HTC India launched Butterfly today with a hefty price-tag of INR 45,990 (Best Buy | MRP: INR 49,990). It makes one think whether this full HD smartphone is really worth this price-tag.
Before, we go on, let us look at the specifications of this smartphone.
- 5-inch Super LCD 3 1080p display with 440PPI
- 1.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor
- 2GB RAM
- 16GB internal storage, microSD card slot
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
- 8MP rear camera, 2.1MP front camera
- 2020 mah battery
There is no doubt, HTC Butterfly brings several firsts to the Indian market including the 1080p display and Qualcomm S4 Pro processor, but that does not mean the company gets to price it way more than any other Android smartphone in the country.
Despite the feature set or flagship status, Android smartphones have typically been priced lower than Apple iPhone in the country, which, everyone knows, sells at a huge premium. HTC Butterfly has even crossed that threshold. It is the most expensive smartphone in the country right now.
All the current Android competitors of Butterfly in the Indian market are sold at over INR 13,000 less than Butterfly and mind you, these are not some crappy phones, but flagship devices from other companies.
If we take an example of Samsung Galaxy Note II, the smartphone is only inferior to Butterfly in the display department, (processor tech is subjective); rest every feature is competitive or even better (take Battery).
Unless anyone really wants 1080p right now, there is no feature on HTC Butterfly, which makes me feel the phone worthy of this price-tag, at best it could have been priced at INR 39-40K, but 46K is just too much. HTC India has really lost it!
A variant of the same smartphone – Droid DNA, which is almost same in specs apart from the lack of microSD card, is being sold in US at just $599 (INR 32,220) without contract. So, just the presence of a microSD card makes Butterfly worthy of INR 14K more than US.
By no explanation whatever, HTC Butterfly is worth spending INR 45,990 price-tag. If you think, it is worthy of the price-tag, do let me know in comments.
Note: These are my personal views
Manufactures really gonna mad with these 5″ or so 1080P screens…Anything about 300PPI does not make much of difference.It’s just plain overkill.. Anyhow I am enjoying this, because this leads to HD phones being upper mid end and WVVGA resolution will be lower Mid end segments…For 90% of population WVGA screen and Dual Core processor is more than enough.
No….it its not worth of 46k..but if we see the features like sense and HD display it seems to be. My only suggestion to HTC people is that rather making it huge price spend more on advt make some noice in media….they silently launched it with hefty price seems d,t work at all. coz indian people are “jo dikhta hai woh bikta hai” Although i own HTC Onex but at this price i have to revisit my decesion.
i would instead buy a motorcycle for that price.
Oh so you make calls with your motorcycle? Amazing!
Can you ride on your phone???
If wanted to ride on it then I would be commenting on a motorcycle forum not on a discussion about MOBILE PHONES..
seriously. is it that hard to understand?
well that’s a guys choice … let’s not argue about bike over mobile.. In my opinion, since google provides the software and htc develops custom apps and hardware, pricing an android phone @45k or above doesn’t make sense..
The bottom line is that no way this phone is worth Rs. 46,000/-. It just doesn’t offer a complete and attractive enough package. Further, HTC is not a samsung to get away with these kind of arbitrary pricing.
In my view, a price of Rs. 35,000/- is more realistic. I wonder how HTC aims to capture 25% market-share in India with blunders like these.
Sure it has the top-end specs, but then if you look at it as a complete package, the price is a big big big dis-advantage. Further, anyone reading the reviews/specs would know that the 2020 mAh battery is too small for getting through a full day of moderate usage. When a person buys such a high-end phone, he/she would love to use it to the fullest and do many things that use the beautiful 1080p display eg. Youtube, Videos, Browsing.
But if the highlight of the phone (its 1080p display) cannot really be enjoyed fully in daily usage conditions (without running for a charger every 4 hours), then what’s the point? To make things worse, the battery is non-removable!
It would only make a beautiful paper-weight in your hands by 4 pm in the evening.
Further, if I compare this to another top-end phone, i.e. the Galaxy S3 that’s priced 15,000/- lesser, it is hard to convince myself about why exactly should I go for the Butterfly.
Overall, from a layman’s views, when we ignore all the technical jargon, the S3 offers all and in fact more functions/features. Performance is extremely snappy on the S3 and further, the S3 supports simple but extremely useful features like OTG (using a pen-drive, bluetooth mouse, keyboards) by simply plugging in a Rs. 99/- cable.
The S3 also has the biggest advantage of having a bigger and removable battery which gives users the option to carry an extra battery or replace the Samsung supplied one with an alternate extended battery with higher capacity.
