2015 was also a year when budget phones were on top sellers. Many new smartphones launched. Many manufacturers entered different new markets specially India which is the fastest growing Mobile market in the world. India was also 2nd largest mobile phone market of 2015 according to a report from Bloomberg. This year we saw many budget phones of under Rs.10000($150). Smartphones like Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen, Xiaomi Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, YU Yuphoria, Yu Yunique, YU Yureka, Micromax Canvas Xpress 2, Canvas Spark,Canvas Pace 4G ,Infocus M 350,Infocus M2,Lenovo A6000,A6000+, A7000, K3 Note, Coolpad Note 3 etc werethe top selling & trending budget smartphones of 2015.
2015 was the year when for the first time we saw a Full HD smartphone under Rs.10000.The first of that category was Lenovo K3 Note followed by Yu Yureka Plus. both of these two were very nice smartphones with 5.5″ full HD displays & powerful processors.
What 2016 could be in terms of budget phones??
Display :
When we talk about any smartphone display is basic & most important feature user wants. In 2015 we can expect more & more phablets because now the size preference has been shifted up to 5.5 inch. Nowadays everyone wants a big display phone with more than 5 inch display. Lenovo is already planing to launch it’s next phablet Lenovo K4 Note. This will be a successor to K3 Note which was launched in 2015 & was selling like a hot cake.
Apart from size, there will be changes in resolution also. 1080p will become popular & 720p display will be very common. We will see very few or no smartphone with qHD display for Rs.6000 or more. Nowadays 720P phones are available for as low as 5000. So 2016 will bring more change in display resolution.
RAM :
When comes to RAM size in budget phones,2015 was very good with phones offering minimum 1GB of RAM & maximum of upto 3GB which is also coming in flagship phones like Samsung Galaxy S6 ,HTC One etc. So what should we expect in 2016 in terms of RAM size. Phones of 2016 will se increase in 3GB & 2GB RM phones. Companies will be fighting each other for specifications in their mobile phones. But end user will always be benefited with this.
Better processors :
In 2015 we saw most of the phones under Rs. 70000 using Quad Core processors & Rs. 7000-10000 using Octa Core processors. Now we have entered in 2016 where we will see more octa core smartphones. Mt 6753 chipset will play a vital role in this. In 2015 very few smartphones were running 64Bit processors but 2016 will change that also because of MT 6753 chipset which is low in cost & offers 64Bit Octa Core performance. There was only one smartphone that was using Qualcomm’s Octa Core processor in under 10000, Yu Yureka. It was very good smartphone with Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor with 2 Quad Core architecture.
Internal storage will increase:
As I have previously written there will be a fight for specs in a budget smartphone from different companies. When processors & RAM will increase, there will also be demand for minimum of 16GB of internal storage with Micro SD slot. In 2015 phones were having 8 GB storage & very few were having 16GB internal storage. Some names include Yu Yureka, Lenovo K3 Note, Lenovo A6000+, Meizu M2 etc Some manufacturers will move to 32GB of internal storage. Lenovo’s upcoming phablet K4 Note is one of such kind.
Build Quality :
Build quality also plays an important role in sale of any smartphone. We have seen some quite average looking smartphones in 2015. there were smartphones that impressed us with build quality like Yu Yuphoria, Huawei Honor 4C/4X etc. These were budget phones were impressive for the price. Now we can expect Lenovo K4 Note to be next best build budget phone because in it’s teaser Lenovo shown us a metal frame.
We can see some waterproof or Water resistant smartphones also in budget segment.
4G support :
2015 was the year when in October month the sales of 4G smartphones surpassed 3G smartphones sales. Lenovo, Asus, Samsung & Micromax were top 4G players in that month. 2016 will be year when most budget smartphones will get 4G support. At least above Rs. 6000 phones will get. Nowadays a 4G smartphone is available for Rs. 3200 minimum which could also decrease. the cheapest 4G phone available right now is Phicomm Clue 630.
Fingerprint Scanner:
In 2015 we saw many companies releasing their flagships with fingerprint scanners in it. Where Android too started native support for fingerprint with it’s Nexus line up of smartphones. But in budget segment we haven’t seen any phone with fingerprint scanner built in except Coolpad’s Note 3. This phone was having fingerprint scanner on it;’s back.
