Micromax A110 Canvas 2 - Value for money Five inch droid .

Intro

Till a year back Android phones under ten thousand rupees used to disappoint big-time because of the smaller and low quality screens and low powered single core processors. Micromax and Karbonn addressed the screen quality issues with their models like A100 , A9 etc . They were single core devices and A100 was a model to offer a good quality five inch screen, which was never seen in a 10k device . But there were many reliability issues reported by the users. To address these issues Micromax has brought a improved model 'A110' which features a 5 inch touch screen and powered by a 1ghz dual core processor running ice cream sandwich version of android.


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Specs
This phone is based on Mediateck 6577 which is a dual core clocked at 1ghz and PowerVR SGX 531 GPU. Ram is 512 of which 225 is available to user. Internal SD card is around 2gb you can add additional memory with a micro SD card . A110 supports dual sims and video calling. A110 is powered by a 2000mah battery Display is 5inch IPS LCD touch screen with a resolution of 480x854 pixel.

Screen and Interface performance.
First thing you notice is the large 5 inch IPS screen which is bright and vivid (a bit over saturated though). l. Its nice in this price bracket and can even compared with devices costing double its price . Being an IPS screen the viewing angle is good. This comes handy when you watch some movies laying in a bed or couch. If you are not used to those Amoled screens of Samsung note or s2, Micromax A110 won’t disappoint you at all . Touch sensitivity is smooth the screen run fluid without any lags.
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In Call performance
Call sound quality is good for both caller and receiver and it dint drop any calls .Network reception is also good.

Software performance


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A110 comes with almost stock ICS with bit of Micromax flavor .Loading of apps are very fast thanks to the dual core processor. Most of the apps run without a problem and you won’t find any lags. You can add apps from the Google play store .I tested commonly used apps like Whatsapp,Instagram, Facebook,Indian rail info,Google Chrome, Skype etc and they installs and run without any problem . Micromax has added many apps like hookup , some game demos are also available . Which I am not at all interested and there is no way to remove them.
One of the issues with this set (actually an issue with the android os version) is the inability to move apps from inbuilt memory to external micro sd card . Which means that you have got only 2gb for installing apps which can be a big handicap for gamer after installing three or four high end games you won’t have any memory left . (Unofficial methods for addressing this issue are available but you need to root the device and do some manual configurations which may void the warranty )


Handling

Since it’s a big phone one handed operation is bit difficult, you have to use both hands for typing. Although it’s big it fits in formal shirts pocket without much protrusion. it fits in jeans pocket (may be difficult in skin fit jeans)but difficult to get it out when you sit.
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Size comparison

Micromax A110 Vs Samsung galaxy y
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Micromax A110 Vs Samsung galaxy R

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Camera

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The 8 megapixel rear camera offers above average results in outdoors when sufficient light is available. But pathetic in indoors, the LED flash is useless. Camera auto focuses well and touch to focus works fine . With some tweaking in settings you can capture good photos in well lit conditions. Since the phone screen is bit over saturated you may find pics to be vibrant but it loses the punch when seen in computer monitor.
It can record HD videos at 720 video quality is ok outdoors, indoors it has a problem with white balance color go haywire if you shoot videos under florescent light .
Rear cam is 0.3mp ok for video calls

Camera samples
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Camera Comparison with Galaxy R . Although its unfair to compare it with galaxy R which used to retail for twice A110s price ,but it produce decent results

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Its a bit under saturated compared with Galaxy Rs images . But you can boost it to get good result using tweaks in the camera settings or a program like Picasa

Pic straight from A110 rear camera

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same image after processing

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Camera app features panorama mode which is easy to use.

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Multimedia
It can run most of the media formats , 720p videos run smoothly and it can play 1080 but some frame loss is noticed .


Gaming
Games like angry birds , temple run run well although I haven’t tried many users have successfully run games like asphalt 6 and nfs . the comparatively low amount of RAM may be an issue running HD games . I will check some more games and update .


