5 overhyped smartphones that flopped this year
Once a novelty, mobile phones have now become an integral part of our daily lives. Okay, that was trite! But with new devices being launched almost every day with great features and elegant looks, there has never been a better time to be in the market for a new smartphone.
However, there still lie a few pitfalls that you need to avoid while buying a new smartphone. In these times of plenty, there still exist a few mobiles that are not worth your hard- earned money.
Here's our list of smartphones that you should steer clear of:
Xperia XZ Dual
First in the list is a phone that promises so much, but ends up delivering very little. The XZ Dual comes with decent specs which somehow fails to translate to above par performance. With a 23MP primary camera and triple image-sensing technology, 5 Axis image stabilisation, and 13MP Exmor front camera snapper, the phone is cut out for clicking beautiful pictures, but sadly it does anything but that. The camera performance here is average at best for the specs on offer.
Xperia XZ Dual also brings with it a full HD 1080p display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 64-bit SoC and 64GB of storage with 3GB of RAM. However, the Rs 51,990 price it was launched at makes it slightly expensive for a phone with only a full HD display.
Xiaomi Mi 5
Launched last year in March, the Xiaomi Mi 5 is the current flagship by the Chinese smartphone maker that at the time of its launch represented a decent buy, but half way in 2017, stands out as nothing more than a cheap Chinese knock off flagship pretender.
Faced by increased competition from the 3T and now the One Plus 5, the phone fails to make a mark in a segment that is flush with great options. Xiaomi Mi 5 brings a 5.15 inch-Full HD display, 3GB (LPDDR4) RAM and 32GB storage paired with a Snapdragon 820 – specs not worthy of a true flagship phone.
iPhone SE
It is generally believed that you can not go wrong with an iPhone, but as it turns out, you indeed can. The iPhone SE is living proof of that. Coupled with below par specs – Dual-core 1.8GHz Apple A9, 4-inch display running at 1136x640 pixels and storage options of 32/128GB – the phone should be steered clear of.
At a price of Rs 35,000 for the 128GB variant, the smartphone represents very poor value for money at time when you can easily buy a phone with Octa-core CPU and over 6GB RAM for pretty much the same amount of money.
Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Another phone that should be avoided, and for good reason is the Galaxy Note 7 from Samsung. With the Note 8 launch around the corner, the phone is expected to get a heavy price-cut in the coming days, but even that should not be enough to persuade you to spend your hard earned money on a phone notorious for overheating and exploding.
Regardless of the industry-leading specs and beautiful design, the phone is a poor investment because of its battery issues.
Earlier, in the year, based on its own investigation and independent scientific analysis of consulting bodies, Samsuung had declared the overheating was caused by separate problems in batteries sourced from two different suppliers. It later assured users that it had fixed the fault in the latter batches of the phone. However, there still remained reports of the odd Note 7 going out in an inglorious blaze.
Nokia 3310
Well, this will be controversial, but our recomendation is to steer clear of Nokia's reboot of the 3310. The phone is not only high on nostalgia but is crippled by the lack of some much-needed features.
The phone comes pre-installed with a number of applications, but Nokia's decision to not support popular apps like WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter have seriously crippled the chances of success for the phone. Facebook has a database of a million users, while WhatsApp has replaced texts for many. Nokia 3310's lack of popular apps like these will be a deal-breaker for many customers.
Other than that, the lack of 4G and Wi-Fi, a small display also contribute to the phone not being a good deal.