Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Hands on Review

Micromax Superfone Canvas 2 A110(Jet Black/Calm White):

After using it for a week, I felt pretty good about my decision for going with a new brand like Micromax over the mighty Samsung Galaxy S Duos and Sony Tipo Dual. Particularly not sure about its reliability but the build quality looks pretty decent. Below are my ratings for the phone aka Phablet.

Build Quality (8/10):

The build quality was above my expectations keeping in mind of the price tag, from front it looks just like a Galaxy high end smartphone like SIII or Note II. It has a matte finished back cover which is good for protection towards scratches and there is a metal casing all around the phone, which adds up the beauty of the phone. One more advantage of this phone is it has a touch home button instead of a hard button as seen in iPhone and Galaxy phones.

Camera (5/10): [8MP autofocus (Tap to Focus), dual flash, supports up to 3264x2448 pixels, Panorama]

Don't fall for the specs as it is said to be 8MP but it gives a 5MP quality, under low light or in indoors don't even expect to get a satisfactory image, although outdoors it gives pretty good photos. The only positive about the camera is it has auto focus which can be spotted on the screen and the focus can be set manually. Although it a dual flash it can barely spread the light on the subject. It gives pretty decent panorama pics.

Secondary Camera (7/10): [0.3MP, resolution 640x480 pixels]

Secondary camera does its job for video chatting, nothing more can be expected here; you can also click photos of 640x480.

Video Recording (8/10): [supports up to 1280x720 pixels@30fps, continuous focus]

The best part of the camera so far is its video recording. It records in HD and the video is seamless and smooth, trust me I have handy cam, compact camera and DSLR, but I feel this video being top class, may be not up to the mark of DSLR but definitely better than most compact camera’s. Most interesting part is it has a continuous automatic focus, so u need not to worry about focusing, you can just keep capturing your best moments.

Basic Phone performance (9/10): [dual SIM-GSM+GSM]

Coming to the most basic phone performance the call clarity is pretty good and has a noise reduction from both sides of the mic so you can hear better and talk clearer. The phone coverage is also very good. I no more loose calls while in lift. I use two SIM cards Tata DoCoMo and Airtel, standby for both the SIM is good without any problem.

Connectivity (6/10): [3G, GPRS, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, USB 2.0]

It provides USB charging and connects to my PC without any problems. Coming to the Bluetooth path I tried searching for a galaxy phone but couldn’t find it, may be the reason is since there were more than 15 devices already found, but suddenly when I tried searching a Micromax phone I was able to find it, strange but confused. The Bluetooth file transfer was done without any problems. Last and most important part is the Wi-Fi, this device lacks a bit when it comes to connecting to Wi-Fi compared to connecting from iTouch and Laptop, couldn’t connect to the Wi-Fi from far. But no problems downloading even big files, I did install a 600MB game by downloading directly on phone from Google play store.

Speed/Response Time (7/10): [1 GHz dual core ARMv7 Processor, Mediatek Chipset, PowerVR Graphics]

The response time and touch sensitivity was pretty decent compared to other smart phones with higher price tag, but low when compared to SIII and Note II. There was no lag in opening apps and while using the home screen, but after installing Go Launcher and many go launcher apps and with live wallpaper the response time became a bit slow since the RAM is less for a phone with high configurations.

Screen (7/10): [16.8 million color, 12.5CM (5") IPS screen, FWVGA 480 x 854 pixels, 196 ppi, 5point multi touch, Screen Protection- AGC Sodaline]

The screen looks huge and bright, but without CORNING® GORILLA® GLASS it is more prone to scratches, so a scratch guard is a must, it is already available in the market. The resolution is quite decent, and with IPS it is easier to view the display from any angle. The color looks more vivid compared to most of the phones under Rs20,000. The screen is bright enough to be visible in sunlight outdoors.

Design (9/10): [Dimensions-147 x 76.5 x 9.7 mm]

The best part of the phone is its looks and design, many of my friends felt it as Note II or SIII, though the design looks pretty identical to these phones, it has a unique back panel with matte finish, giving more grip to hold this huge phone in single hand. The Camera bezel at the back sits above the body of the phone making it more prone to breakage. It is very sleek in design about 9.7mm.

Video playback/Video Streaming (8/10):

The video playback is one more good thing about this phone, although I played videos with 480x854 resolution and didn’t tried playing HD and full HD videos, the result was a smooth and steady playback, without any lag in time. Also tried viewing youtube videos in HQ and there was no buffering nor any lag time, which was quite amazing with the big screen.

