Deals: The best smartphone deals from Amazon’s Great Indian Festival

Amazon has launched the Great Indian Festival or “GIF”. Let’s not get into the debate about how to pronounce it and how to look at prepositions. There are some huge discounts and some more modest, here are the ones that caught our attention.

There is a huge discount of 40% on Xiaomi 14. This phone is technically from last year, but it has the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And it’s smaller than most flagships with 6.36” LTPO OLED displays. It has an impressive triple 50MP Leica camera on the back and a relatively large 4,610mAh battery with fast charging (90W wired, 50W wireless). It will soon receive 4 OS updates, starting with Android 15.

The Xiaomi 14 Civi is 25% off and while we strongly prefer the regular 14, the Civi may appeal to selfie lovers. It has two 32MP cameras on the front, one with a wide and one ultra-wide (100°) lens. The rear cameras are in a 50+50+12MP configuration, which includes a 50MP 50mm portrait cam. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a little slow, but quite good considering the price. Additionally, some people may appreciate the extra space on the 6.55” OLED display.

The OnePlus 12R is great value for money thanks to its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Yes, it’s a generation behind, but for a mid-₹30,000 price tag, it’s a great chip. And you get a sharp 6.78” LTPO OLED display. The cameras are kind of basic (50+8+2MP), as is the IP64 rating. However, the 5,500mAh battery with 100W charging is no surprise.

We’re also including the OnePlus 12 here – the regular discount isn’t great, but with SBI credit or debit cards, it gets better. This phone has the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and a proper Hasselblad camera with 50MP main, 64MP 70mm tele and 48MP ultra wide. It also features 50W wireless charging for the 5,400mAh battery.

The iQOO 12 is a whopping ₹13,000 cheaper (except the bank offers mentioned above) and it also gets you the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Except for the Hasselblad name, the camera hardware is quite similar. The battery is small (5,000mAh) and only supports wired charging (120W). There are a few other areas where the OnePlus is slightly better (510ppi display vs 453ppi, for example), but the price savings make the iQOO hard to ignore.

Instead of Xiaomi 14, you can have Samsung Galaxy S24. Yes, less RAM and less storage costs more. Speaking of, we recommend the 256GB option as it uses the faster UFS 4.0 chips (the 128GB version is UFS 3.1). Samsung is smaller (here’s how they are sized) and will get 7 years of support. Do you prefer OneUI on HyperOS? This is another idea.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is also part of the GIF sale, but it’s only discounted by a modest 9% and only the 512GB model is available. It has solid cameras and the unique benefit of an S Pen, but its price is the only one on this list with a six-figure price tag.

The Realme GT 6T is available in various configurations – make sure to use the coupon as it brings the price down by up to ₹4,000! The 6T basically rivals the OnePlus 12R with the same 6.78” LTPO OLED display and similar camera setup, but the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is no match for the 8 Gen 2.

OnePlus Nord 4 deals depend on coupons and small discounts for SBI credit and debit cards. This model has a beautiful aluminum unibody just like the old days. It uses the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 like the Realme, but not an LTPO panel (the 6.74” 120Hz OLED display is still good enough).

The OnePlus Nord CE4 doesn’t have a cool metal body and only gets the non-Plus Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. The 6.7” display has a lower resolution (1080p+ vs 1240p+) and dust and water resistance drops to IP54 (from IP65 on the Nord 4). That said, the camera and battery are almost identical and you get to save some cash.

It’s hard to recommend the OnePlus Nord CE4 Lite – it’s not that cheap and its Snapdragon 695 chipset is really old at this point. The rest of the phone isn’t bad, but we would have liked a non-lite CE4.

There is a great discount of 39% on Samsung Galaxy M35. This 5G phone is based on the Exynos 1380 and offers a 6.6” OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and FHD+ resolution (keep this in mind when comparing to the phones below). It brings a 50MP main camera and an 8MP ultra-wide, as well as a large 6,000mAh battery with 25W charging.

The Tecno Pova 6 Neo 5G was launched just a few weeks ago, so 18% off is a bigger discount than we expected on this new phone. While the Dimensity 6300 is no speed demon, it does connect you to 5G networks. We’re more concerned about the 6.7” 120Hz IPS LCD – it only has HD+ resolution. And 18W charging is quite slow for a battery with a capacity of 5,000mAh. The good thing is that you will not find another 108MP camera in this price segment.

The Lava Blaze 3 5G is also new and has the same Dimensity 6300 chipset, with almost the same 6.56” 90Hz IPS LCD HD+ resolution. The 5,000mAh/18W battery is also basically the same. The Blaze is cheaper, but you lose the 108MP camera (you get a 50MP module instead).

The Tecno Pop 9 is so new that it’s still on pre-order. If you pre-book now (with a ₹500 deposit), you will be able to buy this phone for ₹9,500 instead of its MSRP of ₹12,000. This is a 5G phone, so we see the Dimensity 6300 once again. And another HD+ IPS LCD, this time a 6.6” 120Hz display. The rear camera has a 48MP Sony sensor. Note that the sale starts on October 8th, so you’ll need to finish shopping before then.

The Samsung Galaxy M15 is worth a look. You don’t get a lot of RAM at the base price, just 4GB, but you can go up to 6GB or 8GB (each is a ₹1,000 upgrade). This is also a 5G phone, but Dimensity 6100+ has been used instead. At least you get a display with FHD+ resolution, a 6.5” 90Hz OLED panel. And a 6,000mAh battery with 25W charging, just like the M35.