Last week, I
helped a couple of my friends with their tech decisions. I helped one pick up a Galaxy S7
edge & another one a Redmi Note 4. I must say that picking up a flagship device is
a much easier task than picking up a budget device. With the S7 edge, you are
guaranteed top notch specs, great camera, exclusive & future safe features.
You pay the required premium and you get a polished phone that is good for you
to use and flaunt.
The decision
making process gets murkier when you have to pick a budget device. I had to
navigate through a bunch of difficult choices to ultimately pick up the Redmi
Note 4. There are far too many aspects to look out for. The processor could
ruin your day-to-day usage, the camera might not be the best in all conditions
and the list goes on….
2016, in
many ways, was the year of budget phones. We saw the likes of Xiaomi Redmi Note
3, LeEco Le2, Lenovo K series, Moto G4 Plus rule the tech news landscape. The Note 3 even became the most selling phone in the online space. Each
one had something great to offer for the large Indian market. While the Note 3
& Le2 offered great specs at a groundbreaking cost, the Moto G4 Plus
offered a great camera at budget price. The term “price to performance” became a
common one. Every tech blogger / You-tuber worth his / her salt abused the
phrase to maximum effect.
2017 has
begun with a bang. While everyone is waiting for Samsung Galaxy s8, LG G6
(Okay, not so much) & the astronomically priced iPhone 8 (or 10), we
already have 2 budget flagships. Xiaomi launched it’s successor to the hugely successful
Note 3 & Huawei launched Honor 6x, a.k.a the #SwagPhone! These 2 have
already taken up headlines for the most bit for the seemingly awesome
performance. Then there is also the Coolpad Dual 1 & Nokia 6 (Yet to be
launched in India).
With the
Moto G5 & G5 Plus to launch in MWC, now will be a good time to see which
features manufacturers should incorporate in their latest budget offerings in
2017.
Android Nougat (Out of the box)
Check any
phone launch event on Youtube and count the times they say “cutting edge” / “latest”
/ “futuristic”! While these terms apply to the various features, their OS
remains at least 1 generation old. Why? It has been 6 months since Nougat was released and a phone
launched after that time frame should carry the latest!
Apart from
shipping the latest version of the OS, it would be nice if manufacturers would
support their mid-range phones at least as long as their flagship models. Most
Chinese vendors today skim on updates and keep launching new variants with
minimal updates. Surely, after 6 months of an OS version launch, it is not too
much of an ask!
USB Type – C port & Fast Charging
While Nougat
has been around for 6 months, Type – c has been around for longer and it really
doesn’t cost much (or much more than the regular port) to implement in a
mid-range phone. Type-C is becoming a standard across the globe.
A type-C
cable also brings fast charging capabilities along with it. As the phones are
growing bigger (with big battery), fast charging is a must. Just because one
does not have a 50K phone, does not mean that they do not need to charge their
batteries as quickly as them. Let us look at the case of Redmi Note 4. It
sports a Snapdragon 625 chipset which supports quick charging, but the phone
does not support it. Why? It is beyond my comprehension.
OIS / Better camera module
Dear
manufacturers, we do not need dual camera set-ups. We do not need 23 mega pixel
sensors. All that we ask for is a decent camera module with OIS support. Moto
G4 Plus managed it in 2016 at a great price point. Check out the difference
between Galaxy s7 & Huawei p9. Despite partnering with Leica, the p9 loses
out on most shoot – outs because of a great single camera implementation. We
would like to see the same in the mid - rangers.
Other honorable mentions
1) 32 GB base storage: In an age where there is an app for everything and sensors that shoot images
of 10 mb each, 32 GB is the bare minimum we could ask for. UFS 2.0 is too much
to ask at a budget, but at least give us eMMC 5.1! While on this topic, it is
about time 3 GB RAM became base. A modern Octa-core chip set with heavy OS layer
needs 3 GB of RAM to function without hiccups.
2) Basic sensors:
I am looking at you, Samsung! Xiaomi launches a phone at 9 k with every sensor
available including the gyroscope sensor. What makes you launch phone at 25k
without it? The chip sets support it. VR, as everyone keeps saying, is the next
big thing. Please don’t skim on the sensors.
3) Better Speaker implementation: I do not ask for a front facing set-up. That said, at least
the bottom firing speakers need better output. With so much media being
consumed on our phones, quality sound output is a basic necessity. There are many instances when people do not
use.
Cost of
hardware is plummeting (if it is too strong a word, let me say falling down)
across the globe and implementing the above mentioned features should not be a
great deal. This by no means is a definitive list of basic requirements. I am
sure there would be people who would need something else on their phones as
priority.
Do drop in a
comment if you agree / disagree with me J
