For those who love their music but cannot cough up the cash, we have compiled a list of the most stylish, affordable headphones with brilliant sound quality which are comfortable to wear, within the Rs. 30,000 range.
Voting is now Closed! The Winner for the Best Mid Range Headphones in the iGyaan Tech Awards 2014 is Sony MDR 7506.
Looking for an amazing smartphone with the best features within the price range of 10,000 and 20,000? This smartphone packs more than modest specifications and latest features all within an affordable budget.
Voting is now Closed! The Winner for the Best Affordable Phone in the iGyaan Tech Awards 2014 is Xiaomi Mi 3.
HTC recently launched a new phone into the Indian market, and despite the fact that many phones exist with similar specs, the price and HTC reassuring name give the new Desire 616 a definite edge.
The HTC desire 616 has a 5 inch display with 1280 x 720 p display an Octa Core MT6592 chipset that has been down-clocked to 1.4 GHz to ensure proper and efficient battery drain along with stability in the OS. Also, even though a lot of people pointed out in our hands on video that the Desire 616 does not have Sense UI, in reality HTC has added Sense 5.5 to the Desire 616, which is on top of Android Jellybean, with a hope of a KitKat upgrade soon.
The optics are fitted with a decent 8 MP camera with 1080p video capture + a 2 MP camera with 720p video capabilities. The main storage is 4GB which can be moved, in-fact is automatically moved to external storage the minute you add a card, seamless downloads for all. 1GB of RAM will suffice and the device promises a great overall functionality.
HTC has hit the right mark with its recent influx of devices in the Indian Market. With the phones like Desire 816 and 516 becoming hot category favourites, the 616 will be an exciting product for India. Stay tuned for the review and watch our hands on below. (please ignore the error in the initial title)
Read the Full Official Specs Below
Size
142 x 71.9 x 9.15 mm
Weight
150 g
Display
5 inch, HD 720p
CPU Speed
1.4 GHz octa-core CPUs
Platform Android
Android™
HTC BlinkFeed 5.5™
SIM Card Type
Dual SIM (Regular SIM + micro SIM)
Network
2G/ 2.5G – GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
850/900/1800/1900 (SIM1 & SIM2)
3G – UMTS/ HSPA:
900/2100 MHz with HSPA+ up to 21Mbps
Memory
Total storage: 4 GB, available capacity varies RAM: 1 GB
Expansion microSD™ up to 32GB
Its not often you see a phone sell out hours from launch, especially in India. The Motorola Moto E saw sales skyrocket the minute the handset went on sale, and there is a good reason behind it. The Moto E is built on the philosophy of the Moto X and the Moto G, two phone essentially responsible for bringing Motorola back into the same game they had originally started back in the day. But is the Moto E good enough to live up to the hype? and is it the only thing Motorola needed to defy all logic and become prominent again? Lets find out!
Overview
Motorola is trying to change the need of the hour, by re organizing spends and delivering Android in the purest form. The Moto E is a perfect example of what a user needs from a budget device. It lives up to almost any needs in this spend, however there is no kitchen sink.
Build Quality and Hardware
The Moto E is exceptionally well built, in fact if you put the Moto E and the Moto G side by side, there is hardly any noticeable difference in the build quality of both devices. The Moto E has a brilliant mix of quality materials and reinforced design along with a gorilla glass 3 front that will ensure that no one is disappointed with the phone. The Moto E also boasts water resistance and has an unknown IP coating that we will be soon putting to test. However the company claims that the handset is splash proof, just like the G and the X.
The Moto E also comes with customization options like replaceable back panels and special rubberized grip panels that will add color and strength to the already solid phone.
Hardware wise we are not empty either, the Moto E runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 chipset on dual cores with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB storage, an Adreno 302 GPU completes the mix ( it is read as 305 in benchmark apps) . You have a 5 MP camera at the back, that does not live upto anything, and then there is the 1980 mAh battery which is simply wow. The display is a 4.3 inch 960 x 540px capacitive panel with great color reproduction and brightness.
