itel S43: The Crossover King!

When Cyber Media Research did its last survey of cell phones in India, it came up with a dark horse: Tying with Xiaomi for second place in the market, was another China brand called itel from Transsion.

Since then, the brand has created a niche in a sweet spot: an affordable smart phone for Indians graduating from feature phones. Their latest device, itel S42, is a good exemplar of this category. With a 5.65-inch 720p HD screen at 18:9 ratio, it offers the latest Android 8.0 OS with some useful pre-installs, like an Opera Mini browser and WhatsApp.

It can also be adjusted for any one of 25 Indian languages. The makers are cleverly wooing the rural and untapped markets, by including tongues like Assamese, Maithili, Manipuri, Santhali, Bodo...

A quad core Qualcomm chip, 3GB RAM with 16GB storage expandable to 128GB; twin 13MP cameras, front and rear with flash, a finger print and ( in the India version) a face unlock feature -- would do justice to a much pricier product than the S42's asking price of Rs 8,499. A decent 3000mAh battery and the best connectivity possible today -- 4G VoLTE -- with dual SIMs, ensures that the buyer can enjoy today's best data packages.

Truly a crossover king!

—IndiaTechOnline