5 hot smartphones under Rs 20,000

Planning to buy a new phone soon but confused by all the technical jargon and the number of smartphones available in the market today? Worry not. If you are looking to purchase a swanky new sub-Rs 20,000 smartphone, then look no further. We have compiled a list of five hot smartphones available in India today that cost less than Rs 20,000 and have all the latest features.

LG Optimus L7 – Rs 15,529

The LG Optimus L7 can be purchased for Rs 18,990 and sports a 4.3-inch display with a 480×800 pixels resolution. The smartphone is powered by a 1GHz Cortex A5 processor running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and has a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and LED flash and a front-facing VGA camera.

With thickness of just 8.7mm thick. Other features include Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA and a-GPS. It includes 512MB of RAM and comes with 4GB of internal memory. It can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card. It includes a 1700 mAh battery.

Nokia Lumia 800 – Rs 17,799

The Windows Phone 7.5-powered Lumia 800, from the house of Nokia, comes at Rs 17,799. The smartphone sports a 3.7-inch ClearBlack display and is powered by a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It has 16GB of built-in storage but does not support microSD card for expandable storage. Connectivity features in the device include 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 and microUSB.

Motorola Atrix 2 – Rs 17,999

This device runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and is powered by a dual-core OMAP processor clocked at 1GHz is now available at Rs 17,999. The Motorola Atrix 2 sports a 4.3-inch qHD display with Gorilla Glass protection, it includes 1GB RAM and 8GB of built-in storage, along with support for 32GB expandable memory via microSD card.

Atrix 2 has an 8-megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, a secondary front facing camera with VGA quality, and includes a 1,735 mAh battery which is rated for up to 8 hours, 50 mins of talktime.

Sony Xperia J – Rs 18,399

Sony Xperia J sports a 4-inch touchscreen of 480 x 854 resolution, sheathed by a scratch resistant gorilla glass display. It is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM7227A Snapdragon processor with 512MB of RAM and 4GB internal memory (usable up to 2GB only). It comes with pre-installed Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) and it will receive and is scheduled to receive Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) update in 2013.

The phone’s memory is expandable up to 32GB via the microSD slot available and has a powerful 1,750mAh battery which will provide you with a talk-time of up to 7hours (3G).

HTC Desire X – Rs 19,799

This is an Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) based device powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, coupled with 768MB of RAM. Additionally, it includes 4GB of built-in storage capacity, a microSD card for expandable storage and a 1,650 mAh battery.

The HTC Desire X is equipped with a 5-megapixel rear camera with autofocus, f/2.0 aperture, 28mm wide angle lens, BSI sensor and LED flash. It does not include a front facing camera, unlike most of the new Android smartphones.

The device has been up for grabs at a best buy price of Rs 19,799.

Nexus 4 Now Sold Out: Poor Sales Launch by Google Read more at http://androidheadlines.com/2012/11/nexus-4-now-sold-out-poor-sales-launch-by-google.html#1dJ22eQCh8DQ7uJ8.99

So, it seems that Google has yet again struggled to launch hardware into the world. We thought that the web giant would have been over this by now what with the poor launch of the Nexus 7 but it seems like the launch of the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 were too much for their serves. All over Google+ we’ve been hearing word that the Play Store was an absolute mess when trying to order a device and some of our own writers have experienced this. It looks like the Nexus 4 is now completely sold out, both the 8GB and the 16GB models sold out in under 30 minutes. Which raises a whole lot of questions…

Did Google Not Think the Nexus 4 Was In Demand?
I don’t want to go off on a tangent here but did Google really not have any idea of how popular a phone of this caliber at this price point was going to be? From the way the Play Store was geared up to handle orders today it was as if the Search Giant thought they had a loser on their hands. The Play Store has been nothing but a mess of server errors, inane Google Wallet egg-timers and general confusion. Of course things are going to be a little wonky when it comes to a new product launch but, really Google? This was the best you could do on the day your flagship device went live? Historically the Nexus program has never done that well when it comes to sales – there’s a reason we never see number of Nexus phones – but how can they not see that at that price, for that phone people were going to go crazy over it?

Had Google Done Anything to Prepare the Play Store for This?
It looks like Google didn’t do much at all to help bolster the Play Store’s defences when it comes to the sheer amount of traffic they received. I’m still on the fence when it comes to ordering one of the devices but even when I was refreshing the page I got errors and whatnot when the site went live in the UK. It looks to me as if Google should really do something about the Play Store as when the devices page went live for orders in the US there was nothing but error messages and uncertainty. You can say what you will about other retailers but I doubt that a launch has been as bad as this in a very long time. How is that that the World’s biggest presence on the web can’t launch and sell their own phones and devices properly? The Play Store looked like a boxer on his last leg’s this morning and if Google are smart, they’ll do something about it, and fast.

Why Have Google Not Said Anything?
Then there’s the whole issue of waiting and wondering when the devices were going to actually go live for orders. With people not knowing exactly when they could get their hands on the devices, people were lying in wait all day long, ready and waiting to pounce on their Web Browsers like hungry Lions. This isn’t good for any server – no matter how large – as it doesn’t take a lot to flood one with traffic. If Google came clean and were vocal about the launch then I don’t think it would have been anywhere near as bad as this, there’s no word on Google when the devices will be in stock and some of you out there are still waiting on confirmation thanks to massive errors with Google Wallet. For a company that owns and runs their own social network, they don’t seem to know how to use it very well.

Did You Get One?
This is perhaps the most pressing question of all, did you get your hands on one of these Nexus devices? If you did, let us know what it was and how your experience was!

Google’s Android software in 3 out of 4 smartphones

AN FRANCISCO: Three out of every four smartphones sold in the third quarter featured Google Inc’s Android mobile operating system, as the gap between Google and Apple Inc-based phones widened further, according to a new research report.

Shipments of Android-based smartphones made by Samsung, HTC and other vendors nearly doubled in the third quarter, reaching 136 million units, according to industry research firm IDC. The strong sales boosted Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market to 75 percent, from 57.5 percent in the year-ago period.

Apple’s share of the market increased to 14.9 percent during the third quarter, from 13.8 percent a year earlier. Apple’s iPhone uses the company’s iOS mobile software.

While Android pulled further ahead of Apple’s iOS, its gains have come mainly at the expense of rival operating systems Blackberry and Symbian, with shipments of phones running those systems declining significantly.

IDC analyst Kevin Restivo cited Android’s close “tie-ins” to Google’s broad array of online services, which include online search and maps, as an important asset that has helped Android grow.

“Google has a thriving, multi-faceted product portfolio. Many of its competitors, with weaker tie-ins to the mobile OS, do not,” Restivo said in the IDC report, which was released on Thursday.

Google offers its Android operating system free to phone manufacturers, and primarily makes money from online advertising when consumers access its services on the devices.

Research in Motion’s Blackberry operating system had 7.7 percent share in the third quarter, compared with 9.5 percent a year earlier.

Symbian, which had 14.6 percent share a year ago, had a 4.1 percent share in the third quarter. Smartphone maker Nokia still offers the Symbian software in some of its phones, but the company has largely shifted to Microsoft Corp’s software.

Mobile versions of Microsoft’s software accounted for 3.6 percent of the smartphone market in the third quarter. But IDC said that the recent launch of the new Microsoft Phone 8 operating system could improve its position in the fast-growing market.