Panasonic, the Japanese brand that has been getting aggressive in the Indian mobile market, has launched one of the cheapest KitKat phones in India – the Panasonic T9, priced at just Rs 3,990.
The phone, which is already available online for Rs 3,990, is perhaps also the cheapest Android KitKat phone from any MNC brand in India.
The phone would have been ideal for those looking for a cheap handset that also supports the latest software, but it has a key drawback: the Panasonic T9 does not have 3G.
It however, does have dual-SIM, and a dual-core processor. It also has a 2 MP camera at the back.
RAM is half a GB, which will do considering that you are unlikely to attempt to scale the Everest with this mini phone. Internal memory is 8 GB.
It may be noted that for the same amount, you could try to buy an Intex Aqua 3G Mini, priced at Rs 3,400. However, the Intex phone comes with just 256 MB of RAM, according to seller Flipkart, and that may be too little to run most applications.
For a decent, 3G-enabled KitKat phone from a foreign brand, you have to shell out at least Rs 5,200 to buy the ZTE Blade Buzz V815W. It too comes with half a GB of RAM and a 4.2-inch display, but has only half a GB of internal storage.
Of course there are lots of decent phones in the Rs 4,100 range, with both 3G, decent memory and KitKat. An example is the Karbonn Smart A12 Star.
However, among branded phones, the Panasonic T9 remains the cheapest KitKat phone available in India. Its nearest competition is the 2G-only Samsung Galaxy Star 2, which is priced at Rs 4,700, or Rs 700 more.
But the Panasonic phone has better specifications than the Samsung model, though we are not sure about the display quality of both these models.
The Samsung Star 2, despite costing more, is powered by a 1 GHz single-core processor, while the Panasonic T9 comes with a 1.3 GHz dual-core processor.
The Panasonic T9 seems to tailored to the Indian market and comes with support for 21 Indian languages.