Micromax Canvas Spark First Look: The Cheapest Lollipop Smartphone So Far

In India's booming smartphone market, it's not international brands but rather local vendors such as Micromax that are dominating the market scene.

Fast-growing Indian smartphone maker Micromax took the wraps off its newest budget phone, its cheapest model ever with the Android Lollipop OS, on Tuesday, directly pitting itself against Motorola, the longtime champion in the entry-level smartphone segment.

Starting April 29th, the company's new Canvas Spark running Android 5.0 Lollipop - will be made available exclusively on Snapdeal - one of India's largest ecommerce website.

PROS

• It costs Rs. 4,999
• Comes with Android 5.0 Lollipop
• MicroSD Card Included
• Build Quality
• No bloatware

CONS

• Screen has poor viewing angles
• No 4G LTE
• Average Rear Camera

The 4.7-inch Canvas Spark is priced at Rs. 4,999 - Vineet Taneja, Micromax's CEO, announced at a launch event in New Delhi.

We go hands-on with the Micromax Canvas Spark, and here are our first impressions!

Micromax Canvas Spark First Look: Form Factor, Design, Display and Operating System

Micromax has officially launched the Canvas Spark and it looks like an impressive handset. As expected, the Canvas Spark is completely made out of solid plastic chassis, and even if the handset doesn't use any metal it feels more expensive than its Rs. 4,999 price tag. The overall style is quite pleasing with nice rounded corners and smooth edges, the Canvas Spark certainly looks the part.

The phone comes with a large 4.7-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 960 x 540 pixels. The low resolution still works on the larger screen, but it lacks the crispness you get on an HD (720p) screen and the colors are a bit faded.

One of the more interesting aspects of the new Canvas Spark is the running operating system. In this case, the phone is supported by Google's Android Lollipop mobile OS. Frankly, it handles Android 5.0 Lollipop really well - apps launch quickly and swiping is rather smooth.

Micromax Canvas Spark First Look: Processor, RAM and Connectivity

Internally there's 1.3GHz quad-core processor under the hood and 1GB of RAM. The overall performance shouldn't be great, but put together you still get a decent phone. The addition of 3G and 8GB ( expandable up to 32GB) of native storage are also welcome upgrades.

Micromax Canvas Spark First Look: Cameras

On the imaging side, the phone gets an 8-megapixel shooter, with autofocus and a single LED Flash. The front of the phone gained a 2-megapixel camera.

We tested the rear camera in a dimly lit space in New Delhi and it did well enough, although we need more time to quantify result.

Micromax Canvas Spark First Look: Battery and Early Verdict

The makers have added a 2000mAh battery, which seemed to be fairly decent for a budget phone: it might just make it through the day.

Of course, we'll need more time to fully test the new Canvas Spark, but so far it's a fairly honest handset at a price of Rs. 4,999. It's also important to remember that this very phone is targeted at a very specific audience: users who never ever owned a modern day smartphone.