Window shopping for your next smartphone

Gone are the days when you had to physically go to a store to buy a cell phone. The increasing popularity of going through e-retailers has led to a number of tech brands tying up with these online portals. While the obvious benefits like no overheads from physical stores or paying high dealer margins are reason enough, there’s also the fact that the additional buzz created by social media is good for sales. It’s also a great way to break into the already saturated mobile phone market, where users in every price range are spoilt for choice.

The marketing gimmicks range from flash sales – like in August last year when Xiaomi announced a flash sale of its Mi3 on Flipkart and sold 20,000 units in a mere 2.4 seconds – to the “invite only” approach that Chinese brand One Plus is taking with its first offering, where you can only order the phone on Amazon if you have an invite code. Brands today are getting innovative in ensuring that they are generating enough of an uproar online, and saving on costs – a win-win situation.

But how does one pick a phone – something you’ll be handling almost 24x7 – without even getting a good look at it first? Consumers are instead taking eyeing each phone’s technical specifications to get a pretty good idea of what to expect.

We picked four of these online-only options to compare, and they gave a pretty comprehensive idea of what it’s like to be phone-shopping online today.

The first factor that everyone looks at is, of course, the price and a quick scan of the options available point to one obvious winner – Xiaomi. The Redmi Note 4G that went on sale on Tuesday was available only to users who had registered beforehand and logged in to Flipkart 2 or 3 hours before the sale started. For those looking for a good deal, this would definitely be the first option.

For the more adventurous buyers, who aren’t too concerned about screen size, Finnish firm Jolla’s first smartphone offering is worth considering. Sold exclusively on Snapdeal, the phone comes with the independent OS Sailfish – an open platform that promises customisation to the highest degree. While the specs may fall short when compared to the others, especially at the price it’s marked at, the Nordic logic and the power to customise the phone entirely are big draws for the technically inclined.

Playing it safe is not always a bad thing – and if you’re not the risk-taking kind then Motorola’s MotoG is the phone for you. It ticks all the boxes for a decent phone at a decent price. The quad-core processor promises multi-tasking at a decent pace and a battery that lasts all day is about all your average buyer is looking for.

Chinese brand One Plus entered the market bragging that their first phone – simply called the One – would be a flagship killer. Sold only via invite, you had to know someone who already bought a One Plus One to get an invite code to order the phone online, and each buyer only got six such invites. Pretty cocky strategy for a phone that had no history to go by, and no physical presence anywhere, but it paid off. With specs that had every one sitting up and taking notice, the One Plus One was up against the highest range of phones in the market – but at less than half their price, making this phone a major contender for the “must-buy” tag.

The only snag to buying online is where one must go to get it fixed in case of damages.

Unlike physical stores that often provide servicing, buying online means you’re pretty much on your own. While all phones come with a standard 1 year guarantee, service centres are not as easy to find – and this is where most e-tailers stop being helpful.

While Xiaomi, for example, has four exclusive Mi service centres and about 40 other centres in India listed on their website, Jolla has no information other than listing Snapdeal as their dealer in India. Motorola has a handy service centre locator on their website, and One Plus has 25 listed service centres – nowhere near enough for India, but it is a start.

These four are just a taste of the myriads of options available for today’s online-focused consumer.

As touch-and-feel gives way to virtual tech-specs, today’s phone market is clearly got its eyes on the click-happy customer.

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