Need a smartphone under 15,000 Rs/-

M

1. Budget?
Under 15,000 Rs/-
2. Display type and size?
Less than 5" if possible, else up to 5"
3. Dual sim?
Yes
4. Preferred choice of brand?
Any good brand
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)?
Camera is not that much of a priority
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc).
Android

7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready).
4g, LTE if possible
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)?
Listening Music, Internet browsing.
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration?
Any android equivalent of Lumia 730.
10. Any other info that you want to share

Hi, I wanna buy a new mobile phone for me. My budget is strictly under 15,000 Rs/-. What I am looking for is a phone with good screen, more than one day battery life and great sound quality through headphone jack(not that much concerned about speaker sound quality). My primary usage will be heavy music listening through IEM(Vsonic GR99) and Internet browsing(was a gamer but now not that much interested in gaming).

I considered buying Lumia 730 as it was perfect for my needs, but did some research and found out about the horrific state of Windows store and it's lack of quality apps. I really liked Windows phone Os, but lack of quality alternate apps for many of the useful apps in playstore is a big minus.

Among the Android phones I was ready to buy Moto G2, but heard about it's not so good screen quality and dropped that choice. Now considering Xiaomi Redmi 2, but worried about it's after sales service and XDA forum support. XDA support is very important for me since I'm intending to use this phone long term. Two of my previous devices are still relevant due to XDA support. In one instance developer stopped supporting after 4.0.4 but the device is on Lollipop 5.1 now, thanks to XDA. Any suggestions from you guys are welcome, also how's the sound quality of Redmi 2 through earphones?

Yureka @ 9k or Asus Zenfone 5 (A501CG) 16GB @ 11k

M

Thanks for the suggestion, but from what I saw from videos and reviews, Yureka's screen and battery backup is not so good. Also phone is huge at 5.5". In case of Zenfone 5, lack of XDA support is a worrying factor, also battery.

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One more thing, is there any benefit in waiting one or two weeks? any rumors about good new phones in this price bracket?

A6000 Plus is launching soon, has S410 + 2GB RAM @ 7.5k

For XDA support, I guess MOTO G2 is your best bet

M

Thanks for the suggestion, anupam_pb. I'm closely watching A6000 plus and zenfone 2(5" version) news. I need to know about their sound quality and display quality first.

Hang on your purchase for a few more days both zenphone 2 and a6000+ will be going to be available soon.

M

Yeah, I chose to wait for now. If any of them meet my needs, I'll get that. Also waiting for Redmi 2, 16gb 2gb Ram version. That will be the perfect phone in this range if it will ever release in India. From the gsmarena review, Redmi 2's audio quality is top notch, very Lumia 730 like. But 1gb Ram in currently available version is very limiting according to user reviews.

Yeah that's a better option right now.

M

Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?

T

mashac said:
Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?

rather get one out of redmi 2 / lenovo a6000+ / zenfone 5 1.2 ghz variant.

Save money and bide time with one of these, since ur not interested in OPO / zenfone 2 / Desire 820 all 5.5 inch & there are no good newer compact models at the moment.

Maybe xiaomi will come up with a 64gb mi4i version later, who knows..

Get Zenfone 2

mashac said:
Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?

Yes........ It has a great display & camera (though many other phones have same sensor but Samsung has great post processing).

The problem of lags in Touchwiz is gone with the Lollipop update
Its only con maybe a old SoC, but still, its performance is equivalent to Snapdragon 600, so better than S410 phones, but inferior to S615, & nowhere near S800+........ I find its design ok, better than S5

K

mashac said:
I considered buying Lumia 730 as it was perfect for my needs, but did some research and found out about the horrific state of Windows store and it's lack of quality apps. I really liked Windows phone Os, but lack of quality alternate apps for many of the useful apps in playstore is a big minus.

not really true,only snapchat and a few games are missing

D

You could consider the xiaomi mi4i if storage is not a big issue or you could wait to see if they launch the 32/64 GB versions

doom said:
You could consider the xiaomi mi4i if storage is not a big issue or you could wait to see if they launch the 32/64 GB versions

Zenfone 2 is better than it.

