Source: Techtree

It's the usual drill; every year there are loads of phones that release and after a year's time those phones either reach a point where they see no sales and are better of phased out or they reach a price point making them so much of an attractive deal that is hard to resist. We have spotted such phones which now give you value for every penny you spend on them. Now they may be a few months or a year old but the marketing department of the manufacture has realized the appropriate price point and we finally agree with them.

To make things easy we have listed phones in the three most prominent categories namely; Music, Camera, Business. The article doesn't follow any pricing brackets, so keeping in mind the ideal range of the budgets for specific categories I've listed down options that have now come into that affordable range that were once out of reach because of just their pricing.

Music Phones

Music Phones seekers often base their budget around the 10-15K bracket. I'm talking about the average buyer here. So here are a couple of music phones that I now find good after they have driven clear of the hype.

Samsung i450: Rs.11,500

The Samsung i450 is my first pick launched for around 15K the phone has now been re-priced at Rs.11,500. Coming from the Samsung stable of music phones it houses a sound processing chip that features in most of its premium handsets and even in its audio players. The i450 is a Symbian based phone which extends its productivity much more than any other device and add to that it's more than capable processing power. The phone does lose out on absolute camera quality but its 2MP is an average performer which does a pretty good job for a non-autofocus camera.



Coming back to the Music capabilities of this phone you get a decent pair of stereo headset and just in case they aren't worthy of your taste for quality music, it has a 3.5mm jack for personal head/ear phones. This phone doesn't disappoint and now its new price tag makes it even more an attractive deal.


Sony Ericsson W910i: Rs.13,500

The Sony Ericsson W910i has seen a substantial price cut; from being priced at 19K at the time of its launch it has dropped down to Rs.13,500 - that's a price cut of over 5K in under a year's time. There has been a few factors than just time for the W910 seeing such a price cut. The phone initially when released faced lots of software issues which were corrected via a firmware update, which unfortunately for the phone, took longer than it should to arrive. If not for this, the phone perhaps, to this date, would have been priced high.



The W910i being a Walkman speaks for itself of its sound quality. The large screen facilitates viewing videos on it as well. The phone supports MP4 format so you can convert videos while maintaining quality. Its 2 MP camera didn't sound apt for the premium the phone was demanding but nevertheless the phone is quite good even without an autofocus module. The phone comes with a 2GB M2 card and a cool M2 card reader accessory. At attractive package at 13.5K.


It's the usual drill; every year there are loads of phones that release and after a year's time those phones either reach a point where they see no sales and are better of phased out or they reach a price point making them so much of an attractive deal that is hard to resist. We have spotted such phones which now give you value for every penny you spend on them. Now they may be a few months or a year old but the marketing department of the manufacture has realized the appropriate price point and we finally agree with them.

To make things easy we have listed phones in the three most prominent categories namely; Music, Camera, Business. The article doesn't follow any pricing brackets, so keeping in mind the ideal range of the budgets for specific categories I've listed down options that have now come into that affordable range that were once out of reach because of just their pricing.

Music Phones

Music Phones seekers often base their budget around the 10-15K bracket. I'm talking about the average buyer here. So here are a couple of music phones that I now find good after they have driven clear of the hype.

Samsung i450: Rs.11,500

The Samsung i450 is my first pick launched for around 15K the phone has now been re-priced at Rs.11,500. Coming from the Samsung stable of music phones it houses a sound processing chip that features in most of its premium handsets and even in its audio players. The i450 is a Symbian based phone which extends its productivity much more than any other device and add to that it's more than capable processing power. The phone does lose out on absolute camera quality but its 2MP is an average performer which does a pretty good job for a non-autofocus camera.



Coming back to the Music capabilities of this phone you get a decent pair of stereo headset and just in case they aren't worthy of your taste for quality music, it has a 3.5mm jack for personal head/ear phones. This phone doesn't disappoint and now its new price tag makes it even more an attractive deal.



Sony Ericsson W910i: Rs.13,500

The Sony Ericsson W910i has seen a substantial price cut; from being priced at 19K at the time of its launch it has dropped down to Rs.13,500 - that's a price cut of over 5K in under a year's time. There has been a few factors than just time for the W910 seeing such a price cut. The phone initially when released faced lots of software issues which were corrected via a firmware update, which unfortunately for the phone, took longer than it should to arrive. If not for this, the phone perhaps, to this date, would have been priced high.



