Price is another big factor while determining which phone to buy.
We scope out the low end (read cheap) models available in the market and the features they support.
Note: The phones featured here do not have a camera. Prices may vary from city to city.
Nokia 1110
Launched in mid 2005, this is one of the most basic phones with a monochrome (black and white) display. This phone has a talking clock and alarm. Though this model looks better than its predecessor (Nokia 1100), it lacks the inbuilt torchlight, which was quite popular among users.
Weighing about 80 grams, the phone is small enough to fit into your pocket. It offers three games and polyphonic ring tones. Nokia 1100's battery will give you about four to five hours of talktime and a long standby time.
Cost: Rs 1,900 (approximately)
Nokia 2310
Launched a year ago, this phone has a decent colour display supporting about 65,000 colours (this is the maximum number of different/unique colours that the screen is capable of displaying).
In the display features of this phone, you can customise animated screensavers and wallpapers to jazz up your screen.
Nokia 2310 does not give much connectivity options, as it does not support most of the communication modes like Bluetooth, and WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). However you can connect to your favourite FM station using the inbuilt FM tuner.
Besides the inbuilt FM, you also get voice dialing, speakerphone, polyphonic ring tones, alarm and a few other common features.
The phone is on the bulkier side, weighing more than 100 grams. Nokia 2310 will give you five hours of talktime and a long standby time.
Cost: Rs 3,100 (approximately)
Nokia 6030
Launched more that a year back, the Nokia 6030 continues to be the fastest selling phone among the low level segment.
Weighing approximately 90 grams, Nokia 6030 looks larger than other phones. This JAVA (programming language) supports installation software applications like games, besides supporting 65,000 colours, polyphonic ring tones, multimedia messaging, FM tuner, speakerphone plus a few other basic tools.
This phone also provides support for a few languages -- Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati. The phone has better connectivity as it supports GPRS and WAP. Expect approximately 2.5-3.5 hours of talktime.
Cost: Rs 3,800 (approximately)
Nokia 6060
This good-looking phone has voice dialing, speakerphone, polyphonic and MP3 ring tones besides supporting WAP and GPRS.
What sets this JAVA enabled phone apart are inbuilt applications like expense manager and time management (these are small software that help you track expenses by entering the expenses you made in a day/month and analysing them).
The only downside of this clamshell phone from Nokia is that it does not have an external display to check who is calling. Though, Nokia has tried to spice up the external panel by providing a light on the panel, this does not compensate for the lack of external display. Expect the battery to last about 3 hours.
Cost: Rs 4,500 (approximately)
Sony Ericsson J230
This low level phone from Sony Ericsson released in the last quarter of 2005, weighs about 85 grams and supports about 65,000 colours. The phone does not have many communication options except for GPRS.
Its features include an inbuilt FM tuner, handsfree speaker and polyphonic ring tones. The battery life is about four to five hours.
Cost: Rs 3,200(approximately)
Motorola W220
This flip phone from Motorola supports 65,000 colours and an inbuilt FM tuner. Like the Nokia 6060, this phone does not include an external display.
However, Motorola has been creative enough to provide a few icons on the top to alert you in case of a new messages, missed calls and battery life.
The phone's features include polyphonic ring tones, GPRS and a host of games like Football, Rebels and Crazy. With a talk time of over 5 hours, the W220 battery has one of the longest talk time (compared to others phones in this price range).
Cost: Rs 3,850 (approximately)
Motorola Fone F3
The Motofone F3 looks just like the Motoslvr L-6 or L-7, but comes minus the camera and a whole range of functions.
Weighing 68 grams, the phone has a feather touch keypad. And two antennas for better coverage. Available in black and silver, these phones have a speakerphone, a large display screen, and voice prompts in Hindi, English and Punjabi.
The Motorola F3's revolutionary Electrophoretic Display (EPD) technology provides users with a large, high-contrast screen that can be seen even in bright sunlight. Expected battery life is about 4 hours.
Cost: Rs 1,800 (approximately)
Samsung X160
In the Samsung X160, the lack of an external screen has been taken care of by a greyish-bluish design on the front panel.
The phone, launched less than a year ago, weighs under 80 grams, supports 65,000 colours, polyphonic ring tones, built-in handsfree speaker, and has a large phone book memory -- 1000 records. The phone is JAVA enabled and supports GPRS connectivity.
Expect a talktime of about three hours with this phone.
(The Samsung X200 and X21 have similar details and some voice features like voice memo. Samsung X210 also boasts of FM Radio. Both these phones are priced under Rs 4,000)
Cost: Rs 3,500 (approximately)
Samsung C130
Resembling a sliding phone, the Samsung C130's features include 500 phonebook records, polyphonic ring tones, GPRS, voice memo(a built in voice recorder enabling the user to record notes), speakerphone and multimedia messaging.
Also, you have a choice of four colours for the outer casing on the standard black body of the phone.
The phone weighs just 75 grams and supports the basic 65,000 colour screen. The phone provides a decent talktime of about 4.5-5 hours.
Cost: Rs 2,900 (approximately)
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