Conclusion

Advantages

1. Huge clear and vivid screen with good viewing angle
2. Good built quality
3. Smooth interface
4. Fast loading and running of apps
5. Led indicator for notifications
6. Fast 3g and 2g speeds
7. good browsing experience with chrome browser

Disadvantages
1. you cannot move apps to external sd card
2. difficult to use with one hand
3. gpu and meorry is not sufficient to run graphice intensive hd games
4. no magnetic and light sensor
5. heats a bit under prolonged 3g downloads

Conclusion
Micromax offers big bang for the buck , for Rs 9999 (I paid rs.9700) it’s a great phone. It’s a nice experience to watch videos and browsing net on its big screen . also offers smooth performance of apps . it may not satisfy high end gamer but any thing under 15k you won’t get better performance . if you want to enjoy smart phone experience and don’t want to spent more than 15k you don’t have to look any ware else micromax a110 is the phone for you.
 

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Manu i have tried it with facbook,gmail,whtsapp,skype running in background its fine .

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i used mx player , will try rockplayer

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its similar to whatsapp but with sms integrated , i dont know whether its chargeable ,

How about trying Super Video from App store? It is available for free... It gives you pop up player option like the one in Note II and S3... You should be able to handle it fine, given the dual core and also will look good on 5 inch screen... Very useful if you want to play video and browse/text/open other apps except games/youtube at the same time... Try it out...

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Excellent phone I say. But I'm really waiting for a FLAGSHIP like smartphone from these companies to push them forward even further.

I agree that they need to release something that is really high end and comparable with other premium brands like HTC, Samsung and also with competitive pricing... But the problem is, lets say even if they release a phone in 19k-21k price range, people will be hesitant to be spending that much amount when they can buy HTC, Samsung etc... Micromax/Karbonn/Spice has to strike big with A110/A21/Horizon MI-500 respectively to give people confidence that they are also capable of making excellent phones....
 
The 15k range is still empty.

I believe if you take a 10k Karbonn A21 (which is currently India's most searched and most popular smartphone, even more popular than the Nokia Asha 311) and make the following changes:

- 4.5" WVGA into qHD display
- 512 MB into 1 GB RAM
- 1.2 GHz Snapdragon S4 Play (ARM Cortex A5) into 1.2 GHz Snapdragon S3 (or new S4 lower end ones) chipset
- Android 4.0 into Android 4.1 Jelly Bean

Making these changes and even then bumping up the price to around 13-14k, and we would have a runaway hit!
 
How about trying Super Video from App store? It is available for free... It gives you pop up player option like the one in Note II and S3... You should be able to handle it fine, given the dual core and also will look good on 5 inch screen... Very useful if you want to play video and browse/text/open other apps except games/youtube at the same time... Try it out...

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Tried [FONT=Verdana, Segoe UI, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Super Video and its working fine its floats over other apps but couldn't figure out how to reduce the size of app above which SV is floating .[/FONT]

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feed back after a weeks usage

Battery is good for my needs i gets around one and half to two days with one full charge ( 2 to 3 hr voice , around 2 hr surfing etc)
now i got used to the size of the phone but finding it bit difficult to slide it inside the Helmet which i used to do easily with my galaxy Y, call quality and reception is good .
only thing annoying me is the warming up of this after some prolonged ( 15 min) downloading on 3g i have not tested it with wifi .

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got a screen guard cut and fitted and a soft leather finish slide in pouch ([FONT=Verdana, Segoe UI, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]both originally ment for note )[/FONT]
 
Nice review. Well illustrated too.

Can we have a word on reliability after you have used the phone for a while please?

Thanks
 
Finding issue with WIFI...It shows 2 points with A110 but in other handsets its showing complete signal strength..otherwise it is quite decent...
 
xolo 700 offers a better screen by speck, also a 5 mp cam everything else is almost same

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I have few questions
1) Did you try High end games on it?
2) DOes it supproted by XDA.
3) Can v root it?

Please put light on it.

1. i dint try any high end game but it should play asphalt 7 , nfs ets as per video reviews in youtube
2. there are some discussion on a developing custom rom for it
3.yes you can root it
 
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