Micromax Canvas 4: Review

PROS

• Build quality
• Performance
• Battery life

CONS

• Price
• No real improvements over Canvas HD
• Low light images not good

Micromax Canvas 4 A210 came after much hype, but initial response has been somewhat subdued because of the fact that while it is costing Rs 4,500 more than Canvas HD, both the phones come with the same processor and display.

Canvas 4 does have a bigger 13 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front camera compared to 8 megapixel and 2 megapixel combination of

Canvas HD. The Canvas 4 has also 16 GB inbuilt memory compared to 4 GB in Canvas HD. Apart from that Canvas 4 has some enhanced features vis-à-vis its software over Canvas HD. But overall does the Micromax Canvas 4 justify the price tag? Well, let's find out.

Design

The phone looks better than all other Micromax devices we have seen so far, thanks to metal frame of the phone; it's the first Micromax handset to have a metal frame that surrounds the entire side profile of the phone. And this metal is not just for looks but also acts as an antenna for cellular connectivity.

The rest of the phone is much like Canvas HD itself: it comes with a plastic back panel which is glossy, and the 13 megapixel camera is placed in the extreme top left corner and is slightly raised. The front is dominated by the display. Metal inserts are also there in the ear piece; power and volume rocker is also made of pure metal.

All in all, the phone looks premium and there is considerable improvement in the quality of the material used, even the plastics are more solid than ever before.

Display

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 has a 5 inch with 1280x720 pixel resolution as Canvas HD. This was one disappointment as everyone expected a full HD this time around. But Micromax has indeed improved the display but that like the design is essentially in the quality aspect which has been achieved by including Gorilla Glass on the display which is more durable and scratch resistant than ordinary glass used in Canvas 4.

The display offers very healthy resolution, so there is no pixilation, colour depth is also great thanks to 16.7 million colour palette. We did not face any issues with the touch also. All in all it is a nice display though there are some issues with saturation level but it is too minor to make any difference.

Performance

Canvas 4 comes with a 1.2 GHz quad core processor on the Mediatek 6589 chipset as the Canvas HD, and not the 1.5 GHz MT6589T processor as most of us hoped. Also it has 1 GB RAM as the Canvas HD.

However the overall performance is not bad, given that Canvas HD was not a bad performer at all, we never had any doubts regarding that. The phone got 12697 on Antutu benchmark which is more or less same as Canvas HD (12630).

The phone has no issues of slowing down and played games like NFS without a hitch. It also managed multi-tasking very well.

OS and User Interface

The Micromax flagship phone comes with Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean operating system which is the latest from Google. However unlike most other phones from Micromax, this one is heavily customised. Its video player allows you to preview a video while you play another one; it allows you to play video in one part of the display while you use other part for something else; it even pauses the video when you look away, just like Samsung Galaxy 4. The music player has customised user interface as well.

Camera

user interface is also changed but only a little bit.

The most publicised function is its 'blow' to unlock feature. You can also shake the phone to unlock it. Blow to open is clearly not to my liking at least, though it works just fine. You can change the settings for normal slide to open. It also gets option of face unlock which works well too (but this one is an Android feature and not unique to the Canvas 4).

There are a lot of Micromax applications, but most of them are infact websites and none of them is something that you will use too often given that there are many popular apps out there in the Google Play that will offer the same thing without charging you for the service and also offer wider choice.

Camera

The Canvas 4 has a 13 megapixel camera at the back and this is one of the main improvements over Micromax Canvas HD. However given that we are no fan of Canvas HD's camera, we were a bit skeptical about the performance of this camera too.

And true to what we thought, its performance is clearly not close to what you would expect from a 13 megapixel camera. However it is a decent camera and offers decent clarity in images specially captured in daylight. Indoors the images get a bit grainy and also produces slightly washed out colours. In the low light condition the performance dips further. In terms of videos however the results are much better. It does capture HD resolution videos.

The front camera which is a 5 megapixel unit is a huge improvement over the Canvas HD's front camera. It's great for video chats and is even good for self-portraits.

We have seen better cameras from Indian brands like the Xolo which come with BIS censors, however as far as Micromax is concerned this is the best that they have offered so far.

Battery

The Micromax Canvas 4 A210 has a 2000 mAh battery, and thanks to some tweaks in the chipset it delivers better battery life compared to Canvas HD. If you use the phone rationally like putting the display on auto brightness and switching off WiFi when not in use, the phone would last for about 1 and half day with medium level usage of around 1 hour of gaming, 1 hours each of calling, browsing and music and one email with push notification and about 1 hour of videos as well.

Conclusion

The phone is at best an incremental update of Micromax Canvas HD and if you compare it purely in terms of features and specification, Canvas HD comes across as much better product given its price. However Micromax Canvas 4 has its pluses as well in terms of features like much better camera, and much bigger storage which is a big plus. But the real thing that Micromax has done with this phone is take the quality level a notch above, even the accessories supplied and packaging of the phone feels premium and high quality. This is a big plus as most people buy handsets of MNC brands for their superior quality ignoring much better features of handsets of Indian brands.

The software side of improvements is more of a marketing gimmick, and in our opinion Google already offers Android Jelly Bean with all the necessary features and phone companies should leave the additional features business to developers only.

If you want a quality Android phone with good performance but are willing to pay slightly more for better quality you can consider Micromax Canvas 4, but products like Xolo Q1000S, Spice Pinnacle Pro certainly offer more bang for bucks compared to this Micromax offering.

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Micromax Canvas 4: Review Specifications
Network	900/1800/2100
Operating System	Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
Dimensions	129 x 68 x 8.5mm, 125 grams
Display	5 inches 1280x720 pixels
Input Method	Touch screen
Processor	1.2 Ghz Quad Core
Memory	1GB RAM, ROM 16GB, In built 16GB, expandable 32 GB
Connectivity	WiFi, 3G
Multimedia	Supports all major audio file types
Camera	13 Megapixel, 5 megapixel in front
GPS	Yes
Additional features
Battery	2000 mAH
Warranty	1 year
Price	Rs 17,990