Bandla recommends! The September smartphone list

desiibond

Skilled
Bandla recommends! The October smartphone list

As usual, The list first:

  • Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510
  • Blackberry Curve 8520
  • Nokia E5
  • LG Optimus One
  • HTC Wildfire S
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini
  • Blackberry Curve 9300
  • Huawei Ideos X5
  • HTC Chacha
  • Motorola Defy
  • Nokia E6
  • LG Optimus Black
  • SE Xperia Neo V
  • Nokia X7
  • Blackberry Bold 3
  • Nokia N8773
  • HTC Incredible S
  • LG Optimus 2X
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc
  • Samsung Galaxy S II
  • Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
  • iPhone 4
  • Blackberry Bold 9900
Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510

Galaxy pro side view

Status: Widely available

Price: 8,000 to 9,000 INR

Product Page: Business with a dash of fun - Galaxy Pro B7510 - Smartphone - Mobile Phone | SAMSUNG

The Good:

  • Touch n type. very good qwerty keypad and capacitive touch display
  • 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi (can also be used as Wi-Fi hotspot)
  • Powered by Android
  • very good battery life
  • Document editor
  • Price
The Bad:

  • no camera flash
  • no video calling
  • poor multimedia.

Who should buy this phone:

This phone, unlike other Samsung mid range galaxy device, oozes quality. if you are looking for a business class droid and have a budget of 10k, this is the best you can get.
Blackberry Curve 8520

Status: Widely available

Price: 9,000 INR

Product page: BlackBerry - 9300 - Buy BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 Smartphone in India

The Good:

  • Blackberry services that are among the best for privacy and data security
  • Good qwerty keypad

The Bad:

  • average display quality
  • very poor multimedia
  • weak processor
  • no 3G and no 802.11n and no GPS
  • poor battery life
Who should buy this phone:

Only those desperate for a Blackberry and with budget less than 10k
Nokia E5

Status: Widely available

Price: 9,500 INR

Product page: Nokia India - Nokia E5 - Mobile phone with QWERTY keyboard

The Good:

  • One of the best business class smartphones
  • Superb qwerty
  • Mighty battery life
  • 3G, Wi-Fi, DLNA, GPS
  • Document Editor
  • Nokia maps.

The Bad:

  • 256MB or RAM not that good for multitasking or heavy apps
  • OS getting older and older every week.
  • No video calling
  • average camera and poor video recording quality

Who should buy this phone:

If you are always traveling and need a phone with great battery life and solid navigation, this is among the best you can get. Just forget about what people say about Symbian and it’s end of life. Even though it is announced, it is not going to happen any time soon. S60 on E5 is very much usable and this phone is simply the best qwerty device that you can get for budget inside 10k rupees.
LG Optimus One

Status: Available at many stores

Price: Around 10,000 INR

Product page: LG P500 All Phones - LG Optimus one is the optimal choice for a versatile smart phone that transforms to become whatever you want through advanced technology and unlimited applications. - LG Electronics IN

The Good:

  • Android
  • Good display
  • Great GPU and decent CPU
  • 3G, Wi-FI, GPS
  • DivX/Xvid integration
  • Document editor
  • Almost stock android
  • Loads of custom ROMs

The Bad:

  • Battery life
  • Average build quality
  • Below average camera, no flash
Who should buy:

This, without a doubt is the best smartphone you can get inside 10k. If you are not bothered about battery life, go and get this one. If you are, then go get this one along with an extra battery. And btw, forget about LG’s past reputation. They nailed it with this one.

This brings us to an end to sub-10k market segment. Here is a short list of other worthy sub 10k smartphones:
HTC Wildfire S

Status: Widely available

Price: around 13,200 INR

Product page: http://www.htc.com/in/product/wildfires/overview.html

The Good:

  • Great build quality
  • Sense UI over Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
  • Good camera
  • Decent hardware (600Mhz Snapdragon, 512MB RAM, adreno 200 GPU)
  • Bluetooth V3.0 EDR
  • Xvid support
The Bad:

  • No video calling
  • average battery
Who should buy this phone:

Highly recommended but only if you are not interested in Motorola’s Defy which is better phone and is available for some 1.5k INR more. When not compared to Defy, this is a very good smartphone. When not compared to Defy, this phone can make most types of users (except game lovers who may not like the CPU and weak GPU).
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro

Status: Brand new release, available in markets now

Price: 12,500 INR for mini and 15,000 for mini pro

Product page: Xperia, Xperia

The Good:

