Review – Micromax Canvas HD A116

Micromax the infamous Indian smartphone manufacturer, probably due to their devices had launched the Canvas HD A116 after the success of A110 popularly known as Canvas 2. Micromax Canvas HD is the Android 4.1 running quad-core device with 5 inch HD display for 14k INR. Sounds very tempting is it really worth buying? We had tested this device for 2 weeks and got our views on the same.

Sales Package:

Starting with the retail package, the Micromax Canvas HD A116 comes packed in a small box with 17,999 as the printed MRP. The box contains obviously the handset, battery, USB cable for data synchronization and charging the power adapter and the headset. Along with these are the usual user manuals and warranty card etc.

Build:

For 14k we never had high expectations from the build and we were not disappointed. The plastic used is not of any good quality material. It feels the same way as earlier Micromax Canvas variants if you have used any except the significant curves at the back which are new to this model. Everyone wishes for curves isn’t it? (correct me if I am wrong, heh).

Alike the One X, the Canvas HD has a bulge at the back on center which makes it easy to hold in hands. The new Micromax branding can be seen on the bottom along with speaker grill and 8MP camera on the top.

On the front, we have the earpiece along with proximity sensor and 2MP front camera. Below these three resides the 5inch 720p HD display with four capacitive buttons at the bottom.

The left edge houses the volume rocker and right has the power/standby button. In all the form factor smartphone is average, justifying the price.

Hardware:

We all know Micromax Canvas HD runs on a quad-core processor with 1GB and 8MP camera with 5-inch 720p display but let us go to some more details. The chipset used in the device is running camera with 5-inch 720p IPS LCD display.

The MTK MT6589 chipset packs a 1.2 Ghz MediaTek quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM and PowerVR SGX544 GPU. With 4 GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot for expansion upto 32GB you can still expect some issues because by default the apps install directly to the main memory. It supports Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 11 Mbps and microUSB v2.0. The usual sensors include Accelerometer, gyro and proximity.

Camera:

Canvas HD has a 8MP rear camera with autofocus and LED flash which can shoot videos upto 720p @30fps whereas front-facing 2MP camera can only do VGA video recording. We had tested the camera in both low light conditions and daylight conditions and came to this conclusion, that camera is the one thing that does not work up to par.

Due to the lack of BSI sensor the low light imaging is not meant for the device even the daylight pictures were not too impressive. It just works, thats what we would say. The camera UI is the one of the stock with the same shooting modes. Here are the sample pictures attached for reference.

Software:

Micromax has kept the operating system nearest to that of vanilla rom with few changes in the UI layer like customized dialer etc. They have also bundled their applications which include the Micromax Store along with Facebook, and other Google Apps as system apps that can’t be uninstalled unless you root your device. We thought it would have been better if they had skipped whatever changes they did with the vanilla rom even though they are not much. Android 4.1 is quite slick on the device without any noticeable lag. The device performance is too quite impressive judging it by the price.

Conclusion:

After using the device for two weeks, we can to the conclusion that Micromax Canvas HD A116 is a good phone. MediaTek quad-core processor with 1 GB RAM performance is even appreciable. The 8MP camera is a disappointment but what else can we expect at this price. Micromax has tried to get the maximum features at a budget price and even has succeeded upto a level. Overall the phone is very good and can be considered as an option for 14k price point. Other leading Indian manufacturers also have similar kind of smartphones but only Zen Mobiles Ultrafone 701 HD seems to comparable with this.

Recent reports tell us that Canvas HD has been in shortage from a long time and there has been a price hike for the smartphone now. At this increased price, we don’t think it is really worth buying this smartphone. Even though the price is still appealing for the specs but this phone won’t last for long.

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