Top 10 VoLTE smartphones under Rs. 15000

The term VoLTE or Voice-over-LTE has become famous in the Indian market soon after the launch of Reliance Jio 4G. Since the inception of Reliance Jio network, there has been lots of excitement as it offers free calling and 4G data for specific time period.

Unlike other networks, Reliance Jio 4G network works only on 4G enabled smartphones. Additionally, you need VoLTE enabled in your phones to enjoy phone calls without enabling data. Fortunately, you can make free calls on your 4G enabled smartphone (if not VoLTE enabled) just by downloading a Jio 4G voice app.

For those who are looking out for a new smartphone with 4G VoLTE, we have curated a list of 10 smartphones under the mid-range category or under Rs. 15,000. In this list, you can expect a decent smartphone with good performance and specs as per the price range. Do swirl through.

1. Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

Xiaomi launched the successor of the Redmi Note 4 in three variants in India. It is priced at Rs. 9999 for the 2GB RAM with 32GB storage version, Rs. 10,999 for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version, while the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs Rs. 12,999. This device comes with a good build quality, improved battery life, better performance, and camera.

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 comes packed with the 5.5-inch 1080p screen, powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 SoC, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with MIUI 8 top, has a 13-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It will be available exclusively from Flipkartand Mi.com. You can read the review here.

2. Moto G5

The Moto G5 is a decent of the last years Moto G4 at a price of Rs. 11,999 with a fingerprint scanner and a better build quality. Even though the performance is good, the phone tends to heat up during heavy gaming at times. As per the specs sheet, the Moto G5 comes packed with 5-inch Full HD display, Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 (MSM8937) processor, 2GB /3GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 128 GB with microSD, 13MP/5MP camera setup and 2800mAh battery. The Moto G5 is currently available exclusively on Amazon.in. You can read the reviewhere.

3. Honor 6X

If you are the one who loves to click varieties of pictures with phones, then Honor 6X is your answer. This smartphone comes with lots of camera features including light painting, foods, and much more. Apart from this, the Honor 6X has an impressive battery life and a solid build quality coupled with decent performance as well.

At a starting price of Rs. 12,999, the Honor 6X comes packed with 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core Kirin 655 16nm processor, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with EMUI 4.1. It has a 12-megapixel camera with LED flash and a secondary 2-megapixel for achieving the depth of field and background blur. It also has an 8-megapixel camera on the front and has a fingerprint sensor on the back that can unlock the phone in 0.3 seconds. It is powered by a 3340mAh battery with fast charging technology.The Honor 6X starts at Rs. 12,999 and is available exclusively on Amazon.in. You can read the review here.

4. Asus Zenfone 3s Max

If you are more concerned about the battery life, then Zenfone 3 Max is your answer. This compact smartphone comes powered by a humongous 5000mAh battery for all-day usage. Talking about the specifications, the Asus Zenfone 3 Max comes packed with 5.2-inch HD display, Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 2TB, Android 7.0 (Nougat) with ZenUI 3.0, 13MP/8MP camera module on back and front. You can buy this at Rs. 14,999, and available on offline and online retailers in India such as Flipkart and Amazon.in. You can read the review here.

5. Xiaomi Redmi 3s Prime

Looking out for a metal body designed smartphone under 10k? Here is the answer — Redmi 3s Prime. If you want a smartphone for day-to-day usage with some good performance and amazing battery life, this is your best bet.

This 5-inch smartphone comes with full metal magnesium alloy unibody design along with Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 SoC and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with MIUI 7 on top. It also has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front-facing camera.

The above hardware is powered by a 4000mAh battery and also has a fingerprint sensor on the back. It is now available at Rs. 8,999 on Flipkart. You can read the review here.

6. Lenovo Vibe K5 Note

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note smartphone comes with a solid build, good display, offers good performance on day-to-day usage and audio output as well. Priced at Rs. 11,999, this smartphone is available on Flipkart in Gold, Grey and Silver color variants.

This smartphone packs a 5.5-inch display, powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P10 chipset and runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Lenovo’s custom Vibe UI on top. It has a 13MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash and an 8MP front-facing camera.

Like other Vibe smartphones, the Vibe K5 Note supports TheaterMax technology, for an immersive VR experience when combined with ANT VR headset. You can read the review here.

7. Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)

Known for its design and build quality, the Galaxy J5 (2016) now retails at Rs. 11,990 on Flipkart in Black and Gold color variant. This smartphone comes with S-bike mode and Ultra data saving (UDS) mode that compresses cellular data across all contents.

In terms of specifications, the Galaxy J5 (2016) comes packed with 5.2-inch HD Super AMOLED display, powered by Quad-core Snapdragon 410 chipset clubbed with 2GB RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage.

It also features a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and 5MP front snapper under the hood. You can read the review here.

