Smartphones are getting cheaper(or people are willing to spend more money) and the market is getting quite competitive.
Android phones are steadily pushing their way into Indian market too. And there is a wide choice to pick from due to the extremely competitive Indian handset market.
So after a Sunday evening well spent in mobile shops, this is what the Pune, India market ( prices in INR) has to offer:
As these are smartphones, wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other regular features along with excellent Android apps from the app market are considered to be a given.
HTC Tattoo
HTC Tattoo: This is an entry point Android phone for around 13K. The OS version is 1.6 ( 2.1 is latest shipped on phones), the phone does not have 3G & GPS.
The phone looks like regular HTC windows touch phones. Personally, I wouldn’t recommend it with 3G BSNL cards in market now.
HTC Legend: A phone with superb form factor with Android 2.1. The look is very sleek, business like but rugged as the
HTC Legend
phone is crafted from a single block aluminum. HTC has developed its own Touch technology HTCSense. I had a good mind to purchase it but it does not have 3G & no front camera ( again for video calling, try BSNL video calling. Personally, it felt like a milestone experience in terms of human communication.). The phone costs around 25K.
Motorola Milestone: I own this phone and it’s an absolute pleasure. The only Android phone with a full sliding QWERTY
Motorola Milestone
& overall good build quality typical of Motorola. The display is sharp and touch responsive.
I do have a pet peeve that the screen does not lock itself while receiving calls and occasionally my ear puts the phone into HOLD, much to the caller’s annoyance. A huge screen also means that I have to charge this phone almost every day. But this phone has replaced my laptop for my surfing & social networking. The phone has 3G & front camera. Milestone will set you back by 26K.
Sony Experia X10: A brick of a phone from Sony, ships with Android 2.1. I personally found this phone to be too big
Sony Xperia X10
but guys would like the form factor. The screen display is crisp and the huge screen staring at you in stunning clarity makes you drool. The phone is great for photography enthusiasts with a 8MP camera (surprisingly the phone is pretty slim given the high end camera). The phone plays divX too. The phone costs a whopping 30K and I do have a psychological barrier with 30K (I can spend 29.5K :P). At that price, I do start wondering if I should buy an Inspirion instead even if they are two different horizontals. Though a friend has this phone and he is really happy about it.
Samsung Galaxy: The newest entrant, I saw this phone during World Cup adverts. The phone was not on display & the dealer got this phone from his latest inventory
Samsung Galaxy
canvas bag which would send any mobile enthusiast into a tizzy) at our insistence. This phone’s form factor is like the Google Nexus though slightly longer and thinner and has Google imprinted at the back similar to Nexus ( which would be one of the deciding factor for most geeks 😉 ). What makes this phone awesome is its superior AMOLED display. The display has excellent saturation, brightness & crispness, it’s almost looking into a mini high-end flat TV. Milestone boasts of a superior display but looks like a country cousin in comparison to Galaxy. I found the widgets & Heptic touch keyboard also a tad better than Milestone. It has a front facing camera (5MP along with HD recording), & 3G. Priced at close to 29K, this is my recommendation if you want to buy one right now.
(We got this for my bro.)
And if you don’t want to spend so many bucks, a delightful phone which features along with Samsung Galaxy in the ads, Samsung Wave.
Samsung Wave
The phone has the same form factor & build quality as that of the Galaxy but features Samsung’s own “bada” (not big 😛 , but pronounced..baaadda) OS. The phone’s UI looked pretty similar to Android, touch screen was appropriately responsive. Samsung also has it’s own marketplace to add more applications, though the phone comes with pre-installed applications for FB, Gmail, E-mail clients etc. Wave had 3G too along with the stunning AMOLED display. And all this for a cool 17K. A real value for money phone, though it might not find many takers till reports of bada’s performance come in.
Samsung Galaxy & Wave both boast a 1GHz processor, I still remember being proud of my Celeron 633MHz PC in college 🙂
P.S:
1. Its really interesting to watch dealers explain “Android” & “Google” to people who don’t earn their bread & butter tapping keyboards. And maybe that would decide the fate of Android phones in the real world. A geeky gadget freak can buy only so many phones.
2. A girl making her boyfriend buy a not-so-good clunky phone for her just coz its PINK (rolling my eyes 180 degrees) makes me cringe for the rest of us girls.
Charuta Pens 