1980 mAh battery which is simply wow.
The Moto E is a dual sim phone, which will create mobile hotspots using your 3G connection and can tether upto 5 devices for the use of 3G data. Battery life does not drain and the hotspot feature is very stable. The phone also has a nice white notification light on the right of the earpiece, that breathes once you get a new notification and goes away the minute you pull down the notification panel (you can disable this from the settings panel)
UI and Android
There is less to say here, it runs a sort of pure, yet tweaked version of Android 4.4.2 Kitkat out of the box. You do get two bloatware apps which can be uninstalled (oh thank god!) and some useful Moto apps like Moto Assist, Migrate and Alert. You might find yourself using these more than once. The great thing about Motorola’s intention behind a pure Android experience, unlike other manufacturers, is that the company plans to deliver updates almost as soon as Android gets updated in Mountain View (Google HQ). The Moto E also has a FM radio which will be appreciated by many, the FM reception is solid and the earpiece is needed as an antenna.
[pullquote] lives up beyond expectations and still remains very responsive[/pullquote]
The OS is buttery smooth and honestly you can’t ask for more from the handset, it lives up beyond expectations and still remains very responsive. This phone will be the benchmark for all phones going forward in this price bracket.
Battery
The Phone will beat all odds and defy all logic when it comes to battery performance. The Moto E can even run some heavy games, albeit one at a time, but games like Asphalt 8 runs on this US $ 120 phone and it is actually playable.
Battery life is also excellent from this dual sim handset, once you get over the initial phase of playing with the phone, most users should expect a good 1.5 days of use on this phone, with talk times running into 6+ hours in most cases with both sims installed.
Basically Motorola has a beautifully built rom of Android, that does not leak RAM and drain power, cellular antennas are strong so network searching is minimal and hence battery is saved there as well.
Phone and Networks
The dual SIM capability is just like the Moto G, and there is no surprise there. Calls are smartly forwarded to the next number once a SIM is busy. The network strength, as mentioned in the previous segment is surprisingly powerful and we are happy with the overall quality of networks and the call drops or the lack thereof.
Microphone and earpiece speaker are great and both sides will be pleasantly happy with the loud volumes.
Display, Camera and Multimedia
For all the coverage you have already seen, you should be aware by now that, the Moto E has the best possible display in this price bracket. Stop looking at specs and look at the actual quality of the display. It is crisp and bright, even outdoors, its got great viewing angles, its got gorilla glass 3 and smudge proof coating (which is brilliant by the way) and it is insanely responsive for an under 10k or even under 8k phone (INR).
The Camera is there, because its there. Honestly don’t plan on becoming a lifestyle fashion photographer with this phone (unless you already own a fancy camera). The fixed focus camera is there because they wanted people to have a camera, and it solves purely that purpose. That being said whatever pictures are clicked in good lighting and end up in focus, have good color reproduction and almost no noise. See samples: (coming up)
The LED flash is missing which is quite a shame. More than the need of a flash for the camera, consumers in this price bracket would have appreciated the LED flash as a torch. We really love our phone torches Motorola, our streets are not very well lit!
Multimedia wise, Motorola did a few good things; the speaker is now in the front, and not easily blocked by the hands, so it doesn’t muffle with ease. The audio is loud and clear, with a balanced output and an impressive sound from the 3.5 mm headphone jack. Lose the included handsfree for some real headphones to truly enjoy that audio bit. Display, like mentioned, is good so watching video or playing games is really enjoyable on this powerful budget device.
Conclusion
It takes a lot from a company to not make us so excited about a product, in fact India and many other nations in general appreciate the intent of the company. The Moto was sold out within hours of launch of sales in India, on the online shopping website Flipkart. This phone leaves little to complain about, it is well built, has great specs and features bundled with a unique and stock Android experience that will leave many happy. This is the best “first phone” for those wanting to jump the feature phone/Blackberry ship to a uber – budget Android device. It is also customizable with panels on the exterior and has a Gorilla Glass 3 and splash proof front making it a pseudo rugged, long lasting handset.
