Top smartphones under Rs. 15,000

The 15K budget has been a sweet deal for those not wanting to spend extra on their latest smartphone. If you’ll actually see, it makes a lot more sense than over splurging on a phone, because every new phone becomes ‘old’, after a 6-8 month cycle. So, here’s what we think are the top smartphones you could buy between Rs.10,000 and Rs.15,000. 

SE Live with Walkman 

It’s small, but it’s fast and powerful. It’s got a 1GHz processor and is future proofed as well. The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman is the only one in this category that is definitely going to get Ice Cream Sandwich. Sony’s hit a really sweet deal for consumers with the Live with Walkman, at this price point.

The Walkman phone

Here are the specs of the SE Live with Walkman:

• 3.2-inch scratch resistant capacitive touchscreen with a 320 x 480 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi, DLNA
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 720p video recording
• Secondary VGA camera
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 3.5 mm handsfree socket

HTC ChaCha

The Facebook phone, HTC ChaCha is one of the few Android phones that has a very good keyboard. Plus, most will agree with us that Sense UI brings an entirely different experience to users. It may have a small landscape screen, but as we saw in our review, we had absolutely no problems browsing or manoeuvring through the fluid interface. As an added bonus, it’s got some brilliant Facebook integration. 

HTC ChaCha

Here are the specs of the HTC ChaCha:

• 2.6-inch capacitive touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass and a 480 x 320 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 480p video recording
• Secondary VGA camera
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 3.5 mm handsfree socket

HTC Explorer

Another relatively tiny smartphone, but another impressive one. The HTC Explorer is a budget Android, but it’s fluid like cream. In our review, this one did even better than the LG Optimus Net, which had a bigger screen and a faster processor (as opposed to the 600MHz one on the Explorer). Sense 4.0 has been included to elevate your Android experience as well. The Explorer is just a little above Rs.10,000 and makes for a great budget Android.

Get ready to Explore!

Here are the specs for the HTC Explorer:

• 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen with a 320 x 480 pixel resolution
• 3G, EDGE/GPRS, Wi-Fi
• GPS with A-GPS support
• Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP, USB 2.0
• 3.15 megapixel camera, 480p video recording
• Stereo FM radio with RDS
• Memory expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 3.5 mm handsfree socket