As much as we like playing with the newest smartphones, with each new review, we realise that there’s little separating one phone from the other in a particular price segment. When you readers ask us for phone buying advice, we give you our recommendation based on the tests we have performed till date. But what’s evident to us is that each question will invariably be answered with a set of 3-4 devices per price segment based on the buyer’s requirements. There are some very important aspects that are often not covered in our reviews ratings though, and these can change our ratings drastically. Things such as service, support, updates and many others.
So, when we call this the ultimate buying guide for smartphones, it is because we factor in all these parameters. What we’re doing here is taking all these parameters into consideration, and using the same to alter our ratings. These results will answer a bunch of questions that we often get from our readers.
HOW WE TESTED
Our review ratings are usually based on a scale of hundred that’s further divided into four categories. Broadly speaking, that amounts to 25 percent weightage each to performance, design, features and price. Of course, we break them down further in order to accommodate aspects such as camera, battery and many others, but that’s basically it. So, when a phone gets 80 out of 100, it’s amongst the best we’ve seen, while 60 and below would range from mediocre to worst. What’s surprising though is how many phones lie around the 70-80 mark; satisfactory, but not very good.
This time though, we added six categories to our ratings, making the final score out of 200. The new parameters considered are screen repair cost, update cycles, return on investment, depreciation, availability of accessories and availability of the phone. While the update cycle includes how likely or quickly you will receive the next big update on your phone, return on investment is what you can get by reselling the phone after a year of using it. Availability covers things such as online, offline, flash sales and the infamous invites. We’ll explain more as we go along.
Samsung Galaxy Note 5
We went around calling company service centres, tallying prices online, checking with phone buyers and so on and so forth. After adding these six parameters to our rating system, we saw a sea change in the new scores that emerged. A phone that was once marked 85 out of 100, suddenly dropped to a measly 76, while phones that were already in the 70-100 category, dropped to the 60-70 mark. As a result, we had a clearer idea of what phone would serve users the best, and we sincerely hope you would feel so too. The table ahead should give you an idea of how the scores change after adding each parameter.
WHY DID WE DO THIS?
When a consumer buys a phone, he’s spending his hard earned money. Yes there are those who didn’t work as hard as others, but it’s still money that’s yours and you tend to give it considerable thought. With the hordes of phone manufacturers in the market today, the consumer makes a very difficult choice when buying a smartphone, and more often than not, ends up buying the wrong phone and suffering as a consequence.
Furthermore, India is the hottest market in the world right now and everyone wants a piece of it. Needless to say, there are a bunch of companies that simply want to get a piece of the action, and spare little thought for after sales support and other aspects that, as Indians, we tend to hold in high regard. In addition, the trend for a while has been to sell products that the consumer will scrap in a year or less, in the name of ‘upgrades’. In other words, planned obsolescence.
Phone recycling
To be very frank, this is simply wrong. A smartphone today is a powerful device and one should buy a phone that he or she needs, not because there’s a sale happening somewhere on the Internet. Yes, sales are opportune moments to make purchases, but most consumers don’t realise that their smartphones can last much longer than what they have been led to believe.
One of the main reasons for people buying phones when they don’t need to is that prices have come down. But a more important reason is because they probably made the wrong choice when buying phones the first time around.
BEFORE WE BEGIN…
It’s important to introduce some of the phones that are currently amongst our top rated smartphones. We usually distinguish them based on price, but for the sake of this shootout, we’ll sort them into phones that cost Rs. 5000-7000, 7000-10,000, 10,000-15,000, 15,000-20,000, 20,000-30,000, followed by flagship phones. This covers the most popular phones in the market, and presents an ideal scenario for the reader to make his or her own judgement for the phone that he or she is buying.
Furthermore, before we start talking about the new elements that we took into consideration, it’s important to note some of the top rated smartphones we have right now, based on the tests we have performed in the past.
