Posted on

Best Dual Sim Mobile phones in India

When I heard the name of Dual sim mobile phones, I was wondering why would  anyone ever use two sim cards in a phone? But with so many Operators providing many offers on various ways, and with Prepaid connections going lifetime way, it makes sense to have more than one sim card. So here are the best Dual Sim phones available in market.

Samsung C5212 –

Samsung is possibly the only popular brand which is into dual sim phones atleast for timebeing. But Samsung comes with a differentiator, it is also the only brand which allows actual usage of both the Sim at the same time. What I mean by use is “Receiving calls” with the Samsung C5212 even if you are on a call from Sim 1, you have the ability to receive call from Sim 2, you can switch and put one call on hold or decide to ignore it.
Cost – Rs 5500/-

Karbonn K550 –
Karbonn K550 brings in many features in one neat phone, boasting of a 1800mAh battery and music player functionality all with the Dual Sim does makes this phone a irresistable option. You can go for this phone if you are ready to forego on the full featured dual sim capability. When you are on call on one sim, and if someone is trying to reach you they will get a “Subscriber out of coverage area” message, basically your second sim is equivalent to being swithced off when first one is in use.
Cost – Rs 3000/-

Apart from the Karbonn K550 there are quite a few Karbonn Mobiles which compete for the top spot they include Karbonn K330,K440,K10 (QWERTY keyboard) and K661 etc. Check the Karbonn website for more details. All these phones come with 1 year warranty (as with Nokia,Samsung etc).
Karbonn is ajoint venture between UTL a telecom services company and Jaina a popular distribution firm involved with many Multinational Mobile giants. They source their phones from OEM’s in China.

Fly Dual Sim Phones –
Fly is also a new mobile manufacturer similar to Karbonn specialising in Dual sim phones . Fly has a wide portfolio from Music Phones, Windows Smart phones to the QWERTY phones. Notable models include V180 DS, B430 DS (QWERTY) ,Fly IVORY (Touch screen windows), Fly DS 200 etc.

Intex Mobiles –
Intex also is a popular mobile manufacturer in the Dual Sim area they offer quite a number of Dual sim phones which are GSM + GSM and GSM + CDMA area. IN4495 , IN2020E , IN3070 and IN6611 are some popular models. The intex phones are quite good in terms of features and build quality. Intex has been in the Indian market with its computer hardware spares for the last decade (13 years) and it is headquartered at New Delhi.

Micromax Phones –
Micromax is positioned similar to Intex and has specialiased in Wireless technologies in India since 1991. It also offers quality Dual Sim phones.

Videocon and Onida too offer few models in the Dual Sim space. But everyone except Samsung offer Dual Sim Single Active Phones (Only one sim is Active when receiving call)

Posted on

New Indian Mobile Manufacturers grow like mushrooms

Last two years have been a big bang year for Indian Mobile Manufacturing industry, few years back there was no real Indian Mobile manufacturer, Only Nokia,Samsung,Song Ericssona and LG were the Big players in the Indian market. But now there are almost 10 new brands (and most of them Well established in other areas). The likes of BPL,Onida,Karbonn,Fly,Philiphs and innumerable others have opened shop and already started to impact the big players in the bottom segment.

They offer much more value compared to Nokia or Sony Ericsson in the Rs 1000-5000 segment, and most of these manufacturers also offer minimum 1 year warranty unlike the chinese phones, So its a party out there for Indian consumers and growth story of these manufacturers also is incredible.

Other reason for their fast growth is that most of these manufacturers sell phones with newer features like Dual Sim etc for an extremely low price. For instance Karbonn offers a dual sim phone for Rs 1800/- with FM and a toy cam. And for a dual sim from big players you might end up paying Rs 8000 for Samsung’s only model.

With the ban on Chinese handsets, people and shopkeepers are looking for safer options in these new brands, who are ready to capture market even with a loss. Karbonn and Fly phones also offer service centres too, you can walk into any Sony Ericsson service center and get your karbonn or Fly phones serviced. These strategies help both the manufacturers ie Sony Ericsson as well as the new players.

But on the other hand this aggressive growth has threatened the big players, for instance Sony Ericsson has stopped/closed their Dealerships in B/C cities due to poor profitability. In few years we might see a whole new hierarchy in the Indian market. Lets wait and watch this game.