Ever had trouble managing between your work and your personal contacts on the same phone? Or have you ever wished that you would have the best possible plans provided by two different companies, like a cheap talk plan by one and a cheap SMS or Internet browsing plan by the other and wished that you could have both of them in one phone?  Also some of you may want to save space in your pockets by carrying just one phone instead of two. Well now all that is possible thanks to more and more companies pumping out dual and even triple SIM phones. And that’s not all. These phones are not just basic phones without bells and whistles. Some of them come packed with a lot of great features to offer and are no different from any normal phone with the added advantage of having multiple SIM cards in one device.

Unfortunately these multiple SIM phones have been mostly targeted towards the budget users and hence they are dominated by the low end manufacturers, hence you won’t find any high end dual sim phones by the likes of Sony Ericsson, HTC, Apple so on and so forth. Nokia however recently ventured into the Dual SIM market with two new phones one of which is featured in this article. Another important thing to know about these multiple SIM phones is that they do cut down on a few features and the overall quality of these devices. Like for instance if you get a dual sim phone for Rs. 5,000 you could probably get a better quality single SIM phone which would have better features and better build quality. So it all comes down to personal choice, if one is willing to sacrifice on a few features and quality then he can go for them but if one wants quality and reliability then its advisable to rather keep two phones.

Still for your consideration what we are going to do in this article is feature a few Dual SIM and a triple SIM phone by a few manufacturers that we have reviewed including the first dual SIM phone by Nokia.

Micromax X600 a.k.a. Gravity.

This was a particularly interesting phone since it makes use of gravity to switch between the two SIM cards. It has two sets of microphone and speakers on both sides of the device, so all you need to do is flip it upside down to make use of the other SIM without having to do anything else. Micromax X600 flips the interface upside down as well. All this thanks to a built in gravity sensor that detects any movement registered by the device. It’s an all-touch mobile phone with a resistive touch interface. It also comes pre installed with a few games that make use of the same gravity sensor. Overall this phone rates as a pretty good multimedia device with good quality earphones and a nifty way of switching phones with the option of expanding its memory using a microSD card. What Micromax could have improved in this phone is the usability of the resistive touch display, but besides that for a price of about Rs. 6,000 it’s a good touch-only phone to consider. A few of its key specifications are include a 3.2-inches, 240 x 320 pixels, resistive touchscreen, with 262K colours, 70 MB inbuilt memory which is microSD expandable with a weight of 110 grams.

Movil MC 10

The Movil MC 10 is a feature-rich, budget phone. Its main selling point being the impressive mobile tracker and long distance control security applications as well as dual SIM capability. We feel that it could be forgiven for its dull performance, considering the impressive mobile tracker and long distance control applications and the low price tag. Thus, it makes a decent buy at Rs. 2,890. Apart from the mentioned features its specifications include a 2 inch screen that can display up to 62,000 colours at a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and a microSD slot which is expandable to up to 4GB, it comes with a 1000mAh lithium ion battery and is available in Black, and Smoke Grey colours.

Pine Executive

The Pine Executive is a dual-SIM, feature-rich basic phone that yields good value for money. If you are looking for a dual-SIM phone on a tight budget, then this one is for you. Of late, the cellphone market is witnessing a flood of dual-SIM budget phones that tend to draw your attention. One of its key selling points being dual active standby, which means when both sim cards are placed in the phone both will stay on but when on a call using SIM card one, if someone dials SIM card two, the device will not be reachable. Overall, considering the price to feature ratio, it makes a decent buy at Rs. 1,995. Although, we would not recommend it for a best buy, as it failed to impress across multiple performance test categories. It has more or less basic features that include Display: 1.8-inch LCD screen (128 x 160); Memory: microSD (up to 4GB); Battery: 1000mAh, up to 4hrs talk-time, up to 250hrs standby-time.


Fly MC 170

The Fly MC 170 is a dual-SIM, camera phone that has been targeted at the social-networking market. It has a sleek and stylish body design which is coated with a glossy metallic finish on the front, which runs across the body contours of the LCD screen and the edges of the keypad. Its main selling point being the reasonably good ergonomics and the support for motion sensor games. Not to forget the motion sensor based wallpapers and its ability to be used as a web-cam when connected to a PC through the USB port. It is a good buy at Rs. 5,399 and provides quiet a lot of features for its price. Its specifications include a 2.4-inch TFT screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 with a 3 megapixel camera and a microSD slot which is expandable to up to 8GB and a 1000 mAh lithium ion battery and a weight of 95 grams.

Lemon Trio 320

At just Rs. 3,800, the Lemon Trio 320 is a great buy and for those are looking to juggle multiple cell numbers without the hassle of carrying around multiple handsets, this is the phone to have. This phone can support 3 SIM cards, which include 2 GSM and one CDMA sim card. What’s cool is that while on a call on a GSM network, you can still receive calls on the CDMA network, which appear as a call waiting. However, the second GSM SIM is not active, (reachable), while on another GSM call. The Trio 320 is a lot of phone for its price, and given the amount you pay for one, it does sacrifice on some of its features by providing a basic camera, mediocre audio performance and a tacky keypad. It does have a pretty powerful 1500 mAh battery

Nokia C1

The new Nokia C1-00 is the first Dual SIM mobile phone which has been launched by Nokia. For a price of Rs.1,900 it’s a pretty good deal. It is running the Series 30 interface, and has a really long standby battery time of up to 6 weeks. It can save up to 500 phonebook entries, and 250 text messages onboard. Targeted at the low-price mobile phone market there’s also some handy features such as a LED flashlight and an FM radio with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. It is 15mm thin and weights 73g with the battery and sports a full colour screen. This phone is yet to be launched so for now we will just have to be happy with the specification. Although we do know that the SIM cards in the phone cannot be have an active standby so at one time only one sim will be active and the other will be unreachable (inactive)