Top 5 high-end smartphones

With Diwali just a few weeks away, we’re sure many of you are itching to ditch that old phone for the latest speed demon currently on the shelves. Unfortunately, you can’t just waltz into a store and buy a phone without doing your homework these days since there are countless options to choose from and only a handful of them are truly worth your time. To make your life simpler, we’ve put together the ‘Top 5’ high-end smartphones that we feel deserve your attention.

We've chosen the phones that we have already reviewed so there’s no doubt in our minds that these are the best of the best. We’ve also selected phones with a 1GHz CPU and above which we feel is the bare minimum if you’re spending anything above 25K. So, without further ado, let’s meet the worthy contenders starting with the cream of the crop.

Samsung Galaxy S II - Rs.27,400 (View Stores)
We’ve thought long and hard about which phone should take our top spot and the decision was unanimous, the Galaxy S II from Samsung is the most feature packed and future proof phone which also happens to offer the best bang-for-buck.

Samsung's finest creation to date

Apart from the obvious features, the S II packs in some very unique ones like a Super AMOLED Plus screen, 16GB of built-in storage, Wi-Fi Direct, USB on-the-go, 8MP shooter with 1080p video capture, NFC support, TV-out via MHL, out-of-the-box support for Full HD MKV video and FLAC audio playback, all of this packed into a ultra-slim body.

 iPhone 4 - Rs.34,000 (16GB) (View Stores)
Coming up a close second is Apple’s best selling iPhone yet. This smartphone may not have all the bells and whistles found in the S II but it more than makes up for it with its super slick interface. While other smartphones may be superior to it in terms of hardware, none have managed to capture the simplicity that Apple perfected years ago.

You know you want one

Despite being a year old, it still packs in one of the best 5MP cameras in the market and of course you have the app store where you’ll find every app imaginable.  

BlackBerry Bold 9900 - Rs.30,400 (View Stores)
The Bold 9900 has set the bar really high for business class smartphones and is RIM’s best offering too date. Beneath the smooth carbon fibre and metal chassis we have a fiery 1.2GHz Qualcomm processor powering BlackBerry OS 7.0. The screen size may be small but it’s densely packed with pixels for a really sharp image.

Means serious business

For a change, the 9900 finds itself on par with other smartphones in the market in a spec-to-spec comparison. We have 8GB of built-in storage, Wi-Fi ‘n’, 720p video recording, speedy processor and NFC support. It does falter a bit in the camera and battery department but overall, is a really good business smartphone.