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| The Micromax A116 HD |
Micromax a new dawn for Indian Smartphones, has
now rolled out its Canvas HD A116
Smartphone. This the phone came after the Canvas 2 and the company was
sure about its success before its launch, hence it proved right as it launch
within hours it gone out of stock. Seeing this rate success I also got
attached to this Smartphone. So, let’s talk about the Smartphone in-depth, I will cover every stuff related to Canvas HD starting from Key features of A116
Canvas HD to UI.
Key Features
- The Canvas HD also has an improved front camera
- Enhanced speaker has been placed than that was in A110.
- MediaTek’s MT6589 1.2 GHz quad core processor for smooth multi-tasking.
- An HD IPS screen with a HD resolution of 1280×720 and a color depth of 16.7 million.
Operating System- Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
The Canvas
HD comes with the latest Android Operating system-Android Jelly Bean
v4.1.2.Very few current-generation low-cost Android phones come pre-loaded with
Android Jelly Bean; this is a further improvement over the Canvas 2 which comes
pre-loaded with ICS.
Design and Build
Compared to the A110, I am happy to report
the A116 scores much higher in the build quality department. The front looks
similar, but the rear cover now has a glossy finish with a fine sprinkle of
pixie dust. This gives it a nice shine and also manages to conceal quite a bit
of fingerprints. The entire handset bears a striking resemblance to the HTC One
X, so it scores high on aesthetics as well. The battery cover is easy to remove
thanks to the soft plastic. Inside, we have two GSM SIM slots with the microSD
card slot in between. None of these are hot-swappable and you’ll need to remove
the battery to insert the cards.
The power and volume rocker buttons assume their usual place
on either side of the handset and are easy to reach. The headphone jack and
microUSB port are placed on the top. The Canvas HD is slightly narrower than
the A110 thanks to the smaller bezel around the screen; it is lighter as well
at 157 g. The handset is quite comfortable even if you don’t have large hands
and fits snugly in your pocket. You’ll want to be careful where you place your
phone, though, as the protruding camera lens could get scratched easily.
Overall, I really like what Micromax has achieved here; it is definitely a step
above the previous offering.
UI(User Interface):
IPS(In-Plane Switching) panel makes a return in the Canvas HD,
but instead of a lowly WVGA resolution, the A116 boasts of an impressive HD
(1280 x 720) resolution, which makes all the difference in the world. Text is
sharper, images are more vivid and crisp and the UI simply looks better. The
panel itself has good viewing angles along with good colours. However, I
noticed that the videos didn’t have the same level of vividness as photos. All
my test videos and the ones I shot had weak black levels and the contrast was
quite low, so it appears as if there’s a white haze throughout. I only faced
this during video playback and through any video player. The A116 features a
lightly-modified Jelly Bean 4.1.2. You get notification toggles and extra
settings in the menu to configure the two SIM cards.
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The User Interface is sleek
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Hardware:
The Canvas HD is powered by the MediaTek
MT6589 quad-core SoC. This is made up of four ARM Cortex-A7 CPUs running at
1.2GHz and a PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU. The SoC is fabricated using the 28nm
process, so it should sip power rather than gulp it down. The chipset also
houses the baseband radios, so there’s no need for a second chip.
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| MediaTek chipset |
This budget oriented SoC packs in quite a
punch as well. In benchmarks, the Canvas HD is right on the heels of the HTC
One X and the Samsung Galaxy S III. I got an impressive 13043 points in AnTuTu
and 4004 points in Quadrant, which is pretty good. All this power, along with a
whole 1GB of RAM, translates well into real world performance. The UI is
incredibly smooth with the occasional lag creeping in. Apps open and close
quickly and games like Temple Run 2 and Angry Birds Space run smoothly. Even
while running these heavy tasks, the phone gets warm at the most.
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The Benchmark StandardCamera Quality:
The 8MP shooter seems to have been lifted from
the A110, albeit with a slightly different interface. There’s the usual
selection of exposure, colour effect, scene modes and white balance. For
stills, the camera is also capable of burst mode, up to 99 shots. Unlike the
One X, holding down the shutter button doesn’t kick-start burst mode
immediately. There’s a little lag and that’s mainly due to the focus speed
being a little slow. Even for macro shots, the camera takes more than a couple
of seconds to focus before it’s ready to capture. The image quality is pretty
good for indoor and outdoor shots. The sensor is able to pick up decent amount
of detail and accurate colours. Once you zoom in to 100 percent, the details
get a bit hazy, but that’s to be expected from a camera at this price point.
 Battery Life
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