Micromax the second largest Indian handset manufacturer on June 16, 2014 launched its first Windows Phone handset in India. Partnering with Microsoft for the operating system is a good move offering customers with options to choose from within its own portfolio. Microsoft at BUILD conference this year which was held in April, had featured Micromax as its handset partner after they made Windows operating system free for smartphone vendors. Micromax announced a new range called as Canvas Win with two handsets which will be launching soon next month. The two handsets are Canvas Win W092 and Canavs Win W121 priced at Rs. 6500 and Rs. 9500 respectively.
The Micromax Canavs Win W092 is the cheapest Windows Phone handset available till date. Coming from a Indian smartphone vendor it was expected to arrive with something affordable but the specifications does not speak so. The Canvas W092 packs almost the same hardware as W121 the second handset which was launched at the event. Both of the smartphones pack quad core Snapdragon 200 chipset with 1.2GHz clocked processor with 1GB RAM. Both of them support expandable memory up to 32GB and packs 8GB inbuilt storage. Both of them are dual SIM handsets and run on Windows Phone 8.1.
Keeping the specifications aside since we cannot performance is a mere 15 mins hands-on time on the launch day itself. The Micromax Canavs Win W092, which is now the cheapest Windows Phone available is very thick. The first thing that comes to notice when holding the device is its thickness, after that the build. It has all plasticky build which cannot be any better since Micromax is already cutting down a lot. It attracts a lot of fingerprints which might be seen with the photographs I clicked at the launch event. The touch response was also okayish, not good. The specifications though make it a deal but user experience is one thing that might be claimed as unsatisfactory here. We still need to do a proper review to state a verdict, and check out proper retail units.
On the other side, W121 looks absolutely fine. It comes with a faux leather back just like Samsung’s Note 3 and Grand 2. It’s build is perfectly fine and is much appreciated to be honest for the pricing. The camera performance is not something that can be judged in a restricted environment with low light. But we did try the camera on both the smartphones and it was usual nothing spectacular that is worth mentioning.
Both of these smartphones have a good opportunity of selling in the Indian market with people getting excited about Windows Phone operating system. The Canvas Win W121 is what I am looking forward to try out, for Rs. 9500 I think its pretty sweet. The handsets will be available in the first week of July and will be available across the country from your favorite online or offline retailer.
