The budget smartphone market is not done competing, thanks to the overly-competitive manufacturers that refuse to settle for less.
Talking about budget phones, names like Xiaomi, Lenovo, Motorola, Coolpad and Meizu come to mind, and these companies have truly disrupted the market in such a way that consumers demand for more and more. Xiaomi, Lenovo and Coolpad recently launched Redmi 3S, Vibe K5 and Mega 2.5D, respectively, to compete in the sub-Rs. 7,000 price range.
While this level of competition is healthy and benefits end consumers, there is a bigger challenge of choosing the right phone for you. There are tiny features that are either extra or missing in one of these smartphones, which mostly go unnoticed. But if you are considering buying one of these three smartphones, here's a comparison of specs and features of Coolpad Mega 2.5D, Xiaomi Redmi 3S and Lenovo Vibe K5.
All three smartphones are priced at Rs. 6,999, but their availability is different. Coolpad Mega 2.5D will be available in its first flash sale on August 24, exclusively on Amazon.in. The registrations for the sale open on August 10. Xiaomi Redmi 3S will be available in India for the first time on Flipkart and Mi.com on August 17, without registrations. Lenovo Vibe K5, however, is available on Amazon.in without any flash sales or registrations, which gives it an edge over its rivals.
But what these smartphones have to offer can be the main deciding factor for most buyers, so here it goes.
Display
Coolpad Mega features a 5.5-inch HD IPS display with 294ppi and 2.5D curved glass. It has a premium metallic finish at the back and an edge-to-edge design for the display. Xiaomi Redmi 3S features a full metal body with a 5-inch HD display, which is same as the Lenovo Vibe K5. But the K5 smartphone has a different design than that of the Redmi 3S.
Camera
Coolpad Mega 2.5D is touted as the selfie smartphone, so it has an edge over its rivals in this category. Both cameras in the Mega 2.5D have 8MP individual sensors. The rear sensor has an aperture of f/2.0, LED flash and uses a Sony sensor while the front camera is fitted with an f/2.2 aperture lens, which has an 83.6 degree field of view and smart beautification mode.
Lenovo Vibe K5 and Xiaomi Redmi 3S have more pixels on their rear camera. There is a 13MP camera on the rear side of both phones with LED flash and a 5MP snapper takes charge of the selfies. The difference shouldn't be vast in all three phones, but we haven't reviewed the phones to give our final verdict.
Processor, RAM and storage
Coolpad Mega is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6735P processor, 3GB RAM and 16GB expandable storage. Xiaomi Redmi 3S an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 CPU, 2GB RAM and has 16GB storage. Lenovo Vibe K5 is powered by an octa-core 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 chipset paired with 2GB RAM and offers 16GB onboard storage with microSD card support.
By comparison, the Redmi 3S has a better chance of outperforming its rivals, but the 3GB RAM in Coolpad Mega helps in multi-tasking.
Battery
Xiaomi Redmi 3S has the biggest battery measuring 4,100mAh, while the Vibe K5 and Coolpad Mega have 2,750mAh and 2,500mAh batteries, respectively.
Software and add-ons
All three smartphones run Android 6.0 Marshmallow out-of-the-box, but the Redmi 3S has MIUI 7 and the Coolpad smartphone is based on CoolUI 8.0. Additional features such as premium design, dual SIM slots and 4G LTE support are available in all three phones, but the Vibe K5 comes with Dolby Atmos integrated twin speakers and TheaterMax support. There is no fingerprint scanning technology in any of the devices.
