Top 5 smartphones launched in January, 2016

Here are the best fives phones which were launched in India in January 2016.

This month over 40 new phones were launched in India including some really good devices. Here we have selected the best five of them. While selecting them we have deliberately picked one device from various price brackets.

You can check out the devices launched in the first week of January here, of second week of this monthhere and to find the devices launched in the third week of this month, click here

Coolpad Note 3 Lite: Rs 6,999

In the under Rs 10,000 segment, several phones were launched including the Honor Holly 2 Plus (http://www.themobileindian.com/handset-guide/details/Huawei-Honor-Holly-2-Plus). But the title of best new device under Rs 10,000 should go to the Coolpad Note 3 Lite which at Rs 6,999 is also the cheapest smartphone in India to offer 3 GB RAM.

The Coolpad Note 3 Lite comes with a 5 inch HD display. It has Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system and a Mediatek MT6753 chipset that has a 64 bit quad core processor and Mali T720 graphics processor. It has 16 GB of internal memory. The phone has a dedicated expandable storage slot of 32 GB capacity.

The Coolpad Note 3 Lite offers a 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera. This dual SIM smartphone has WiFi, Accelerometer and Proximity sensors. Besides, it comes with USB OTG functionality, FM Radio, Bluetooth and GPS.

You can read its review here.

LeEco Le 1s - Rs 10,999

LeEco is the latest brand from China to enter the Indian market, and they have surely created waves with the same amazing specs at a reasonable price. The LeEco Le 1s is equipped with a 5.5 inch full HD IPS display and a fingerprint sensor. The phone runs on Android Lollipop, and has a MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core 2.2 GHz processor, which is the MediaTek flagship, and it runs with 3 GB of RAM. The internal memory stands at 32 GB (non-expandable).

Its primary camera is of 13 megapixel resolution. This autofocus camera has aperture of f/2.0 and it has a flash light as well. Besides, the phone has a a 5 megapixel selfie shooter with an 85 degree wide angle lens and an aperture of f/2.0. The dual-SIM LeEco Le 1s is a 4G phone and it offers GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth for connectivity. The power is provided by a 3000 mAh unit.

Lenovo Vibe X3 - Rs 19,999

After "killing” off the Motorola brand, Lenovo has come out with another lucrative phone, the Lenovo Vibe X3. It is armed with a 5.5 inch full HD IPS display. It runs on Android Lollipop, and has the hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor which has maximum clock speed of 1.8 GHz. It has 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB internal memory and a 128 GB microSD card slot.

The Vibe X3 (32 GB) has a 21 megapixel rear camera that comes with Sony IMX230 sensor, phase detection auto focus feature, LED flash light and ability to record 4K videos. The X3 has an 8 megapixel front camera. Besides, it offers Snapdragon 808 hexa core processor, 3 GB RAM and 3500 mAh battery.

The dual SIM Vibe X3 offers 4G, GPS, Bluetooth, WiFi and a 3500 mAh battery.

Asus Zenfone Zoom - Rs 37,990

After a long time a dedicated camera smartphone has been launched in India in the form of Asus Zenfone Zoom which is is equipped with a 5.5 inch full HD IPS display. The phone runs on Android Lollipop. It has a quad-core 2.3 GHz processor, which runs with 2 GB of RAM. The internal memory stands at 16 GB to which you can add another 64 GB via a microSD card.

The highlight of the phone is its primary camera of 13 megapixel resolution which is among few phones to offer 3X optical zoom. Besides, it is equipped with laser autofocus, geo-tagging, face detection, HDR, panorama, optical image stabilisation, video recording at 1080p at 30 fps, and a dual-tone flash. In the front of the phone lies a 5 megapixel selfie shooter. The dual-SIM Asus Zenfone Zoom is a 4G phone with GPS, WiFi, and Bluetooth for connectivity. The power is provided by a 3000 mAh battery.

BlackBerry Priv - Rs 62,990

This month the dual SIM version of Samsung Galaxy Note 5 was also launched in India. But it was the BlackBerry Priv – the first Android smartphone of BlackBerry – that stole the limelight.

The BlackBerry Priv is armed with a 5.4 inch quad HD AMOLED display. It runs on Android Lollipop operating system and has a hexa-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz, which runs the phone with 3 GB of RAM. The Priv has 32 GB of internal memory and a 2 TB microSD card slot. It has an 18 megapixel rear camera that comes with aperture of f/2.2, 27mm lens, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, optical image stabilisation, phase detection autofocus and dual tone flash lights. Meanwhile, in the front of the phone there is a 2 megapixel selfie taker. The BlackBerry Priv has one SIM slot, 4G, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, and WiFi. Its 3410 mAh battery claims to provide up to 24 hours of talk time or 420 hours of standby.

by: The Mobile Indian network, 

BlackBerry PRIV first impressions: the flexibility of Android with the premise of added security

“The PRIV may very well be BlackBerry’s last chance to make a space for itself in the smartphone market”

On June 18, 1815, Napolean Bonaparte fought a battle in Waterloo against the British and Prussians, and faced defeat. 200 years later, someone else is fighting an uphill battle in Waterloo – BlackBerry, the company which made emailing on the go hip and cool, is now on the brink of extinction in the smartphone era led by Android and iOS. There are quite a few other similarities between Napolean and BlackBerry as both rose through the ranks (the former in terms of his empire in Europe, while the latter in terms of popularity). However, as they say, history doesn’t repeat itself, and the brand might have another chance to revive its fortunes.

