Handset companies look beyond the basics in game of Pros

It’s a Pro, bro.

That seems to be the flavour of the season for smartphone brands in India, with the likes of Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Realme, OnePlus and Huawei launching Pro — short for professional — versions of their base models.

The Pro versions, which brands claim to offer better features for a higher price, have created a separate segment for the companies to capitalise on. But analysts say many of the Pro versions launched so far in India have only cosmetic changes from the base ones — for instance, a better camera — but are priced as much as 50% higher, a strategy that they cautioned could backfire and hurt brand value.