Top 5 smartphones perfect for college students

New Delhi: The smartphone market in India is currently on steroids. Every week scores of handset markets bring to the market their latest creations in order to push the boundaries of comfort and taste of the consumers.And given the stiff competition in the mid-range Android smartphone market, every handset maker is trying their best to offer best of the class specifications: turbocharged quad-core processors; high-end rear and front cameras; HD display, good connectivity options, superior build quality, and lots of freebies, to attract the first time buyer. Looking at the options available in the market, it may not seem to be an easy task to choose the best of the lot. But here I have compiled a list of five good smartphones that have all the desired specifications that you need in your college and fall under affordable category. 1. Micromax Canvas HDPrice: Rs 14,999 Micromax A116 Canvas HD is a solid buy as far as it comes with certain enhanced software features and the much highlighted gesture control features. The smartphone comes with an IPS LCD capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels which gives you a pixel density of 294 ppi. That means you get a phone with true HD display. The device is powered by quad core MediaTek MT6589 processor with Cortex A7 architecture, clocked at a frequency of 1.2 GHz. It has also got 1GB RAM, an 8MP rear camera, 4GB internal storage and a 2000 mAh battery. Running Android Jelly Bean (v4.1), it has got connectivity features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and micro USB 2.0.In terms of camera, the Canvas 4 is far superior to that of Micromax Canvas HD. Canvas 4 has a 13 MP primary camera which has a 5 element lens, similar to that in iPhone 5, and is enabled with Vertical Panorama feature. Thus camera's field of capture in vertical direction will be highly enhanced. Canvas 4 also has a secondary camera of 5MP for video calling.The Canvas 4 also comes with features like “blow air to unlock” or “Kiss to unlock”. The concept means that a user has to blow on the screen to unlock it. Micromax also says its most expensive feature is its “Eye tracking” feature, by virtue of which it pauses videos when user is not looking at the device (similar to that in galaxy s3). It also contains other gesture features using which you can turn your phone to silent or speaker modes via various gestures such as turning the phone with its rear facing upwards.2. Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos Price: Rs 18,000 The Samsung Galaxy Grand also has a 5-inch TFT LCD offering a display of 800 x 480 pixels. The device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual core Broadcom BCM28155 processor and runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. The smartphone comes with an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 2MP front-facing camera. It has 8GB of onboard storage with an option to expand memory using the microSD card slot. Samsung has also added some features that are usually seen in the company's high-end crop of devices such as Smart Stay, Direct Call, Smart Alert and Popup Play along with S-Voice and Face & Voice Unlock. The company launched the smartphone early this year for 21,500, but it is now up for grabs at Rs 18,000.3. Gionee Elife E6Price: Rs 20,250The Gionee Elife E6 is the company's latest flagship phone. The phone is sure to get your attention due to its sleek unibody design and clean lines, not usually seen in mid-range smartphones. It looks like a premium (Rs 35k plus) device, and has chrome finish buttons and smooth edges. It's powered by a 1.5Ghz quad core Mediatek processor and performs similar to the HTC One X in benchmarks. Internal storage is 32GB out of which around 26GB is available for the user. The Gionee Elife E6 features a 5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels resolution) IPS screen based on One Glass Solution (OGS) technology with a Gorilla Glass 3 layer for protection. The screen is bright and vibrant, with text and images looking extremely crisp and sharp. The Gionee Elife E6 runs a highly-tweaked version of Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. The handset maker has put a custom 'Amigo' skin on top of the UI.The Gionee Elife E6 sports a 13-megapixel auto-focus camera with a Sony Exmor R sensor and five element lens. It also includes a second generation BSI sensor for low-light imaging. The Elife E6 comes with a 2,000mAh battery, which will last you more than a full day with medium to heavy usage.4. Intex Aqua i7Price: Rs. 20440Aqua i7, the new flagship smartphone from Intex, is a very high quality phone. The i7 is a good looking device with a chrome band running around the edges and a matte finish back panel. It is powered by a 1.5Ghz Mediatek quad core processor, 2GB RAM, and has 32GB internal storage (non expandable). The i7 comes with dual cameras - 13MP rear and 5MP front. You get multiple modes - HDR, panorama, smile shot and magic shot (remove unwanted elements from a photograph) along with a professional mode to tweak advanced settings such as exposure, hue and saturation. While the image quality excellent in daylight, pictures taken indoors will see some noise. A 2,000mAh battery, is however not enough to last an entire day with a mix of calls, data connectivity, multimedia playback and some camera use.5. Nokia Lumia 620Price: 14,999The Nokia Lumia 620 comes with a compact form factor. The phone is available in multiple colours including Black, White, Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, and Lime Green. The colour is rendered purely by the back cover that wraps around the major part of the phone. The front of the phone is dominated by the 3.8-inch screen, with the three capacitive Windows Phone buttons - Back, Start and Search sitting below it. The Nokia Lumia 620 sports a 3.8-inch ClearBack LCD with a resolution of 480x800 pixels, and pixel density of 246ppi. The display gives bright and vivid colors along with good viewing angles. Sunlight legibility is good but the screen not being very reflective. The touch is extremely responsive. The Lumia 620 sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash.The Nokia Lumia 620 comes with Windows Phone 8, the latest iteration of Microsoft's mobile-OS that features multiple improvements like enhanced performance, multi-core processor support, NFC, support for USSD commands, resizable live tiles and more. The Windows Phone 8 camera app allows you to tinker with various settings including selecting scenes, camera effects, ISO, white balance, contrast, saturation, flash and sharpness, among others. With a 1300 mAh battery, aps like Cinemagraph, Smart Shoot, City Lens, Microsoft Office, Nokia Music, OneNote, Lync, Skype and Nokia Maps come pre-loaded.