  • 3†LED display
  • BRAVIA Engine
  • superb audio quality
  • very good qwerty keypad (mini pro only)
  • Snapdragon chipset
  • Good camera with 720p video recording
  • cute looks
  • Android (Gingerbread)
  • Weighs just 99 grams

The Bad:

  • Poor battery
  • 3†display is not for everyone
  • No video calling (on mini)
Who should buy this phone:

This phone is unique in the sense that it looks tiny but is powerful. I would pick mini pro over mini any day as the qwerty eliminates the need for onscreen keypad and hence gives more room for the actual content. If you are looking for a cute looking small form factor smartphone that is good at multimedia, go for this one. Unlike the earlier X10 mini pro, this mini pro has great display and more important, runs latest version of android. If your main requirement is ebook reading and internet browsing, this one is not for you.
Blackberry Curve 9300

Status: Available

Price: 13,500 INR

Product page: BlackBerry - 9300 - Buy BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 Smartphone in India

The Good:

  • BBM
  • Excellent qwerty keypad with touch sensitive touch pad
  • Upgradable to BB 6.0

The Bad:

  • Low battery
  • No video calling
  • Very poor multimedia, near useless camera
Who should buy this phone:

Blackberry boys
Those for whom data security is of atmost important and want the best in class business features.

Huawei Ideos X5

Status: Not easy to find, easy to get from online stores

Price: 14,300 INR

Product page: IDEOS - Huawei Device

The Good:

  • Great display
  • Ample storage
  • Qualcomm Scorpion chipset
  • Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic for phone calls
  • Very good audio quality
  • Good camera with 720p recording
  • 14.4 Mbps HSDPA (3G), 802.11n Wi-Fi.
  • Very good battery
  • Price

The Bad:

  • Support and service a big question mark
  • No video calling
Who should buy this phone:

X5 is a superb phone on paper but the main concern is regarding the support structure in India, rolling of future updates. If you are not concerned by any of these, you should consider buying this phone.
HTC Chacha

Status: Widely available

Price: 15,000 INR

Product page: HTC ChaCha Product Support

The Good:

  • Superb build quality
  • Sense UI over Android Gingerbread
  • Superb four row qwerty with dedicated facebook button and deep facebook integration
  • 2.6†touch display
  • front facing camera
  • Good battery life
The Bad:

  • Poor multimedia performance (audio video playback, camera)
Who should buy this phone:

Also known as facebook phone, this device is tailor made for facebook addicts. One touch access to facebook and to share content on facebook. If you love being of facing or if you love chatting nonstop using qwerty and if you prefer factory UI that is beatiful, close your eyes and go for this one.
Motorola Defy

Status: Availability is reducing slowly

Price: Around 14,500 INR

Product page: Motorola DEFY - Durable Android Smart Phone - Touchscreen - Water Dust Scratch Resistant - Touch Tablet - Overview - Motorola Mobility, Inc. Rest of Europe

The Good:

  • Dust and water resistant
  • Superb display
  • Very good audio quality
  • Great CPU and GPU
  • Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
  • Superb battery life (among droids)
  • Among the best when it comes to developer support. Loads of custom ROM available for use.
  • Price
The Bad:

  • Average camera performance
  • no video calling
  • Motoblur and official ROM stuck on Froyo
  • Just a bit bulky
Who should buy this phone:

If you have a budget of 15k-15.5k, close your eyes and get this one. You cannot get a better smartphone for that price. Period!

Before we head to 15k+ segments, here is a tiny list of other decent smartphones inside 15k:
  • Nokia C6-01
  • HTC Salsa
  • Spice Mi-410

Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo V

Status: Just appearing in the market

Price: 18,000 INR

Procuct page: Xperia

The Good:

  • Stunning LED backlit LCD display (3.7", 480 x 854), BRAVIA engine for visual treat.
  • Great looks
  • 1GHz Scorpion processor, Adren o205 GPU
  • Good camera with 720p recording, secondary camera for video calling.
  • Deep social networking integration
  • Very good battery (1500mAh Li-Po)
  • VFM
  • Android 2.3.4 (Gingerbread)
The Bad:

  • None in particular.
Who should buy this phone:

It's fresh, it looks awesome and is packed with features. This is the new No.1 when it comes to sub 20k devices. With Nexus S out of the market, this would be the de facto choice at this price point.

