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Gone are the days when you had to pay big to get the best performing smartphones. According to NDTV, last year could be seen as the year when there is a shift in the type of competition manufacturers were engaging. Before 2014, the competition was all about bringing the best specs and it gave us the flagship mobiles like the iPhone 5S and Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy S5. These mobiles were easily being sold at about Rs. 40,000.
In 2014, everything changed. The introduction of the Asus Zenfone series heralded the age of price wars instead of specs wars. That changed the game. Suddenly, all these not so popular brands are now competing at fitting the best phone specs to as low a price as possible. And the consumers responded. A lot more consumers are now learning that you do not have to buy the big brands to get the best mobile. According to Computer Weekly, that Samsung has posted another drop in their yearly sales for the year and now, in 2015, Fortune.com reported that they are now considering dropping the price of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge to boost sales.
This is no surprise as Samsung is now playing Apple’s game. Apple has been able to successfully leverage their brand to command high prices for their iPhone. Samsung has tried the same with their flagship S6 mobiles but it looks like it is not working as well as they hoped for. Not that the S6 handsets are not great, they are absolutely worth their price. It is just that if you make a compare mobiles in India, the wealth of options for high performing phones with lower prices is abundant.
To illustrate the point, if you make a side-by-side comparison in Price Raja’s mobile compare tool of the Premium phones Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge 32 GB, Apple iPhone 6 Plus 16GB with lower priced Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML, and Lenovo K3 at Note, you will see how close the specs are with each other.
Here are the specifics:
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge 32 GB
The Samsung flagship mobile has the fastest processor with an octa-core chipset that clocks in at 2.7GHz. It also has the most powerful camera with a 16MP rear camera and a 5MP camera that takes great photos. It has 3 GB of RAM to handle the heaviest of apps and it has a super clear and crisp 1440×2560 pixel 5.1 inch screen that gorgeously folds at the edges of the phone complementing the premium materials used for this unit. Clearly, the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge is the best phone of the bunch. But it is also priced at Rs. 44,490, exceeded only by the next item on this list.
Apple iPhone 6 Plus
If you look at the specs alone, it would seem that the iPhone should be at the bottom. It only has a dual-core processor, it has just 1 GB of RAM, an 8MP front camera, and a 1.2MP Front camera. However, iPhone is also the only one who has the iOS, and if you are used to the iOS environment, the iPhone 6 Plus is still the thinnest, fastest, and largest iPhone out there. Besides, even if it has lower specs, the marriage between software and hardware in iPhone has historically been better than Android. The iPhone experience, however, will burn Rs. 50,539 from your wallet.
Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML
Price Raja actually recommends that you buy this unit over the other choices given. At just about half the price of the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge at Rs. 22,999, the specs of this mobile is near the mark set by Samsung. It even has a bigger RAM at 4GB. In fact, this is the first phone to feature 4GB of RAM, which has started to become a trend among mobile phone manufacturers. While the other specs fall short of the S6 Edge; it is nearly there with a quad-core 2.3GHz processor, a 13 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras, and a 5.5 inch 1080×1920 pixel screen. It actually feels like the unit should be priced higher.
Lenovo K3 at Note
While the specs compare more to Asus Zenfone 2’s lower variant, the K3 Note might be a better option because of its full HD screen. The phone is no slouch either with its 2GB RAM, 1.7 GHz octa-core chipset, 13 MP rear and 5 MP front cameras, and a good sized 3,000mAH battery. And at just Rs. 9,999, this definitely gives you bang for your buck.
This is not to say that you should buy one phone over the other. But with more people more conscious about how they spend their money, the option given by Asus and other manufacturers like Lenovo feels like buying a Samsung or an iPhone is more a luxury than a necessity.
