I recently reviewed phones that start above Rs 20,000. Both have 4 GB RAM, 720p LCD screens and a single camera. These are specs we would have seen in a phone under Rs 12,000 a year ago. The worst offender is the heavy software that causes constant stuttering, lagging, and app crashes. Seeing the RAM and memory crisis isn't going away anytime soon, I think the return of Android Go will be the answer to all of these problems.
Rs 20,000 Gets You Less than It Used To
The phones I was talking about are the OnePlus N6 and Vivo T5 Lite. Both are the latest offerings in 2026, and they are not alone. Look at the upcoming phones, and you will find Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 phones running entry-level Unisoc chipsets with only 4GB of memory.
Such is the state of the smartphone market in 2026 due to the ongoing RAM crisis. But what's worse is that these phones come with Android 16, which has a minimum requirement of 6 GB of RAM, according to Google itself.
On top of that, they're running a custom skin with its own features, animations, and background tasks. As a result, users get a bad smartphone experience with constant stuttering, lagging, longer loading times and poor memory management. Issues I thought we had left behind in 2019.
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Android Go Was Built for Exactly This
Android Go is a stripped-back version of Android built exactly for phones with very little performance and memory headroom to spare. It removed redundant services and background tasks to deliver a more manageable and smoother experience on budget devices.
That's not all. Google later introduced lighter versions of its own apps like Gmail Go, Maps Go, Assistant Go and YouTube Go. All built to offer the same Google services without making your phone run like a tractor. Even third-party apps chimed in with Facebook Lite, Instagram Lite, and Spotify Lite, to name a few.
We even covered Android Go apps and how much less memory they consume compared to non-lite versions in a separate video from 2017.
So why aren't there Android Go phones anymore? Well, even though Android Go still exists today, the idea was abandoned by brands as good phones got cheaper and you could get 6 GB or even 8 GB RAM devices for around Rs 15,000 until last year.
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Why Android Go Needs a Comeback in 2026?
As I explained earlier, the smartphone market has gotten worse in 2026 because of the RAM crisis, and there are no signs of immediate changes in sight. A Rs 19,999 phone in 2026 has the same memory profile of a Rs 8,000 phone from a few years ago.
A push from Google to revive Android Go and its lighter apps would do three things for these budget phones. It would stop the OS from consuming too much memory that the phone does not have. This, in turn, would offer smoother and usable software for everyday users who bought a phone with their hard-earned money.
Google should also encourage brands to ship phones with Android Go versions of their skin. This way, they could have some of some basic services without severing the user experience.
Obviously, we would lose some AI features, fancy animations, blur effects, and the Liquid Glass-like theme that Android brands are going crazy with lately. But at least I won't have to wait for a music player to take a minute to load and play songs, something I experienced in my Vivo T5 Lite review.
Google appears to be working on one of these improvements. The brand issued a post on the Android Developer Blog on August 26, 2026, requesting developers to make lighter apps with reduced memory usage and optimised code.
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Android Go Isn't Optional Anymore, It's Necessary
All this sounds too ambitious, and honestly, it is a little bit. But no one could have predicted the monumental increase in price hikes, and the trend might get worse in 2027. So Android Go and Lite apps have become the need of the hour if brands want to sell phones under Rs 25,000.
Because the alternatives are phones that I would not recommend, even to my worst enemy.
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