There are, however, major flaws in the current positioning of the phone. The handset is supposed to be an average mans everyday phone. It is supposed to be a emplacement for a feature phone and it’s supposed to be a phone for the masses and on a low end budget. This category of user is currently not happy or capable of shopping online. So by the time the phone gets sold from Flipkart and reaches the masses, the price escalates to Rs. 10000 and more, thanks to black market dealing and short supplies on this impressive product.
Motorola has made a fantastic phone, a phone that is truly a reason to switch from an old gen phone to Android on a budget. Why should you have to spend tens of thousands, when all you want is a phone that works well and gives you some basic functionality. Well the Moto E is here and it has changed the perception of the budget phone in our eyes. If you want to take our word for it, then the Time to Switch is Now!
(Note : the scoring below is entirely based on the Price vs ratio of each)
[tw-column width=”one-half”]
GOOD THINGS
Well Built
Responsive
Stock Android
Great Display
Great Audio
Solid Phone and Network
Excellent Battery
[/tw-column]
[tw-column width=”one-half” position=”last”]
BAD THINGS
Xiaomi’s new Redmi handset is supposed to be a sequel to their previous budget phone, has now finally been spotted online. The sub Rs. 10,000 / US $130 handset supposedly is called the Redmi aswell thanks to the red android buttons on the front of the handset.
It’ll feature a 5.5-inch, 720p IPS display), as well as Android 4.2.2, 1GB of RAM and an octa-core processor coming in two versions: 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz.
Designed to be sold for China Mobile the handset will be unlocked to 3G, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA option and CDMA 2000.
The Camera bundle includes a 5 MP front camera and a 13 MP main shooter. There is 8 GB of storage and 32 Gb expandability for the handset that comes with just 1 GB RAM. The Redmi will still miss out on LTE whereas other manufacturers are now gunning for LTE handsets in the sub 10,000 price bracket.
Panasonic has launched a new budget Android smartphone in India, the T31 is priced at 7,990 INR. The device runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and come in the budget phone category.
The Panasonic T31 sports a 4 inch WVGA display with a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and is powered by 1.3 GHz dual core processor along with 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of inbuilt storage which is expandable upto 32 GB. The device features a 3.2 MP rear camera, and also has a VGA front-facing camera. It is a dual-SIM smartphone with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EDGE, GPRS and 3G. T31 also packs a 1300 mAh battery.
The smartphone measures 122 x 64.4 x 11.95 mm and weighs 120 grams. The Panasonic T31 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean and is available in Bluish Black and Pure White colour variants.
Josh Mobile has launched the Fortune Square smartphone the cheapest Android Phone for the company at a price of 2999 INR,
Commenting on the launch, Deepak Gupta, Director, Josh Mobiles said, “Fortune Square has been designed keeping in minds the needs of smartphone lovers who need all in their gadget. Fortune Square promises to suit the requirement of every entertainment lover.”
The Josh Fortune Square features a 3.5 inch display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels. The device is powered by a 1 GHz processor and runs Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, the device has a 2 MP rear camera. The Josh Fortune Square has a 256 MB of RAM and 90 MB of inbuilt storage which can be expanded up to 32 GB. The device has a Dual SIM support and is packed with a 1450 mAh battery and the device have various connectivity options like WiFi and Bluetooth.
Karbonn has introduced a new budget Android phone, the Smart A51 is available online for 3,402 INR. The device has not got an official launch yet, but the device is available on soholic.com and also on Snapdeal.
The Karbonn Smart A51 has a 3.2 MP rear camera with LED flash and also includes a front facing VGA camera, the Smart A51 comes with a 1100 mAh battery.