Nokia E6

Availability: Widely available

Price: 15,600 INR

Product page: Nokia India - Nokia E6 smartphone with touch screen and QWERTY - Overview

The Good:

  • Superb touch display with 640x480 resolution
  • Terrific four row qwerty
  • 8GB user memory onboard
  • active noise cancellation using a dedicated mic
  • Office document viewer
  • Video calling and 720p video recording
  • Battery goes on and on and on
  • USB OTG
  • Nokia maps navigation got even better, thanks to Symbian S^3 Anna OS
The Bad:

  • Nothing in particular but can say that EDoF camera is one drawback
Who should buy this phone:

E6, with Symbian Anna OS is a pleasure to use. If you are looking for a business class phone with monster battery life and if you want a phone that can navigate you to through those unknown route and take care of your corporate data (emails, documents etc), go for this device. You can’t get a better device for the price.
LG Optimus Black

Status: Widely available

Price: 19,500 INR approx

Product page: LG P970 All Phones - Introducing the Optimus Black with revolutionary NOVA display. - LG Electronics IN

The Good:

  • LG Nova display (IPS panel with superb brightness)
  • 2mp front facing camera for high quality video calling, 5mp primary camera with 720p video recording
  • Gestures
  • DivX, Xvid support
  • 1GHz Cortex A8 processor with PowerVR SGX530 GPU
  • Extremely thin and lightweight
  • Very good ROM support
The Bad:

  • Optimus UI is very poor
  • Average audio quality
  • no HD out
Who should buy this one:

Thanks to the IPS panel, the quality of text is amazing and sunlight visibility is very good, so are the viewing angles. If you are more into reading ebooks and webpages etc, this would be a perfect phone to get. Gaming on this phone is a pleasure, thanks to powerful GPU (and of course, superb display). Videos look crispy whether you are outdoor or indoor. If you are okay with loading a custom ROM, the phone feels much better and much more responsive.

Other good devices inside 20k:

Nokia X7

Status: Widely available

Price: 20,700 INR

Product page: Nokia India - Nokia X7 smartphone with a 4" touch screen - Overview

The Good:

  • Solid build quality
  • Great display
  • Superb audio reproduction
  • Nokia maps navigation
  • Good battery life
  • 720p video recording
  • DivX/Xvid support
  • Powerful GPU
The Bad:

  • Price
  • weak camera performance
  • only 256MB of RAM makes the phone a bit slow when too many apps are running
  • No HDMI out
Who should buy this phone:

Frankly speaking, it is lurking in N8’s area and I wouldn’t really suggest this phone (yet). If the phone gets a 2k-3k priced drop, it would be a perfect buy for multimedia addicts. The reason for adding this phone to the list is not to ask you to go ahead and get the phone but to keep an eye on it’s price.
Blackberry Bold 9780

Status: Widely available

Price: 21,400 INR

Product page: BlackBerry - Bold - BlackBerry Bold 9780, 9650, 9700 & 9000 - Buy BlackBerry Bold in India

The Good:
  • BB OS 6.0 and BBM
  • DivX/Xvid integration
  • Superb battery life
  • very good qwerty
The Bad:
  • No video calling
  • Price
  • Poor camera and multimedia performance
Who should buy this phone:
  • Blackberry boys
  • Data security fanatics
  • For seamless enterprise service integration
Nokia N8

Status: Widely available

Price: 21,700 INR

Product page: Nokia India - Nokia N8 touch screen smartphone with a 12 MP camera

The Good:

  • Strong build quality
  • The best camera in smartphones
  • Continuous autofocus in Video recording (after anna update)
  • Gorgeous display
  • 16GB internal storage
  • Powerful GPU, making games run smoothly
  • Nokia Maps navigation
  • Active Noise Cancellation with dedicated mic
  • DivX and Xvid support
  • USB OTG
  • HDMI Out
  • Very good battery life for a feature rich smartphone

The Bad:

  • Battery cannot be replaced by user
  • Nothing else in particular
Who should buy this phone:

  • Shutterbugs
  • Multimedia lovers
  • Frequent travelers
  • Hell, this is one of those rare models that can cater to every kind of users needs. The OS is currently written off but with Anna and Belle updates, N8 can definitely match it’s rival droids in all round performance.