8.  Lenovo Z2 Plus

High-end specifications under Rs. 15,000? Of course, it is possible with Lenovo Z2 Plus. This compact phone houses a powerful Snapdragon 820 processor under the hood. It has a unibody glass and metal design prone to fingerprint magnet. You can buy the 32GB of this smartphone at a price of Rs. 14,999. At this price, the Z2 Plus offers good battery life, fast fingerprint scanner, decent performance and below average low light performance. It will be available from Amazon.in. Check out the review here.

9. Nubia M2 Lite

Priced at Rs. 13,999, the Nubia M2 Lite has a 5.5-inch HD display with 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 processor, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with nubia UI 4.0 on top. It has a 16MP front facing camera with 79.8-degree wide angle lens for selfies and 13MP rear camera with LED flash on both the sides. It has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button that can unlock the phone in 0.15 seconds and packs a 3000mAh battery. You can buy it exclusively on Amazon.in.

10. Lenovo K6 Note

At a price of Rs. 13,890, the Lenovo K6 Note is a decent smartphone with good build quality, decent display, and VR support. Moreover, it offers very good battery life with 4000mAh power that can easily last for a day on heavy usage. The Lenovo K6 Note comes with a 5.5-inch 1080p display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 processor, has a fingerprint sensor, 3GB /4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB, 16MP/8MP camera module. It comes in Dark gray, Gold and Silver colors as well. You can buy it from the offline store. Read the full review here.

Paytm Payments Bank to start operations from May 23: All you need to know

Last year in December, Paytm announced that it will merge its digital wallet business with Payments Bank. The Vijay Shekhar led company received RBI’s approval to launch  the payment bank in January. Now, Paytm has announced that it is all set to launch Payments Bank on May 23. Renu Satti will be the CEO of Paytm Payments Bank.

After May 23, the Paytm wallet will move to Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL). In case consumers do not wish for that, they have to inform Paytm, which will in turn transfer the wallet balance to the consumer’s bank account once such details are shared. Such communication will have to be made before May 23.

1. What is Paytm Payments Bank?

Paytm Payments Bank converts the digital wallet into an RBI-certified and licensed bank. Payments bank are not allowed to give loans or advances to customers. It can issue cheque books and debit cards but not credit cards. Payments banks can accept deposits from individuals and small businesses up to Rs 1 lakh per account.

2. What happens to the money in my Paytm Wallet?

The Paytm wallet will be transferred to the Paytm Payments Bank Limited as it is and the balance in your current Paytm Wallet will reflect in your new Paytm Payments Bank Wallet.

3. Will I automatically get a Paytm Payments Bank account after the wallet transfer?

No. Once the Paytm Payments Bank is launched the bank will give you an option to open a separate bank account. You will earn interest on your money if you choose to open a payments bank account.

4. What can you do if you don’t want to continue with Paytm Bank?

•  You can send a mail to help@paytm.com or stating you don’t want to continue using Paytm.
• You can redeem your balance as one-time transfer to your bank account. You will need to give details of your savings account, such account holder name, account number, IFSC code.
• You need to give them these details within 15 days of notifying them about your desire to opt out.

Nubia N1 lite with 5.5-inch display, fingerprint sensor launching in India on May 22

Nubia launched nubia M2 Lite in India last week. Today the company has teased the launch of another smartphone in the country. Even through the teaser doesn’t reveal the name of the phone. The image has a caption Let there be Lite! and the image shows a similar front camera arrangement with selfie flash. It was announced back in February at the MWC, and the company already confirmed that the smartphone will launch in India soon.

Nubia N1 lite specifications

• 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS Full Lamination display
• 1.25GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor with Mali-T720 GPU
• 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
• Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
• Dual SIM
• 8MP rear camera with dual LED Flash, f/2.0 aperture
• 5MP front-facing camera with LED flash, 84-degree wide angle lens
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
• 3000mAh battery

The Nubia N1 lite comes in Black with Gold color. We should know the price next week.

Nokia 3310 Dual SIM launched in India for Rs. ???

Nokia unveiled new 3310 feature phone at the MWC 2017 in Barcelona in February.  Today the company has launched the smartphone in India, couple of weeks after it started shipping the phone.  It has a 2.4 inch QGVA color display with polarized layer that claims to offer better sunlight visibility.

It has a 2-megapixel rear camera with LED flash light that acts as torch and brings back nostalgia with the most popular game Snake.

Nokia 3310 Dual SIM specifications

• 2.4-inch (240 x 320 pixels) QVGA curved window colour display
• Nokia Series 30+ OS
• 16MB internal storage, MicroSD card support up to 32GB
• Dual SIM
• 2Mp camera with LED flash
• LED torchlight
• Dimensions: 115.6 x 51.0 x 12.8mm; Weight: 79.6g
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM radio, MP3 player for music
• Bluetooth 3.0 with SLAM, micro USB
• Dual band 900/1800 MHz
• 1200 mAh battery with up to 22.1 hours of talk time and up to 25.3 days standby time

The Nokia 3310 comes in Warm Red and Yellow with a gloss finish, and Dark Blue and Grey with a matte finish, is priced at Rs. 3310 and will be available across mobile stores in India starting May 18, 2017. 

