Is world's cheapest smartphone also the best of all smartphones?

By Nandita Singh

World’s smartest privacy-oriented luxury phone made its debut in London, during last week of May 2016. The high-end $14,000 Android smartphone with chip-to-chip 256-bit military-grade encryption branded Solarin has been brought to the market by Sirin Labs, an Israeli start-up. Dubbed ‘Rolls Royce of Smartphones’ the device clocked a high gush-factor on social media. The mighty device is said to be packed with Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, a 23.8MP rear camera, and a 5.5 inch IPS LED 2K resolution screen along with a superior wi fi connectivity and privacy settings so secure that James Bond 007 would approve. It is available at Sirin Labs' first retail store in Mayfair (34 Bruton Place), London from June 1 and at Harrods, Knightsbridge from June 30.

The price point, as mentioned above, at $14,000 translates to about a cool Rs 9.5 lakh.

At the other end of the spectrum, in home grounds of India’s smartphone hungry market, a number of enterprising Indian and Chinese entrepreneurs have been tantalizing end-consumers with drool worthy affordable price points for smartphones. In just one month, in May 2016, about 20 smartphone models priced below Rs 15,000 have been launched. On an average, in India, 3-5 smartphone models are getting launched daily, and many of these are online-only brands. The number of players in the market is swelling fast. With barely 30% market penetration in the smartphone segment and the government focus on Digital India transformation program in mission mode, some surely think, the matter is just that of a right price point.

It started at the beginning of 2016, sometime in February, when a Noida-based company called Ringing Bells (never heard of it until then) created a ripple in India market, with its pre-booking announcement of Freedom 251 smartphone (priced at Rs 251 i.e., below $5) to be shipped and delivered in June 2016. Shock, disbelief and controversy followed the announcement. The company didn’t share its business model with either the media persons or with its industry peers, who also were flabbergasted and wanted to know how they expect to deliver at that price point with no major advancement in materials or a change in cost dynamics of putting together a smartphone unit. Now that we are already in June 2016, the team at Voice&Data has been looking out to see the devices Ringing Bells is shipping, if at all it is shipping. So far, as on June 1, 2016, we have drawn a blank on that.

Perhaps inspired by Ringing Bells, next, a company called Docoss Multimedia announced a smartphone for Rs 888. Now, that is a below $15 price point and this company is reportedly based out of Jaipur, in Rajasthan. Never heard of this one before either. Nor, is anybody talking about it now. The market has moved on to the next launch.

The next one takes the cake. In May 2016, a Bengaluru-based company called Namotel talks about Rs 99 smartphone. This one is positioned as the world's cheapest smartphone, cheekily branded ‘Namotel Acche Din’ and is open for pre-booking. Sure, Narendra Modi is definitely an inspiration. And a two-dollar smartphone is just perfect for India. But what is the business model? How the cost has been arrived at? These questions are of great interest to us at Voice&Data.

And the serious entrepreneurs are welcome to send a unit of their new device/ launch for a review by the Labs at CyberMedia. The address is given at the end of this article.

 Meanwhile, it’s time for some maturity in the smart phone segment in India. Let us have a quick look at what can be considered an acceptably “smart” phone solution, as on date June 1, 2016.

For good call quality, a certified baseband is necessary. The term “baseband” here refers to the software/hardware combination that controls all the telecom features including radio frequencies (2.5G/3G/4G). This needs to be completely defect-free and certified for prevailing telecom standards. Right now, this is problematic for 4G+ space as every country is mandating different frequencies making handset compatibility difficult for the consumers and incentivizing regional monopolies driving up hardware manufacturing costs. For e.g., consumers may right now buy a handset with 4G but lacking VoLTE (calling over 4G), leading to another handset purchase a year from now when a 4G VoLTE handsets and networks become available. A good calling experience requires not only good cell phone reception/signal, but also a noise-canceling microphone along with earphone and a good volume speakerphone for high noise environments.

A need for dual microSIM card slots is pretty much there, as some need dual slots for work/personal reasons, some need it for regional/coverage issues. The microSIM card slots should not be shared with mSD card slot, which is used for storage.

The screen size needs to have a few size options from 4.7 inches (fitting in a trouser pocket) to a full 10 inches (fitting in a handbag). Screen type can be IPS LCD which is perceived to be colour accurate, or a recent SAMOLED which has vibrant colours and low battery usage. The memory (RAM) needs to be at least 2GB LPDDR4 (low power double data rate for random access memory) for screen sizes below 5 inch screen, and at least 4GB LPDDR4 for more than 5 inch screens since this memory is shared between (graphics processing unit) GPU & user CPU (central processing unit). Even for minimal gaming the accelerometer, gyroscope sensors etc. are needed.

