When you spend more than Rs 20,000 on a phone, you need to be sure that you are getting value for every penny.
Here is a list of five Android phones that come with all the latest features and hardware, irrespective of the cost.
Olive Smart V-S300
Olive Telecom, which was the first Indian company to launch a tablet, has released India’s first HSPA+ Android smartphone, the Olive Smart V-S300.
What this means is that you will get speeds of at least 14.4 Mbps for downloads, and 5 Mbps for uploads. It also comes with a Wifi hotspot feature which lets you share this high speed network with five other devices over Wifi.
Other goodies include the latest Android 2.3 Gingerbread, a 5 mega Pixel camera for high definition video recording, a front facing camera for video chat, A-GPS with Google Maps, and to top it all a 4.1 inch capacitive touchscreen.
With a 1GHz Snapdragon Processor and dedicated graphics card, the phone is no slouch. Unlike earlier Olive products this phone doesn’t suffer from insufficient hardware.
The phone is DLNA certified so you can share data with other DLNA certified devices such as TVs, cameras, phones and PCs. You can also share data with devices that have a USB port.
The phone is the cheapest such device in India and costs Rs 20,000. Despite officially being announced more than a fortnight ago though, it is still not available in stores.
HTC Incredible S
The latest Android phone from HTC is worth every penny. It comes with a 4 inch S-LCD capacitive touchscreen, Android 2.2, 3G (14.4 Mbps support), Wifi, A-GPS, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and EDR.
The phone has an 8 mega pixel camera with auto focus and dual LED flash, and a 1.3 mega pixel secondary camera for video chat.
It uses a 1 GHz processor with 768 MB RAM. It comes with 1 GB of internal memory, which is expandable up to 32 GB.
The best part of any HTC phone these days is its Sense user interface. Incredible S comes at a market price of around Rs 27,500.
Samsung Galaxy S
Samsung Galaxy S is a hugely popular device in India. The phone has a 4 inch capacitive touchscreen, a 1 GHz processor, 5 mega pixel camera, 3G (7.2 Mbps speed support), A-GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth.
Galaxy S has 4 GB of Internal Memory (the maximum available,) which is expandable up to 32 GB. Samsung has integrated a lot of applications such as augmented reality apps, Google Maps, an App that makes the phone work as a remote control for your TV, and Swype for easy typing.
The phone has a 5 mega pixel camera which is capable of recording HD video and a secondary VGA camera for video chat. At Rs 25,000 the phone is definitely one of the better devices at this price point, a totally safe buy.
Dell Venue
Dell Venue comes with a healthy spec sheet that reads: 4.1 inch WVGA AMOLED capacitive multitouch display, 8 mega pixel camera, 1 GHz processor and Android 2.2.
Apart from these goodies the phone also has Wifi, A-GPS, 3G (7.2 Mbps speed support), Bluetooth and 3.5 mm audio jack.
Priced at Rs 28,500 it is not cheap but given that it has a wonderful display and other features to match Venue is worth buying.
Motorola Milestone XT800
Milestone XT800 is the first dual SIM Android phone, that not only supports 3G GSM, but also CDMA Rev A (3.1 Mbps). However, processor speed, at 550 MHz, is quite slow.
Motorola recently announced an Android 2.2 Froyo upgrade for this phone which earlier used Android 2.1. Other features include a 3.7 inch capacitive touchscreen, 5 mega pixel camera with dual LED flash, HDMI port to watch video on TV, A-GPS, Wifi and Bluetooth.
The phone is priced at Rs 28,000 and provides a good option for people who want to use CDMA for high speed data transfer, and GSM for voice.