If you are looking for a device that works both as a tablet and a phone you have two options, one you go for 5 inch plus smartphone or phablet, or a 7 inch plus tablets with 3G SIM. The 5 inch phones are more pocketable and therefore are better suited for calling application. The screen in them is also big enough for tablet like application.
The good part is that you can get a phablets in a wide price range starting from Rs 10,000 going up to Rs 37,900. Here are the phones that are available in this category.
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Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100 (Rs 37,900)
The Galaxy Note II is the bigger and better version of Galaxy Note which brought about this new category of Phablets, and is currently the most powerful and feature rich phablet in the market. The new Samsung Galaxy Note II features a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED Display and packs a 1.6 GHz quad-core mobile processor and 2 GB RAM inside. This smartphone-tablet hybrid also runs on the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
The phablet comes with a stylus, called S Pen, which looks like a proper pen but comes with two buttons. It is a great accessory for proper utilisation of the large screen, Samsung has thrown in some very neat applications to benefit from this stylus.
The Galaxy Note II has an 8 Megapixel camera at the back with auto-focus and LED Flash. In the front, the Galaxy Note II has a 1.9 megapixel camera for video calling.
Samsung is offering GPS along with A-GPS and Glonass support in the Galaxy Note II. The wireless connectivity options in this device include Bluetooth 4.0, Dual-Band WiFi along with WiFi Direct support, WiFi Hotspot, DLNA support, Stereo FM with RDS, accelerometer, gyroscopic sensor, proximity sensor, compass and barometer.
The Galaxy Note II will come with a massive 3100 mAh battery and is available in marble white and titanium grey colours. With price drop, you can also get the phone for Rs 35,000 from several retailers.
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Samsung Galaxy Note N7000 (Rs 29,990)
If you want something cheaper than the Galaxy Note 2 but does not want to compromise much in terms of quality, than you can go for the first Galaxy Note which comes with a 5.3 inch screen but it has some the features of Note II like the split screen feature which one can get through a software upgrade.
Galaxy Note is the first device to sport a 5.3 inch HD Super AMOLED display with a native Resolution of 800 x 1280 pixels. The phone comes with S (Smart) Pen stylus that offers real pen like writing and drawing comfort.
The phablet runs on a dual core 1.4 GHz Exynos microprocessor with Mali-400 MP dedicated graphics processor. Galaxy Note features 1 GB of RAM along with 16 GB memory onboard for storage. Its 8 megapixel camera comes with LED flash capable of recording 1080p full HD videos at 30 fps. There is a front facing 2 megapixel camera as well that allows self-portrait shots and video calling.
With reduced pricing the phablet continues to be a very good buy.
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LG Optimus Vu (Rs 30,000)
LG also joined the phablet party with the Optimus Vu. However, it has chosen a different kind of screen which comes with 4:3 aspect ratio and is wider than that of any other phone’s screen. This does help in better viewing space in case of web browsing and document editing.
This 5 inch device also comes with a stylus which is though a bit thinner than what Samsung is offering. However, LG is also offering special software in the Optimus Vu for taking note and there is a special button on the phone as well for that.
Optimus Vu has a very high end spec such as In Plane Switching(IPS) technology based display that sports a resolution of 1024×768. The Optimus Vu features a 1.5 GHz Nvidia Tegra 3, 4 plus 1 processor, 1 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage as well.
It has an 8 megapixel rear camera, a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and an HDMI port as well for easy connectivity with bigger screen devices.
The device also gets a 2080 mAh battery and will run on Google’s Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system which might also get an upgrade to the Android Jelly Bean operating system later on. The phone is well priced at Rs 30,000 and will be available in the first week of November.
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Spice Stellar Horizon Mi 500 (Rs 12,490)
Apart from above three phones which are in the very high-end price band, there are many which are in the Rs 10 to 12K range. Spice Stellar Horizon is one of the better ones amongst them going by its specification and user experience.
Stellar Horizon Mi 500 is a Dual-SIM phone based on Android 4.0 ICS platform. It runs on a 1 GHz dual core processor from Mediatek and has 4 GB ROM and 512 MB RAM. You can also expand the memory further by 32 GB using memory card. The combination of hardware looks powerful enough to handle even decent graphic intensive games.