HTC Incredible S

Status: Widely available

Price: 23,600 INR

Product page: http://www.htc.com/in/product/incredibles/overview.html

The Good:

  • Display
  • 1.3mp front facing camera
  • DivX/Xvid support
  • Superb build quality
  • SenseUI over Gingerbread
  • Powerful CPU/GPU
The Bad:

  • Doesn’t offer much over Nexus S which is 4k INR cheaper
  • Average battery life
  • Poor music playback quality
  • Average camera
Who should buy this phone:

To be frank, I would pick Nexus S over this phone as it offer better all round featureset and performance. But if you are one of those who prefer not to toy with the UI and like to use whatever is provided by manufacturer, this phone will keep you happy.
LG Optimus 2X

Status: Widely available

Price: 24,500 INR

Product page: LG Optimus Phone, LG Optimus Mobile Phone, LG P990 Smart Phone - LG P990

The Good:

  • Cheapest Dual core smartphone
  • Tegra 2 at the heart
  • LG Nova display (IPS LCD panel which is among the brightest)
  • Good audio quality
  • DivX/Xvid supported
  • Gingerbread ready
  • Very good support from developers, lots of custom ROMs available
  • 1.3mp front facing camera for video calling
  • 1080p video recording
  • 8GB storage onboard
  • Good battery
  • Price
The Bad:

  • Seriously buggy UI
Who should buy this phone:

If you trust LG and if you are one of those who like loading 3rd party ROMs, this would be the best one to get. The factory ROM is very buggy and the first thing to be done is to load custom ROM. All in all, a very good and powerful smartphone hampered by overlay UI, which should be fixed in upcoming Gingerbread update. And once you load the custom ROM, this thing can fly.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc

Status: Widely available

Price: 27,000 INR

Product page: Xperia

The Good:

  • Breathtaking design
  • Superb display, BRAVIA engine
  • Awesome camera quality, Exmor R sensor gives terrific low light image capture
  • Trademark Sony audio quality
  • Very good battery life
  • Powerful CPU/GPU
  • Active noise cancellation
  • just 8.7mm thick
The Bad:
  • Price. One can get Samsung Galaxy S II for 2k-3k more.
  • No video calling
  • No Bluetooth 3.0
Who should buy this phone:

I would any day go for SGS II or wait for HTC fix issues with Sensation instead of buying this phone. But if you are one of those who don’t care about dual core and stuff and want a phone that has monstrous multimedia performance, go for Arc. It is sexy, feature rich and would be perfect replacement for your aging multimedia phone/player.
Samsung Galaxy S II

Status: Widely available

Price: 30,000 INR

Product page: Simply the best Smartphone! - Galaxy S II I9100 - Smartphone - Mobile Phone | SAMSUNG

The Good:

  • Mightily powerful (dual core Exynos, 1GB of RAM)
  • 16GB of onboard storage
  • Stunning display quality
  • Very good camera, records videos as 1080p
  • 2mp front facing camera
  • NFC, Active noise cancellation
  • DivX/Xvid support
  • Good battery life
  • USB OTG
  • Bluetooth 3.0 HS
  • Gestures
The Bad:

  • Price (30k for a phone, you gotta be kidding me)
  • Touchwiz and Kies are irritating
  • Display has yellow tint issue and can be irritating to those with eagle eyes
Who should buy this phone:

If you have the money and are looking for most powerful smartphone available in the market, this one is for you
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play

Status: Available

Price: 27,600 INR

Product page: Xperia

The Good:

  • Game controls
  • Display
  • Active Noise cancellation
  • Music quality
The Bad:
  • Bulky
  • Far less power than dual core devices which are cheaper
  • Average battery life
Who should buy this phone:

Purely meant for gamers but then again, I can get Optimus 2X and a PSP for the price of Xpeira Play
iPhone 4

Status: Widely available

Price: 33,000 INR for 16GB and 40,000 for 32GB

Product page: Apple (India) - iPhone - Mobile phone, iPod and Internet device.

The Good:

  • Premium build quality
  • Breathtaking display
  • Good camera
  • iOS
  • front facing camera
  • Superb battery life
  • Active Noise cancellation
The Bad:

  • Price, iPhone 5 and probably 4S just around the corner.
  • Far behind top level droids in all round performance and feature set
Who should buy this phone:

  • The best phone with simple UI that money can buy
  • Apple loyals
Blackberry Bold 9900

Status: Widely available

Price: 31,500 INR

Product page: BlackBerry - Bold Touch Phone - New BlackBerry Bold Touch Screen Phones

The Good:

  • Very good build quality
  • Touch screen and very good qwerty
  • BB 7 OS
  • 1.2GHz processor and 768MB of RAM, 8GB of storage
  • DivX and Xvid support
  • 720p video recording
  • Blackberry Internet Services
The Bad:
  • Price
  • BB7 is better than BB6 but still far from being perfect in the new era
  • No video calling
Who should buy this phone:

  • The best traditional looking Blackberry
  • Among the best for those who prefer Business class device.
 

