Best smartphones in India under Rs. 15,000: Sep 2012

We tried comparing best 5 Smartphones available now in India keeping in mind the mid-priced available options. These five handsets are results of that.

Sony Xperia Miro:

The mid-ranged smartphone Sony Xperia miro arrived in India a little while back. The handset was first unveiled on Sony’s Facebook counter along with the Xperia tipo and Xperia tipo dual back in June.

The Xperia miro features a 3.5-inch scratch-resistant TFT multi-touch display offering a resolution of320 x 480p and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The handset comes powered by an 800MHzQualcomm Snapdragon processor paired alongside 512MB of RAM. There’s 4GB of internal storage onboard which is expandable via microSD card slot up-to 32GB. The handset also features a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3MP front camera for video chats.

The handset weighs 110g and measures 9.9mm in thickness while there’s a 1500mAh battery to provide the necessary power back-up. For connectivity the handset offers GPRS, EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, micro USB 2.0, Wi-Fi hotspot, A-GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, DLNA and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Beside the hardware and connectivity features, the Xperia miro comes equipped with Sony’s signatoryxLOUD audio technology and on purchase customers will be offered 1 Year of manufacturer warranty along with 6 months of warranty for the inbox accessories.

Inbox accessories include charger, headset, data cable and a SIM card adaptor. Price stands at Rs. 14, 449

Sony Xperia Tipo and Xperia Tip dual:

The Xperia Tipo and Tipo Dual were announced by Sony back in June along with the Xperia miro and all three devices are targeted at the budget conscious folks.

For interested folks, the Xperia tipo features a 3.2-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 320 x 480p and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The handset is powered by an 800MHz Qualcommprocessor and 512MB of RAM. The handset offers 2.5GB of internal storage which is expandable up-to32GB via a microSD card slot. The handset also features a 3.2MP rear camera.

Connectivity features include GPRS, Edge, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, USB, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1 and a 3.5mm audio jack. The handset weighs around 99.4g and measures 13mm in depth while it comes equipped with a 1500 mAh battery and Sony’s xLoud audio technology.

The handset comes with a 1 Year manufacturer warranty and a 6 month warranty for the inbox accessories which include charger, headset, data cable and a screen protector.

On the other hand Xperia tipo dual sports features that are exactly similar to the Xperia tipo apart from the dual-SIM capability which supports GSM SIMs only.

The handset comes with a 1 Year manufacturer warranty and a 6 month warranty for the inbox accessories which include charger, headset, data cable, screen protector and a SIM card adaptor.

The Sony Xperia tipo and tipo dual has appeared on Flipkart and are available for preorder with price tags of Rs 9,499 and Rs 10,299 respectively.

LG E612:

LG E612 did go unnoticed due to lack of requisite marketing but those who got their hands on considered themselves lucky to have come across this LG handset.

At a price tag of Rs. 12499 you will find very less manufacturers providing Android v4.0 OS, a 4-inch TFT Touchscreen, a 5 MP rear shooter and a decently processor clocked at 800 MHz.

The touchscreen response and battery life has been found to be excellent. It lags a little when you try playing HD games but then look at the price range.

Motorola Defy Plus:

Powered by a 1 GHz processor, the Motorola Defy plus runs Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) OS. On the display side, it has a 3.7 Inches LCD touchscreen providing a resolution of WVGA, 480 x 854 Pixels. A Li-Po, 1700 mAh battery ensures talk time of 6 hrs (2G) and standby time of 237 hrs (2G).

For capturing, it’s loaded with a 5 MP primary (no secondary) cameras. Additional features include Geo-tagging, Image Stabilization, Auto Focus, and Image Editor. The memory is backed by an internal storage of 2 GB and a micro SD card-slot expandable up to 32GB.

This handset has gone through certain IP (Ingress Protection Rating) test scoring 67 in the process. IP test is evaluating capabilities of withstanding against water. This IP tests ranks phones based on a 1-8 scale, 1 meaning not waterproof at all and 8 means numero uno. The IP number specifies the environmental protection of enclosures around electrical equipment. The first number refers to protection against solid objects; the second refers to protection against liquids. For e.g. IP67 would refer to a rating of 6 for resistance against solids and 7 for resistance against water.

The Motorola Defy Plus is priced at Rs. 12,999

Verdict: LG E612. You might miss the front shooter when compared with Xperia Miro but for all other features, LG E612 is equally good and at Rs. 2k lesser than the Sony counterpart. The 4-inch display is lucrative too.