable.

Price: Rs 10,911