While battery capacity can even be 8Ah if screen size is increased to 10 inches, for phone to phablet form-factor the battery needs to be between 2Ah(2000 mAh) to 3.5 Ah(3500 mAh) and non user-swappable i.e. a technician will need a screwdriver to replace the battery. This is important because batteries have increased in size and amperage, leaving such a large battery unsealed is a safety issue.

Users, of course, need more usage hours without charging, and therefore need options for an external battery pack and support for Quick Charge 2 or similar standard.

The processor needs to be a recent 4-core, as battery usage goes down with each new design and scale of mobile CPUs. Similarly the GPU needs to be a recent design as well.

The minimum file system memory (i.e. operating system + user files) needs to be a minimum of 16 GB, excluding an mSD memory card slot.

What’s a smartphone without all the important connectivity options...

The wi fi radios should support a single or dual 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 802.11n, Wi-Fi Direct & hotspot features. Bluetooth 4.x with A2DP & hands-free profiles is a must. As is, NFC for mobile payments/contactless credit cards. Currently, the best price/performance value for data seems to come from 3G services, as the coverage is adequate. 2.5G data services seem to be going away while 4G data services are only confusing the consumer with the region specific frequency required. Traveling from one spectrum license region to another can make a particular handset either not work completely or work at reduced speeds.

Navigation and route tracking requires a good mapping solution with GPS, Assisted GPS, GLONASS & Compass/Magnetometer. A compass is needed for auto rotating maps depending on device orientation and direction.

A notification LED along with proximity and light sensors are needed for increased usability.

Security features absolutely essential are full device encryption, user controlled secureboot & (Trusted Platform Module) TPM key management, in addition of any mandatory access control for user space.

Cameras, these are already as good as it gets in a smartphone…

The device front and rear camera setup needs to be usable for videochat and click photography. The front camera must have acceptable resolution and frame rate under video calling apps like Hangouts and Skype. The rear camera must have a minimum of 12 mega pixels. For a typical use case, the consumer must be able to use the rear camera to make a clear scan of A4 page document easily, and take acceptable photos under daylight and artificial lighting. Photos and continuous video recording to mSD card must be fully supported without any buffering issues. Handsets with good low light rear camera features can be listed in a premium price band/range.

The handset itself must support colours and style options via cases/covers to cater to people’s differing tastes, making allowances in price ranges for screen protections like hardened glass (gorilla, dragontail, sapphire etc) and water/splash proofing options.

Telecommunications technology is evolving, however, there seems to be a gap in the regulatory and anti-competitive oversight. US patent issues seem to be affecting the Indian market, e.g. due to FAT32 patents, manufacturers have not been including the mSD card slot in their devices for 4-5 years (a recent example is the iphone 6S, in spite of high cost it does not have an mSD slot). Another example would be NFC radios not being included, or QuickCharge (QCv2) protocol. The recently released Galaxy J7 (SM-J700FZWDINS) neither has NFC, nor a magnetic compass and while it does have larger than 5-inch screen, the memory (RAM) is less than 2GB and no QCv2. Another feature being held back from the consumer via patents is MHL, Galaxy J7 does not have MHL either. Innovation must not be decoupled to this extent from the actual product reaching the consumer.

And what about eco-friendliness…

Lastly but importantly – eco-friendliness. A consumer requires better-designed handsets that can be used for at least five years. For this, consumers would need the assured availability of genuine spare parts at a convenient and stable price point. The handset itself would need to have a high do-it-yourself repair-ability score. Software used by the consumer will need to be updated regularly, throughout handset’s product lifecycle. At the very least, the practice of forced obsolescence where the manufacturer neither provides regular software updates/upgrades, nor is forced to release device-drivers and device-unlock information must be regulated away.

The hardware accessories must be standardized, e.g. microusb Vs. usb-c charger, or microSIM Vs. nano SIM, or differing replacement battery sizes/ratings. All these need to be regulated to create a consolidated market which promotes reuse, recycle habits and reduces e-waste at the same time in order to reduce cost to the environment.

Caution: Do not lose sight of what is an acceptable "smart"phone solution

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You can send 1 unit of the new device/ launch for a review by the Labs at CyberMedia.

The address is:

For Review @ CyberMedia Labs

C/o Ibrahim Ahmad, Group Editor, CyberMedia India

Cyber House, B 35, Sector 32, Gurugram (Gurgaon), Haryana 122001

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