Even though the campaign to ban Chinese products is gaining momentum, it does not seem to resonate with the customer or the seller. Chinese mobile makers continue to launch new products and customers keep buying India is a big market for mobile phones.
As per official data around 18 million units were shipped in the quarter ending June, in spite of the ongoing pandemic.
Perhaps, this is the reason that makes the Indian mobile market more competitive and is eyed by every mobile company.
As the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the entire South Asia in March, it appeared that tech giants will take a break. But it was not the case. They kept introducing new devices, even though they were just soft launches or online launches.
Big brands like Samsung, Vivo, Oppo or OnePlus kept their customers engaged with new devices. Recently, when the relationship with China turned sour, anti-China campaign started getting traction in India. And when the Union government banned 59 Chinese apps, citing security concerns, the demand to ban Chinese products gained more momentum. But it didn’t resonate with the customer or the seller, for Chinese mobile makers kept launching new products and customers kept buying them.
In fact, many of their smartphones got sold within an hour, highlighting the market hold of Chinese phones. In the Q2 market report by Counterpoint Research, the Chinese mobiles sale did dip but can’t be attributed to this campaign.
The report says, Samsung gained in Q2, coming in second spot. However, it will be too early to predict anything. Xiaomi led the tally with 29 per cent share of the smartphone market, followed by Samsung (26 per cent), Vivo (17 per cent), Realme (11 per cent), Oppo (9 per cent) and others (8 per cent) in the June quarter. In the month of July, almost every big company has come up with a smartphone. We zeroed in on a few flagship devices launched this month, mainly Chinese.
OnePlus Nord: One of the fastest-growing Chinese companies in India, OnePlus has always focused on premium segments in the Indian market. But with the launch of OnePlus Nord, the Chinese tech giant dwelled into “budget” (as per OnePlus) range. Let’s check what the company has kept in the kitty for its customers. Priced at Rs 24,999 the phone looks similar to OnePlus 8 series design. Nord comes with a 6.44-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a 90Hz refesh rate. OnePlus has kept its processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G processor, not 855 chipset as in its flagship devices. It runs on Android 10 operating system with its own OxygenOS 10.5 skin and comes with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The heavy features in the camera segment make the phone outstanding. It has four cameras in the rear ~ a 48MP main camera + 8MP + 5MP + 2MP while in front it has a dual camera set up ~ a 32MP main camera + 8MP wide-angle combo. It comes with 4,115 mAh battery with support of OnePlus’ s Warp charger.
Vivo X50: Another Chinese tech brand, Vivo always focused its phone around the camera. With the launch of X50 and X50 Pro, Vivo again tried to highlight its camera features. Another good part of Vivo is that it always pays due focus on its design and comes up with an attractive instrument. The same is the case with X 50. Priced at Rs 34,990 (for 8GB/128GB), the device impresses with its design. The X50 sports a huge punch-hole display of 6.56 inches supported by HDR 10+ and Super AMOLED screen. Vivo has armed X50 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 in X50, supported by 8GB RAM. On the camera front, the X50 has a 48MP main lens, 8MP wide-angle lens, 5MP macro lens and a 13MP Bokeh. The phone comes with 32MP selfie lens. Vivo X50 runs on a 4,200mAh battery.
Realme C11: Realme, a sub-brand of Oppo, has launched two devices recently ~ C11 and Realme 6i. While Realme C11 is the basic phone, it comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ display, MediaTek Helio G35 chipset and runs on Android 10. It is paired with 2GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage with microSD card support up to 512GB. In terms of camera, the phone comes with 13MP + 2MP f/2.4 dual cameras and a 5MP selfie camera. It doesn’t have a fingerprint scanner but face unlock. However, it has a decent 5000 mAh battery. Priced at Rs 7,499, the phone may interest low budget buyers. Realme launched 6i, a successor of 5i on 24 July.
Redmi Note 9: Xiaomi is one of the dominating phone brands in India, mainly in budget and medium segment. Recently, the Chinese tech giant came up with the Redmi Note 9 (Rs 11,999 for 4+64GB) and the successor to the Redmi Note 8. It has come up with a 6.53-inch FHD+ LCD display, Mediatek’s Helio G85 SoC paired with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. On the camera front, it equipped Redmi Note 9 with 48MP quad camera and a 13MP selfie camera. It has a 5,020mAh battery with 22.5W fast charging and USB Type-C interface. Redmi Note 9 comes with 4+64GB and is priced Rs 11,999; the 4+128GB variant is priced at Rs 13,499 while the 6+128GB variant is priced at Rs 14,999.