There are many Android phones cropping up in the Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 20,000 range, which puts it in the reach of many people. Sony recently announced a couple of new phones, of which, one was the XPERIA X8. A not-so-mini cousin of big-brother XPERIA X10, the X8 seems like a good mid-range Android phone. While HTC and Samsung have decided to put low-resolution QVGA (320 x 240) or WQVGA (400 x 240) displays respectively in their cheap Androids, Sony Ericsson has bravely embraced the HVGA (320 x 480) type, which is a good enough resolution for a 3-incher in our opinion. More importantly, it is one of the first and most common resolutions used for Android phones till date.
This, as we all know by now, ensures compatibility with maximum number of apps (at least from the resolution point of view). All forms of connectivity like GPS, Wi-fi, 3G are in place, and Sony Ericsson gave us a tasty quote of less than Rs. 16,000 as the X8's selling price on launch.
What more could you ask for, right? Two things is what we could think of. Firstly, like everyone else, I am baffled wondering why they'd put a measly 3.2 megapixel non autofocus camera in the X8? And that too when you know how good that 5 megapixel sensor on its X10 Mini and Mini Pro is.
Secondly, as my colleague Prasad observed, the 3-inch display felt a little too small when using the QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode. I would agree and say that if I had to change another thing about the X8, I would like the display to be bumped up to 3.2-inch, which, we by experience know is wide enough for easy portrait typing.
So, enter the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X9, which is pretty much the X8 but with a 5 megapixel sensor borrowed from the X10 mini and the screen size bumped to 3.2-inches. And while we're at it, it better be released with Android 2.1 or above, instead of a promise to update it after a few months of purchase. At 16,000 bucks, perfect eh?
Samsung Galaxy S Mini
I'm sure you are acquainted with the Samsung Galaxy S. This was probably the first phone I felt can give the iPhone a good run for its money. Despite containing that awesomely vivid 4-inch display, I didn't find the phone to be very bulky or un-pocketable in any way. However, many people don't share that impression and feel that four inches is a little too big to be a phone's display.
While we might get carried away by saying its Rs. 27,500 asking price is value for money, but when you compare it to other Rs. 30,000 phones, it does seem to give you a lot better in return. But 30 grand is no small amount.
Right now Samsung's Android portfolio has cheap 12k phones like the Galaxy 3 i5800 and then the next Android phone is more than twice that price. We're barring the aged i5700 Galaxy model since its probably out of the market by now. So now someone who wants a mid-range Android has no Samsung model to choose from.
A "Galaxy S Mini" if sold for Rs. 15,000 - Rs. 17,000 while retaining all those great features like the Super AMOLED display, DivX HD playback etc. would be a godsend. Getting the screen size down to 3.2 inches would also satisfy the dissatisfied people I mentioned before. But wait, don't we have a phone just like that already?
Sure, Samsung wants to promote their home-brewed Bada OS, but according to their plan Bada would slowly trickle down to all the lower-end feature phones like the Corbys. Samsung already has the hardware ready; just slap Android onto the Wave's body and what you've got is a kick-ass Android phone for under Rs. 20,000.
iPhone Mini / iPhone Nano
How we've wished for this to happen over and over again. But we of course are aware of Apple's "Best or nothing" policy. We also know that they're not into the number game and aren't part of the rat-race. But Apple was in a position to hold this attitude a few years ago when no other device was able to touch the greatness of the iPhone. Today though the game is changing.
Google and many of the big cellphone makers have joined hands to make a pool of phones that mimic the iPhone in function. But the difference with Android is of variety. You've got decent choices for half the iPhone's cost. Apple has the right to defend this by saying that they don't make "cheap products that are not a piece of junk".
But look at it this way: India and China are two of the biggest and fastest growing cellphone countries. People here buy cellphones with the same money required to pay for a meal for two people in a posh restaurant. Plus, with all the cheaper Android phones people begin questioning whether it is really worth paying double the price for an iPhone. We are mostly a value-for-money driven country, where the first thing people look at before buying an electronic product is the price.
And don't tell me Apple hasn't tried making cheap products to bring the "Apple Experience" to the masses. What was the Mac Mini? Or the iPod Shuffle? I have enough faith in Apple to say that if they bring a sub-Rs. 20,000 iPhone to the market, it will put all the VFM Android phone makers in a state of panic. So, if Apple wants to cash in on the success of these two big markets, they'll have to tone down their snobbish rich-boy-only attitude with the iPhone.
Nokia N900 Mini
The N900 was Nokia's first attempt to break that Symbian rut they had going with their touchscreen phones. It ran Maemo, a completely new OS from the ground up, which is now pitted to replace Symbian from all top-end Nokia smartphones. It was an interesting device to play with, but as a phone, I found it to be way too bulky for this day and age. In contrast, something like a Motorola Milestone was thinner despite the sliding QWERTY board. And with so many size zero phones in the market today, I'm sure many people would be put off by the N900 due to its size.
It would be interesting to see the hardware internals of an N900 and the Maemo OS placed in the casing of an N97 mini. We'd call it the N900 Mini, and I'm sure it would be a desirable buy for Nokia lovers. Also, why not replace the decade-old resistive touchscreen with a capacitive one?
Micromax Q8
Ok, it's not like we're promoting Micromax over other Indian china-phone makers. The Micromax Q8 is just a symbolic name and we hope similar models crop up from other makers as well.
After seeing the Micromax Q5 and the Q7, I realized that they're good value for money phones that work fairly well. But that one main differentiating factor between Indian china-phones and popular International handset makers is the User Interface. All Indian china-phones may have different skins and fonts that make the UI look a little better, but from our observation all run the same, age-old OS inside. Plus simple things like multi-tasking between Java applications isn't supported in most, possibly owing to the lack of memory or processing power. Then there are the text-input issues that we had explained earlier.
I'd like to dream of the day when a Micromax, MVL, Lemon or even a Wynncom throws that ancient OS out in the gutter and replaces it with a better functioning one. Google Android is open-source; free for anybody to take and modify. But maybe they can't port it to these phones due to the lack of sufficient processing power and internal memory. Think about it, we know how Android lagged a little even on phones with 528 MHz processors and 128MB of RAM. We can't obviously expect these under-Rs. 5000 phones to possess even this much power.
Only if there was a way to skim Android to make it lighter and work better with low-power devices, they'd most definitely give bigger players good competition. With a good web-browser, applications like Gtalk, Gmail and Facebook built-in, they would become true social networking phones for people with small pockets.
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