3 Budget smartphones that look beyond Mediatek Facebook Share Twitter Share

In theprice-sensitive Indian market, desi phone makers have ensured to bridgethe gap between superior features and affordableprices. Today, we can easily find smartphones with high-end features priced well under Rs 15,000. The Indian smartphonemarket is inundated with such budget phones, but if you look closely, most of them run on Mediatek processor. We can even say that the
Mediatek MT6589 is the beating heart of thequad-core smartphoneboom that’s ongoingin India. There are just a handful of manufacturers that have been looking beyond the commercial Mediatek for the budget category. We came across only three smartphones from leading Indian phone makers which do not equip Mediatek and are worth a look.
KarbonnTitanium S5
Karbonnlaunched the affordableTitanium S5 powered by a quad-core processor earlier this year priced at Rs 11,900. Unlike most Indian quad-core smartphones that feature Mediatek, theS5 equipsQualcomm MSM8225Q Snapdragon chipset. The quad-core processor clocks at 1.2GHz and features an Adreno 203 graphics. The S5 followsthe latest fadand sports a large 5-inch IPS display. The Titanium S5 runsAndroid version 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. Previously, we’ve seen theTitanium S1 powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play SoC comprisingfour ARM Cortex-A5 CPU cores runningat 1.2GHz each and Adreno203 for graphics.
Here's a quicklook at the specificationsof the Karbonn Titanium S5:
5-inch capacitive IPS display with 540 x 960 pixels resolution Dual-SIM, 3G, Wi-Fi GPS with A-GPS Bluetooth with A2DP 8MP rear camera with auto focus, 2MP front-facing camera 4GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSd card slot
Micromax A111 Canvas Doodle
Micromax has been trying to steal Samsung's thunder by offeringaffordablesmartphones with specificationsalmost at par with Samsung's devices. In one such attempt, the company launched the A111 Canvas Doodle sporting a 5.3-inch displayand a stylus at Rs 12,999, to take on the Galaxy Note. While Micromax has been employing Mediatek in almost all its smartphones, the A111 Canvas Doodle seems to be an exception. It is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm MSM8225Q Snapdragon and runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.1.2.
Take a look at thespecificationsof theA111 Canvas Doodle:
5.3-inch capacitive touchscreen with 480 x 854 pixels resolution Dual-SIM, 3G, Wi-Fi GPS with A-GPS Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP 8MP rear camera with auto focus, 2MP front-facing camera 4GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSd card slot
XoloX1000
The XoloX1000 also goes against theherd and screams "Intel inside". It is powered by Intel Atom Z2480. The single-core multi-thread processor clocks at 2GHz and features PowerVR SGX540 graphics. The X1000 equips Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, but is upgradeable to Android jelly Bean 4.1. It comes with a huge 8GB internal storage that can be further expanded. It is available via onlineretailers forRs 14,000. Check out thecomplete review here. The X1000 is Xolo's third handsetto feature Intel’s mobileprocessor. Its predecessors are the Xolo X900 and Xolo X500. Xolo's latest quad-core Q600 smartphoneis powered by Mediatek.
Take a quicklook at the specificationsof the XoloX1000:
4.7-inch capacitive touchscreen with 720 x 1280 pixels resolution 3G, Wi-Fi GPS with A-GPS Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP 8MP rear camera with auto focus, 1.3MP front-facing camera 8GB internal memory, expandable up to 32GB via microSd card slot
So far, Mediatek is dominating thebudget smartphone market. Intel is trying to push into thebudget phone category and we may soonsee Nvidia Tegra-based budget smartphones too. We hope to see rather diverse range of devices inthe budget smartphonecategory.