Here are the new phones of the week

Victor, 18 December, 2015

As the New Year draws closer, we are all occupied gathering information and exploring leaks and rumors to get a glimpse of what 2016 has in store. But amidst all the digging and snooping around, a few new last-minute device announcements did manage to slip by.

Although only two, both handsets are quite interesting and have spiked fan interest. First up is the Xiaomi Redmi Note Prime. It is an extremely budget-friendly solution, but that doesn't make it low-end. The Chinese OEM has pushed the envelope yet again with what is achievable on a shoestring budget with this $125 handset.

It features a 5.5-inch HD display and a Snapdragon 410 SoC with quad-core 1.2GHz CPU. Memory is set at 2GB for RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. The camera setup include a 13MP primary shooter and a 5MP one on the front. The Redmi Note Prime measures 154x78.7x9.4mm and weighs in at 185g. Last, but not least, if offers support for 4G and dual-SIM.

The other new announcement from this week is the YU Yutopia. It is the company's first premium flagship device and was just recently unveiled in India. It boasts an aluminum unibody design with PureBlack front glass for an extra premium look. Underneath the hood is a Snapdragon 810 SoC, coupled with 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 32GB of storage with a microSD card slot. The Yutopia is equipped with a 5.2-inch QHD LCD with a contrast ration of 1000:1 and 91% coverage of the NTSC color spectrum.

The camera setup is also quite impressive. There's a 21 megapixel Sony IMX230 camera on the back with phase detection autofocus and optical image stabilization. On the front is an 8 megapixel shooter. It boots Cyanogen OS 12.1, based on Android 5.1.1 and is powered by a 3,000 mAh battery. All of this is neatly packaged up into a pretty affordable bundle with a price tag of NR 24,999 ($375) and will be available exclusively through Amazon India.