Micromax Canvas 4 Review

Micromax Canvas 4

Price in india : 17600/-

Highlights:

The recently released Canvas 4 became an eye-turner. At a price of 17600 INR, it boasts features of a 30k+ smartphone.

Pros:

Build Quality

IPS Display

Intelligent sensor usage

Cons:

Battery backup

Rear camera

Speakers

Micromax has increased its fan base by offering high-end features at very affordable prices. It had been exceeding expectations and so now,more is expected from its newly released devices. Some say it is not a good phone after comparing it with their Xperia or Galaxy. The fact that they are even comparing devices with a difference of at least 10k in price is enough to justify its flaws.

I suggest a few questions:

   1.    Do I like Micromax?

   2.    Is my budget strictly below 20k?

If the answers are yes, read on to find out if it’s worth your notes. If no, then you should definitely read on to find out why Micromax has a market share second only to Samsung by a small percentage.

DesignandBuilt

The good: The Canvas 4 weighs nearly as heavy (or as light) as other smartphones with a 5 inch screen. The best update from Canvas HD has to be the corning gorilla glass for the display.

The back cover is smooth and slippery and the metallic body around provides a better grip and gives it a metallic finish.So the durability and ergonomics of this canvas has gone way up.

The bad: The power button at the right and the volume control button at the left are also done in metal but are not perfectly cast in the body and as a result feel loose at their place. The G-sensor, gyro sensor, temperature, pressure, ambient temperature sensors and many other lesser known sensors are missing. The only ones present are proximity sensor, light sensor and distance sensor.

The ugly: The speakers are put at the lower end backside. That has serious consequences when you put it down given their poor audio quality. 

Performance

The good: Canvas 4 performs nicely as far as running the apps and hi graphic games are concerned. It has no problems running high-definition games and the display is also at par. It uses a PowerVR chip, also used in Samsung’s s4 for rendering the display.

D-Day, Into the dead, Asphalt 8 are all top HD games for android. And Canvas 4 plays them all without a hitch. So, it goes without saying that the video playback too is above average.

The 1.2GHZ quad core processor and 1GB of RAM doesn’t really make it a powerhouse; and I say that just because of the benchmarks ran for the device make me.

Audio through the headphones is of superb quality. With a good pair of headphones the music performance is great. Don’t expect it from the bundled headphones though.

The video recording from the 13MP rear camera is good and the low light performance is great with the LED flashlight

The bad:The battery backup. It would last a day on normal usage as claimed by many. The capacity is similar to most phones of this size and gives a good standby time. At over 50% it performs normally. But as the battery nears 30%, it depletes fast and hence restricts usage.

It will seem illogical, but the shots taken from its 13MP camera are poorer in quality than an 8MP.The 5MP in front acts like a 5MP, though.

Let’s talk about touching the touchscreen. Itfeels rude and heavy verses theSamsungs, but it is smoother than the Canvas HD. If nothing else, the gaming would be adversely affected.

Also, the visibility of the screen in bright sunlight is not good.

The ugly: It doesn’t have faster connectivity options like Wi-Fi Direct or DLNA. Neither does it support HDMI output.

Features

The Dual-Sim Micromax canvas 4 is laden with various features difficult to find in a smartphone of this range. It runs the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS.

The few features which I found quite surprising try to materialize themselves in words below:

Air call accept: Press the phone to your ear when it rings and voila, call is accepted. Similar gestures for ending the call and activating loudspeakers are present.

Look Away: While watching a video If you look away from the screenthe video pauses only to resume when you look back. They say it’s the Look Away feature, I say it’s a slave for you.

Shake/blow to unlock: You will not need fingers to unlock your phone!

Tethering it to a computer using cable, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi hotspot are flawless to use. Wireless display is another surprising feature though we don’t find it being commonly used.

TechnicalSpecifications

General
Release date	July 2013
Form factor	Touchscreen
Dimensions (mm)	144.50 x 73.00 x 8.90
Weight (g)	158.00
Battery capacity (mAh)	2000
Removable battery	Yes
Colours	Grey, White
SAR value	NA
Display
Screen size (inches)	5.00
Touchscreen	Yes
Touchscreen type	Capacitive
Resolution	720x1280 pixels
Pixels per inch (PPI)	294
Colours	16.7M
Hardware
Processor	1.2GHz  quad-core
Processor make	MT 6589
RAM	1GB
Internal storage	16GB
Expandable storage	Yes
Expandable storage type	microSD
Expandable storage up to (GB)	32
Camera
Rear camera	13-megapixel
Flash	Yes
Front camera	5-megapixel
Software
Operating System	Android 4.2.1
Java support	No
Browser supports Flash	No
Connectivity
Wi-Fi	Yes
Wi-Fi standards supported	NA
GPS	Yes
Bluetooth	Yes, v 4.00
NFC	No
Infrared	No
DLNA	No
Wi-Fi Direct	No
MHL Out	No
HDMI	No
Headphones	3.5mm
FM	Yes
USB	Micro-USB
Charging via Micro-USB	Yes
Proprietary charging connector	No
Proprietary data connector	No
Number of SIMs	2
SIM 1
GSM/ CDMA	GSM
2G frequencies supported	GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
3G	Yes
3G frequencies supported	2100
SIM 2
GSM/ CDMA	GSM
2G frequencies supported	GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900
3G	No
3G frequencies supported	NA
Sensors
Compass/ Magnetometer	No
Proximity sensor	Yes
Accelerometer	Yes
Ambient light sensor	Yes
Gyroscope	No
Barometer	No
Temperature sensor	No