Micromax Evok Note First Impressions: Micromax’s trump card in the budget online smartphone segment

The 2017 is eventually becoming the year of Micromax's comeback. After introducing the dual camera smartphone- Dual 5 last month, the Indian smartphone maker has now announced its exclusive partnership with e-commerce giant Flipkart for its latest Evok series handsets.

The Evok series smartphones- Evok Note and Evok Power are designed for consumers who are looking for feature loaded Android smartphones at a pocket friendly price-point. The USP of the Evok series handsets are their big batteries (i.e. 4,000 mAh) and solid build quality.

We have got the Evok Power, which is priced at Rs. 9,499 and is ready to take on some of the best sub Rs. 10k smartphones from Chinese manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Coolpad, Honor and Lenovo. Let's find out what Micromax has to offer this time with the help of first impressions of Evok Note.

Design: Sturdy build quality but boring design

There's nothing fancy and appealing about the design of Micromax Evok Note. The only thing that stands out is the sturdy and practical design for everyday usage. Evok Note can be easily mistaken for any Chinese handset, especially the budget Honor 5 series from Huawei, if you hide the Micromax's logo from the rear panel.

SEE ALSO: Micromax Evok Note and Evok Power launched: Price, specs and more

Keeping aside the similarities and lack of a fresh design, the smartphone is pleasing to look at and looks premium for a handset priced this low. The rounded corners and the right placement of buttons make the handset ergonomic for everyday usage. However, the large 5.5-inch footprint is not the best fit for one-hand usage.

The 5.5-inch display has minimal bezels on either sides and you also get a fingerprint sensor integrated on a clickable button at the bottom of the screen. This fingerprint sensor works in sync with Secure Vault, an app by Micromax that protects your pictures, documents and other data from unauthorized access.

The right side of the smartphone has the volume rockers and power button that offers good tactile feedback.

The hybrid SIM card tray is also positioned on the left. You can use two nano SIM cards at same time or one nano SIM and one microSD card to expand the storage. The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on top and the micro USB charging port is placed at bottom along with speaker unit and microphone.

Overall, the Evok Note has a practical and ergonomic design, but does not bring anything new to the table.

Display: The 5.5-inch FULL HD display is crisp and also has 2.5D curved glass

Micromax is offering a full HD resolution to take on some Chinese and Indian smartphone makers who are still hanging with 720p screens. The Evok Note features a 5.5-inch full-HD display that also gets a 2.5D curved glass on top.

The display offers a pixel density of 400ppi and is crisp to look at. We played a number of videos on the handset in 1080p resolution and the results were quite satisfactory. While the viewing angles also seem quite decent, we will evaluate the screen's performance in outdoor conditions to give our final verdict in the coming week.

Hardware and Software: Octa-Core MediaTek SoC with 3GB of RAM

Micromax Evok Note is backed by a MediaTek MT6753 octa-core chipset, which is paired with 3GB of RAM to take care of multitasking. The combination is decent for everyday computing and multitasking and we didn't come across any performance issues during our short time with the handset.

However, it is worth mentioning that the screen animations suffer big time if you switch on the monochrome mode from the quick settings panel. The mode turns the screen into black and white; a feature seen in Apple devices.

Micromax is shipping the Evok Note with Android 6.0 Marshmallow and a stack of pre-loaded apps. You will get games, Amazon Kindle, Gaana, Opera Mini, Oyo and even an app of our PM Narendra Modi that provides latest news, events and quotes said by the Prime Minister.

You have the option to uninstall most of the bloatwares in case you don't need them. Besides, Micromax's 'Around' content aggregator and service app is a nifty addition to execute day to day tasks.

Camera and Battery: Decent camera and good battery

For mobile photography, Micromax is offering a 13MP rear shooter and a 5MP front camera. The rear camera has smile detection, HDR, gesture capture, panorama, and a total of 9 filters to experiment with the images you capture.

Besides, you also get several scene modes- Auto, Night, Sunset, party, Portrait, Theatre, Beach, etc. to further ease up the mobile photography experience.

The rear camera captures good pictures in daylight but there's a blue hue to all the images you capture, which is basically due to the display's colour reproduction.

I was quite impressed by the level of detailing that the 13MP rear camera is able to capture. For a smartphone priced under Rs. 10,000, it is quite appreciable. Check out the above image to get an idea of picture's quality by the 13MP rear snapper. For full review of Micromax Evok Note camera's performance, stay tuned on GIZBOT.

Storage and Connectivity

Micromax Evok Note has 32GB internal storage, out of which 23GB is usable. You can expand the internal memory via a microSD card. For connectivity, the smartphone has Bluetooth, FM, Wi-Fi, dual SIM and VoLTE.

Verdict: A value for money deal for consumers

With Evok Note, Micromax has a good opportunity to tap the online smartphone market in India. The handset seems to be a value for money deal for consumers looking for an affordable Android smartphone that can last long, captures decent pictures and can play full HD videos and games with an ease. We will evaluate the handset's real potential in our comprehensive review.