The device has a 3.5 inch TFT LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels and is is powered by a 1 GHz processor, no details for the chipset is available yet, the device has a 256 MB of RAM. The Karbonn Smart A51 runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and is a dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device with dual standby time.
The Device has a 512 MB of inbuilt storage which can is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card, this budget device from Karbonn will be available in two colors, Black and White. However, the device will not have 3G support but will have some basic features like WiFi and GPS.
Intex has launched two new affordable smartphones in the “Cloud” range, the Intex Cloud X4 and Intex Cloud Y2, priced at Rs. 4,590 (Cloud X4) and Rs. 6,190 (Cloud Y2). The new phones are based on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, Cloud X4 flaunts a screen size of 3.5 inches while Cloud Y2 sports a 4.0 inch screen.The handsets are equipped with 1 GHz and 1.2 GHz dual core processor respectively. Both phones have capacitive multi-touch displays, dual SIM support and dual camera capabilities.
Intex has sold over 4 lacs Smartphones in last quarter and planning to sell 3 million this fiscal year. This widespread acceptance is testimony to our differentiated and rich product portfolio, which is backed by a strong service and support network. Our latest offerings in the ‘Cloud’ series offer an enhanced mobility experience to users who demand the best of features and performance from their smartphones and are economical too.”
Both the phones will come with Pre-loaded apps that, include Intex Play, Intex Life Box, Intex zone, Intex movies, YouTube, Facebook, Skype and Hungama.
Nokia has long lost the major chunk of the market it used to own, and it is not easy to come down from the 80% market share to a lowly 15%. Despite the continued efforts of the the Finnish manufacturer, the market seems to not want to adapt to their ecosystem anymore. Fortunately for Nokia, countries like India still exist and devices like the Nokia Asha 501 are the only Asha (ray of hope) the company may have at surviving their toughest time yet. Does the Nokia Asha 501 cut its place out in the market which is now dominated by cheap Chinese replicas.
Build Quality and Hardware
Impressive. That is the only word that comes to mind the minute you pick up the Nokia Asha 501, its almost nostalgic. Suddenly Nokia has been able to remind us why we have so many MEMEs about the Nokia 3310. Nokia has once again focused on making a sturdy and strong device, that will promise to last long through the battles of life. The Nokia Asha 501 also targets the youth with a array of beautiful color options including Cyan, Green, White, Black and the “Pinkenta” that we got (seriously !)
With its Unibody-esque ( the shell is openable) design and polycarbonate feel, which is actually plastic make this phone really robust. The quality of materials used has actually shown off in the end result and will be appreciated for a long time to come.
On the hardware front all is sketch, in an age where people want to know everything about the workings of their phone, the 3 pieces of relevant information here are : 3 inch screen, 1200 mAh battery and 3 MP camera. All of which are in the 3 negatives; below par, below standard and below competition.
Software and UI
Nokia has done something fascinating with the new “ASHA” UI, which makes is a lot more appealing. The number of interactions required by a user before execution have been considerably reduced with the new Nokia Asha 501.
The new ASHA interface truly is a rebuild of S40 which is a rebuild of Symbian which means you have JAVA on this phone. Which means that you should not expect an experience close to any Smartphone that you have ever seen, in fact despite Nokia’s huge software attempt, the UI is slow, boring and sort of dated.
Coming down from an Android, best of luck transferring contacts! Despite the series of softwares available, its still not done automatically via Gmail.
Sure you get Nokia Music and Express Browser that do work well and the music service is truly worth the value. You also get FM radio, but you still need a headset ( incidentally the one in the box is color coded to the color of the handset).
Phone and Battery Life
The Dual Sim Nokia Asha 501, is one hell of a phone, and that is what it is. The modern marvel of Nokia build engineering and possible Meme star (part deux) has immaculate network reception along with impressive voice handling and transmission. No network lag during travel and little or no disturbance through usage. In todays low/no network enviorment, the phone works as great indoors as it does outdoors.