D

SaiyanGoku said:
Zenfone 2 is better than it.

Which model, 15k one?

doom said:
Which model, 15k one?

Yep. Even the lesser priced one has Z3560 which reaches Snapdragon 800's level of performance. Pretty good for the price.

D

SaiyanGoku said:
Yep. Even the lesser priced one has Z3560 which reaches Snapdragon 800's level of performance. Pretty good for the price.

But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.

T

doom said:
But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.

But ur getting Zen UI. And lollipop plus further updates I suppose..

Battery life I've heard is not tht good on the 4gb ram version as its got to keep active that dual channel ram and that overclocked processor

doom said:
But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.

There has to be some trade off even in the case of uber expensive flagships phones. Just make your priorities straight and see if zenphone fits in well?

D

$hadow said:
There has to be some trade off even in the case of uber expensive flagships phones. Just make your priorities straight and see if zenphone fits in well?

I don't mind the HD screen at all. I just need a good camera as well as battery life. I suppose the battery life will be better in the 15k and the 12k one.
I'm confused if it is worth 12k? This is when the yureka, the to be launched yuphoria and mi4i come into the picture

doom said:
I don't mind the HD screen at all. I just need a good camera as well as battery life. I suppose the battery life will be better in the 15k and the 12k one.
I'm confused if it is worth 12k? This is when the yureka, the to be launched yuphoria and mi4i come into the picture

More the options more the confusion. Just wait for the mi4i camera review BTW if you are only going to post on social networking any phone will do.

M

Thank you all for the feedfack. I'd buy Redmi 2 Enhanced edition eyes closed if it is available, but there is no news about that till now. With the release of Mi4i and considering it's price and lack of SD card slot, I'm kinda sure that Redmi 2 EE's not gonna available any time soon. So currently the phones I'm considering are Redmi 2, Zenfone 2(13k version) and Lumia 730 and I'm kinda consfused.

T

mashac said:
Thank you all for the feedfack. I'd buy Redmi 2 Enhanced edition eyes closed if it is available, but there is no news about that till now. With the release of Mi4i and considering it's price and lack of SD card slot, I'm kinda sure that Redmi 2 EE's not gonna available any time soon. So currently the phones I'm considering are Redmi 2, Zenfone 2(13k version) and Lumia 730 and I'm kinda consfused.

I'd say consider zenfone 5 1.2 ghz variant instead of redmi 2 in ur list.

It's seriously so hard choosing an android inspite of so many options, but none fits the bill.

Lumias are seriously better on the hw front, has something for everyone and every budget, choosing one would not take this long, but then suffers on the apps side.

K

Lumias dont really suffer on the apps front anymore
like I stated before,its purely on preference
if you want snapchat and "intensive" games (GTA etc),windows phone isnt for you
if you see all your important apps on the app store,buy it eyes closed,you wont look back at all

M

Waiting for more than 3 weeks ultimately paid off. I think Yuphoria is the perfect device for my needs. I can't find any -ves till now and hope that gsmarena review this phone. If audio quality is satisfactory in their review, then Yuphoria will be my next phone.

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Wow!! just now read about the Wolfson DAC, that's really impressive from Micromax.

mashac said:
Waiting for more than 3 weeks ultimately paid off. I think Yuphoria is the perfect device for my needs. I can't find any -ves till now and hope that gsmarena review this phone. If audio quality is satisfactory in their review, then Yuphoria will be my next phone.

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Wow!! just now read about the Wolfson DAC, that's really impressive from Micromax.

Just wait for reviews

Yeah there would be hard to find many -ves. I am looking towards that over heating issue.

D

Very minor negatives like no led notification light, only on screen buttons

M

From what I understood, the overheating issue in Yureka is mainly due to SnapDragon 610 chip(Mi4i with same chip also has heating issues). I think there won't be any heating issue with SD 410.

SD410 is not having that much over heating issue.