Smartphone revolution is on a roll in India – the largest growing smartphone market in the world, and we see a trend where youngsters are really pushing the envelope and adamantly spending too much on their smartphones, taking advantage of several monthly installment schemes. While, this isn’t always a bad thing, but here we ponder on some reasons for why you should settle for under 10 to 15K INR.
Change
Most likely, you would want to change your smartphone in next 2 years. Even some of the high end smartphones from 2 years back aren’t such a big deal today. For instance, Samsung Galaxy S4, a true star of its generation is now selling for less than 18k.
In a market where a lot can change in just 2 months, your gadgets are bound to lose their panache and sheen in the next couple of years. So the philosophy to spend more one time and make it count by long term usage isn’t very meaningful.
Susceptible to Damage
Our smartphones are a very intimate tool, which means you will carry them with you, sleep with them, ride with them and even toast your eyes on the crapper. This also means they are very vulnerable to damage and theft.
A large percentage of smartphone buyers go through this ordeal. Every day you see friends disheartened by cracked smartphone displays or by getting their phone picked in mere seconds while travelling through a packed metro – that could happen to you too. Only, it hurts lot less when spares are cheap.
Good performance
With the arrival of company’s like Asus, Xiaomi, YU, Motorola and several other online exclusives, the low budget smartphones are offering great value for money – And great performance. These include Qualcomm’s midrange chipsets, Mediatek challengers like MT6752 (Lenovo A7000), Powerful GPUs like PowerVR G6430 (Zenfone 2), great GPS connectivity, 2 GB RAM and fluid UI transitions even in the long run.
Even the low end Mediatek MT6582 SoCs are much better than their predecessor MT6589 chips for long term durable performance. With more horse power available than what most of you would need, there is one less reason (a significant one) to spend more.
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Brand Advantage
Let’s face it. If someone is going out of his way to buy a high end device, it is because of the brand value and all the class associated with it. This might be a valid reason, but it is a lot less meaningful in today’s time and will be a lot less meaningful in future.
Immediate success and great response to brands like Xiaomi indicate that people today are cognizant and don’t discard every less popular brand as Chinese filth. In populous cities you can now spot all lesser known brands more often than ever before. Besides, several tier one brands like Asus and Motorola are competing aggressively in the same price bracket too.
The Major Market
Most shipment reports suggest that all action has shifted towards the affordable segment. With more than 60 percent market share being taken by under 15K smartphones, there are several advantages that came along.
You will readily find accessories and cases for all popular models in this price range, in all major retail stores without spending much. This facilitates better and frequent customization. More people using affordable smartphones also means better community support for rooting and flashing even on low end phones, something which was missing till couple of years back.
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Conclusion
Needless to say, if you have deep pockets and too much money to part with, there is no reason to stop you from spending some extra bucks. Carrier subsidies in markets like US allow users to buy and timely upgrade to high end devices without spending too much, but this is lot less likely to happen in India. Thus the budget phone wars are a lot more intense in this part of the world, which is after all a major benefit for consumers.