Music Playback with speakers/earphone (7/10):

I play songs more often on phone and this phone felt comfortable with the play back quality and the sound looks better on earphone. There are many options including equalizer and bass booster, reverb, which can be very handy while playing different kind of music. One can try a higher quality earphone to make best use of the music player. There is FM radio also and it the clarity is just average but there is feature to auto search next station and display the station name and the song details currently being played and can also be recorded. The speaker is less audible but gives a clear output.

Gaming (6/10):

This phone may not be for the high end games, but most of the games can be played without any problem.

Battery Life (7/10): [2000 mAh]

This has a jumbo battery with 2000mAh, after using it for almost a week the average battery life comes around 1day, with more than 4hrs of usage which includes 50% of playing games, browsing with Wi-Fi, watching videos; and remaining 50% usage includes listening to music, camera and phone calls. Being a smart phone with the specs you expect it to come for 2 days after moderate to heavy usage. The average charging time is around 3hrs.

Memory (5/10): [RAM-512 MB, External SD- supports up to 32GB, For V1 ROM : Inbuilt Memory-500 MB & Internal SD-2.5 GB; and For V3 ROM : Inbuilt Memory-1.48 GB(available) & Internal SD-1.05 GB]

One of the major drawbacks of this phone is its low RAM memory. After installing all my apps I barely have less than 100MB RAM available for running apps. Having high configuration and features, it also needs to have at least 1GB RAM, this may lead to slowing down the phone when multi-tasking. Can’t install many RAM intensive software’s like launchers and live wallpapers. The internal memory is pretty decent with available memory of 2.5GB. It has an option to insert microSD card up to 32GB, which many High end smart phones doesn’t allow including Xperia and HTC phones.

OS (9/10): [Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0.4, upgradable to Jelly Bean 4.1.1]

It runs on the most powerful mobile OS Android ICS, and can install apps from android market. Now you can upgrade to JB too.

Ease of Use (8/10):

It is pretty user friendly with volume controls on the left side and power button on the right, making it easily reachable from the fingers considering its jumbo size. The 3.5mm jack is provided on the top along with the USB, the USB connecter is a standard one which can be used from any other micro USB cables.

Value for Money (9/10): Rs9,999

Considering its specifications and performance it is pretty good value for your money.

Overall Rating: 7.4/10

If you are looking for high end specs and decent build quality with lesser budget then this is the best bet.

Quick pros:

1.      Sleek and high end design

2.      video recording and playback

3.      price

Quick Cons:

1.      Camera

2.      RAM

3.      Although has acceleration transducer, direction sensor, and proximity sensor but lacks gyroscope and light sensor.

Small update after a month of usage,
No complaints yet, tried with 2G netowrk and GPS on long drives, though GPS takes a lot of time to get the position it was accurate, and on 2G internet it was pretty slow. At times the phone gets a little lag but not at all a problem. I uninstalled the Go launcher since it was becoming a little slow. Launchers are not advised and even task managers are not required.

Regarding the basic accessories for this phone, the screen guard is in the market specially made for this model, and it costs anywhere between Rs100 - Rs300, glossy one is recommended over the matte. Also there are many different kinds of covers available, S-line silicone back cover is specially designed for A110, with a small stand while watching videos, it costs from Rs150-Rs200. There is also a flip cover just like Galaxy Note, which is priced at 400Rs and more. All these are available in www.ebay.in

Here are some of the sample pics (unedited) clicked from my Micromax A110.

And finally the sample video captured from the Micromax Canvas2



Update (08-Mar-2013) after 100days of usage:

Good news for Micromax A110 Canvas 2 users, Android Jelly Bean update coming next week.
But watch out! unlike the Samsung, Sony or HTC, Micromax is not offering an OTA (over the air) update for A110 Canvas 2 or neither you can do it by connecting to computer. But as they say, something is better than nothing, you can do it by taking your phone to the nearest Micromax service center. What you have to make sure is, you will need to call the nearest Micromax service center, make sure the service center has received the relevant firmware before you physically head for the service center to get your Micromax A110 Canvas 2 flashed with the latest Jelly Bean. Keep posting you experience after you update to JB 4.1

Update (15-Mar-2013) :
As promised Micromax official upgrade to Jelly Bean is out on the net and in service centres.
Follow the detailed steps from the below link on upgrading to 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean from ICS) right from your home PC.
Upgrade to Jelly Bean from home PC, I've done it successfully from genuine Micromax upgrade, now you do it to enjoy jelly UI flow
http://sandeepyc.blogspot.com/2013/03/micromax-a110-jb-update.html

For detailed steps on taking backup of your phone data and apps click here

Keep posting your comments on the phone, i try to give out the response at real time.



Brought new phone and confused about what apps to install??
Here is my collection of 20 Must have Free apps for Android ICS
http://sandeepyc.blogspot.in/2012/12/20-must-have-free-andriod-apps-for-ics.html

Official link: http://www.micromaxsuperfone.com