Hello Guys! Phreview is back, giving you the best of options in the smartphone world. There have been lotsa new phones been launched and there are phones with prices slashed from the last season, making it a great buy right now. Let's dive right in...!!
As always, the phones have been categorized according to the different Operating systems available at this price range.
Android:
Samsung Galaxy Ace
The Samsung Galaxy Ace enters Phreview, thanks to the slashed price from Samsung. The Ace can now be your's @ INR 11,400/- and is a great value for money phone right now considering it's decent specs on offers.
The Ace comes with a 3.5" TFT capacitive display @ a readable 165 ppi pixel density and covered by scratch proof Corning Gorilla glass display, a 800 MHz processor, 278 MB RAM, a 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, a 1350 mAh battery, 3G/WiFi/GPS and with Samsung's DNSe Souch Enhancement technology for better audio quality. The Ace ships with Android Gingerbread and Samsung's TouchWiz 3.0 UI on top. There will be no official ICS upgrade on offer though.
Next up is another VFM offering, this time from Sony Ericsson -
Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman:
The Live with Walkman is Sony's budget android phone which apart from the screen size doesn't feel all that budget, with an award winning(iFA) design and rest all the specs matching it's bigger bros, the Neo V. It has got the best hardware in the price range, a 1 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 5 MP Autofocus camera, a front facing VGA camera, 3G/WiFi/GPS and with Sony's XLoud technology for music. The only specs matching the price is it's small screen real estate of 3.2" and also an average(readable) screen resolution @ 180 ppi.
The phone can be purchased at INR 13,100/- and ships with Gingerbread out of the box with a promised upgrade to Ice cream Sandwich.
Motorola Defy plus and Defy XT
The Defy XT is the Motorola's new offering in it's Defy range. The XT is life proof - IP67 certified for dust and water proof like it's predecessors (Defy and Defy +).
The Defy XT design has been slightly altered but still maintains the same clean, industrial look as the other devices in the Defy family. The XT comes with the same hardware as the Defy plus - a 3.7" LCD display @ 265 ppi, covered by a scratch proof Corning Gorilla glass, a 1 Ghz processor and a 512 MB RAM, a 5 MP autofocus camera and this time with a larger 1650 mAh (1700 mAh on Defy +) battery. The one big difference in the hardware is that the Defy XT comes with a front facing VGA camera for video calls, a much awaited feature for the Defy fans.
Motorola has replaced their MotoBlur for Android with MotoSwitch, a new UI which is more simple, less graphic intensive (transitional effects, etc.). The Defy XT can be your's at INR 14,990/- and comes with Gingerbread outta the box.
If you do not need a front facing camera or if you love the MotoBlur more than the new MotoSwitch, then Defy plus it is @ INR 13,690/-
Unfortunately, Moto has no plans for any ICS upgrade for the Defy plus and the newer XT.
Next up, is a game changer!!
Sony Xperia U
Sony has parted ways with Ericsson, it will be pure Sony hereafter. Sony have entered the mobile world with a bang - with an annoucement that they will no longer be in the feature phone business and that it will be only Smartphones from here.
Sony has entered the Smartphone world with their NXT line up of devices, still going with their Android 'Xperia' moniker - Xperia U, Xperia P and Xperia S. The Xperia U being the budget/basic phone of the NXT series.
This time, it is enter INR 15k, enter dual-core... Sony has announced it's entry into the smartphone market with a bang! The basic phone of the all-new NXT series has got a 1 GHz dual core processor, which will be a game changer at this price point and a signal to the other manufactures still running the last year's hardware on their new phones. Though the dual core setup on the Xperia U is not the best of dual cores out there, but still bests the single core ones by a big margin.
Xperia U comes with a 3.5" LED backlit LCD display @ a super fine 280 ppi and Mobile Bravia engine technology which makes viewing multimedia content like pictures and videos a joy, a 512 MB RAM, 8 GB of inbuilt memory, 5 MP Autofocus camera with LED flash, a front facing VGA camera, 3G/WiFi/GPS, a 1320 mAh battery and with Sony's 3D surround sound audio technology. One interesting hardware feature that is sure to catch your eyes, is the transparent strip placed at the bottom end of the phone which houses the antenna but also changes it's color matching the dominant color displayed on the phone's screen. Sony has enabled more customization options like the interchangable bottom cap which is available in vibrant colors like white, yellow, magenta, etc.
The only downside to the phone does not have an expandable memory and, although it has got 8 GB of internal storage, only 4 GB of it is available to the user for one's multimedia content, the rest is reserved to the phone's content like the OS, apps, emails, etc.
The Xperia U with Gingerbread out of the box and a planned ICS upgrade can be your's @ INR 15,000/-
Symbian:
Why Symbian? You may say it is almost extinct now and Nokia will be supporting it only until 2016. Still, the Symbian OS in it's latest form (Symbian Belle) is definitely impressive. The six homescreens, shortcuts, homescreen widgets, the pull down notification bar, improved browser, flat menu structure, etc. All these improved features make the Symbian on par with established players like iOS and Android except when compared to the number of apps on offer. I would still say it would not matter much to be a deal breaker, with all the major apps available on Symbian.
Nokia 603
The 603 comes with a 1Ghz processor, a 512 MB RAM, 5MP fixed focus camera, support for HD Gaming, DivX/Xvid video codec support, 720p@30fps video recording, FM transmitter, NFC, a great 3.5" ClearBlack IPS -LCD display which is the brightest display on a phone(@ 1000 nits) and also a beautiful design similar to it's Windows Phone cousin, the Nokia Lumia 710.
