Why your next phone may not cost a fortune

A raft of new devices has cemented that cheap price no longer means cheap quality. Recently, two impressive devices were announced at equally low prices, chilling well below the Rs 18,000 mark off-contract.

Sharp's Aquos Crystal is a quirky, virtually bezel-free stunner that 's deceptively competent, while ZTE's Nubia 5S Mini LTE found a way to pack in a 13-megapixel camera into a sleek, styled, affordable body.

These phones join a growing group of devices that offer capable performance at similar prices like the MotoG or the Lumia 630. We've even crossed the price threshold where Rs 18,000 can still get all the top specs you want; just look at the OnePlus One. The biggest factor in all of this? The actual phones.

Companies don't obsess over specs anymore, and instead explore frontiers like waterproofing, "premium materials," optical heart rate sensors, and even iris scanners. These peripheral features help Samsung and Apple justify top-tier prices.

Meanwhile the cost to make smartphones do what we use them for 99 per cent of the time, like navigating without stutter, playing games and movies, taking some decent pictures, and over all just looking great, keeps getting cheaper and cheaper.

The same has been happening for years in digital cameras, music, and even military tech. Some describe it as a 'Good Enough' era, but these sub-Rs 18,000 options of fer features and hardware that we can just drop "enough" altogether.

In some cases, they're great. Now there is comfort knowing that if needed to replace one's phone, you get a pretty damn good one for less than half of a new, full-price iPhone's cost.