Tech recap: We discuss the most interesting smartphones and trends so far in Q1 2023

The first quarter of 2023 has been a roller coaster ride in the tech industry. We’ve seen the launch of several exciting new products, from smartphones to laptops, seen the rise of AI-powered chat services, Twitter’s new rules have gotten even more absurd, and we’ve even seen a barrage of layoffs at tech companies large and small. . There’s a lot to unpack, so in this podcast we thought we’d start on a positive note and talk about some of the big smartphone launches in India, recent trends in customer behavior, and how price segments have drastically changed. changed lately.

On this week’s episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, I (Roydon Cerejo) sit down with our resident smartphone expert Pranav Hegde and Gadgets 360 editor-in-chief Jamshed Avari, to discuss the state of the smartphone landscape in India in 2023 so far.

iQoo debuted this year with India’s first flagship smartphone called iQoo 11 5G (Review), which debuted with Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Samsung quickly launched its Galaxy S23 series soon after, which included the Galaxy S23 Ultra (Review), Galaxy S23+, and Galaxy S23 (Review). OnePlus refused to be left out of the action as it also launched its flagship phone for 2023 called the OnePlus 11 5G (Review).

Then came MWC, where we saw even more smartphone announcements, wacky concepts, and more. Among the new launches was Xiaomi 13 Pro (Review), which set a new benchmark for smartphone cameras by providing a massive 1-inch main camera sensor. Last but not least, we saw Oppo throw its hat into the foldable ring when it launched its first-ever foldable out of China, the Oppo Find N2 Flip (Test).

While it’s fun to talk about flagships, we’ve also seen plenty of new mid-range phones launched with some very exciting specs and features. OnePlus finally made amends for last year’s 10R 5G by giving us the much improved 11R 5G (Review). We also got our hands dirty with the Realme GT 3, a potential competitor to the 11R but with industry-first 240W wired charging.

When it comes to the lower mid or mainstream segment, we’ve seen a leap from the crowd-favorite budget series to a higher price segment. We are of course talking about the Redmi Note 12 series, where the base Redmi Note 12 5G now starts at Rs. 17,999. That’s not to say we haven’t had some decent budget options. The Moto E13 has proven to be a viable option for anyone on a tight budget.

Along with new smartphone launches, we also discuss how companies rely heavily on launch day deals to attract more buyers. The majority (if not all) of recent smartphone launches have at least one connection to a bank or credit card company that offers a discount effective on the first day of launch. These offers can be extremely beneficial, especially if you are planning to buy a smartphone that is priced above 1 Lakh Rupees, which unfortunately is not uncommon these days.

We also bring up the idea of ​​renting or buying through a smartphone contract as a potential future retail model, especially for high-end smartphones that could open up a whole new audience for manufacturers. Many companies such as Samsung also offer loyalty programs where customers can trade in their older phones for newer models and receive a substantial discount or other perks, which is another way to retain customers. older.

You can listen to all of this in detail and more in our episode by hitting the play button on the embedded Spotify player above.

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