Five cheap smartphones for the smart shopper

Until a year ago, good smartphone experience used to come at a premium. Yes, you could buy a ten-thousand-rupees phone but in most cases it used to make sense to spend five-ten thousand rupees more to get something that was significantly better. But nowadays, that is no longer true. So if you are looking to buy a phone with the maximum budget of around Rs 15,000, here are the options you have. All of these phones would satisfy the needs of most consumers.

Spice Dream Uno Mi-498

This is an Android One phone. What does that mean? This is a phone that is officially blessed by Google. Launched last year, the Dream Uno had an original price tag of little over six thousand rupees. At that price, it was a good value for money but not fantastic. But now this phone is available for Rs 3,999, which makes it a steal. It has got relatively decent hardware and now runs Android Lollipop, which is the latest version of Google's operating system. The Dream Uno supports 3G network, will give you access to all regular Android features such as emails, maps, chat apps, including WhatsApp, etc with ease. The downside is weak camera performance but at this price, that is a drawback one can live with.

Lenovo A7000

If you like big-screen phones, take a look at the Lenovo A7000. This is one of the best smartphones made by Lenovo ever. The phone is slim and sleek and yet packs in impressive hardware that can easily handle demanding videos games and multi-tab web browsing. The key highlight of the A7000 is its incredible screen, which is vivid and bright, showing punchy and pleasant colours. Unlike other budget phones, the A7000 comes with 16GB internal storage and 2GB RAM. It also runs a modified version of Android based on Android Lollipop.

Motorola Moto G (2nd generation)

Unlike some other phones in its segment, Motorola Moto G (2nd generation) is a device with elegance and class. There are phones that offer better hardware than the Moto G but none of them match the experience this phone provides. The reason? Unlike other phones that run their own versions of Android, the Moto G uses an almost unmodified version of Android. Hence the overall experience of the Moto G is closer to that of a Nexus phone, which, mobile geeks will note, is the official Google phone. The clean software in the Moto G and Motorola's focus on making sure that the overall experience of users is smooth and glitch-free, makes this phone an incredible buy at its current price of Rs 9,999.

Xiaomi Mi 4

This is a true flagship phone. Powered by a processor, usually found in very high-end phones, and packed with 3GB RAM, the Mi 4 is a fantastic buy at its price of Rs 14,999. In terms of hardware, it ticks all the boxes.

It packs in a 13mp camera that is very capable and comes with a vivid screen with FullHD resolution. Even the design is good, with metal frame and mirror-finish plastic.

Yu Yuphoria

Yuphoria, sold by Yu that is a brand floated by Micromax, comes at a price of Rs 6,999. The USP of the phone is Cyanogen-Mod, an operating system designed using Android. This offers some neat features, not available in other phones. The good software also makes the Yuphoria a joy to use because it doesn't show any discernible lags irrespective of what you are doing on it. The camera is a relatively weaker point but overall Yuphoria has a lot to offer.