In the past if you needed to buy a 'better than average' smartphone, you needed to be prepared to spend anywhere upward of Rs.10,000. Anything below that would've been a compromise between the looks, performance or both. Devices that were priced below Rs.10,000 were either equipped with inferior hardware or software that it ran on. The year 2014 has witnessed a change in this trend and in the past few weeks, we've all witnessed a lot of smartphone releases that not only have amazingly fast processors with pretty good RAM installed onto them, but are also priced surprisingly for the budget (less than Rs.10,000) market out there.
In this article, I'm gonna be mentioning 5 of my favourite budget smartphones that may not perform like the flagship devices of Samsung/Apple/HTC, that may not have full HD displays onto them or play all those high end games available out there, but would work perfectly for those who need to access social networking sites in a jiffy, browse the internet without any lag, and play casual games every now and then. This list of Top 5 budget smartphones of the year 2014 is not arranged in any order and are one above the other in terms of performance, looks and other features. If you need to buy one for yourself, please select the one that suits you the best.
1. Motorola Moto E (Rs.6,999)
One of my personal favourites, the Moto E seems to be the country's choice for a budget smartphone this year. Armed with a 4.3-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM alone are good enough reasons to make me buy this phone. On top of that you get the latest Android 4.4 running on it and a confirmed future update to the next Android operating system. No wonder the Moto E ran out of stock within a day of its release.
2. Lava Iris X1 (Rs.7,999)
This is Lava's latest release in the Indian market and was launched on the 27th May 2014. This device is Lava's reply to the ever so popular Moto E and looks very similar to one of their popular smartphone, the Lava Iris Pro. The metal band along the sides of this device improves the overall look of the device. This device runs on a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 4.5-inch display and a 4GB internal memory with an option of expansion upto 32GB via a microSD card.
3. Sony Xperia E1 (Rs.7,990)
With the release of the E1, Sony has build upon their plans of grabbing a share of the budget smartphone market that they began with the release of the Sony Xperia E. This device is pretty well designed and looks typical of any Sony device. The built-in speakers and the output you get via the headphones is what people are raving about in their reviews for this device. The Sony Xperia E1 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, not so great 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch TFT display and Android 4.3 operating system. The camera on this device is also a let down at a mere 3.15 megapixels.
4. Nokia X (Rs. 6,999)
Nokia finally bowed down to people's needs of having a Nokia manufactured Android smartphone. This is Nokia's first Android powered device and runs a customized version of Android with Windows like tiles. A feature we desperately missed on this device was Google Play store, the Nokia X does not come with Google's own app store, but has its own version available. Decent battery life, dual-sim, great sound and a trusty old Nokia brand behind it are its forte. A 1GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch display, 512MB RAM and a 3 Megapixel lone primary camera are some of its important specifications.
5. Micromax Unite 2 (Rs.6,999)
As we all know, the Micromax Unite 2 comes with a host of Indian languages pre-installed onto it. But that is not what we geeks are interested in, what we love about this device is its real estate space, a 4.7-inch LCD display. It comes armed with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Mediatek processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.4.2 KitKat on the inside and a better than Moto E 5-Megapixel autofocus rear camera. It also has a front facing 2 Megapixel camera for fulfilling your selfie needs.
I hope this article helps you in selecting a budget smartphone of your choice and is useful to you. Please share it with your friends/colleagues if you liked it and feel free to comment below, letting me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
In this article, I'm gonna be mentioning 5 of my favourite budget smartphones that may not perform like the flagship devices of Samsung/Apple/HTC, that may not have full HD displays onto them or play all those high end games available out there, but would work perfectly for those who need to access social networking sites in a jiffy, browse the internet without any lag, and play casual games every now and then. This list of Top 5 budget smartphones of the year 2014 is not arranged in any order and are one above the other in terms of performance, looks and other features. If you need to buy one for yourself, please select the one that suits you the best.
1. Motorola Moto E (Rs.6,999)
One of my personal favourites, the Moto E seems to be the country's choice for a budget smartphone this year. Armed with a 4.3-inch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, a 1.2 GHz dual core processor and 1GB of RAM alone are good enough reasons to make me buy this phone. On top of that you get the latest Android 4.4 running on it and a confirmed future update to the next Android operating system. No wonder the Moto E ran out of stock within a day of its release.
2. Lava Iris X1 (Rs.7,999)
This is Lava's latest release in the Indian market and was launched on the 27th May 2014. This device is Lava's reply to the ever so popular Moto E and looks very similar to one of their popular smartphone, the Lava Iris Pro. The metal band along the sides of this device improves the overall look of the device. This device runs on a quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 4.5-inch display and a 4GB internal memory with an option of expansion upto 32GB via a microSD card.
3. Sony Xperia E1 (Rs.7,990)
With the release of the E1, Sony has build upon their plans of grabbing a share of the budget smartphone market that they began with the release of the Sony Xperia E. This device is pretty well designed and looks typical of any Sony device. The built-in speakers and the output you get via the headphones is what people are raving about in their reviews for this device. The Sony Xperia E1 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, not so great 512MB of RAM, a 4-inch TFT display and Android 4.3 operating system. The camera on this device is also a let down at a mere 3.15 megapixels.
4. Nokia X (Rs. 6,999)
Nokia finally bowed down to people's needs of having a Nokia manufactured Android smartphone. This is Nokia's first Android powered device and runs a customized version of Android with Windows like tiles. A feature we desperately missed on this device was Google Play store, the Nokia X does not come with Google's own app store, but has its own version available. Decent battery life, dual-sim, great sound and a trusty old Nokia brand behind it are its forte. A 1GHz dual-core processor, 4-inch display, 512MB RAM and a 3 Megapixel lone primary camera are some of its important specifications.
5. Micromax Unite 2 (Rs.6,999)
As we all know, the Micromax Unite 2 comes with a host of Indian languages pre-installed onto it. But that is not what we geeks are interested in, what we love about this device is its real estate space, a 4.7-inch LCD display. It comes armed with a 1.3 GHz quad-core Mediatek processor, 1GB of RAM, Android 4.4.2 KitKat on the inside and a better than Moto E 5-Megapixel autofocus rear camera. It also has a front facing 2 Megapixel camera for fulfilling your selfie needs.
I hope this article helps you in selecting a budget smartphone of your choice and is useful to you. Please share it with your friends/colleagues if you liked it and feel free to comment below, letting me know your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
