Major smartphones launched in 2016

Following the huge success of K3 Note in 2015, Lenovo followed it up with the K4 Note and K5 Note, two major launches of the company besides Zuk 1 and Zuk 2.

Launched in January, the Lenovo K4 Note was also known as the Killer Note due to its high features such as 5.5-inch Full HD (1080x1920p) display with virtual realty support, 64-bit octa-core Mediatek 6753 chipset processor, 3GB RAM and a low pricing Rs 11,999.

Likewise, the K5 Note, launched in August, was also another killer Note from the Chinese tech giant with high features and a low pricing of just Rs 11,999 for the 3GB variant and Rs 13,499 for the 4GB variant.

Both the smartphones were moderate hits with the fans but not as successful as the Lenovo K3 Note.

Unveiled in the year-end of 2015, the BlackBerry Priv, the Canadian firm's comeback attempt in the form of an Android phones, was launched in India on January 28.

“The secure smartphone powered by Android" from BlackBerry is a 5.4-inch display device powered by a 1.8 GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory (expandable by up to 2TB).

The single SIM 4G phone runs on Android Lollipop OS and sports 18MP rear and 2MP front camera with 3,410 mAh battery.

However, the high pricing of Rs 62,990 played the spoilsport, like previous BlackBerry phones, and the BlackBerry Priv was never really a success.

Google's first official smartphone – Pixel – came with a bang loaded with features such as 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display with 534 PPI, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor coupled with 4GB RAM and 128GB of inbuilt memory and Google Assistant.

Despite the high pricing of Rs 57,000, the Google Pixel was compared to Apple iPhone 7 with many critics considering it better than the iconic iPhone.

Considered one of the best high-end smartphone of the year, the Google Pixel is available on ecommerce site Flipkart.

Two devices from Apple that created a buzz in 2016 and kept the US tech giant in the news for the better part of the year.

However, despite hype the iPhone SE failed in India mainly due to high price of Rs 39,000, a 4-inch screen, weak battery of just 1642 mAh and an unexpandable 16GB internal of which only 11GB was available to users.

The iPhone 7 too, which was launch in September amidst hype and fanfare did not live up to its expectations mainly, again, due to high pricing. The 32GB variant (Apple did away with the 16GB variant this time) was priced at Rs 62,000 with the 128GB variant going up as high as Rs 92,000.

Following the acquistion of Google's Motorola by Lenovo in 2014 for $2.91 billion, Moto Z and Moto Z Play were the first smartphone from the joint venture.

Unveiled globallin in June, the devices were launched in India on October 4, priced at Rs 39,999 for Moto Z and Rs 24,999 for Moto Z Play. They were made available in the market starting October 17.

While these two devices were high in features, what was more interesting about the Moto Z and Moto Z Play were the Moto Mods - a Power Pack, a JBL SoundBoost Mod and Moto Insta-Share projector – are already seen as revolutionary products.

LeEco Le 2 was launched on April 20 in China but it hit the Indian market two months later on June 15.

With features such as 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) resolution bezel-less display with a pixel density of 403ppi, a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 processor clocked at 2.3GHz with Mali GPU, 3GB RAM and 32GB inbuilt, it was deemed as the smartphone that would give competition to Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 which was ruling the Indian market at that time.

True to its hype and thanks to its features especially a more powerful battery compared to Le 1S, the LeEco Le 2 smartphone became one of the most highly rated and sold smartphone in the country, being competitively priced at just Rs 11,999.

In fact, it was known as the Android iPhone.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 came, exploded and left.

Launched on August 2, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 became the centre of controvery when reports emerged that it the battery explodes.

Despite features such as Iris Scanner, HDR content and Gorilla Glass 5, reports of battery exploding emerge within a month of its launch. Samsung said it would make a global recall after investigation while claiming that the default batteries accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the products in the market.

However, reports after reports came in about the explosion. Airlines across the banned it from being carried inside the planes.

While the South Korean giant is trying its best to clear the mess in all ways possible, latest report suggests that Samsung might be heading for a split. So much by a smartphone!

Voted India's favourite smartphone and reportedly one unit sold every 7 seconds, the Redmi Note 3 was the smartphone of the year.

Launched in March, the Redmi Note 3 came in two variants of 2GB/16GB and 3GB/32GB versions.

A 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display smartphone with 401 ppi and powered by 1.4GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor, the Note 3 also comes with a powerful 4050 mAh battery that lasts for two days with average usage.

Equipped further with a 16MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera, the Note 3 is priced at Rs 9,999 for the 2GB RAM variant and Rs 11,999 for the 3GB RAM variant.

Freedom 251 will be known for two things – being the world's cheapest smartphone at just Rs 251 and for all the controversies that followed especially being termed as a scam.

Launched on February 17, 2016 by Noida-based company Ringing Bells, Freedom 251 featured a 4-inch display, Qualcomm 1.3-GHz quad-core processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB inbuilt memory with support for expandable memory of up to 32 GB.

It also featured a 3.2-MP rear and a 0.3-MP front facing camera, a 1,450-mAh battery and ran on Android Lollipop.

But as the year comes to an end and thousands being ordered online, many are still asking – where is the Freedom 251 smartphone?

Reportedly, very few received the device and the rest is....

By - Rd. Alexander