Mobile Phone Buyers' Guide

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Mobile Phone Buyers' Guide

Prasad Naik, Sep 25, 2009 1738 hrs IST

A guide to help you choose the best phone that suits your need and budget

Phones Under Rs. 15,000:

Best Music Phone - Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (Rs. 13,600)

Although the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic was never an expensive phone per se the recent price cut has made it terrific value. The phone has stereo loudspeakers that are loud and have great quality. It also has a 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can connect any headphones of your choice. The audio quality, as we found out, is excellent, almost as good as any dedicated music player out there.

The phone also comes with an 8 GB memory card bundled with the phone, which should be more than enough for all your favourite music and if you need more then the phone also supports up to 16 GB of cards. But that's just for the music. The phone is also packed with other features such as GPS, Wi-Fi and 3G and a full touchscreen interface running Symbian S60 5th Edition. Overall, an excellent music phone in this price range.

However, having said that, if you are willing to wait for some time then there is also the Nokia 5530 XpressMusic that deserves your attention.

Best Camera Phone - Motorola ZN5 (Rs. 14,800)

Let me be honest with you. Had the Nokia N82 still be on sale today, it would have won the honour of the best camera phone under 15k. But since that is not the case we have to move on to the next best and that is the Motorola ZN5. Now let us be clear here, when it comes to still photography the ZN5 is just as good as the N82, at times even better. However, it is only video recording where the N82 trumps over the ZN5.

The ZN5 has an auto-shutter that protects the lens and also starts the camera when slid open. The camera is a potent 5 Megapixel with autofocus and a brilliant xenon flash provides assistance under low-light conditions. The ZN5 captures high quality images with great colors and details. The xenon flash makes the ZN5 a great tool for shooting pictures in the dark, such as in a club.

Unfortunately, the video recording quality is poor but that is excusable considering the superb still image quality. Overall a very good camera phone in this price range.

Business Phone - Samsung B7320 OmniaPRO (Rs. 14,800)

Just a week ago I would have gladly put the Nokia E63 in this category, but then we got the Samsung OmniaPRO for review last week and the performance that it delivered managed to convince us that in this price range it truly is the best business phone to buy.

The phone covers all aspects from a full QWERTY keypad to connectivity features like 3G, Wi-Fi as well as GPS. It also has support for push mail and all the IM applications. It runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition and can be upgraded to version 6.5 later when it comes out.

The phone also sports a 3.2 Megapixel camera, not that hardcore business users would care much about it. However, they might take exception to the brown color. Still if they are willing to overlook the aesthetics then the Samsung OmniaPRO is an excellent phone for business users.

Best All-round phone - Nokia N79 (Rs. 15,000)

The Nokia N79 was a brilliant multimedia phone to begin with, but after the recent price drop, it makes it excellent value as well. The superb 5 Megapixel camera with autofocus and flash is also capable of recording videos in VGA resolution at 30 FPS. Music playback with 3.5mm headphone jack and good audio quality, N-Gage support for high quality games all make it a great buy for multimedia phone buyers, especially at the current price of Rs. 15,000.