The battery life is another gem in the treasure chest, over 12 hours of talk time on our test, with endless standby. The company claimed 17 hours of talk time and over 600 hours of standby actually seem possible with time.
Camera and Multimedia
Dont think this phone is limited in terms of features, you get a pretty impressive browser that actually impressed us with the promptness with which is handled many websites including iGyaan. The video playback from Youtube over Wifi is smooth and lag free and the speaker is pretty loud.
The 3 MP camera is a feature that you get but may never use, the images are poor and composed without a pop of color, are flat and underexposed. Low light conditions will remind you of the days of 3310 indeed, where a no camera is better than any camera at all.
Conclusion
The Nokia Asha 501 is not supposed to be a Smart Phone, even though the company may be leading the world to believe so. The Asha 501 is a fantastic phone, built with an impressive quality and attention to detail, and a battery life that puts the big dogs to shame the market over. Unfortunately Nokia fails to communicate this to potential buyers, when its trying to show off features like music playback and Facebook access, which truly are not the highlights of this phone.
The Nokia Asha 501 is a fantastic second phone, I’d buy one just because its that good a phone, which that good battery life, but that is all there is to it. Several options in the Rs. 5000 price bracket offer Smartphone-features especially if the phone is loaded with Android. We have listed a few options below.
Micromax has forever been associated with cheap and budget phones, earlier with feature phones now with budget Android phones. With the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the company tries to find a balance between the desires of the market and a stable ecosystem. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 has been perceived a big negative mark on the company’s ever tarnished reputation, So is the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 the marvel of innovation Micromax claims it to be? or is it just another attempt at making more money, lets find out.
Build Quality and Hardware
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is exceptionally well built, it uses the two elements found in the worlds most popular handsets, the steel bezel and frame of the iPhone and the plastic back panel of the Samsung Galaxy series. The end result is a beautiful looking device that fits well in the hand and feels great to use. The plastics on the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 are cleverly used and remain at a minimal, whereas no serious strengthening has been utilized to the glass.
On the inside of this phone is a Mediatek 6589 chipset that offers up 1.2 GHz on Quad cores and a sufficient Power VR SGX GPU. On the inside is 16 GB of Storage and 1 GB of RAM, whereas the cameras are fitted with a 13 MP BSI Sony Sensor with full HD capabilities and a front facing 5 MP shooter also with 1080p capabilities. The display is a 1280 x 720p 5 inch display and the overall device offers quite a balanced mix of hardware and build quality. Although many companies are offering higher specs with similar handsets, the build quality on the Micromax Canvas 4 comes out on top.
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 uses a new type of display, unseen on any of the company’s earlier devices, the display has a serious blue hue imbalance, but is exceptionally visible outdoors compared to the previous Gen display. The 1280 x 720p resolution was a major let down for many a buyers because of many rumors that pitted the phone equipped with a 1080p display. All “unethical journalism” aside the display is great for almost all requirements including gaming and multimedia, however it never hurts to get more resolution even if you don’t need it.
The touchscreen is very responsive and the display is perfectly fused into the body of the device, a lower resolution display also ensures better battery life considering that this device only has a 2000 mAh battery which you can read more about in the battery section below.
Multimedia, Gaming and OS
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is based on Android 4.2 and is mostly a vanilla interface, some basic customizations have been added to give additional UI features. “Blow to Unlock” for one is and example of a feature that has been added which may actually be liked by some, we personally feel that it is a waste of battery and a serious red flag to safe mobile phone usage.
Micromax has also added some features like smart pause on Samsung devices, a software feature which uses the sensors and front camera to detect when a user looks away, while watching a video , and pauses the video. Some fun UI elements like bouncing notifications and alerts in the lock screen add to the user experience.
We feel that Micromax now needs to work on a proprietary UI for Android on their devices, much like TouchWiz or Sense, they need to develop a UI which will truly make their devices unique. For now the Micromax Canvas 4 is based on vanilla android and mostly third party modifications which may or may not be activated.