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Some corrections:

desiibond said:
Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini and Mini Pro

Status: Brand new release, available in markets now

Price: 13,000 INR for mini and 15,400 for mini pro

Product page: Xperia, Xperia
The Bad:
  • Poor battery
  • 3†display is not for everyone
  • No video calling

1. The Mini Pro has video calling with front camera.
HTC Incredible S

Status: Widely available

Price: 23,600 INR

Product page: HTC - Products - HTC Incredible S - Overview

The Good:
  • Display
  • Great camera, 720p video recording
  • 1.3mp front facing camera
  • DivX/Xvid support
  • Superb build quality
  • SenseUI over Gingerbread
  • Powerful CPU/GPU

Reviewers have trashed the camera quality. Both GSMArena & PhoneArena has complained of the poor & jerky video recording. Plus Phonearena is not satisfied with still photos too.

You missed out on Spice Mi-410 (which has a 69 pages thread dedicated to it on the forums) & WaveII.

Excellent writeup but finding faults in other's hard work is a human nature. :p
 
Disagreed. I've recently used a freshly updated Nexus S and the Nexus S takes excellent snaps. Infact the Nexus S deserves a +1 over the Galaxy S because of its LED flash which is shockingly good. The LED flash is even capable of defeating my dual-LED N79 in camera brightness in dark scenes purely due to its combination of image brightening software and excellent LED.

However the Nexus S camera does lack a few features (self-timer for example) in comparison to the Galaxy S camera. But again, there are lots of Android camera apps to choose from.
 
Very nice write up. Though regarding battery life of optimus one, I beg to differ. It is better then all droids I have used. Almost same or better then defy infact.
Also regarding e6 to you can add "poor compatibility with many symbian apps ".
 
Nicely compiled by Bandla. I guess, there should be another post on the alternatives not found in India (especially those models that are locked to service providers in the US)
 
Very nice compilation !

Would really help people who are confused between so many devices :)

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

ayanavish said:
Nicely compiled by Bandla. I guess, there should be another post on the alternatives not found in India (especially those models that are locked to service providers in the US)

Ya, that would be really helpful as its so much easy to import mobiles from US these days..
 
Thanks a lot guys. Made few changes here and there.

Regarding the devices that are not officially launched in India, it's just that there are way too many of them and I have no idea which ones are available in India. Let me try to compile a list.
 
Nice post!

Just a couple of small things:

1. I do not think that the Defy is bulky. In fact, it weighs only 118g and is one of the lighter 3.7" phones around, and is also most compact in size (size of body is only slightly larger than size of screen.)

2. A couple of phones like Dell XCD35 and Spice Mi-410 may also be worth a mention.

Otherwise, this is the very comprehensive and useful :) .
 
Nicely Done.....Thanks a lot for this post desibond.

A bit sad found myself in N8 categeory, though Isn't that N8 battery can be replaced by using Trox 4 or 6 screwdriver by normal user ? Not like E7 right ?
 
desiibond said:
Thanks a lot guys. Made few changes here and there.

Regarding the devices that are not officially launched in India, it's just that there are way too many of them and I have no idea which ones are available in India. Let me try to compile a list.

Mostly from Samsung, Motorola like Captivate/Vibrant, Atrix/Droid X, HTC Aria/Gratia --- this list would take some time to compile :(
 
@Desibond : Is this your blog? : Bandla's Blog

If not, you have just copy pasted the whole thing without providing a link to the source and in the process taking up credit for someone else's work. If the blog is indeed yours, then well done for a good effort.
 
desiibond said:
Samsung Galaxy S II

Status: Widely available

Price: 30,000 INR

Product page: Simply the best Smartphone! - Galaxy S II I9100 - Smartphone - Mobile Phone | SAMSUNG

The Good:
  • Mightily powerful (dual core tegra 2, 1GB of RAM)
  • 16GB of onboard storage
  • Stunning display quality
  • Very good camera, records videos as 1080p
  • 2mp front facing camera
  • NFC, Active noise cancellation
  • DivX/Xvid support
  • Good battery life
  • USB OTG
  • Bluetooth 3.0 HS
  • Gestures

The Bad:
  • Price (30k for a phone, you gotta be kidding me)
  • Touchwiz and Kies are irritating

Who should buy this phone:
If you have the money and are looking for most powerful smartphone available in the market, this one is for you​
[/LIST]

The Galaxy SII has an Exynos processor not a tegra 2
 
that's my blog. I post such articles in TE and on my blog.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Damn it. was told that SGSII comes with Tegra 2 in India. Thanks for correcting this one da.
 
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