For the flagship segment, this includes the Samsung Galaxy S6, Apple iPhone 6 and the LG G4. In the Rs. 20,000-30,000 segment, phones such as the OnePlus One, Honor 6 Plus, Asus Zenfone 2 (4GB RAM) and the Moto X (2nd Gen) were considered. Next, the Rs. 15,000-20,000 segment consists of phones such as the Asus Zenfone 2 (1.8GHz SoC, 4GB RAM), Honor 6 by Huawei and the Xiaomi Mi 4. Lastly, the Rs. 7000-10,000 and Rs. 5000-7000 segments consist of phones such as the Lenovo K3 Note, Yu Yureka Plus, Xiaomi Redmi 2, Yu Yuphoria and the Moto E (2nd Gen) 4G.
Click to enlarge the new score sheet
While some of these phones are still amongst the best and most popular in the market, some will perhaps be replaced by the time you read this story. It should still be useful to you, as a reader though. Especially, considering that you can follow the methods discussed here in order to judge newer smartphones.
The table included above should tell you the original ratings for these devices, and also how they changed after the new parameters were added.
DEPRECIATION
When you’re buying a flagship smartphone, you’re spending what, for the lucky few, is a full month’s salary, which means you’re making a pretty substantial investment. So, if in a year’s time, you want to change your phone, you would hope to get good resale value out of it. This is only possible if the phone’s worth hasn’t depreciated by a big margin. In the current state that the market is in, the more expensive smartphones lose their value pretty quick, which means you may not get the resale value you hoped for. We calculated the percentage drop of each product on our top ten list to determine by how much their price has depreciated in the time they’ve spent in the market.
If you’ve followed the market to any degree, you’ll realise that Apple’s iPhones drop prices slower than Samsung’s flagship devices. This automatically makes the iPhone’s resale value higher than most Android flagships. For example, in less than a year, the price of the Samsung Galaxy S6 has fallen by about 22 percent which is about 5 percent per month. Additionally, a phone such as the LG G4 has depreciated by about 6 percent. The Apple iPhone 6 on the other hand, depreciated by about 2 percent per month.
LG G4
However, depreciation counts less as you go down the price ladder. This is because when you spend smaller amounts on your smartphone, you’re already looking to get less when selling it. For example, you won’t really be looking to resell a used sub- Rs. 7000 smartphone and get a lot of money would you?
What’s worth considering though is that when a device such as the Moto E (2nd Gen), which has a history of being a real value-for-money device, depreciates by 5% per month, it is a sure shot sign that it’s not really selling very well. And one has to wonder why. The Moto E (2nd Gen) 4G was launched at Rs. 7,999, but it’s currently selling for Rs. 1,000 lower in a matter of about four months.
OnePlus 2
Furthermore, products such as the OnePlus 2, tend to stay at their launch price longer than many others, considering that the company has already come up with a pretty competitive price, cutting its margins dearly. As a result, the price of a OnePlus One has depreciated by only about 18% in the eight-odd months that it’s spent in India. With the OnePlus 2, the company has held strong for the first couple of months, and we don’t expect the pricing to drop permanently any time soon. The Xiaomi Mi 4 on the other hand had met with tough competition in the market and the company drastically dropped its price pretty soon. That’s not good for someone who bought the phone at the original price, considering that the 16GB Mi 4 currently sells at only Rs.14,999, down from the original pricing of around Rs.20,000. Note that we’re considering only official and permanent price drops here, and not temporary offer prices.
Apple iPhone 6 has dropped to sub-Rs.40,000 after almost a full year of being in the market, while Samsung’s Galaxy S6 did so in less than six months. This gave the iPhone a lot of points over the Galaxy S6.
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
There are two reasons why return on sale is important. The first is a continuation of what we discussed about depreciation above, but the second is arguably more important. At the rate at which people dispose off their smartphones these days, e-waste is a genuine problem. So, selling your smartphone to a refurbishing unit is the best way to go. We considered Reglobe.in and Atterobay, two of the best known companies in this business. We verified the prices they offer for one year old units f our top ten smartphones, when they’re in reasonably good condition.
Of course, many would prefer selling their current phone to someone instead of recycling, which is also not a bad idea. Therefore, we considered an average of the prices these two websites offered, thereby obtaining an adjusted sale price for each product. The idea being that you will use your phone for at least a full year before thinking about buying your next smartphone.
Of course, the higher the price that you can get, the better. Like depreciation, the return on investment is also more important for the more expensive products. When you’re spending above Rs. 30,000 on a smartphone, that’s a substantial sum, and you would hope to get as much of your money back as possible.
