Okay okay, I heard you guys. The last time we did one of these lists—the SoyaCincau best smartphones for under RM1,000 guide—some of you guys said that those devices just weren’t good or powerful enough for your day to day use. Well, we’ve heard you loud and clear, and so we’re going to double up the budget this time to a whopping RM2,000.
Just like the last time though, the biggest criteria we have with this list of RM2,000 and below smartphones is that we’ll be looking at just smartphones launch this year if possible (spoiler: it’s not). Basically, we want to only recommend devices that are as new as possible because not only do people not like old phones in general, but more importantly with older devices you may run into issues with outdated software.
Poco F5 Pro
Alright so almost immediately we’re going to bend our own budget rules here but we have good reason for it. Our newest entry on this list, the Poco F5 Pro launched with a starting price of RM2,099, but during its launch it did already come with a discount bringing it down to RM1,999. This means that there’s good reason to believe you’ll be able to snag one for yourself below RM2,000 in future sales periods too.
For that price you’re getting a 6.67-inch, 1440p AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 480Hz touch sampling rate and a peak brightness of 1,400nits. There’s also a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over it for scratch resistance. Under the hood meanwhile is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, the best flagship processor for Androids last year, mated to up to 12GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage with Android 13 out of the box with MIUI 14 skinned over it.
Elsewhere, the Poco F5 Pro features a triple rear camera with a main 64MP, f/1.79 camera flanked by an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide shooter and a 2MP, f/2.4 macro lens. For selfies meanwhile you get a 16MP, f/2.45 front camera. Keeping the lights on meanwhile is a 5,160mAh battery with 67W fast charging and, for the first time on a Poco device, 30W wireless charging too. Other features of note include stereo speakers, an in-display fingerprint sensor and an IR blaster.
Where to buy: Lazada
Samsung Galaxy A54
If you’d prefer to be more comfortably under budget, the Samsung Galaxy A54 crops up as a rather promising option. Priced at RM1,899, the Galaxy A54 packs a 6.4-inch, FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 1,000nits and a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over it too. There’s also an IP67 dust and water resistance rating here too, the only entry on this list with it.
Powering the Galaxy A54 meanwhile is Samsung’s own Exynos 1380 processor with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. It comes with One UI 5.1 based on Android 13 out of the box, and perhaps Samsung’s key selling point here with the Galaxy A54 is that, compared to the rest of this list, it has the best software support. The Korean giant is guaranteeing four major Android OS upgrades and five years of security patches for the Galaxy A54, meaning you could ostensibly use it till 2028 rolls around.
Other features on the Galaxy A54 include a 50MP, f/1.8 main camera alongside a 12MP, f/2.2 ultrawide shooter and a 5MP, f/2.4 macro lens with a 32MP, f/2.2 selfie shooter up front. Keeping the lights on meanwhile is a 5,000mAh battery with 25W fast charging, and you’ll also find stereo speakers and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Vivo V27
If you’re more into taking selfies than anything else, the Vivo V27 could be up right up your alley. With a retail price of RM1,799, the Vivo V27’s defining feature is its front facing 50MP, f/2.45 selfie camera with autofocus. That doesn’t mean that Vivo forgot about the rear cameras though, with a triple rear camera on the back housing a 50MP, f/1.88 main camera, an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide and a 2MP, f/2.4 macro lens.
Elsewhere, the Vivo V27 has a large 6.78-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display with curved edges and a 120Hz refresh rate. Under the hood meanwhile is a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 mated to up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, running Android 13 skinned with Funtouch OS 13 out of the box. There’s a 4,600mAh battery here too with 66W wired fast charging.
Oppo Reno 8T 5G
Next up we have the Oppo Reno 8T 5G—not to be confused with the Reno 8T 4G—which has a price tag of RM1,799. This gets you a 6.7-inch, FHD+ AMOLED display with curved edges, a 120Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 900nits. Powering the device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 processor with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You’ll find it running Android 13 out of the box, with ColorOS 13 skinned over it. Keeping the lights on meanwhile is a 4,800mAh battery with 67W SuperVOOC fast charging, and you’ll find stereo speakers on the device too.
While these specs aren’t particularly impressive compared to the others on this list, the Oppo Reno 8T 5G does have one trick up its sleeve. On the back of the Reno 8T 5G is a 108MP, f/1.7 main ‘portrait’ camera flanked by a 2MP, f/2.4 depth sensor and a 2MP, f/3.3 microlens offering a 40x magnification. It’s a bit of a novelty party trick as I can’t really think of too many situations where you’ll want a magnifying camera on your phone, but’s it’s still a neat trick. There’s also a 32MP, f/2.4 front facing camera rounding things off.
Xiaomi 12T
Okay so you know everything I said at the start about keeping this list to just phones released this year? Yeah, forget about that as the Xiaomi 12T was launched last year, but in our defence it did only come out in October, and seeing as we’re only halfway into this year, there aren’t exactly that many other smartphones launched around this price category that we’d recommend anyway.
In any case, with the Xiaomi 12T we’re looking at a RM1,999 price tag that should be a little lower these days especially during sales periods. For that much you’re getting a 6.67-inch, AMOLED display pushing a 2712 x 1220p resolution which would’ve been the highest had it not been for the Poco F5 Pro. The Xiaomi 12T also features up to a 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 900nits, a 480Hz touch sampling rate and a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5 over it for scratch resistance.
Under the hood the Xiaomi 12T packs a MediaTek Dimensity 8100 Ultra system-on-chip with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. This does come with Android 12 out of the box skinned with MIUI 13 though due to it being a slightly older device.
On the back meanwhile is a main 108MP, f/1.7 camera alongside an 8MP, f/2.2 ultrawide shooter and a 2MP, f/2.4 macro lens with a 20MP, f/2.24 front camera rounding things off. You’ll also find a 5,000mAh battery with 120Hz wired fast charging here along with stereo speakers and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
