3G/Wi-Fi Equipped Smartphones Under Rs. 11,000

Although there's no shortage of feature rich handsets in the market today, finding those with very specific functions isn’t always easy. Recently I’ve been asked, quite frequently might I add, about affordable handsets that come with both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity options. It’s a reasonable request seeing as 3G has finally got its foot in the door and gearing up for the final 'Big Push' into the Indian domain. It’s good to be prepared even if you know you can't afford the plans just yet. Wi-Fi is always handy for when you're indoors and an obviously relevant alternative to super-speed 3G where it’s available. So here are a few choices of 3G and Wi-Fi equipped handsets that won’t break your bank vault.

Do keep in mind that the prices mentioned are Market Operating Prices (MOP)/Best Buy Prices and they may vary depending on your location and actual time of purchase.

Micromax A60 – Rs. 6,500

So far the Andro A60 is the lowest priced Android smartphone that's available on the Indian market. It offers users with low budgets quite a bit of overall functionality which includes a Swype keypad system for speedy typing, or Swyping as it's called. If that's not enough, it even offers handwriting functionality with a stylus. The A60 has a 600 MHz processer powering an Android 2.1 platform. The unconventional ‘light-bulb’ design is light weight, making it a funky and easy to manage handset.

Cheapest on the lot

Huawei has been making waves in the Indian market quite recently and with offerings like this, the IDEOS U8 150 that sports Android’s Froyo (2.2) version out of the box, it’s bound to get some attention. So far it’s the most affordable Froyo enabled device on the shelves packing in a 528 MHz ARM 11 Processor and an Adreno 200 GPU. The IDEOS also comes with Flash Support.

Froyo to go

The IDEOS features -

The GT540 was the first of the Optimus series that LG launched for India. LG has incorporated a customized UI to run on top of the Android 2.1 platform. The 600 MHz processor that the GT540 is equipped with keeps things running quite smoothly. Additional media functionality includes DivX and XviD video codec support and Dolby’s sound engine for mobiles.

Pretty little thing isn't it...

The Wave S7233 is one of Samsung’s latest smartphones to come with their Bada OS. Samsung’s proprietary TouchWiz UI is loaded on as well and allows for quite a bit of customization with handy widgets for multiple apps that can be placed across three sliding desktops. Samsung has also included their Social hub and Communities app that allows you to connect to most of the popular social networks from a single interface and upload images and other media to these sites. Samsung’s own app store is also loaded for access to all kinds of third part software to enhance the handset’s use.

It's the second Wave of Bada

The E-Series has been popular amongst the non-BlackBerry business smartphone users. This Symbian Series 60 handset features the latest desktop UI for the platform that comes with a few new functions to make accessing data more convenient. With a full QWERTY keypad that can rival any other on the market, GPS with Nokia’s Ovi Maps (Free for life) and a 5MP (fixed focus) camera the E5 could be considered a great bargain.

A good bargain