iPhones are still the craze in Sri Lanka, like it is in any other part of the world. However if you have used/experienced several generations of iPhones, you would have realized that the feature differences in each generation isn't that significant, and might not justify the high prices it demand (especially in Sri Lanka).
At the time of writing iPhone 5 prices start at around Rs. 115,000. This is fine for bragging rights, but if you have used/experienced an android phone, you would have realized that you could get the same functionality/productivity for a much lesser price. It could be argued that the user experience / interface is far superior on the iPhone, but having heavily used both, I beg to differ; while my wife owns an iPhone, both my dad and father-in-low (both non-techies) use android phones with no trouble.
Most adults looking to switch to a smart phone from their regular/dumb phone, basically require/look-for the following functionality:
1. Basic voice call and SMS functionality (obviously).
2. Send/receive emails.
3. Browse Facebook. (yes they need to see those pics of their relatives living abroad)
4. Read news on the internet.
5. Navigate using (Google) maps.
6. Play a casual game when bored.
However most people do not know that all these tasks can easily be achieved via a low cost android phone. There's heavy competition in the low end phone market, so it's not easy to pick which one to buy.
Here are the main features to look for:
1. A big screen with decent resolution - most of the above tasks will benefit from a large, sharp screen; should be at least 4 inches.
2. A decent processor - should be 1Ghz+; better yet if dual core. - lower power processors will make the phone feel sluggish.
3. Enough RAM - should have at least 512mb; Please note that this should not be confused with the internal storage memory. RAM is where your applications are loaded and run.
4. Build quality - low end phones use cheap materials which might not be durable. Yet there are exceptions and you need to find such a phone.
I have found the following two phones to have the best bang for the buck, in the current SL market.
1. MicroMax A110 - Rs. 25k - simply the best bang for the buck phone out there. Brilliant big screen, dual core and 512 ram. (bit difficult to find though since they frequently run out of stock due to high demand.)
2. Huawei G300 - around Rs. 29k
