Less than 10K Spice Mi 422 - A Good Buy at Rs. 4.5k?

kidrow

kidrow

Adept
Hi all,

Looking to buy a phone for my mom. The main criteria is a touchscreen, full white (black-white won't do) android phone at less than 5k.... & it has to be good looking.

Having looked at various sites & listed all the phones that match this criteria - Adcom A400, Byond B54, Magicon M3 Atom, Fly F40, Gionee Pioneer P1, Intex Aqua Marvel, Karbonn A4, Lava Iris N350, Lemon P7, Micromax A65...... - I think the one that is a good all rounder is the Spice Mi 422.

However, I'd appreciate a 2nd opinion.

For one, is Spice a decent enough brand? (& by that I'm comparing it with Karbonn, MMX as a general yardstick, not Samsung). Have any previous Spice mobile owners experienced their after sales service? Was it good, bad or downright ugly? Is the build quality decent?

Why are there no reviews for this model & why is it that it's only reported on tech sites as being "seen on xyz site for abc price" & nothing more?

Anyone know of what the phone actually looks like? I tend to watch youtube vids to get an idea but haven't come across any featuring this model. There is one for the Spice Flo Ivory phone which lies higher up in the hierarchy. Judging by that, the phone might turn out to be decent looking. & speaking of looks, one concern is the glossy back. If not done right, it can look downright cheap. So if anyone has any idea about this, I'd appreciate some feedback.

The other option is of course, the Samsung Galaxy Star. It's got everything except for a poor screen res & a (IMHO) tired design. So my question is whether the screen res is a deal breaker or not? The only other touchscreen in my family is an Optimus One P500 which has a very decent ppi. So would someone who has looked at that feel that the screen is poor?

This also applies to the LG E400 which IMO has the best design. (It was available at HS18 for 5k recently & I'm guessing it'll come back at that price again later). Though it has poor specs (not really a concern here) the screen res is a big letdown.

Thanks for your time. ... & sorry for the long query. Got outta hand before I realized what had happened. Cheers!
 
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I've had the Spice MI 425 for about a year now, and it's served me well so far.
The Spice MI 422 has similar specs. It should run smoothly, and at 4.5k, it looks like a good buy. The only thing that I'd be concerned about is the smallish battery, but if you aren't an extreme user, it should be enough to see you through a day.

The only complaints I have about my phone are it's poor camera (pics look fine on my phone, but dismal when I transfer them to my computer) and it's tendency to overheat, and shutdown when I use GPS continuously. I can use GPS in bursts of 2 minutes to get my bearings, but then I need to turn it off or my phone will hang and require a hard reboot.

On the forums on XDA no one's had a problem with their hardware, so quality control doesn't seem to be too bad.

IMO, a good screen is essential, as is 512MB RAM. And believe me, a slow processor will make itself felt. If you wait for a deal and get a dual-core at close to 5k, I'd suggest buying that instead. If not, then the Spice MI 422 you've picked out seems a pretty good alternative.
 
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ch@ts said:
I've had the Spice MI 425 for about a year now, and it's served me well so far.
The Spice MI 422 has similar specs. It should run smoothly, and at 4.5k, it looks like a good buy. The only thing that I'd be concerned about is the smallish battery, but if you aren't an extreme user, it should be enough to see you through a day.

The only complaints I have about my phone are it's poor camera (pics look fine on my phone, but dismal when I transfer them to my computer) and it's tendency to overheat, and shutdown when I use GPS continuously. I can use GPS in bursts of 2 minutes to get my bearings, but then I need to turn it off or my phone will hang and require a hard reboot.

On the forums on XDA no one's had a problem with their hardware, so quality control doesn't seem to be too bad.

IMO, a good screen is essential, as is 512MB RAM. And believe me, a slow processor will make itself felt. If you wait for a deal and get a dual-core at close to 5k, I'd suggest buying that instead. If not, then the Spice MI 422 you've picked out seems a pretty good alternative.
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated. I believe the Mi 425 was one of the best VFM phones when it was launched & quite a few have bought it. Which is what made me at least consider Spice as a brand.

One concern is though that the service center page on their official site does not list out any centers when I select Mumbai.
 
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Stay away from MI422, get Mi 425 if you can. The screen of MI-422 is washed out or appears so and has really bad view angles . Just mentioning a 1GHz by Spice is misleading and the camera is also very bad.
Get a better designed phone rather then getting a cheap android phone.

check these :

Samsung Galaxy Ace Duos S6802
http://links.desidime.com/?url=http...-galaxy-ace-duos-s6802-black-/25014/p_B967657
and use the coupon code : FATHERSDAY to get it for Rs.6063

Samsung Galaxy Chat B5330
http://www.ebay.in/itm/Samsung-Gala...uhb=1&hash=item3382ca5923&pt=IN_Mobile_Phones
and use the Discount Coupon code NBICICI013 to get it for Rs.4,985
 
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Thanks for the replies guys. Will definitely check out the ones mentioned by you'll.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Mi 422. I was tending to shy away from the Spice 'cuz of a lack of a service center. Even my email has remain unanswered*. So it wasn't confidence-inspiring to begin with. & your comments have solidified that belief further.

*EDIT: I received a reply with their list of service centers today, viz. the 18th of June. I had emailed them on the 15th

The trouble mainly is that my mum keeps changing her opinion on the type of phone she'd like, which is why I was hoping to keep my spending to a minimum. So she could just try out a touchscreen first. & I'd like an Android just so I can customize the UI for her, if needed. I also need to run the design by her.

The Karbonn A25 will probably be too big for her. I was actually considering the A4+ instead. Or I could simply go the ultra-cheap route & buy a Videocon A15 for testing purposes.

Will keep ya'll posted. Again, many thanks for the replies. Much appreciated.
 
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