Below is a list of new smartphones being launched in India.
Lumia 532/ Rs 6,499
Lumia 435, Rs 5,999
The Lumia 532 is available in India at Rs 6,500, though price is expected to decline to below the Rs 6,000 mark in about a month. The 435 is also available at Rs 5,999.
At 6,500, the price of the Lumia 532 is uncomfortably close to that of the Lumia 535. which is available in India at a price of Rs 7,890. The 535 was launched late last year at Rs 9,100.
Both phones are based on the Snapdragon 200 platform and come with WindowsPhone 8.1. Practically, the only difference between the 532 and 435 is the camera. For the extra Rs 500, you get a 5 megapixel back camera on the 532 compared to 2 MP one on the Lumia 435.
Frankly, we believe the 535 is better value than the 532. For the extra Rs 1,400, you get a 5 inch IPS display compared to the 4-inch one on both the 532 and 435, and you get about 25% more pixels on the screen too.
The 535 also has a 5 MP front camera, while the other have VGA front cameras. All three have 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage, and support HSPA 3G. The 535 comes with Corning Gorilla Glass, while we are not sure if the other two have that feature (we believe not). Battery in the 435 and 532 is 1.56 Ah, while in the 535, it’s 1.91 Ah.
These are the cheapest Lumia phones available, and come without the Nokia branding.
Gionee CTRL V6L, Price Rs 13,000
Features 2.2/5
Value 2/5
Yet another mid-range phone, this time from Gionee. The CTRL V6L is not value for money, though better than the Honor 3C (mentioned below.)
Ideally, the CTRL V6L should have been priced at Rs 6,000 or so, given its features.
The Gionee V6L has 1 GB of RAM, a 5-inch 720p display, Android 4.4, and 8+5 MP cameras. Both SIMs support 3G, while LTE support is not present on this phone. We would suggest that you look at options like Lenovo A6000, if available, or even the RedMi 1S.
Huawei Honor 3C, Price 14,000-15,000
Features 2.5/5
Value 1.5/5
The Huawei Honor 3C is available on Flipkart at present from two marketplace sellers. The current price of the 5-inch, 720p phone is Rs 15,000.
The phone launch is a bit of an oddity, as Huawei phones are usually launched by WS Retail, the main seller on Flipkart, and priced competitively.
The Honor 3C is far from reasonably priced, at least given Huawei trackrecord. At Rs 15,000, the phone offers virtually no value for money compared to others like ZTE Grand S 2 – which is priced at Rs 13,999 and support 3G, EVDO Rev B and has a full HD display to boot.
The Honor 3C, as you might guess, does not come with LTE, and has a 1.2 GHz quad-core processor and comes with the old Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. It does, however, have 2 GB of RAM.
Back Camera is 8 MP and front camera is 5 MP.
Lenovo Sisley, Price ~18,000
Features: 3/5
Value: 1.5/5
Imagine the Yu Yureka, priced Rs 8,999. Now add a super Amoled display to it, and you have the new Lenovo Sisley 5-inch smartphone. The phone is also called the iPhone 6 copy, because of its looks. So if you don’t want to spend Rs 50,000 on an iPhone, you can spend Rs 18,000 on the Sisley.
The phone is already starting to be available in stores in India, and will be more widely available starting by around Feb 20.
The Lenovo Sisley, which comes with Android 4.4 and 16 GB of internal storage, is available on eBay at Rs 21,000.
Notable specifications include the 720p 5 inch display, a low-power Snapdragon 410 chipset and very slim looks.