If you aim to do some gaming on the Canvas 4, you will be happy to know that most games work out of the box and work well. On the occasion some heavy spec’d games will hang or crash, which can only be expected.
Watching videos and movies is great especially thanks to the great display and loud speaker, but you do start to miss a full HD experience if you have had one.
One thing which really changes the perception of the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the camera with its f2.2 lens equipped Sony BSI 13 MP sensor. The camera is the same unit used in the Xperia Z and performs exceptionally well. The camera also works great in low light conditions and captures great videos. The front facing camera is a bit of overkill, unless you do a lot of self portraits. The front camera is great but only if you have ample lighting, and honestly we don’t deny that sometime soon in the future front cameras may also start to get a dedicated flash diode.
The camera module is far too advanced for the software that has been included in the Canvas 4, and if you manage to root your device using our method, you can easily install the camera app ported from other devices. Any camera app that will give you additional manual controls is the app you are looking for.
A word to the wise, if you plan on doing macro photography with this camera, Autofocus will not be your friend. An add on lens might also be helpful.
The camera has great image composition ensuring great color reproduction and great crisp focus. If you intend to use auto mode the included app works fairly well and will not disappoint. Wait for our detailed camera review.
Performance
if you are looking for extreme performance on this smartphone you are actually looking in the wrong place, you are better off buying a Nexus or HTC One if that is your objective. The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 aims to achieve a few things and extreme performance is not one of them. The phone is pretty good for what its worth, gaming is decent, day to day usage is excellent, multitasking works great and for once the OS is quite stable.
The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 will get you through most of the tasks you can put it through and then some, but it will not satisfy the tweak hungry junkies. The chipset has its limitations and they can’t be witnessed in the day to day usage of an average user.
Micromax as a Company
We take off from the regular review process to point out a couple of things to our readers, The Micromax Canvas 4 is very identical to the Blu Life One, in fact it may as well be the same phone. Both companies Micromax and Blu have many things in common, they are both young companies and they both have the same vendors. But, Blu handsets will never come to India, because the company is presently focused in the Americas, just like Micromax’s main focus is in India. Even though we got many requests to compare the two handsets we feel it is unnecessary at the least.
Micromax has taken a bold step and tried to take care of the biggest concern of users with the improved build of their handset, in doing so the cost of their handset has gone up considerably . That tied with the inflated cost of the US $ made it a pricing fail for the company, and we feel Micromax is a bit premature to be entering the sub 20k market with handsets based on Mediatek chipsets in fact the same chipset that goes in sub 10k handsets. But, what most people are neglecting is the use of quality materials and components is bound to raise costs, the Sony 13 MP sensor itself justifies such a bump in pricing.
Micromax is no Samsung when it comes to customer satisfaction, hell even Samsung are not that great. The company aims to become a big mobile brand, but it is presently far from that goal simply because of their dependence on readily available products and components.
Battery Life
The Canvas 4 has slightly low battery life and the constant use of included apps does not help. On average you will get 3-4 hours of continuos talk time. Features like smart pause and blow to unlock will really mould your battery life usage and are best avoided. Real Life Tests:
Talk Time : 4 Hours on 3G / 6 Hours on 2G
Internet : 3 Hours on 3G / 5 hours on Wifi
Music : Upto 12 Hours
Video : 3 Hours
The Good
Micromax has for once tried to focus on the user experience more than the specs, the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is extremely well built when compared to competition and even their own previous phones. The warranty for the Canvas 4 ensures that if your phone is damaged or defective (within warranty guidelines) you instantly get a replacement phone. Software elements like smart stay and smart pause that usually require expensive devices to begin with.
The cameras are also an advantage on the Canvas 4 and those with a taste for mobile photography will truly come to appreciate the device for that. The phone achieves what most phones by sector 2 manufacturers dont, premium feel.