Sure the specs aren't earth shattering, but when you consider the price for which Nokia offers this phone, it is definitely a good buy @ INR 12,800/-. Nokia is also offering some interesting color choices with a black/white front panel and interchangeable back covers and a planned upgrade to the next version of Symbian - Symbian Carla.
Nokia has announced an intermediate update to the Nokia Belle on 603, called the Nokia Belle FP1 which brings in sweet updates to the phone like Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Headphone, faster HTML5 capable browser, Microsoft Apps and 20 brand new widgets.
Bada OS:
Samsung Wave 3:
The Wave 3 is Samsung's latest flagship Bada phone after the Wave and Wave 2. The Wave 3 is bigger, slimmer(9.9 mm) and better specced than it's elder brothers, Wave and Wave 2 as any true sucessor should. However, Samsung has managed to maintain the Bada family look for the Wave 3 with it's clean minimalistic design and a brushed aluminium back cover as from the time of the first Wave phone. The Wave 3 comes with a 4" Super AMOLED display @ 223 ppi and covered by Gorilla glass, a 1.4 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, a 5 MP camera with LED flash, a front facing VGA camera, a 1500 mAh battery and with 3G/WiFi/GPS.
The Wave 3 comes with latest version of the OS, Bada OS v2.0.The Bada OS may be short in the number of apps when compared to the Android and iOS but is almost as customizable as Android with multiple home screens and widgets.
The Wave 3 can be purchased @ INR 15,500/- and sure beats all the Android phones (except the Xperia U) hands down in terms of hardware at this price.
Windows Phone 7:
If you remeber right, the Samsung Omnia W was our WP7 King in this segment on our last post but things have changed, the Omnia W is no where to be found now, rumours are that Samsung have pulled it away for launching the Omnia M, a cheaper option to the Omnia W, which is yet to hit the market. Anyways, surprisingly HTC has entered the segment with its Radar.
HTC Radar
HTC, much known for it's great solid unibody constructions and not so great pricing, atleast here in India where most of their phones start off with earth shattering prices, like the Radar which was launched for around INR 23k (still carrying the same price tag at the retail stores around here) and now being sold for INR 15700/-, which sounds like the price the Radar should have been launched with when compared to the other WP devices on the market. Now that the price seems right, lets go down to what the phone has on offer for you.
The Radar has a solid, all aluminium unibody construction by HTC with a non-removable battery and a non-expandable memory like it's other WP brothers. It comes with a 3.8" Super LCD display @ a fine 246 ppi covered by Gorilla glass, a 1 GHz processor and 512 MB of RAM, SRS sound enhancement technology, a f/2.2 5 MP Autofocus camera with LED flash, a front facing VGA camera, 3G/WiFi/GPS and a 1520 mAh battery.
Nokia Lumia 710
Lumia 710 comes with a 1.4 GHz proccessor, a 512 MB RAM, 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, a 3.7" Nokia's ClearBlack LCD display @ a fine 252 ppi and covered by scratch proof Corning Gorilla glass, 8 GB of internal storage (non-expandable), a 1300 mAh battery and with 3G/WiFi/GPS.
The Lumia line-up of Nokia phones have access to Nokia's exclusive Windows phone apps like the Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive, Nokia Music, ESPN, etc. which make it a big differentiator for the manufacturer to the other wise not so customizable Windows phones. The Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive are especially exceptional apps which can be a deal breaker for some as the voice guided navigation and the maps are much better and are available for most countries for which the Bing maps have no clue. But this would not be a problem in the future Windows phone devices as the Bing maps will be running the Nokia's NAVTEQ map data.
The Lumia 710 can be purchased at INR 13,700/- and ships with Windows Phone 7.5 or Mango out of the box with an upgrade to Windows Phone Tango on the way.
Next up, is Nokia's latest budget Windows phone offering...
Nokia Lumia 610
The Lumia 610 is the first budget Windows phone launched, thanks to the Nokia-Microsoft partnership.
Lumia 610 is the first of it's kind, a low cost Windows phone device. It comes with a 3.7" TFT capacitive display @ 255 ppi but capable of only 65k colors, a 800 MHz processor, a 256 MB RAM, a 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, 8 GB internal storage (non-expandable), 1300 mAh battery and with 3G/WiFi/GPS. Nokia has made the Lumia 610 available in some interesting color options and not just black, like the Cyan here, Magenta and White. This budget phone is sure to attract a lot of young users who would like the bling with the colors and the chrome metallic strip on the phone.
The 800 MHz processor is sure fast enough for day to day usage and new users would hardly find a difference from it's bigger brothers, the Lumia 710 and 800.
However, the 256 MB of RAM posed some problems with apps which refused to run on the Lumia 610, apps like Skype and Angry Birds which only run on Windows phone devices with a minimum RAM of 512 MB.
The Lumia 610 with Windows phone Mango is just been launched in India and can be your's @ INR 12,400/-
Hope it helps...!!
See you all soooooon, Cheers...!!
So, the other big differentiator will definitely be the camera or the image quality. Asus has got a trick up its sleeve for even that, you can install/side-load the Google camera app by enabling the Camera2API, which shouldn't take you more than 5-10 minutes and take our word or just google and you will see huge difference in the image quality using the Google camera app.
