14 DAY TRIAL // It looks like Motorola has started a trend in India where all mid-range Android smartphones should be priced under Rs 7,000 ($115 / €85). Karbonn, Lava Mobiles and Micromax are among the first to have rallied to the new trend, as all three Indian OEMs launched Motorola Moto E competitors in the last couple of weeks.
And it appears that the trend continues, as Karbonn has just introduced another mid-range smartphone, which is supposed to compete with the Moto E, but also with the other devices in the same price range that got release lately.
Dubbed Karbonn Titanium S99, the smartphone comes with pretty decent features, though it's clearly inferior to the Moto E when it comes to hardware.
The good news is that Titanium S99 has been priced at only Rs 5,990 outright, which is about ($115 / €85). According to AndroidOS, the handset will go on sale in India in the coming days and customers will be able to choose from either black or white colors.
The smartphone is equipped with a more than decent 1.3GHz quad-core processor inside, but unlike the Moto E that packs 1GB of RAM, Karbonn Titanium S99 has only 512MB of RAM.
On a more positive note, the smartphone will ship with Android 4.4 KitKat operating system out of the box. Even though Google developed KitKat to run smoothly on devices equipped with just 512MB of RAM, some apps and games require more than that to run within the parameters.
Anyway, Karbonn Titanium S99 comes packed with 4GB of internal memory and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
On the back, there's a 5-megapixel photo snapper with LED flash and video recording, while in the front, there's a secondary VGA camera for video calls.
Karbonn's affordable handset sports a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution. The smartphone offers multiple connectivity options, including dual-SIM capability, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microUSB and GPS with A-GPS support.
According to Karbonn, the Titanium S99 comes with several pre-loaded applications, such as Hangouts, OK Google and others.
“The advantages of using Android OS, 4.4 KitKat are numerous. It takes system performance to a whole new level by offering better memory management. It provides all-in-one solution to user’s communication needs by providing upgraded Hangouts App supported with improved SMS & MMS integration.
Hot ‘Ok Google’ feature predicts information based on user’s location, favourite sites and TV programs. The combination of these extraordinary features make KitKat a solid addition to the Android family,” said Shashin Devsare, executive director of Karbonn.