Top 10 Popular Mobile Phones for Students

If we ask any college student about the most
indispensable thing in his or her life, I am sure for most
of them it will be their mobile. Over the last 2 years
we have seen a dramatic shift in the mobile usage
amongst students because of the following factors.
Cheap Internet on Mobile (as low as Rs. 99 for
unlimited usage for a month) plus Wi-fi access on
mobiles.
Rise of Facebook and Twitter
Phones with Qwerty keypads for fast messaging and
larger displays to consume content.
Touch screen phones with even larger displays to
consume video media.
Cheaper phones with lots of features
Cheaper memory to store media and files
Students have been at the fore front of this shift as
they have embraced everything that these new
mobiles can offer and now the demand from them is
pushing the innovation even further.
In this post we highlight the top 10 mobiles popular
among students. These mobiles have been selected
based on following key requirements of most students:
Economical (Rs. 10K or less)
Feature rich
Possibly qwerty (for lots of texting) or Touch screen
Expandable memory to store lots of music
Good multimedia capability
Social Networking Integration
Internet Access (via GPRS or Wi-Fi)
While there are many mobiles which satisfy the above
requirements, not all have made their mark. This list of
popular mobiles has been decided based upon inputs
from some students / youngsters and mysmartprice
usage analysis.
Nokia 5230 Xpress Music
Nokia 5230 is an entry level touchscreen
music phone from Nokia. It comes with a 3.2 inches
TFT resistive touchscreen with a resolution of
360 x 640 pixels. It features Accelerometer sensor for
UI auto-rotate, 3.5 mm audio jack, and supports
memory of up to 16GB. It runs on Symbian OS v9.4,
Series 60 rel. 5 and 128 MB RAM. It also comes with
a 2 MP camera, A-GPS support, Video Recording and
Document Viewer. Overall at its price and with Nokia
brand, it’s a tremendous value for money. For students
who are looking for economical touch screen phone
with good multimedia, Nokia 5230 is an ideal choice.
Perhaps that ’s why, this phone has been really
popular.
Best Price: 6,899
Nokia 5800 Xpress Music
Nokia 5800 was one of the first touch screen phones
from Nokia. It was Nokia’s answer to all the highly
popular touch screen phones from Samsung and other
companies. This phone comes with a 3.2 inches TFT
resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 360 x
640 pixels. It supports 3G, Wi-fi and other connectivity.
It supports microSD card up to 16GB. Camera is 3 .15
MP with Carl Zeiss Optics, autofocus and dual-
LED flash. OS is standard Symbian OS v9.4, Series
60 rel. 5 and it supports GPS navigation and comes
with Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch. Though its price is slightly
higher for students it offers lots of features and comes
with the Nokia peace of mind. Perhaps that ’s why this
phone has been popular with the younger generation.
Best Price: Rs. 12,000
Samsung Corby S3653
When Samsung launched Corby S3653, it became
an instant success among students and young
professionals. It comes with a 2 .8 inch capacitive
touch screen with 240 x 320 pixel resolution. It
features Samsung’s TouchWiz interface and
supports 3 home screens. Camera is 2 MP and
works decently well. It was designed with young
people in mind and comes with social networking
widgets for Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, email,
messaging and many other widgets. It comes with
office document viewer that supports Word, Excel,
PowerPoint and PDF files. Overall for its price it ’s a
fantastic mobile and hence it sold like crazy!
Best Price: Rs. 5,061
Samsung Chat C3222
Samsung Chat C3222 is a new entry level
Qwerty mobile from Samsung designed with just
messaging and social networking in mind. It comes
with a full Qwerty keypad and an Optical trackpad.
Screen is 2.2 Inch and camera is basic 1.3 MP. It
comes loaded with applications for Facebook, Twitter,
Orkut, Email and Messaging. Best part of this mobile is
that it ’s a Dual SIM mobile. With the success of
Micromax Q5FB and Q7, I am sure that this mobile is
going to be a big hit among students who want 24×7
access to social networking and friends.
Best Price: Rs. 4,366
Samsung Galaxy5 I5503
Samsung Galaxy5 I5503 and an entry level
Android phone from Samsung. It is targeted
towards those geeky students and young professionals
who want to play around with their mobile, configure it
to the core and install apps. It comes with a 2.8 inches,
240 x 320 pixels TFT capacitive touchscreen. It
supports 3G, Wi-fi, GPS navigation. It comes with a 2
MP camera and 3.5 mm audio jack. Overall its one of
the best entry level Androids available in the market
and that ’s why it getting popular with techie students
and junta.
Best Price: Rs. 8,889
LG Cookie Fresh GS290
LG Cookie Fresh GS290 is LG’s answer to the popular
Samsung Corby. It comes with a 3.0 inch, 240 x
400 pixels TFT resistive touchscreen and
supports 3 home screens. 3G and Wi-Fi are not
available. Camera is 2MP and it comes with video
recording and editing. LG Cookie fresh has a good
Social Networking integration with a dedicated Social
Networking Client. It also features a helpful Oxford
Dictionary widget. LG Cookie Fresh comes with inbuilt
FM antenna. Going by the price of this mobile, it ’s an
excellent value for money phone.
Best Price: Rs. 5,299
Micromax Q5FB (and Q7)
Micromax Q5FB and its successor Q7 have been super
popular among students and young professionals
simply because of all the features offered for such an
incredible price. Q5FB was marketed as a Facebook
phone as it supported Facebook and other social
networking integration. It was one of the cheapest
Qwerty phones which supported social networking
when launched, and this made it an instant super hit.
Micromax Q5FB comes with a 2.2 inch display,
Qwerty keypad, 2 MP camera, Dual SIM, Multi IM
and one touch Facebook launch. Micromax Q7 is the
successor to Q5FB comes with additional features like
Wi-Fi and a new sleek design.
Best Price: Rs. 3,489 (Q5FB) Best Price: Rs.
3,829 (Q7)
Micromax Bling Q55
Micromax Bling Q55 was another master-stroke from
Micromax. An affordable phone designed exclusively
for girls with a marketing campaign that was bang on.
Bling has become really popular with young girls
especially students. It comes with a 2.2 inch display,
chic design, Swarovski studded chassis, unique swivel
design which makes it really compact when folded,
vanity mirror at its rear, which girls need all the time!
Apart from this it comes with all the usual stuff like a
decent 2 MP camera, FM, music player etc.
Best Price: Rs. 4,629
Lava A10
Lava A10 is another good looking touch screen phone
which comes at an economical price. Lava A10 comes
with a 3 inch TFT touchscreen with 240 x 400 pixels
resolution. This touch screen is IPS which enhances
viewing experience. It is bundled with Yamaha PA
sound system to enhance the Audio experience as
well. It comes in a Sleek Gun Metal Chassis which
looks stunning. A10 is also java enabled and supports
all java applications and games. It can be connected to
a PC via USB cable and and used as a web cam.
Camera is 3.2 MP. It is one of the best multimedia
phone in its price range and combined with its good
looks, it is one the best value for money touch screen
phone.
Best Price: Rs. 4,499
Karbonn K10
Karbonn K10 is another cheap qwerty mobile targeted
towards students and young professionals. It is similar
to Micromax Q5FB and comes with a 2 inch display,
qwerty keypad and trackball. It lets you access social
networking sites like Facebook and twitter and
messaging via eMSN and eBuddy apps. It comes with
a 1.3 MP camera and also supports video recording.
Best part about this is its price which is unbelievably
low. This low pricing has allowed it to sell good
volumes.
Best Price: 2,999