Apple iPhone 17e vs Google Pixel 10a vs Samsung Galaxy A56 vs OnePlus 15R — Which One Should You Buy?

Four phones. Four very different approaches. One question — which one is the right buy for you? The Apple iPhone 17e, the Google Pixel 10a, the Samsung Galaxy A56, and the OnePlus 13R are all sitting in the mid-range to upper-mid-range price bracket right now, and each one makes a strong case for itself in a different way.

1. Apple iPhone 17e

  The Apple iPhone 17e was announced on March 2, 2026. It is the most affordable iPhone in Apple’s current lineup, priced at ₹64,900 for the base 256GB model. Pre-orders opened on March 4, and the phone is available in three colours — Black, White, and Soft Pink.

The iPhone 17e has a 6.1-inch OLED display with a notch at the top — not the Dynamic Island found on the iPhone 17. The display has a standard 60Hz refresh rate, a typical brightness of 800 nits, and a peak brightness of 1,200 nits. The front is protected by Ceramic Shield 2, which Apple says is three times more scratch-resistant than the front glass on the iPhone 16e.

The phone is powered by the A19 chip — the same chip as the base iPhone 17, though this version uses a 4-core GPU instead of the 5-core GPU on the standard model. The chip includes Neural Accelerators, which power Apple Intelligence features like AI photo editing, writing tools, and on-device processing. RAM is expected to be 8GB.

The rear camera is a single 48MP Fusion camera with an f/1.6 aperture and OIS. Apple says it can shoot next-generation portraits with Focus and Depth Control. The front camera is a 12MP unit. Video recording goes up to 4K. For charging, Apple has finally added MagSafe and Qi2 wireless charging to the 17e, supporting up to 15W wireless charging. Wired fast charging requires a 20W or higher adapter, which is not included in the box. The battery delivers the same 26-hour video playback as the iPhone 16e. The phone has an IP68 rating and 256GB or 512GB of storage — no microSD support.

The iPhone 17e runs iOS 26 and is built for Apple Intelligence with full Siri AI integration.

2. Google Pixel 10a 

The Google Pixel 10a was officially announced on February 18, 2026, including in India where it is priced at ₹49,999. In the US it starts at $499 for 128GB and $599 for 256GB. It is available in four colours — Obsidian, Fog, Berry, and Lavender.

The Pixel 10a has a 6.3-inch p-OLED Actua display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 3,000 nits, and Gorilla Glass 7i protection. The display is 11% brighter than the Pixel 9a it replaces. The phone is powered by the Google Tensor G4 chip with 8GB LPDDR5X RAM and 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1 storage.

The rear camera setup has a 48MP main camera with an f/1.7 aperture, OIS, and a 1/2-inch image sensor, along with a 13MP ultra-wide camera with a 120-degree field of view. The front camera is a 13MP shooter. Google’s AI camera features include Auto Best Take, Camera Coach powered by Gemini, and conversational photo editing in Google Photos.

The battery is a 5,100mAh unit with 30W wired fast charging and 10W wireless charging. Google says the phone lasts more than 30 hours on a single charge. It runs Android 16 with Google’s new Material 3 Expressive UI and comes with 7 years of OS and security updates, which is one of the best software support commitments on any mid-range phone. It has an IP68 rating and also features Satellite SOS connectivity — a first for an A-series Pixel.

Also Read:https://newstoq.com/smartphones-under-25000/

3. Samsung Galaxy A56 5G

The Samsung Galaxy A56 5G was announced on March 2, 2025. It is priced at ₹40,999 for 8GB + 128GB, ₹43,999 for 8GB + 256GB, and ₹46,999 for 12GB + 256GB. It is available on Flipkart India and Samsung’s official website in Pink, Olive, Graphite, and Light Gray.

The phone has a 6.7-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ support, a peak brightness of 1,900 nits, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection on both front and back. It is powered by the Samsung Exynos 1580 chipset on a 4nm process, with the Xclipse 540 GPU co-developed with AMD using RDNA 3 architecture. It comes with 8GB or 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1 storage. Note that the Galaxy A56 is the first A5x series phone to remove the microSD card slot, so there is no storage expansion option.

The rear camera system is a triple setup with a 50MP main camera with OIS (f/1.8), a 12MP ultra-wide (f/2.2), and a 5MP macro lens (f/2.4). The front camera is a 12MP shooter. The camera supports 4K@30fps and 1080p@60fps video recording, along with Samsung AI features like Object Eraser and AI-enhanced portrait mode.

The battery is a 5,000mAh unit with 45W wired fast charging. There is no wireless charging support. The phone runs Android 15 with One UI 7.0 and Samsung has confirmed 6 Android OS upgrades and 6 years of security patches, with support running until 2031. It has an IP67 rating for water resistance up to 1 metre for 30 minutes.

4. OnePlus 15R 

The OnePlus 15R was launched in India on December 17, 2025, and is available on Amazon India and the OnePlus official website. It is priced at ₹47,998 for 12GB + 256GB and ₹52,998 for 12GB + 512GB. It comes in Charcoal Black and Mint Breeze.

The OnePlus 15R has a 6.83-inch 1.5K LTPS OLED display with a 165Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 3,600 nits, and Gorilla Glass 7i protection. It supports HDR10+, HDR Vivid, Dolby Vision, and has a minimum brightness of 1 nit for comfortable reading in the dark.

The phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chipset — the world’s first phone in India with this processor — paired with LPDDR5X Ultra RAM and UFS 4.1 storage. OnePlus has also added an OP Gaming Core chip that keeps frame rates steady during gaming and enables always-on 120fps in supported titles like MLBB. The AnTuTu benchmark score is 2,957,229 — one of the highest for any phone in this price range.

The rear camera setup has a 50MP Sony IMX906 main camera with OIS and an f/1.8 aperture, along with an 8MP ultra-wide camera. The front camera is a 32MP shooter — the best selfie camera in this comparison. The cameras support 4K video recording.

Also Read:https://newstoq.com/upcoming-mobiles-in-india-2026/

The battery is a 7,400mAh unit — the largest in this comparison — with 80W SUPERVOOC fast charging that can go from 1% to 100% in about 50 minutes. There is no wireless charging. The phone runs OxygenOS 16 on Android 15 and OnePlus offers 4 years of Android OS updates and 6 years of security patches. It is 8.3mm thin and weighs 215 grams. Durability ratings include IP66, IP68, and IP69.

Comparison Table