Which iPhone should you buy under Rs 30,000?

iPhone 5S

There is no reason why you would buy the iPhone 5S, unless you are hell-bent on saving those Rs 3,000 to buy walnuts for your grandma. Though it supports the latest iOSversion and probably will take the next update as well. But it’s old. And slow,very slow.

The phone is (surprisingly still) selling it at Rs 16,999 online. It does come with a fingerprint sensor at the front, same 8MP iSight camera on the rear side and 1.2MP selfie shooter at front like the iPhone 6. But it runs an older generation chipset and doesn’t support Apple Pay. The bigger reason still, would be the huge price cut on iPhone SE, that is two generations ahead of it and sells at a slightly higher price.

iPhone SE

Available at Rs 21,999, the 32GB iPhone SE is the best phone you can buy from Apple right now in the mid segment. It has the same chipset as the iPhone 6S, the same camera, and even the same IPS LCD screen. It is lighter, smaller, has a much better battery backup and support updates for atleast next three years. Also, it is the fastest iPhone listed on this page.

Buy the 64GB variant (if you are able to find it on stores) which offers the best value for money at Rs 23,999. Apple has discontinued it and replaced it with 32GB and 128GB variants only. The price includes cashback which is available on select credit cards.

iPhone 6

For adults over 50 years of age, hardware doesn’t matter much. Screen size does. iPhone 6 has a 4.7 inch display size that offers perfect balance of big screen and ergonomic size. Though the innards and the camera rank below that of the iPhone SE, it is still the cheapest big size iPhone you can buy right now.

So you would probably buy the iPhone 6 only for its display advantage over iPhone 5S. The only problem is that it is still not as affordable as it should be at Rs 26,000 for the 32GB variant.

iPhone 6 Plus

Don’t buy the Plus variant just because you have some spare cash to spend on the phone and the iPhone 6S Plus is out of your budget. iPhone 6 Plus does have a bigger display and a better camera than the iPhone 6. Still, it doesn’t make any sense even under Rs 30,000.

Plus variants of iPhones are much larger in comparison to its Android counterparts. Other companies seem to have perfected the art of making big screen phones, maximising the screen to body ratio to nearly over 85 percent. But Apple is yet to come to grips with this fact. LG G6, for example, is only slightly bigger than the iPhone 7, yet packs a 5.7-inch display. For the iPhone 6 Plus, you will not only be paying high price for old generation hardware, but also for a designthat is generations old.

iPhone 6s

You can buy 16GB variant of the iPhone 6s for around Rs 32,000 under similar cashback offers at offline stores. So you may need to stretch your budget somewhat, but you get much better hardware than the iPhone 6, like a faster fingerprint sensor, better rear and front cameras. Being handy, it is also any day better than the iPhone  6 Plus.

But unless you are an elderly person buying the phone for usual calling, messaging and browsing who can do with 12GB of available storage space, or patient enough to keep all your data on cloud, you should rather save for the higher storage variant or buy the 64GB iPhone SE instead.