Further, the Sony Xperia Z launch is also around the corner. I am sure that Sony would be priced lower.
The bottom line is that no way this phone is worth Rs. 46,000/-. It just doesn’t offer a complete and attractive enough package. Further, HTC is not a samsung to get away with these kind of arbitrary pricing.
In my view, a price of Rs. 35,000/- is more realistic. I wonder how HTC aims to capture 25% market-share in India with blunders like these.
Sure it has the top-end specs, but then if you look at it as a complete package, the price is a big big big dis-advantage. Further, anyone reading the reviews/specs would know that the 2020 mAh battery is too small for getting through a full day of moderate usage. When a person buys such a high-end phone, he/she would love to use it to the fullest and do many things that use the beautiful 1080p display eg. Youtube, Videos, Browsing.
But if the highlight of the phone (its 1080p display) cannot really be enjoyed fully in daily usage conditions (without running for a charger every 4 hours), then what’s the point? To make things worse, the battery is non-removable!
It would only make a beautiful paper-weight in your hands by 4 pm in the evening.
Further, if I compare this to another top-end phone, i.e. the Galaxy S3 that’s priced 15,000/- lesser, it is hard to convince myself about why exactly should I go for the Butterfly.
Overall, from a layman’s views, when we ignore all the technical jargon, the S3 offers all and in fact more functions/features. Performance is extremely snappy on the S3 and further, the S3 supports simple but extremely useful features like OTG (using a pen-drive, bluetooth mouse, keyboards) by simply plugging in a Rs. 99/- cable.
The S3 also has the biggest advantage of having a bigger and removable battery which gives users the option to carry an extra battery or replace the Samsung supplied one with an alternate extended battery with higher capacity.
Further, the Sony Xperia Z launch is also around the corner. I am sure that this Sony with similar or higher specs would be priced lower.
arbitrary pricing and Samsung..? don’t you mean Apple?
Samsung is pretty reasonable in its pricing.
and talking about useful features, why would I want to stick a USB or Mouse or keyboard for that matter in my mobile If I wanted that i’d have rather purchased a Laptop, or Tablet. That is about as useful as a monkey with a screwdriver. – in Layman terms.
Agree with your point of useless battery and non-removable thing.
For your info, Butterfly also supports USB OTG function and other than putting larger batteries and make the phone more bulky, HTC decided to control the power consumption and as you can see that Droid DNA test shows us that using a 4G+CDMA network it lasts about 8hrs and i think its more than enough and GSM networks consume less power makes the battery 8+.
Are you sure “butterfly” is phone not TV
well, I would like to buy “32 inch Full HD 3D LED TV” over this crap
Put that TV in your pocket and go for a walk
Good luck trying to make calls with your “Full HD 3D LED TV”
well , tv as a gadget is better then butterfly at that price tag atleast
Apart from the price, the funny part is the 2020 battery. Instead of fighting the competition head-on in the mid segment, HTC and Sony are sporting to be premium mobile makers. They don’t realise that budget manufacturers will soon be launching premium phones at a budget price, what they will do then, shut their companies?
Has HTC checked out Micromax Canvas 2
5-inch IPS Capacitive Touch 1280x 720 pixels
1.2 GHz MediaTek MT6589 quad core
1GB RAM
4GB internal storage, microSD card slot upto 32GB
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
8MP rear camera, 0.3Mp front camera
2100 mAh
Price is 15K Rs
HTC ,what have they put in the phone apart from a hefty price tag?
Comparing HTC with Micromax ? Seriously.. is this joke?
compare micromax canvas a116 hd with buttetfly and find the resulta by yourself… micromax wins easily.. no sweat..
This is no doubt that its offering features which no one else has offered yet 1080p display, 2GB ram.. latest GPU.. etc.. and definitely better than piece of shit phones like micromax.. and whatevers..
but there are some major concerns like:
1) very less battery capacity 2020mAh
2)no removable battery.. and beleive me that IS a BIG concern. (using a non-removable battery HTC phone – not good)
3) Overpriced like anything.. I mean seriously HTC? 46k.. seriously??
Final verdict. -NOT WORTH IT.
however, If they plan to bring it down to somewhat around 35K.. that.. would be awesome!
1080p display, 2GB ram. Latest GPU.. sounds good.. no other phone can beat This..
but 46k.. umm too much. I’d rather wait till it comes down to.. 35-38k or Something..
I am pretty sure when other companies start following this too, then HTC will bring The prices Down.
HTC Mobiles are always over priced …