With 3G penetrating all major parts of the country and Wi-Fi slowly becoming a common household sight, these days, having a Wi-Fi and 3G capable handset can finally be put to some good use, although we still have to find some use for that front facing camera. Till a couple years ago, you’d have to shell out quite a bit of money if you wanted both these features. Today, however, you can grab a 3G plus Wi-Fi enabled phone for well under Rs.10,000. While there are a whole bunch of them in this price bracket, we’ve picked the top 5 that we’ve tested and know for a fact are worth a look.
Micromax Q80 - Rs.4,900
The Q80 might not be a smartphone, but it’s a marked improvement over the Q75 and with added 3G and Wi-Fi support for almost the same price, offers really good value. The Java-based phone comes with a host of built-in apps like Nimbuzz, Newshunt, Ngpay and Bloomberg.
The keypad is fairly comfortable to type on and the optical trackpad is a welcome change from the trackball used in the Q75. Overall it’s a good phone for the price with plenty of features to boot. Here are some of the highlights of the Q80:
Micromax A70 - Rs,6,200
Next up is another offering from Micromax, but this one’s a proper smartphone, and a rather good one, too. On paper, the A70 might seem a little weak with just a 600MHz processor, but don’t let that put you off, since the phone is actually pretty quick and fluid to use. The handset is comfortable to use, doesn’t heat up too much and sports a decent 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen that responds well to touch. We also found the battery life to be really good, despite the phone still running on Froyo.
Finally, it features expandable memory up to 32GB, and has a front facing camera. It comes pre-loaded with a bunch of useful apps. Here are some of the highlights of the phone:
Samsung Galaxy Fit S5670 - Rs.9,100
The Galaxy Fit from Samsung is another good contender with a slightly larger screen and Android 2.2. The bundled music player features DNSe sound enhancements along with SWYPE pre-installed. The phone also features a 5MP auto-focus camera with plenty of settings to choose from like Shot Mode, Photo Effects Smile Detection, etc.
Samsung has also thrown in their TouchWiz 3.0 UI, which makes the phone simpler to use with plenty of shortcuts and tweaks. Below are some of the main features of the Fit:
Nokia E5 - Rs.8,700
The Nokia E5 may have launched about a year back, but it’s still one of the best phones under 10K and fits our needs perfectly. With both 3G and Wi-Fi support onboard, the Symbian v9.3 running smartphone sports a very comfortable QWERTY keypad and a simple, yet functional design.
Some of the standout features include the audio quality, which is crisp and loud, a good selection of productivity apps right from MS Office to a PDF and ZIP file reader and a very good battery life that seems to resonate with most Nokia handsets. Other features include:
You may notice that some of the newer phones did not make it to our list, like the Samsung Galaxy Y for instance and that’s only because we haven’t had a chance to review it yet. Many times, a phone may look like a winner on paper, but in reality, it doesn’t really come together always. The Motorola Fire and Fire XT is one such example. So, let us know what you think and feel free to discuss this further in our forums.
Micromax Q80 - Rs.4,900
The Q80 might not be a smartphone, but it’s a marked improvement over the Q75 and with added 3G and Wi-Fi support for almost the same price, offers really good value. The Java-based phone comes with a host of built-in apps like Nimbuzz, Newshunt, Ngpay and Bloomberg.
Feature rich budget phone
The keypad is fairly comfortable to type on and the optical trackpad is a welcome change from the trackball used in the Q75. Overall it’s a good phone for the price with plenty of features to boot. Here are some of the highlights of the Q80:
- 2.4-inch TFT display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
- 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth and USB 2.0
- 3 megapixel camera, video capture up to 640 x 480 resolution
- VGA resolution secondary camera
- 3.5mm earphone socket
- Expandable memory up to 8GB
Micromax A70 - Rs,6,200
Next up is another offering from Micromax, but this one’s a proper smartphone, and a rather good one, too. On paper, the A70 might seem a little weak with just a 600MHz processor, but don’t let that put you off, since the phone is actually pretty quick and fluid to use. The handset is comfortable to use, doesn’t heat up too much and sports a decent 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen that responds well to touch. We also found the battery life to be really good, despite the phone still running on Froyo.
Good bang for buck
Finally, it features expandable memory up to 32GB, and has a front facing camera. It comes pre-loaded with a bunch of useful apps. Here are some of the highlights of the phone:
- 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution
- 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi with hot spot creativity
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0
- 5 megapixel autofocus camera, video capture up to 640 x 480 resolution
- VGA resolution secondary camera
- 3.5mm earphone socket
- Expandable memory up to 32GB
- Lava S12 - Rs.9,999
Lava may not be a brand on the top of your shopping list, but the S12 is certainly worth a look. The phone sports a unique design and texture, not often seen on Android phones. Despite only having a 600MHz processor and running a fancy 3D UI, the interface is pretty slick and not sluggish. Jumping between homescreens engages cool 3D transition effects that add to the visual appeal. The phone also comes pre-loaded with India specific apps like SAAVN and Times of India news app, among many others. It even has a decent camera, even though it lacks auto-focus.
A good option under 10K
The most impressive bit, though is the battery life, the S12 will easily last you two days without a charge, which is very good in the work of Android. Below are some of the highlights of the phone:
- 3.2-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution
- 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi with hot spot creativity
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0
- 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera, video capture up to 640 x 480 resolution
- 3.5mm earphone socket
- Expandable memory up to 32GB
Samsung Galaxy Fit S5670 - Rs.9,100
The Galaxy Fit from Samsung is another good contender with a slightly larger screen and Android 2.2. The bundled music player features DNSe sound enhancements along with SWYPE pre-installed. The phone also features a 5MP auto-focus camera with plenty of settings to choose from like Shot Mode, Photo Effects Smile Detection, etc.
Fit enough to make the list
Samsung has also thrown in their TouchWiz 3.0 UI, which makes the phone simpler to use with plenty of shortcuts and tweaks. Below are some of the main features of the Fit:
- 3.3-inch TFT capacitive touchscreen with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
- 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi with hot spot creativity
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0
- 5 megapixel auto-focus camera, video capture up to 320 x 240 resolution
- 3.5mm earphone socket
- Expandable memory up to 32GB
Nokia E5 - Rs.8,700
The Nokia E5 may have launched about a year back, but it’s still one of the best phones under 10K and fits our needs perfectly. With both 3G and Wi-Fi support onboard, the Symbian v9.3 running smartphone sports a very comfortable QWERTY keypad and a simple, yet functional design.
Still going strong
Some of the standout features include the audio quality, which is crisp and loud, a good selection of productivity apps right from MS Office to a PDF and ZIP file reader and a very good battery life that seems to resonate with most Nokia handsets. Other features include:
- 2.3-inch TFT display with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
- 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Bluetooth v2 with A2DP and USB 2.0
- 5 megapixel fixed-focus camera, video capture up to 640 x 480 resolution
- 3.5mm earphone socket
- Expandable memory up to 32GB
You may notice that some of the newer phones did not make it to our list, like the Samsung Galaxy Y for instance and that’s only because we haven’t had a chance to review it yet. Many times, a phone may look like a winner on paper, but in reality, it doesn’t really come together always. The Motorola Fire and Fire XT is one such example. So, let us know what you think and feel free to discuss this further in our forums.
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