Monday 23 February 2015
I believe that one shouldn’t give too much importance to hardware specs when buying a new phone. Rather than paying heed to the processing power and RAM capacity, the end-user should be concerned about the usability and experience. Unfortunately, for most smartphone buyers, processor is a decisive factor. After starting the series of Top Smartphone Recommendation articles, we’ve been getting a lot of requests to publish a list of quad-core handsets under Rs 10,000. So finally, we are doing just that. Last updated: February, 2015.
Nokia Lumia 630 (Single SIM)
Street Price: Rs 6500
The Lumia 630 offers the sturdy build that Nokia is known for. It features a 4.5-inch IPS screen with 480x854 pixels. The display features ClearBlack polarisation filter for better sunlight legibility. Plus, the Gorilla Glass 3 protects it against scratches. The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 (quad-core) chipset. Apart from the 8 GB internal storage, the phone features a microSD card slot. There’s a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 1830 mAh battery. What's missing here is a front-facing camera. The 512 MB RAM looks under-whelming on the paper, but thanks to the optimised Windows Phone 8.1 OS, the phone runs smooth.
Street Price: Rs 6500
The Lumia 630 offers the sturdy build that Nokia is known for. It features a 4.5-inch IPS screen with 480x854 pixels. The display features ClearBlack polarisation filter for better sunlight legibility. Plus, the Gorilla Glass 3 protects it against scratches. The phone is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 400 (quad-core) chipset. Apart from the 8 GB internal storage, the phone features a microSD card slot. There’s a 5 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, and 1830 mAh battery. What's missing here is a front-facing camera. The 512 MB RAM looks under-whelming on the paper, but thanks to the optimised Windows Phone 8.1 OS, the phone runs smooth.
YU Yureka
Price: Rs 9000 (Amazon exclusive)
The YU Yureka is the only sub-10k handset to pack in the powerful Snapdragon 615 chip. It offers OnePlus One like Cyanogen experience for less than half the price. Gaming is taken care of by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB RAM. Despite its affordable price, Yureka comes with 16 GB internal storage with microSD card slot. Other features include a 13 megapixel camera, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and 2500 mAh battery. If you are looking for a powerful Android "phablet" under Rs 10,000, this 5.5-inch smartphones is the way to go.
HTC Desire 526G
Street Price: Rs 10,000
After a long break, HTC is revisiting the entry-level smartphone segment. The Desire 526G is one of the few Android phones under 10k with good design. As you would expect from HTC, the phone has sturdy construction. Specifications are good too. You get a handy 4.7-inch screen with 540x960 pixels. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz octa-core processor and has 1 GB RAM. Other features include an 8 megapixel camera, 8 GB internal storage, microSD card slot, and 2000 mAh battery. On the software front, you get neat HTC Sense running on top of Android 4.4.
Price: Rs 9000 (Amazon exclusive)
The YU Yureka is the only sub-10k handset to pack in the powerful Snapdragon 615 chip. It offers OnePlus One like Cyanogen experience for less than half the price. Gaming is taken care of by the Adreno 405 GPU and 2 GB RAM. Despite its affordable price, Yureka comes with 16 GB internal storage with microSD card slot. Other features include a 13 megapixel camera, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and 2500 mAh battery. If you are looking for a powerful Android "phablet" under Rs 10,000, this 5.5-inch smartphones is the way to go.
HTC Desire 526G
Street Price: Rs 10,000
After a long break, HTC is revisiting the entry-level smartphone segment. The Desire 526G is one of the few Android phones under 10k with good design. As you would expect from HTC, the phone has sturdy construction. Specifications are good too. You get a handy 4.7-inch screen with 540x960 pixels. It is powered by a 1.7 GHz octa-core processor and has 1 GB RAM. Other features include an 8 megapixel camera, 8 GB internal storage, microSD card slot, and 2000 mAh battery. On the software front, you get neat HTC Sense running on top of Android 4.4.
