Gone are those days when a budget smartphone would usually be low on specifications. With Indian brands like Micromax and the Chinese smartphone players that recently entered Indian smartphone market, even the budget segment has become a lot smarter. However, most of these budget offerings with impressive features sell only via ecommerce model.
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Domestic smartphone vendor Micromax recently added a new budget offering, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2, to its portfolio, but this time the company chose to go with the online only sale model in an exclusive partnership with Flipkart. The phone packs in some interesting features and specifications for a price of Rs 5,999. However, it does misses on some other features that its competitors bring.
Let's take a look at five impressive features, and five let-downs in the phone. Starting with the good and then the five features we missed on the phone:
Best: Sturdy Body
The Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 dons a plastic-bodied design but the rubbery rear panel, and metallic RIM running across sides make it look much better than its peers in the same price range. We find it a good looking budget smartphone.
Best: True octa-core processor
The Canvas Xpress 2 is certainly one of the very few smartphones that boast the power of octa-core chipset at a price point of Rs 6,000. It brings 1.4GHz Mediatek MT6592 true octa-core processor coupled with Mali-450MP GPU on-board.
Best: Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on a budget
It features a 5-inch HD (720p) display with pixel density of 294ppi, which offers good viewing angles for smartphones placed at this price point. The display is topped with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for protection against damages.
Best: Impressive Rear Camera
You get a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-LED flash and additional software features which is one of the key features of the smartphone.
Best: Dual SIM Support
The phone supports dual-SIM and come with accelerometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, and gravity sensors.
Worst: Lacks 4G Connectivity
Those willing to use a budget 4G smartphone will be disappointed to know that the phone lacks 4G connectivity. Especially considering that 4G has become more of a standard feature for all budget smartphones placed above Rs 5,000, we wished this phone to have support for 4G.
Worst: Old Version of Android
The phone runs on Android 4.4.2 Kitkat, which is dated especially considering that Micromax's previously launched Canvas Spark run the Lollipop iteration.
Worst: Only 1GB RAM
With octa-core chipset, we expected the phone to feature 2GB of RAM. However, it brings 1GB of RAM to support the processor. Moreover, even though there is an 8GB of internal storage on-board, almost 3GB of it has already been occupied by additional software features. The recently launched Coolpad Dazen 1, in comparison, offers 2GB of RAM.
Worst: Basic Selfie Camera
While the rear adorns a 13-megapixel camera, we wished the front has a higher megapixel camera than 2-megapixel selfie camera. There are others in competition, which feature a lower rear camera but higher megapixel front-facing snapper.
Worst: Only Available on Flipkart!
The phone can only be bought via Flipkart! For more in-depth information you can take a look at our first impression on Micromax Canvas Xpress 2.