Honor 8 Lite with 5.2-inch 1080p display, 4GB RAM, Android 7.0, 4G VoLTE launched in India for Rs. 17999

Huawei’s Honor brand just launched Honor 8 Lite, its latest smartphone in the Honor series in India. It packs a 5.2-inch Full HD 2.5D curved glass display, is powered Kirin 655 processor with with i5 coprocessor, runs Android 7.0 (Nougat) with EMUI 5.0, has a 12-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.

It has fingerprint sensor on the glass back, brushed metal finish on the sides and has a 7.6mm slim body.

Honor 8 Lite specifications

• 5.2-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass display
• Octa-core Kirin 655 ( 4 x 2.1GHz + 4 x 1.7GHz) 16nm processor with Mali T830-MP2 GPU
• 4GB LPDDR3 RAM, 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
• Android 7.0 (Nougat) with EMUI 5.0
• Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano/microSD)
• 12MP rear camera with LED flash, 1.25um pixel size, BSI CMOS sensor
• 8MP front-facing camera, 77° wide-angle lens
• Fingerprint sensor
• Dimensions: 147.2 x 72.94 x 7.6mm;Weight: 147g
• 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS
• 3000mAh battery

The Honor 8 Lite is priced at Rs. 17,999 and will be available through all Honor partner stores offline across India starting tomorrow, May 12th. It will be available in Premium Black color initially, followed up by blue color later this month. It comes with 15 month service warranty along with Honor’s door pick-up and drop after sale facilities.

Micromax Canvas 2 2017 with 5-inch display, Android 7.0, fingerprint sensor, 4G VoLTE launched for Rs. 11999

Micromax just launched Canvas 2 (2017) it’s latest smartphone in the Canvas lineup. It is using the same Canvas 2 name that was introduced back in 2012. This has a 5-inch HD display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, is powered by a Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat).

It has a 13-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, has a fingerprint sensor on the front and has a shiny polycarbonate back cover that is removable.

Under the back cover there are dedicated dual SIM slots along with a microSD card slot. It also has a 3050mAh battery which is not removable.

Micromax Canvas 2 2017 (Q4310) specifications

• 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, 400 nits brightness
• 1.3GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 64-bit Processor with Mali T720 MP1 GPU
• 3GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 64GB with microSD
• Android 7.0 (Nougat) OS
• Dual SIM
• 13MP rear camera with LED Flash
• 5MP front-facing camera
• 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
• Fingerprint sensor
• 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
• 3050mAh battery

The Micromax Canvas 2 2017 comes in Black color and is priced at Rs. 11,999. It is available from offline stores, comes with free 1GB 4G data per day and unlimited calling to any network in India for one year for Airtel users and 1 Year of screen replacement

Xiaomi to open India’s first Mi Home Store in Bengaluru on May 20

At an event Xiaomi India has unveiled its first Mi Home Store – exclusive offline retail store in Bengaluru today, as it had promised. The store is located at Phoenix Market City Mall, Whitefield in Bengaluru and will let customers experience as well as buy smartphones, power banks, headphones, fitness bands, air purifiers as well as other ecosystem products that are launched in India. It will open for the public starting next Saturday, May 20, 2017.

In October last year Xiaomi expanded its offline reach beyond China region by opening its first overseas Mi Home store in Singapore. It already has Mi Home stores in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. For the company, India is their second largest market for the mobiles outside China.

Manu Jain, Group Vice President and Managing Director of Xiaomi India was present at the event. As you can see from the images, Xiaomi has set up tables on the sides and in the center to demo the phones and accessories. It has also put up large screens that show images, specifications and highlights the features of the devices.

Xiaomi expects to open 100 Mi Homes across India in the next two years.

nubia M2 Lite with 16MP front camera, 4GB RAM launched in India for Rs. 13***

nubia M2 Lite, the company’s latest smartphone in the latest ‘M2 Series’ has been launched in India, couple of months after its was introduced in China. It has a 5.5-inch HD display with 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 processor, runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with nubia UI 4.0 on top. It has a 16-megapixel front-facing camera with ISOCELL CMOS sensor, f/2.0 aperture, 79.8-degree wide-angle lens and a soft LED flash. It also has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and PDAF.

It is just 7.5mm thick and has a unibody metal design. It has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button that can unlock the phone in 0.15 seconds and packs a 3000mAh battery.

Nubia M2 Lite specifications

• 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD 2.5D curved glass display
• 1.5 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750 64-bit processor with Mali T860 GPU
• 4GB RAM, 32GB storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
• Nubia UI 4.0 based on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow)
• Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
• 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture
• 16MP front-facing camera with 5P lens, f/2.0 aperture, 79.8-degree wide-angle lens, soft LED flash
• Fingerprint sensor
• Dimensions: 155.7 x 76.7 x 7.5mm; Weight: 164g
• 4G, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS + GLONASS
• 3000mAh battery

The Nubia M2 Lite comes in Black Gold color, is priced at Rs. 13999 and will be available exclusively on Amazon.in starting tomorrow, May 9th.