The Bad
The price for one is a little off the mark, a 15k price point would appear to be a more worthy option for the Canvas 4. The OS is still mostly stock and with the added bloatware and software gimmicks, we are not impressed.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 is the best Canvas / Micromax phone till date, but with the impending release of iBerry Nuclea N1 and a series of devices already in the market. The decision is truly in the hands of the buyer, the company is attempting to change its ranks in the smartphone market and the Micromax Canvas 4 A210 may be that very device. Once Micromax realizes the market status and drops the price by 1500- 2000 this very well may be the best smartphone in the market in the Rs. 15000 price bracket, but until then this seems like an investment which may not yield a return worth of value.
Samsung India has put their upcoming Galaxy Core up for pre-order for a price of Rs. 15,350. But if you cant wait, you can head on over to any retailer and grab the phone for a price of Rs. 15,200 in both white and blue colors.
The phone features a lot of the usual features, but interestingly is only slightly cheaper than the Galaxy Grand Quattro which is priced at Rs.16300. The Samsung Galaxy Core features a dual core 1.2 GHz chipset with an unnamed GPU (we are inclined towards the Broadcom chipset), owners will get 8 GB storage, 1 GB RAM and a set of cameras, including a 5 MP main snapper and a VGA front facing shooter.
A 4.3 inch WVGA display completes the front and a 1800 mAh battery with a claimed talk time of 8 Hours powers the handset. The Samsung Galaxy Core will come with Android 4.1 along with TouchWiz out of the box, where Samsung has also included the tradition set of features and apps, including the Social Hub, Smart Stay and Motion etc.
Samsung has recently become very aggressive with the market launching several phones each month. With the mega success of their Galaxy Grand series Samsung also launched the Galaxy Mega 5.8 and Mega 6.3 to win over the “phablet market”. Samsung is said to announce over a hundred new handsets in 2013 with their major focus on mid range handsets.
[tabgroup]
[tab title=” Buy Now” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][tab title=” Galaxy Grand Quattro” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][tab title=” Galaxy S Advance” icon=”icon-shopping-cart”][/tab][/tabgroup]
Samsung’s success in the Indian market is truly thanks to their ability to understand the need of the market. The company understood that by penetrating the lower end of the spectrum they could increase their popularity. So with devices like the Galaxy Ace and Galaxy Y, Samsung tapped the under 10,000 market space. With the Galaxy Y plus, Samsung has further tried to take away from the feature phone buyer and get him interested in smartphones. In our Samsung Galaxy Y Plus review we try to see if Samsung has yet another winner.
Solid Plastics
Build Quality & Design
Weather you buy a Rs. 5000 phone or a Rs. 50,000 phone from Samsung, you will find the excessive use of plastics. The Samsung Galaxy Y Plus is no different, with a Plastic chassis, plastic back and plastic bezels along with plastic buttons. The phone however is robust and looks or at least feels like it could survive a bunch of falls and crashes, in fact we wont be surprised if it survives a car running over it, only to be thrown away.
The design and shape is reminiscent of the Y Series of Galaxy phones. The shape adds a bit of the looks of the higher end of the spectrum devices from Samsung.
No Front Cam
2 MP Rear Cam
Left Side
Right Side
Hardware
Not a lot to boast about here for the Samsung Galaxy Y Plus. The front has a 2.8 inch LCD which has a resolution of 240 x 320px making it 143 ppi, it truly makes you wonder if Samsung will ever dump small size AMOLED displays in budget phones. The insides are a little sketchy with an unknown 850 MHz processor, no details for any sort of GPU and no info on the RAM. If we were to guess, we’d say the RAM should be around the 384MB mark.
The Galaxy Y plus has a 2 MP, 1600×1200 pixels, camera which has a fixed focus and Geo Tagging capability. The internal storage is shown as 4GB out of which under 2 GB is available to the user and expandability is kept at 32GB via microSD. The Galaxy Y Plus has a 1200 mAh battery which seems sufficient considering the specs in question even thought the phone has two sim card slots, one for 3G and one for 2G.
