Micromax Canvas HD

Micromax made waves
with its Canvas 2, offering a very
capable smartphone with a 5-inch
screen. And now it is back with a
more powerful phone touting a
quad-core processor and HD-
capable screen. On paper, the
phone offers great value for money,
but many wonder if it is a better
proposition than Samsung Galaxy
Grand Duos. Well, we had the same
question (and some more) and put
Micromax Canvas HD through a
series of tests to find the answer.
Want to know which of the two is
better and see if Micromax's new
flagship is worth the money? Read
on to find out...

Hardware:

Canvas HD features an IPS display
measuring 5-inch that boasts of
1280x720p (HD) resolution and
294ppi pixel density. The phone has
a 1.2GHz quad-core Mediatek
processor, coupled with 1GB RAM,
and 4GB onboard memory with
microSD compatibility up to 32GB.
Connectivity suite of this phone is
quite standard and comprises 2G,
3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and
microUSB 2.0. You get an 8MP
camera with LED flash on the back
and a 2MP snapper in the front
with this dual-sim smartphone.

Design:

Micromax Canvas HD shares the
design language with its
predecessor, Canvas 2. It looks
decent and fits quite easily in the
hand. However, we were
disappointed by the overall build
quality because the plastic casing
on back creaks a little when pushed
little hard, but it is not something
you are likely to notice during
normal usage. Nevertheless, do not
expect it to survive a hard fall
without any damage.
The phone's front panel is black,
while the plastic used in the rear is
white; this is the only colour option
currently. As usual, the standard
sensors and secondary camera are
above the display, whereas the
three touch-sensitive keys are
below it. On the left is the volume
rocker and the Power/Lock key is
on the right; both the keys are
placed quite conveniently, so you
have no issue reaching them while
using the device with one hand. On
top, you will find the microUSB port
and earphone jack, while the mic is
placed at the bottom. The back of
the device sports the primary
camera, LED flash, speakers and the
manufacturer's logo.
Software:
Micromax Canvas HD runs on
Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) out-of-the-
box without too many
customisations. In fact, apart from
pre-loaded apps like Notebook and
To Do and games like Cricket Fever,
Fruit Devil, you do not get any
software customisations in the
phone. You do get access to the
company's proprietary services like
M!Live, Hookup and M!Store. Apart
from these, you get one-touch
access to 14 commonly used
features like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, data
connections and profiles from the
Notification Bar.
On one hand, this does not slow
down the phone due to heavy
tweaking, but on the other, it does
not add much to the user
experience that other Jelly Bean
phablets also offer. Micromax even
missed out on Aisha, its homemade
Siri rival, but we still get Google
Now, which is a pleasure to use.
Camera and multimedia
playback:
The 8MP rear camera of Canvas HD
disappointed us during testing. The
photos it clicks are quite grainy
unless taken in daylight; as soon as
you take photos under overcast or
low-light conditions, you will find a
lot of noise. The detailing was
below par and the white balance
was off. However, these issues mar
the cameras of most other
affordable phablets as well and we
expect buyers will just have to live
with this fact.
HD videos shot at 720p played
without any intermittent lag and
the screen quality complemented
them, much to our pleasure. The
default video player ran AVI, MP4
and MKV videos without any
difficulties. Audio output delivered
by the phone's speakers is quite
good, but we found that non-
Micromax earphones we tried on
the device did not deliver clear
sound quality. So you will have to
invest in a pair of Micromax
earphones in case yours ever stop
working.

Performance:

We were curious about the kind of
processing power that Micromax
Canvas HD's quad-core CPU has to
offer. We were pleasantly surprised
that it secured a respectable score
of 13194 on Antutu compound
benchmark test, whereas its
Vellamo Metal score was 459. Its
Antutu socre is higher than that of
Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos, which
notched up less than 9000 during
its tests.
Another thing we were skeptical
about was its screen quality. The
phone's IPS panel does a great job
when seen under sunlight with its
brightness turned up and offers
decent viewing angles, though we
would have appreciated better
contrast. Nevertheless, we were
happy that there was negligible
pixilation and the content appeared
crisp. The touch is responsive and
there was never any lag during our
review. The graphics while playing
popular games like Temple Run 2
and Gun Bros were good.
The 2,000mAh battery of the
Canvas HD runs roughly 12-15hours
on a single charge with an hour of
video playing, calling and Wi-Fi
browsing each and two to three
hours of music playback. Tone this
down and you are likely to get a
full day's battery life.