Micromax A116 Canvas HD: Rush Hour

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.

The User Interface is sleek

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. 

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.

The Benchmark Standard

Camera 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

The A116 is supported by a 2000mAh battery, it is the ideal phone for the young generation who is always on the lookout for better, faster and savvier smart phones with the 1GB RAM it gives you wide support of Apps and HD Games. MediaTek’s processor and the 1GB RAM give you multitasking over 30 Apps at a time including some of the HD Games.The Battery Backup is good enough that it carries a 6-7 Hours Talk time Backup, which is the key features for such huge phone with such huge display and performance.

Bottom Line

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is available for a bargain price of Rs.13, 990(INR), which easily makes it the most powerful smartphone under Rs.15, 000(INR) right now. The best part is the powerful specifications on paper actually translate well into real world performance, which makes this very usable as a primary phone. The Canvas HD is lighter and slimmer than the A110 has a much better screen, comes with Jelly Bean, packs in a powerful SoC, 1080p video recording and playback and a surprisingly decent battery life. This makes it a steal at this price point, so no wonder it’s sold out everywhere. While I highly recommend the Canvas HD if you can find it. For now, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD is the handset to beat in the mid-range price bracket.

Rating: 3.5/5