Well there have been so many new Mobile launches in the recent past with focus on providing the full touch screen UI. Both Samsung and LG have come up with quite few of them. And HTC has come out with improved models and finally Nokia has finally entered this segment. If you don’t want to be tied to a network and don’t want pay a hefty price (as much as $800 as in India for 16GB version), you should definitely consider one of the alternatives listed below. I have also included the price (as of Aug 2009) for a better understanding.
All the below phones don’t need a contract and are sold unlocked by Manufacturers at the mentioned price.
Samsung STAR – Rs 9500 or $210
Samsung’s basic full touch screen phone Samsung STAR is priced at $200 or Rs 9500/- . It has a music player, Camera ,FM and lots of free games. It has very slim look, but since this is based on Samsung’s proprietary OS, customizations and free apps are limited or Nonexistent.
Also the STAR 3G a 3G version of Samsung STAR is available for Rs 2000 more.
Nokia 5800 – $ 400 or Rs 18000
Nokia’s first full touch model a candy bar phone with all the features of S60 and 8GB memory with load of music and entertainment features. This model has many freeware apps written in Symbian and Java. But the main source of discontent is its inconsistent UI, where Nokia haven’t polished the innards of the Navigation. But this phone has a powerful OS which allows lot more customizations. Expect the newer firmware to improve the performance and tweak the UI.
Nokia 5530 –Rs 12000 or $230
A bare bone version of the Nokia 5800 express music phone minus the 3G and 8GB inbuilt memory. This phone will definitely capture audience as this is to be priced at 230$ or Rs 12,000.
Samsung Jet – Rs 20,700 or $450
Samsung Jet is the latest and heavily loaded Samsung Full Touch screen phone and it boasts the fastest processor among all the present generation phones at 800MHz ( Remember the Intel P3 processors ?? ) . It has 5 MP camera, Music player, FM, Games,Divx Player etc. Also it has very good metallic look. It is priced at Rs 20,700 or $ 450 . Again this runs on Samsung’s proprietary OS.
LG Cookie – Rs 9000 or $200
One of the cheapest Full touch screen phones in the market, LG Cookie is a value for money product with a good 3.2 MP camera , FM radio and supports up to 8GB memory card.
LG Arena – Rs 20,100 or $450
LG Arena is a fully loaded phone from LG with almost all the features of the Samsung Jet and more. It has inbuilt memory of 8GB expandable upto 40GB memory. 5 MP camera , Dolby digital Video , 3G video calling, wifi , 7.2 Mbps HSPDA connection, A-GPS and 3.5 mm Standard audio jack. But the OS is a proprietary OS.
Samsung Pixon M8800 – Rs 22,000 or $ 500
Samsung Pixon is a 8MP camera cum Full touch screen phone with a vivid 3.2 inches display apart from the usual functionalities like Music, Video, Movies, GPS, wifi etc
There are other higher end phones which will be covered separately in another article.