Magic Swift: Kitkat @ 3K INR

Yes, the prices of the smartphone claiming to run Kitkat Android OS are hitting a new low. This time it is plain 3K (http://www.rage-mobile.com/Rage-Feature-Phones/SmartMagic-Series/Magic-Swift). And it has possibly everything you need.

Celkon Campus A35K : Kitkat @ 3K

Yes, you read it right. Celkon Campus A35K is a Kitkat phone at only 3000 INR. That is well within what I expect from a smartphone to be sold in India. No wonder then that it is out of stock on snapdeal.com where it is sold (http://www.snapdeal.com/product/celkon-campus-a35k-blue/1806783118). How does this cheap phone perform? I cannot say till I use one. Although the Kitkat minimum requirement is 512MB of RAM, this device has got only 256MB of RAM, and the internal storage is a paltry 512MB. The internal storage is said to be expandable, but the real question would be if all the apps could be moved to the external storage.

Is this a premium affordable? Not sure, will depend on the experience of using the device.

Finally, if you observe the budget as well as premium smartphone segment, one would notice that the internal RAM as well as the internal flash storage seems to be what actually cuts down or pushes up the cost substantially. For me this is an interesting observation. It is not the camera or other parts, probably not even the processor and the screen that cost a lot, it is the RAM and internal storage that is expensive.

Sony Xperia E1 : the first E, before Moto E

Before Moto E became hit, the 'E' moniker was I think first introduced by Sony with the Sony Xperia E. The newest entrant of this being Xperia E1 that was announced back in January 2014 (http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-e1/?utm_source=sactive&utm_medium=blogs&utm_campaign=xperiae1), with both single and dual SIM models available in Indian market. When introduced, it was termed as the "The world’s best smartphone in its class", however, one can say that this crown now belongs to Moto E.

Sony has recently announced that this phone will receive a Android KitKat update, in July this year: (http://blogs.sonymobile.com/2014/05/21/new-sony-software-upgrade-including-android-4-4-kitkat-rolls-for-xperia-z-xperia-zl-xperia-zr-and-xperia-tablet-z/). This is a very good news for those who bought this phone, or are thinking of (i.e. if you are a Sony fan!). For this very reason (that a software update is provided to the next OS release), I would recommend Sony Xperia E1 as another alternative to Moto E.