Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 first impressions: A budget phone with great specs

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Earlier this week, Micromax launched a new low-range smartphone called the Canvas Xpress 2 which essentially is the successor of the Canvas Xpress. With the launch of this phone, now Micromax too joined the league of the companies that have recently been seen opting for an online-only sales model for some or all of their smartphones. Micromax has announced this phone in partnership with Flipkart, which will be selling the phone exclusively.

 

Rating:
3.5/5

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

We have noticed how Micromax has recently been paying quite a lot of attention to the ultra-budget smartphone. The newbie is not exactly an ultra-budget phone that is priced under Rs 5,000, but it certainly does make for an attractive deal for its price of Rs 5,999. Micromax launched the Canvas Xpress 2 for the budget conscious lot of consumers who are tech savvy, are particular about the specs, and at the same time are not willing to shell out a lot of money on a phone.

 

The phone is home to quite an interesting set of specs, including an octa-core chipset and 13-megapixel rear camera, which make it one of the very few budget smartphones to bring such specs at this price point.

We got a hands-on experience of the phone and here are our first impressions:

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Design and display:

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 Is not a design marvel, but it does look nice for a phone priced at Rs 6,000. It has a simple design predominantly made of plastic. The phone gets black coloured chassis, with metallic side rims breaking the color monotony.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

The front has a 5-inch display with thin bezels, a front camera, LED notification light, and receiver speaker grill. You will not find any keys on the front, as the three keys for home, back and settings are available as soft keys on the screen. The 5-inch display offers HD (720p) resolution with a pixel density of 294 ppi. It is topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The display reproduces colours well, and offers good viewing angles.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Moving to the rear panel, there is 13-megapixel camera followed by dual LED flash and Micromax branding. The rear panel looks pretty nice with the primary camera sitting within a metal ring, and a metallic branding, both of which stand out on an otherwise matt-finished shell.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

The back panel can be taken off to expose the dual SIM card and microSD card slots and a removable battery. The right side of the device is home to the Power and Volume keys which are coloured black against the metallic RIM, while the left side is completely flat. The top panel has an audio jack port and the bottom panel hosts microUSB slot with speaker grills, which is quite noticeable. The phone looks nice, feels good and is comfortable on hand. The matt look of the rear panel and the side RIM do add to its overall looks.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Processor and storage Battery:

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 is powered by a 1.4GHz Mediatek MT6592 tru octa-core processor coupled with Mali-450MP GPU. The chipset is accompanied with 1GB of RAM and 8GB internal memory, which can further be supplemented via microSD card. The 8GB internal memory might look attractive, but there is only 4.95GB of free storage available to users due to the pre-installed apps, and UI features.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Camera:

The 13-megapixel rear camera is one of the highlights of the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2. The primary camera is paired with dual-LED flash and is supported with additional software features and tools to enhance the user experience. During the brief hands-on, we found the camera quite nice for a phone in this price. The photos were not really very crisp but were not that grainy either. There is a 2-megapixel front camera, which we found just about fine.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Software:

Unlike the Canvas Spark, and Unite 3, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 runs Android 4.4 Kitkat, though the company has promised an OTA upgrade to the Lollipop iteration, but has not exactly give out any time line for the same.

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 First Impressions

Conclusion:

Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 is a budget smartphone that boasts a good mix of design and specs. While the phone is equipped with quite an interesting set of specifications, Micromax also ensured that the phone does not fail in the design department. The phone houses a 2500mAh battery with a standby time of 393 hours, supports dual-SIM, and features accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, and gravity sensors. You may miss 4G connectivity on it, but then you will not even find a 13MP camera marrying an octa-core chip on a phone under Rs 6,000.

Over all, we find it quite a tough competition for its counterparts placed in the same price range.

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