Christmas 2012 Mid-Level Smartphone Buyers Guide (10K-20K)

The entry level phones, or those below 10K, this month bring us nice 4.3-inch qHD (540 x 960) displays, mated to a powerful processor and even has a 5-inch option, albeit at not so stunning WVGA (480 x 800) resolution.  

For over  Php10,000 but not over Php 20,000 what do we have? 

Prices indicated are for phones with a manufacturers warranty.

5. Sony LT22i Xperia (Php15,850) - Still a good choice.

I am still recommending the Sony Xperia P, although with the Tegra 2 powered ZTE Grand X available at 33% less, it is not as interesting this month as it was last month. The Sony Xperia P has a 4-inch qHD display. It also has 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of internal expandable storage, a 8MP camera capable of 1080p video recording. These are features you won't find in the entry level phones which have 512 to 768 MB of RAM, average camera's. As a bonus, the Sony Xperia P also has USB-on-the-Go support.

You can read more about the Sony Xperia P at this link.

6. Lenovo K860 (Php18,500) - Almost a Galaxy S III

Going up a few thousand from the Sony Xperia P gives you a phone well worth the additional money. The Lenovo K860 is a 5-inch monster phone with a 720p (720 x 1280) display. A massive 5-incher is not for everyone, but those who want a monster phone will be very satisfied with the Lenovo K8860.

Inside is a quad core 1.4 GHz processor on an Exynos 4412 Quad chipset with Mali-400MP graphics. Yup, that is the same hardware as the Samsung Galaxy S III.  The impressive hardware is backed by 1 GB of RAM and a 2250 mAh battery.

Internal storage is less than the Sony Xperia P at only 8 GB, but it does have a MicroSD card slot too.

This one is a tough act to follow.

You can read more about the Lenovo K860 at this link.


Lets see what the top phones are like these days.