A few months ago, the flailing Canadian company took a bet – perhaps its biggest and boldest yet – by taking the veils off a smartphone christened PRIV that ran Google’s Android operating system. Today, the brand has brought the device to the Indian shores and we were among the first ones to get our hands on it. It goes without saying that we were quite interested to see how this marriage between BlackBerry’s hardware and Google’s software has turned out, and in a nutshell, it's quite impressive. Let’s delve into the details of why we think so, based on our brief usage of the BlackBerry PRIV.

Almost a decade ago, sliders were in vogue – as they offered large screens at the users’ disposal along with featuring keypads that slid out. The BlackBerry PRIV is a throwback to that era as it also has a slider form factor. Up front, you get a large 5.4-inch touchscreen display, with a physical QWERTY keyboard underneath that slides out.

Due to this form factor, the BlackBerry PRIV tips the scales on the higher side at 192g. It’s not in the race for the title of the slimmest smartphone either, as it has a waist size of 9.4mm. Similar to the Passport (review), the device seems to have unusual dimensions too, since it's larger and wider than most offerings of its size.

 

The tapered edges of the phablet help in ergonomic handling, although it’s not ideal for one-hand usage. The phone has a dedicated mute button, which can be found on the right, and is flanked between volume keys. Towards the left spine, you’ll find the power switch. While the top sports a microphone, an ejectable tray for a nano-SIM and another one for a microSD card, both the 3.5mm audio socket as well as the micro-USB port are placed at the bottom.

 

At the back, you’ll find the brand's signature textured pattern with BlackBerry’s logo towards the middle. A primary camera along with dual-tone LED flash also sits here.

The 5.4-inch AMOLED display offers a dense resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels, resulting in rich pixel density of 540ppi. The display is among the best out there with crisp visuals and stunning colours. The brightness levels are impressive and viewing angles also seem to be wide enough. For protection against scratches, the screen gets a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

Similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge (review | FAQs), the screen on the PRIV curves on both sides. The edge on the screen offers a bar that can let you quickly call your favourite contacts as well as letting you open the phonebook.

The hardware keyboard features a four-row layout, with the first three offering alphabets along with backspace and return keys and the last one having frequently-accessed functions like the spacebar, caps lock, etc. Interesting, the keys are of capacitive type for accepting touch input, similar to the ones on the BlackBerry Passport. The slider also comes with a speaker grille.

Being a flagship offering, the BlackBerry PRIV comes with top-of-the-line hardware, with the onus of performance lying on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 SoC. The chipset offers a combination of four cores humming at 1.4GHz, while two cores run at 1.8GHz. Taking care of the multitasking aspect is 3 gigs of RAM, which along with the processor ensures that the device delivers a smooth experience. We didn’t find any lags during our time spent with it, though of course, we will put it through our real-life usage before passing any judgment.

Storage is being taken care of by 32GB of memory on board. Unlike many other flagships, it can be topped up with the use of a microSD card – up to 2TB cards are supported.

In the imaging department, the PRIV offers an unusual sensor – an 18-megapixel camera with f/2.2 aperture. The snapper also comes with optical image stabilisation capabilities along with phase detection autofocus. To illuminate low-light environments, it gets a dual-tone LED flash. For videos, the mobile can record 4K videos as well as slow-mo videos at full HD resolution.

Selfie enthusiasts would slightly be disappointed though as the BlackBerry PRIV comes with just a 2MP camera at the front. While the images should be decent, it’s not a match to the experience offered by many other handsets these days, even priced below Rs 10,000.

The bragging rights of the BlackBerry PRIV is the fact that it runs Android 5.1 Lollipop. This means that all your worries about the apps available in BlackBerry’s app store has vanished, as you can simply head to Google's Play Store to explore the vast number of titles. The manufacturer has also added its security chops in the OS with features like DTEK, data encryption, etc. along with some nifty things such as pop-up widgets. You also get the brand’s one-stop communication platform dubbed BlackBerry Hub, bringing all the messages from messaging apps / email services at one place.

The DTEK app helps you in monitoring the security status of the smartphone. It also has a permission manager which lets you see what permissions an individual app has. However, unlike the implementation by Chinese manufacturers, it goes a step further by telling how many times a permission was accessed by a particular app.

 

We also liked the idea of pop-up widgets as the brand is expanding upon this useful concept. Instead of having them always there on a home screen (and thus consuming extra space), you can simply flick upon an app and it’ll offer a pop-up view. BlackBerry has opened its API to app developers for building this functionality and quite a few popular apps likeWhatsApp offer this capability.

As far as connectivity is concerned, the device supports 4G as well as the usual roster of options including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. Powering the show on the BlackBerry PRIV is an embedded 3,410mAh Li-ion battery. The smartphone also comes with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 letting it charge quickly. The phablet is even compatible with wireless chargers, although they need to be purchased separately.

BlackBerry has failed to make a noticeable dent in the recent past possibly because it has been unable to change with times, especially when it comes to pricing. All its smartphones charge a premium, and the PRIV seems to have gone even a step further. It’s priced around Rs 62,990, which in our frank opinion, seems way too expensive even when we consider the overall package and BlackBerry’s promise of security. Additionally, at this price point, it’ll be up against the formidableApple iPhone 6s / 6s Plus (review) as well as the Samsung Galaxy Note5 (review).

The PRIV may very well be BlackBerry’s last chance to make a space for itself in the smartphone market, and we’ll surely be keeping an eye out to see if it's capable of doing that when we run it through our review gauntlet.