MTS MTAG 401: Smart choice for the budget conscious

An easy to use and own Android phone with a good set of features.

Who says you have to spend an astronomical amount on a fancy new Android smartphone? Its easy to be lured in by handsets like the HTC One X or the Motorola Droid RAZR,which are the cream of the Android crop. But there are a plethora of decent Android smartphones that cost 50% less than a high-end Android phone. Market pulse too says that majority of the price-sensitive consumers in India would prefer to go in for a mid-range handsetunder R10,000with robust hardware and creative software features.

Affordable Android smartphones are a smart choice for budget conscious shoppers. After all,such devices can perform most of the same tasks high-end Android smartphones can,but without the extra frill. Now,is that extra frill really worth spending another couple of thousands of rupees? Well,that part is up to you.

Recently,Sistema Shyam TeleServices debuted its stylish and affordable smartphoneMTS Mtag 401. The company operates its telecom services under the MTS brand with over 16 million customers. A test unit of the new handset was sent to us for a product review. Priced in the sub R9,000 category,Mtag 401 is packed with a large 4-inch capacitive touch-display offering 800 x 480 (WVGA) pixel display and runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread. The device is powered by the advanced 800m Mhz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor and a large 1700 mAh battery. Mtag 401 features a 3.0 megapixel camera expandable memory slot of up to 32 GB.

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Probing further,this feature packed smartphone works on the advanced MTS CDMA network and provides download speeds of upto 3.1 Mbps. The phone uses dual band CDMA network and consists of internal GPS antenna. Mtag 401 can also be converted to a Wi-Fi hotspot. It comes pre-bundled applications like MTS TVallowing its users access to Live TV with 100-plus channels; Google Mail,YouTube,Google Maps,Facebook and much more. I surfed a couple of websites and played lots of music from YouTube and take my word,the large display makes streaming videos,music and playing games a visual delight.

If you are looking for a decent Android phone which is easy to use and comes with a good set of features,Mtag 401 can probably be a good choice.

SPECS

Dimensions: 11.3 x 5.55 x 1.3 cm

Display: 4.0-inch TFT-LCD touch-sensitive screen

Resolution: 800 x 480 WVGA resolution

Operating system: Android Gingerbread V2.3

Camera: 3.0 megapixel

Internal memory: 512 MB flash ROM,256 MB RAM

Talk time: 240 minutes

Estimated street price: Rs 8,999