The phone has a 5 inch screen with capacitive multi-touch and 800×480 pixel resolution. It also has a 5 megapixel main camera with dual-LED flash while a 0.3 megapixel camera is in the front.
Besides, the Spice Stellar Horizon Mi 500 has a 2400 mAh battery, GPS/A-GPS support, HSPA, WiFi/WiFi tethering, proximity sensor, and Accelerometer sensor. Spice is providing a flip cover with the handset as well.
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Micromax Superfone Canvas A100 (Rs 10,000)
Micromax’s Canvas A100 is very close to Spice however what doesn’t go in its favour is a single core 1GHz processor and that the phone is going out the market soon to make way for the Canvas II A110. Micromax might continue to offer this phone though at a reduced price after launching the Canvas II A110.
The Canvas A100 is Rs 2,500 cheaper than Spice Mi 500 but has almost same specification as the other. It runs on the Android v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) OS and is backed up by a Qualcomm 1 GHz Scorpion processor and 512 MB of RAM.
Its 5-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. Canvas A100 comes with a dual SIM (GSM + GSM) configuration and features a 5 megapixel primary camera with LED flash and a secondary 0.3 megapixel camera in the front.
Like the Spice Mi 500, it offers 4 GB of Internal Memory which can be boosted to up to 32 GB using a micro SD card. The Micromax Superfone Canvas A100 is powered by a 2000 mAh Li-Ion battery which is slightly low for a large phone like this.
In terms of connectivity, sensor and other features the phone ticks all the boxes that you expect from a budget Android phone including 3G, WiFi, GPS, Proximity sensor, and gravity sensor, etc.
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Micromax Superfone Canvas II A110 (Rs 10,490)
Micromax Canvas A110 is almost ready and pre-orders have already been started; the device will start shipping from October 29 (today).
The phone comes with a dual core 1 Ghz processor, and an 8 megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash. It has even a better screen than its predecessor in the form of a new IPS panel which though comes with same resolution and size as the Canvas A100.
Rest of the specifications are more or less same as the Canvas A100. The reason we suggest you to wait is that our sources are telling us that the price will be either Rs 9,990 or Rs 10,490 which makes buying Canvas A100 a waste.
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iBall Andi 5C (Rs 12,599)
The iBall Andi 5C comes with a 5 inch IPS panel display and is priced at 12,599.
The phone is based on Android 4.0 Ice cream Sandwich operating system with a 1 Ghz Cortex A9 processor. The phone comes with built-in GPS, 3G with up to 7.2 Mbps speeds and has a big 2300 mAh battery which is bigger than Canvas A100 but smaller than Spice Mi 500.
The iBall Andi 5C has a 5 megapixel camera at the back and a 0.3 megapixel unit in the front. The phone gets internal memory up to 4 GB which is expandable up to 32 GB. The phone gets a beating on two counts one it gets a single core processor, and two it is priced higher than the Micromax A110 which is more powerful as well as better equipped.
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Mercury mTab Magiq (Rs 12,990)
The primary reason for the phone to be at the bottom of this list is its availability. We could not find a single online site selling this phone even though it was announced almost a month ago. We have also not come across a store that offers Mercury phones and tablets.
This dual SIM phone comes with a 5 inch screen and is based on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system and runs on a 1 Ghz processor. It has 512 MB RAM, 4 GB built-in storage with 32 GB expandable memory option and a capacitive multi touch panel.
The phone supports 3G, WiFi and Bluetooth. Mercury magiQ has a front VGA camera and a rear camera with 12 megapixel resolution which is the best in this category as far as specs go.
According to the company, the battery of Mercury magiQ provides Standby time up to 15 days and Talk time up to 13 hours, which also one of the best figures in the category though not the best. However, we do not have the exact specification of the battery and so we would not like to comment on that.
Mercury magiQ comes with in-built Accelerometer, GPS, and phone book. The phone weighs 140 grams and is 11.6mm thick.