The W910i being a Walkman speaks for itself of its sound quality. The large screen facilitates viewing videos on it as well. The phone supports MP4 format so you can convert videos while maintaining quality. Its 2 MP camera didn't sound apt for the premium the phone was demanding but nevertheless the phone is quite good even without an autofocus module. The phone comes with a 2GB M2 card and a cool M2 card reader accessory. At attractive package at 13.5K.


Business Phones

Business phones don't specialize in just providing one feature. They are made to provide convergence not necessarily for only business personnel. Convergence can come in handy for all who want to be connected at all time and there are many phones that make it possible. I've listed phones that provide such convergence without drilling a big hole in your pocket.

Nokia E51i: Rs.11,500



The Nokia E51i is one handy device released by Nokia. Coming from the E-Series it surely seemed to be an expensive deal. The E51i started off at 14.5K and has now dropped down to 11.5K with a 1GB card. At 11.5K it's one of the cheapest decent phone to provide Wi-Fi connectivity. The E51i is a classic convergence handset. You have the power and the features all packed in a neatly designed handset. The phone has gained immense success and those who have picked up this handset for its qualities mentioned above are more than satisfied. This isn't the handset you pick for its cool looks and its camera or multimedia capabilities; they are just average. Pick it up for convergence and you are well sorted and at 11.5K it's hard to find a better deal.



HTC Touch: Rs.13,500

The HTC Touch is something that created the whole revolution to Windows based handsets. With Microsoft not bringing much more to the table, HTC went on and developed an interface over the face of Windows namely the TouchFLO. The Touch was earlier available openly for a price tag of 18K but has now been snatched by Airtel under its wing of network locked phones. It is available for 13.5K which is still not bad and can be attained for a small amount for any network.



Working with documents and connectivity is all made possible. The phone though has just one issue; it is limited by its battery which isn't very powerful. It demands a charge every day. That is one of the reasons along with the time since its release that has caused this price drop. The Touch also has some decent multimedia capabilities and this adds to its package. All said-n-done the phone has the goods to deliver and at that price you won't mind the adjustment from your side with regards to charging it daily.

Sony Ericsson P1i: Rs.16,000

The Sony Ericsson P1i is one device that has not only tried to provide a combination of both business and multimedia to the end user but also has succeeded. The phone has been around now for over a year now. Launched at 24K it's dropped to almost where the M600 was before it was phased out. The P1i till now doesn't seem to have a replacement especially with Sony Ericsson dropping UIQ, so it won't be phased out too soon. It has stabilized at this price and is completely worth it.



The P1i has all the goodies demanded by a convergence device. What gives it the edge over other business devices is its combination deal of good multimedia capabilities in a good package. The semi-QWERTY keypad does take a bit of time getting used to but once you do, you not only will praise it for that but will also find that its size has been curbed well. The multimedia package this phone has to offer is a 1GB M2 card with music quality that is good and on par with earlier Walkman phones. The 3.2MP camera is an autofocus module and also has LED flash making it possible to capture good stills from your convergence device. Battery life also doesn't suffer with its features including Wi-Fi and Document editing. Something though that a few are not too comfortable with regards to the P1i is its sluggish behavior (at times) but I don't see that a real reason to skip this phone especially with a budget just over 15K.

Review

Nokia E61i: Rs.16,000

Finally not that there had to be one but we have a full QWERTY keypad phone. It's Nokia's E61i, a phone that I wanted to pick but by some luck I managed to bag a phone at a contest. Back then (about 6months) the phone had already reached this price. The phone has been around now for over a year and half and has lost the light to a very worthy successor the E71i. The E61i has only seen a mere 3K price drop from the time of its launch which says a lot about its popularity and the kind of convergence it offered.



The E61i has been built off the corrections that its predecessor demanded and a lot of user feedback. It is a handset that can win the heart of one who wants absolute convergence. The phone has a solid build and provides with a very comfortable keypad and a large screen add to that the phone is fairly slim and fits comfortably in pockets without making its presence felt to the world. The phone is powerful and also has a large tank to fuel up enough to support its features. Every connectivity option is offered that mobile devices can have and with a smooth running system. The phone has loads of office applications (Feature Pack 1) and has even Blackberry connectivity, something that no Nokia phone henceforth will feature. The phone also has a 2MP camera which earlier models were criticized for not offering. The only thing that is mainly missing is the secondary camera for video calls but you won't need that till late next year when 3G arrives hopefully. Seeing the current economic slowdown, infrastructure has taken quite a hit which sees high chances of 3G being delayed to end of 2009. By then I'm sure we will have a new list of phones that fit their buck rightly. For now, I take your leave.