March has been an eventful month for smartphone makers.
It started with the Mobile World Congress, which saw a slew of exciting products being launched. Some of the much-anticipated launches included Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S6 Edge, HTC's One M9 and E9, Huawei's Honor 6 Plus, Microsoft's Lumia 640.
The month also experienced some interesting contests in the budget phone segment after US-based manufacturer Infocus launched M2. Not to be left far behind, Xiaomi launched another budget smartphone Redmi 2A for the global market and Redmi 2 for Indian consumers.
Happily, most of them offered Android Lollipop out of the box and bundled decent specifications at affordable prices.
Here, we bring you the top 15 launches, with specifications, prices and other details. Since it is a select list, we are not able to feature all the products released in the month.
Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge
Samsung learned a lot from the failure of Samsung Galaxy S5 and decided to launch a phone which can seriously outperform many of the smartphones available currently in the market. Launched at MWC 2015, both the Samsung smartphones pack an impressive display, powerhouse processor, 4GB LPDDR4 RAM, plethora of in built storage and quality cameras. Unlike their predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge feature Corning Gorilla Glass 4 on the front and the back. Both the devices are available globally through pre-booking offers.
HTC One M9, One E9 and Desire 820S Dual SIM
Not far away from the competition, HTC also launched its current flagship M9 at the MWC 2015. Later this month, it also launched another variant, One E9. The difference between One M9 and One E9 is the first model features a 1020P display and S810 SoC, while the latter boasts of a 1440P (2K) display and a MediaTek Octa-Core processor. Both the devices feature great looks and run on the latest Android 5 Lollipop overlaid with HTC's new Sense 7.0 interface.
HTC also launched a mid budget smartphone Desire 820S for Indian consumers. Read the review here.
Huawei Honor 4X and Honor 6 Plus
Chinese smartphone vendor Huawei launched two new smartphones for Indian consumers. The Honor 6 Plus features dual 8-megapixel camera, boasting of advanced bionic parallel lens for snapping SLR quality images.
On the other hand, the Huawei Honor 4X offers dual 4G-LTE slots and packs Snapdragon 410 SoC backed with 2GB RAM, 8GB ROM and a long battery life offering 300 hours of standby time.
Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Redmi 2A
After Yureka's huge success, Xiaomi brought its budget smartphone Redmi 2 for Indian consumers. Powered by a Snapdragon 410 SoC, the Redmi 2 packs 1GB RAM, dual 4G-LTE SIM Slots and 8GB in-built memory. Read the review here.
On the occasion of MI's fan festival in China, Xiaomi launched another budget smartphone Redmi 2A for Chinese consumers. The inexpensive variant of Redmi 2 features similar design and specs but comes for a lesser price.
Sony Xperia E4g
To test its prospects in the budget smartphone category, Sony launched Xperia E4g, which offers a 1.5GHz MediaTek Quad-Core processor and 4G network connectivity. Running on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the device is backed up with 1GB RAM and 8GBROM, expandable up to 32GB.
Microsoft Lumia 640 and 640 XL
Microsoft launched both the smartphones at MWC 2015. The Lumia 640 and 640XL share similar features except display, camera and battery. The Lumia 640 sports a 5.0-inch HD IPS ClearBlack LCD screen with 294 ppi, houses 8 MP main camera and 0.9MP front snapper and 2500 mAh battery, while the Lumia 640 XL has a 5.7-inch HD IPS ClearBlack LCD screen with 259 ppi, 13MP main camera and 5MP front snapper and 3000 mAh battery.
Both the models are powered by Snapdragon 400 processor clocking at 1.2GHz, run on operating system Windows 8.1 with Lumia Denim update (upgradable to Windows 10) and come packed with 8GB internal memory expandable up to 128GB and 1GB RAM.
Lenovo K3 Note
Lenovo's latest budget phablets is an enhanced version of K3. The latest K3 Note boasts of a 5.5-inch FHD display and is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Mediatek MT6752 processor, clocking speed at 1.7GHz. There's 1GB RAM on board along with 16GB memory for storage, which can be expanded by up to 32GB via microSD cards.
The device has currently been rolled out in China only and expected to be launched soon in other parts of the world, including India.
Micromax Canvas Juice 2
The reason behind Micromax's rags-to-riches story is that it always predicted users' demand accurately and released products at low price points. The key feature of Micromax Canvas Juice is that it runs on Android 5 Lollipop out-of-the-box and powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor backed by sumptuous 2GB RAM, 8GB inbuilt memory and a high capacity 3000 mAh battery.
Infocus M2
Infocus, a US-based smartphone company debuted in India with a Foxconn made budget device M2, made in India. Coming to specifications, the InFocus M2 boasts of a 4.2-inch WXGA LTPS LCD display with 768x1280 pixels resolution at 355ppi, highest level of pixels per inch offered in the sub-Rs. 6,000 smartphone category. The M2 further features an 8MP rear camera with auto focus, smile/face/voice detection and a identical 8MP camera bundled with a LED flash.