Android and Interface
The Samsung Galaxy Y Plus comes with Android 4.0, which is a slight disappointment especially because companies like Micromax are throwing out Jelly Bean equipped phones by the minute. The interface however is very responsive and seems like this variant of Android was a logical choice of the company to retain the fluidity of the experience.
TouchWiz is also loaded on the tiny display which makes for a fun trailer to what you can expect when you later on switch to a more expensive Samsung Device (the company is betting on this). In fact adaptability of OS along with the available hardware is surprisingly great and performance seems acceptable from a phone of said value.
2 MP Rear Cam
Multimedia and Camera
The phone is poor in these departments and for anyone who may be looking to buy this phone for the multimedia aspects, we suggest you look elsewhere. Although the Samsung Galaxy Y Plus is capable of playing games like temple run 2 smoothly, we feel the display is tattered and totally takes away from any such experience. Similar is the video playback experience, not only does the screen create a letterbox, but also reduces the size of the video to play it totally taking away from the end user enjoyment.
Pictures can be clicked from the phone’s 2 MP snapper never to be reconsidered, Samsung’s emphasizes on the geo tagging feature, as if we must remember exactly where we clicked the atrociously horrible pictures which were completely out of focus.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Y Plus Duos is a great dual sim phone, which fades the barrier between smartphone and feature phone. While it does have multitasking capabilities, and a whole array of multimedia features you may not end up using any of them except possibly the loud music from the speakerphone.
If you want to get a basic phone to make phone calls and send messages , this is your bet, dual sim with a good two day battery life and great network reception and a loud speaker. You may also be happy knowing that you have other Android capabilities which you may never use.
Wondering why Smartphones are still so fat? Well Huawei might be there with an answer to all the bulk with the new Huawei Ascend P2, a smartphone thats only 6.45mm thick.
The leaked images confirm that the Huawei Ascend P2 is indeed in the pipeline, and that too with a mammoth 13 MP camera and a slick metal body. Apart from the details mentioned little is known about the P2 , although rumors are pegging a full 1080p HD display at only 4.5 inches, 2GB of RAM, and a big 3000mAh battery for power.
The Huawei Ascend P2 is said to be Shipping with Jelly Bean 4.x, and the only think keeping the media vary is the 1.8 GHz Quad Core SOC which is of an unknown / self developed / Chinese nature. Keeping performance estimates on this device low. However, with the recent trend of phablets, Huawei might just do well in a market like India with a Quad Core Full HD Phone, with 2 Gb of RAM at the price of say a Galaxy Grand.
Nokia has brought what others have failed to deliver, a Windows Phone at a budget price. The Lumia 510 has been launched at a press event in New Delhi, the 510 has a 4 inch capacitive screen with a 480 x 800 pixel density. On the spec sheet of the Lumia 510 you will find a 5-megapixel camera at the back (no front-facer), an 800MHz Qualcomm processor, 256MB RAM and 4GB of non-expandable storage.
Nokia is targeting markets like India and China for this phone expecting it to penetrate the lower strata of Smartphone users shifting up from an Asha Phone to a smart phone. The price of the Lumia 510 is expected to be US $199, so expect it to hit the Indian market in the coming weeks for under Rs 9999.
Sales are planned to begin in November, starting with India and China, and followed closely by other Asia-Pacific countries and South America.
Windows Phone is different to other smartphone platforms thanks to Live Tiles, making it easy to see incoming messages and updates; People Hub, which brings together contacts and updates from across social networks into one location, and access to Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer 9 on the mobile.
The Camera Extras app provides exclusive digital lens functionality to go with the five megapixel camera and built-in autofocus. Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive and Nokia Transport also offer comprehensive smartphone location and navigation experience available.