A surprising fact that we came across here is that Atterobay seems to be willing to pay more for a one year old Galaxy S6 in good condition, than a similarly aged iPhone 6 (16GB) also in a similar condition. If you bought a Galaxy S6 at its launch price of nearly Rs.50,000, you may be able to get back nearly 40 percent of your money by selling it a year later. The iPhone 6 came a close second with 36 percent.
iPhone 6
Note that we’re only trying to draw examples here, of how things happen, and what you should consider. When buying an inexpensive phone, you should check websites like Reglobe and Attero to gain an idea of what you can expect later. While it will be difficult to determine these aspects for phones that have just been launched, checking what happened with older devices is a good idea to know the company’s history. For example, the iPhone 6 serves as a good proxy for the just launched iPhone 6S, while the OnePlus One does the same for the OnePlus 2.
AVAILABILITY
Do you know how often we see angry consumers writing the choicest of words for OnePlus and its invite system on our Facebook page? The same also happens for the flash sales model introduced by Xiaomi, and followed by many now. A good phone should be available right? Not just that, there’s also the online vs offline factor. You may be comfortable spending Rs. 7,000 on a smartphone online, but when it comes to spending Rs. 60,000 for an iPhone, you’d prefer to physically see the phone before you buy it. No?
Further, what happens when a phone you really want is available only on one e-commerce website and that website doesn’t deliver to your location? The Online vs offline debate is a long one, but when combined with flash sales and exclusives, it creates a real conundrum for a buyer.
Online or Offline, what is your choice?
There’s not much that we can say about this aspect either, since it’s a straightforward choice. If You can’t get a phone on a flash sale or invite, or dislike them, you'll not buy it, and the company loses one prospective buyer. There’s a reason big companies such as Samsung, Apple and Sony have spent crores of rupees to build brick and mortar stores, and booming as the online business may be, it’s nowhere close to pushing these retailers out of the market, especially in a country like India.
SCREEN REPAIR COST
Perhaps the one aspect of a smartphone that uniformly affects all buyers, is the screen repair cost. We see people talking on smartphones with broken and battered displays regularly. While keywords such as Gorilla Glass and Dragontrail Glass are often thrown about, it’s still glass, and glass breaks. Period.
So, what happens when the glass on your smartphone breaks? Think back. How many times has a friend of yours bought a new phone because it was going to cost too much to repair the display on his device? It’s one of the areas where Samsung seems to excel. As expensive as AMOLED displays are, the company seems to be subsidising the cost, charging around Rs. 12,000 to fix a Galaxy S6 display, while Apple’s Retina displays will cost you nearly Rs. 23,700. Remember the story of the guy who broke his iPhone 6 screen the minute he walked out of the store with it? Yeah, he probably cursed hard. In addition, companies such as LG and Samsung are providing a one-time free screen replacement offers on some of their flagship devices, which is good for a buyer.
How much a broken smartphone screen can hurt your pocket? we found out
Repairing a broken screen can cost you as much as 50% of a smartphone’s original price, and that’s a big deal. So, researching on this before you buy a phone is a good idea. The information is readily available too. Take the direction we took for example. We have access to all the companies, but we simply called each company’s service centre and asked how much a broken screen would cost to fix. The calls lasted about a minute each and we had our answers. Easy peasy.
Xiaomi VP, Hugo Barra, once said on stage, that the cost of a smartphone can be doubled by simply going from a HD to Full HD display. And that’s perhaps the best way to explain why the cost of screen repair is an important part of your buying decision. The top end phones will have expensive displays, while lower end phones should have comparatively cheaper displays, when compared to the original price. The idea is to figure out what percentage of the phone’s original cost is accounted by the screen, and whether a broken screen would force you to buy a new phone.
Hugo Barra, VP, Xiaomi
From our research, we find that both Samsung and LG score big in this department by subsidising screen repair cost down to Rs. 13,000 and offering a one time free screen replacement option. Apple on the other hand, charges big for both buying the phone, and fixing its screen.
UPDATE CYCLE
This is an area where Apple’s iPhones were unparalleled until very recently. The company delivers the newest updates to its devices for two years, easy, and in the case of iOS 9, it’s a year more since the update is smaller in terms of changes. Android, on the other hand, suffers due to the fragmentation it has to face in the industry.
