Need a smartphone under 15,000 Rs/-

mashac

Broken In
1. Budget?
Under 15,000 Rs/-
2. Display type and size?
Less than 5" if possible, else up to 5"
3. Dual sim?
Yes
4. Preferred choice of brand?
Any good brand
5. What camera option you want (flash, front facing camera)?
Camera is not that much of a priority
6. Preferred operating system? (Android, iOS, Windows Phone, etc).
Android

7. Preferred connectivity options (3G, 4G ready).
4g, LTE if possible
8. Primary use of handset (multimedia, camera, internet, gaming etc)?
Listening Music, Internet browsing.
9. Any specific mobile phones in consideration?
Any android equivalent of Lumia 730.
10. Any other info that you want to share


Hi, I wanna buy a new mobile phone for me. My budget is strictly under 15,000 Rs/-. What I am looking for is a phone with good screen, more than one day battery life and great sound quality through headphone jack(not that much concerned about speaker sound quality). My primary usage will be heavy music listening through IEM(Vsonic GR99) and Internet browsing(was a gamer but now not that much interested in gaming).

I considered buying Lumia 730 as it was perfect for my needs, but did some research and found out about the horrific state of Windows store and it's lack of quality apps. I really liked Windows phone Os, but lack of quality alternate apps for many of the useful apps in playstore is a big minus.

Among the Android phones I was ready to buy Moto G2, but heard about it's not so good screen quality and dropped that choice. Now considering Xiaomi Redmi 2, but worried about it's after sales service and XDA forum support. XDA support is very important for me since I'm intending to use this phone long term. Two of my previous devices are still relevant due to XDA support. In one instance developer stopped supporting after 4.0.4 but the device is on Lollipop 5.1 now, thanks to XDA. Any suggestions from you guys are welcome, also how's the sound quality of Redmi 2 through earphones?
 
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mashac

Broken In
Thanks for the suggestion, but from what I saw from videos and reviews, Yureka's screen and battery backup is not so good. Also phone is huge at 5.5". In case of Zenfone 5, lack of XDA support is a worrying factor, also battery.

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One more thing, is there any benefit in waiting one or two weeks? any rumors about good new phones in this price bracket?
 
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mashac

Broken In
Thanks for the suggestion, anupam_pb. I'm closely watching A6000 plus and zenfone 2(5" version) news. I need to know about their sound quality and display quality first.
 

$hadow

Geek in making
Hang on your purchase for a few more days both zenphone 2 and a6000+ will be going to be available soon.
 
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mashac

Broken In
Yeah, I chose to wait for now. If any of them meet my needs, I'll get that. Also waiting for Redmi 2, 16gb 2gb Ram version. That will be the perfect phone in this range if it will ever release in India. From the gsmarena review, Redmi 2's audio quality is top notch, very Lumia 730 like. But 1gb Ram in currently available version is very limiting according to user reviews.
 
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mashac

Broken In
Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?
 

the.one

In the zone
Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?

rather get one out of redmi 2 / lenovo a6000+ / zenfone 5 1.2 ghz variant.

Save money and bide time with one of these, since ur not interested in OPO / zenfone 2 / Desire 820 all 5.5 inch & there are no good newer compact models at the moment.

Maybe xiaomi will come up with a 64gb mi4i version later, who knows..
 
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Xiaomi Mi4i has awesome specs at the price point 13k, but what is the use of all that when there is only 16gb memory and there is no sd card slot? Very happy for the pricing, but kinda sad because of the lack of SD card. Mi Band @ 1000 is a steal too. I was waiting for the Xiaomi event in the hope that they would finally release Redmi 16gb 2gb Ram model in India. But no words about that. Asus zenfone 2 is also hopeless since 5" version is not releasing for the Indian market. I don't know what to do now?

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Is buying Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 now for 18,000 wise?

Yes........ It has a great display & camera (though many other phones have same sensor but Samsung has great post processing).

The problem of lags in Touchwiz is gone with the Lollipop update
Its only con maybe a old SoC, but still, its performance is equivalent to Snapdragon 600, so better than S410 phones, but inferior to S615, & nowhere near S800+........ I find its design ok, better than S5
 

kkn13

Cyber Genius FTW
I considered buying Lumia 730 as it was perfect for my needs, but did some research and found out about the horrific state of Windows store and it's lack of quality apps. I really liked Windows phone Os, but lack of quality alternate apps for many of the useful apps in playstore is a big minus.

not really true,only snapchat and a few games are missing
 

doom

Journeyman
You could consider the xiaomi mi4i if storage is not a big issue or you could wait to see if they launch the 32/64 GB versions
 

doom

Journeyman
Yep. Even the lesser priced one has Z3560 which reaches Snapdragon 800's level of performance. Pretty good for the price.
But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.
 

the.one

In the zone
But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.


But ur getting Zen UI. And lollipop plus further updates I suppose..

Battery life I've heard is not tht good on the 4gb ram version as its got to keep active that dual channel ram and that overclocked processor
 

$hadow

Geek in making
But the lack of custom ROMs particularly CM, average camera and battery life (according to the reviews) is a deal breaker for me.

There has to be some trade off even in the case of uber expensive flagships phones. Just make your priorities straight and see if zenphone fits in well?
 
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