It’s an open source system, which allows OEMs to make whatever changes they want to make to their own devices. As a result, Google delivers the update to OEMs, which then work on their own interfaces and then deliver it to the consumers. The Android updates are one of the main reasons why Nexus fans swear by their devices.
LG Nexus 5X
On the other hand, companies like Samsung, LG, Sony and Motorola have done pretty well too. The Moto X (2nd Gen) got the Lollipop update before the Nexus phones last year, and that’s saying something. It’s important to note that even with a near-stock Android interface, Motorola does make changes to the OS in some ways. Greater the changes an OEM makes to the OS, the more work it has to in order to deliver updates.
The LG G3 was another phone that got the Lollipop update pretty quickly, while Sony and Samsung had announced updates for their top-end devices quite fast. Both these companies though, faltered when it came to delivering updates for their lower end smartphones, which irked a lot of users. Such information can be obtained quite easily from sources such as the Digit forums and many others like it online.
Additionally, companies such as Micromax, Intex and others are notorious for not delivering speedy updates on many of their devices. While they’ve all started picking up the pace, they still lag behind. Custom UIs involve more work for manufacturers while porting updates to their devices. The Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi for example, deals with weekly MiUI updates, while its flagship Xiaomi Mi 4 is still running on Android KitKat here. That’s a deal breaker for many of us.
AVAILABILITY OF ACCESSORIES
Last but not the least, the availability of accessories for your smartphone is also quite important. We took to three well known brands or this purpose – Mophie, Otterbox and DailyObjects. The three are well known for making cases and covers for smartphones, and many don’t mind spending to get the quality delivered by these companies.
Protecting your device using a well built case can often decide whether your smartphone lasts a year, or two. Pankaj Garg, CEO and Co-Founder of DailyObjects, tells us that Apple and Samsung devices are by far the most popular amongst its buyers. The company also makes both thin and tough cases for iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy devices.
Garg told us that OEMs are chosen entirely according to the consumers’ buying habits, and that devices from comiPhone panies such as Xiaomi and OnePlus have received much appreciation.
Otterbox mobile cases
Having third party manufacturers such as DailyObjects, Mophie and OtterBox is a good idea for phone manufacturers. But for some of them also develop cases in-house. So, while flagships from Apple, Samsung and LG get full marks for having accessories made by most of the third parties and in-house as well, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Huawei also get some marks for making them in-house only. The difference though is in the fact that while phones such as the OnePlus One, Xiaomi Mi 4 and some others were still available on DailyObjects, with a phone such as the Yu Yureka Plus, the only option we found was the company’s own range of accessories. As a result, the above mentioned phones got one point over the Yu Yureka Plus, while accessories for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 got them four extra points.
THE TRADITIONAL BUYING GUIDE..
Now that you’ve understood the new parameters that need to be considered, think from a traditional buying guide point of view. This is where the performance to price factor comes in, and it varies based on the amount of money that you’re spending on your smartphone. Note that by performance we mean the overall performance of the device, and not just the absolute processing power. The table on the next page should give you an idea.
If you’re spending Rs. 40,000 and above, uncompromised performance is what you’re looking for. So, the most powerful processor in the market is what you must have. While a quad-core processor can, in theory, beat an octa-core processor, barring exceptions such as the iPhone, it is always better to go with octa-core processors, clocked at above 2.2GHz. The camera should be 16MP and above, while the phone should provide at least 3GB of RAM. You must read reviews and research if you’re buying a phone in this range, because even the high-end phones falter sometimes. For example, the Moto Turbo has a 20+MP camera, but it still can’t take match the Galaxy S6 camera.
Moving down the price bracket, the Rs. 20,000-30,000 and Rs. 30,000-40,000k price brackets have been pushing the boundaries for what you can expect. With phones such as the OnePlus 2, Honor 7 and others in play, one can expect very good performance here. That said, compromises are often made on account of the user’s preference. So 3GB of RAM is a reasonable expectation, while a good Full HD display, 3000 mAh battery and 16MP camera are also what you want. You can make an exception for a 13MP camera that is known to perform well, as in the case of the OnePlus 2.
The Rs. 10,000-15,000 and Rs. 15,000-20,000 segments are where you must make steeper compromises. Here, you should choose based on which aspect of a smartphone you need the most. If you need a camera, a 13MP is minimum, while 2GB of RAM is a reasonable expectation. If you’re buying a phone with a 5-inch or smaller display, than 720p can often be enough, while larger displays should be at 1080p at least.
You have to make even more compromises when it comes to sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphones. Even here you can expect at least an 8MP camera, while a 13MP will also be a reasonable expectation if you’re spending more than Rs. 7500. Moreover, the processor here can be around 1.2GHz quad core, while RAM should be 1GB minimum for a sub-Rs. 7000 device, and 2GB of slightly higher priced smartphones.
Furthermore, except in the sub-Rs. 10,000 price brackets, never go for a phone that has less than 32GB of storage. In the Rs. 10,000-15,000 price range, a 16GB smartphone, with SD card support is still acceptable. But as far as possible, go for a 32GB storage option. Remember, the internal storage of your smartphone is what performs best, and SD cards can throttle a phone’s overall performance. In addition, over time, your apps will take a lot of space, and you don’t want to buy a new phone because you can’t clear any more space on your device. If you ask us, 16GB storage with no SD card support is what you call planned obsolescence. Phones are made that way so as to force you to buy new ones in a year. With the advent of music streaming and all the other media that you consume on your phone, 16GB storage is simply a joke, unless you’re buying a sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphone, that you anyway don’t plan to use for very long.
Two other things to consider are connectivity and battery capacity. For connectivity, your phone should be 4G capable, no matter what the budget. In addition, you can expect OTG support in most price brackets, except the sub-Rs. 10,000 segment. And even there, some phones do offer USB OTG support. Furthermore, the battery capacity of your smartphone must never go below 2,000 mAh and it should increase based on the price you’re paying (see table). While battery capacity isn’t directly proportional to battery life, it is a good indicator of what you can expect.
Click to enlarge
You can also consider things like water resistance and the material used to make the smartphone. While metal bodies are considered to be the best, they don’t explicitly mean quality. Apple’s iPhones and some HTC phones really premium metal designs, while there are other metallic phones in the market that aren’t really up to the same level. The design aspect depends on looks, usability and sturdiness. While looks are subjective to the user, usability and sturdiness are something only reviews can tell you. Look for keywords such as ‘curved back’, ‘thin bezel’ etc. Glass is also a very premium material to look at, but you must consider the fact that it can break easily.
WITH THAT SAID…
The interesting part about the results here is that no phone really came out of this test with a rating that was higher than its original score. What it does show is how much the overall buying decision can change.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy S6, which was earlier rated at 85 dropped to 76, while the iPhone 6, which was originally rated at 84, dropped to only 81 despite the new parameters. The LG G4, on the other hand, dropped from the original rating of 74 to 69. This means that in our flagship range, the iPhone 6 suddenly takes a higher preference over the Samsung Galaxy S6.
On the other hand, in the sub-Rs. 30,000 segment, the Moto X (2nd Gen) scores big due to its return-on-sale value, update cycles etc., and despite the fact that it costs a lot to repair it’s screen, the phone edges out the OnePlus One.
The most interesting outcome though is perhaps in the Rs. 10,000-15,000 range. The Xiaomi Mi 4i closes the gap and becomes almost as desirable as the Zenfone 2 despite being a lower performer overall. The even slower Moto G (3rd Gen) also comes closer to the Zenfone 2, thanks to superior service.
In the sub-10k segment, the Lenovo K3 Note, which was already a better performer than the Yu Yureka Plus, becomes a much better choice given its higher resale value, accessory availability and return on sale. On the other hand, the Moto E (4th Gen) comes much closer to the Redmi 2 and Yu Yuphoria because of its superior update cycles, accessory availability and the fact that it’s available offline.
TO CONCLUDE…
It is clear that taking stock of all these aspects can change the way we choose a smartphone. Given the fact that smartphones today are deeply personal devices, and ones that should be used wisely, it seems fair that such emphasis be put on the buying decision. The comparison also shows that all these parameters become all the more crucial when you’re considering a phone that is priced higher, while you can perhaps afford to make a simpler, uncomplicated decision, based on performance alone, for a sub-Rs.10,000 smartphone.
