Budget smartphone segment has started to welcome new smartphones with Android 4.4 KitKat loaded but still there is too much competition for the best ones. While Motorola Moto E continues to trouble the handset makers, it still cannot reach out to larger audience with its online only presence. Meanwhile, Micromax has rolled out yet another budget smartphone – Canvas Beat A114R – in the sub Rs 10,000 segment. This smartphone will compete with Gionee M2 with similar appearing specifications but offering larger battery.
Gionee had introduced the M2 for Rs 10,999 and also competes with Canvas Power. Let us take a quick look at the similarities between both handsets and weigh how different they are from each other.
Design and Display
When it comes to design, the Gionee M2 looks glossy and bears mono-block, candy-bar design. In comparison, the Canvas Beat carries the typical Canvas design with a slight change at the back panel. Overall, the Canvas Beat design faintly resembles the Nexus 4 in the front.
The Gionee M2 measures 10.5 mm thick but there is no word on Canvas Beat’s dimensions. The M2 sports a 5-inch touchscreen display with 854×480 pixel resolution, thereby offering Pixel density of 196 pixels per inch. Compared to that, the Canvas Beat offers pixel density of 220 pixels per inch with a 5-inch display supporting 960×540 pixel resolution. The key difference lies in the type of display – M2 has a TFT display screen while the Canvas Beat packs IPS LCD display offering better viewing angles.
In terms of display, the Canvas Beat may be wee bit crisper than the Gionee M2 but certainly is not the best in the segment.
Processor and OS
Under the chassis, the Gionee M2 packs a quad-core 1.3 GHz MediaTek mobile processor. Meanwhile, the Canvas Beat makes a debut with Broadcom BCM23550 mobile chipset. Obviously the GPU supporting graphics would be different as the M2 has Mali-400 GPU while the Canvas Beat has VideoCore IV GPU to power the graphics. Both models run the Android 4.2 Jelly Bean update and carry slight customizations.
Memory
Both smartphones offer 1 GB RAM but at the end of the day, it is the combination of the CPU, GPU and RAM working together make the Android run smoothly.
Storage
Both smartphones offer 4 GB internal storage out of which only about 1.15 GB to 1.5 GB would be available to the user and rest would be reserved for the operating system and apps.
Connectivity
Both are Dual-SIM smartphones where in only Gionee M2 formally offers dual-standby feature. Both smartphones offer one SIM slot supporting the 3G enabled SIM module and also WiFi network support for faster mobile internet experience. However, out of both, only Gionee M2 offers WiFi Direct feature apart from the usual WiFi Hotspot capability. Both devices offer Bluetotoh 4.0 with A2DP, FM Radio, and GPS with A-GPS support.
Camera
Gionee M2 features an 8 Megapixel camera with LED Flash. This camera bundles along several features such as Face Detection, Panorama, Touch Focus and a Burst Mode that allow capturing 99 images in one click. The camera is also capable of recording HD videos. In its front rests a 2 megapixel camera capable enough for a Video call in decent quality.
The Micromax Canvas Beat also offers 8 megapixel camera at the back with Dual-LED Flash. This camera too can record 720p (HD) videos. In the front, Canvas Power too has a 2 megapixel camera.
Both phones have same sounding cameras in the rear and the front. Canvas Beat gets an additional advantage of having a dual-LED flash. However, the real world difference can be inferred only after checking images captured using these phones.
Battery
Gionee seems to have an upper hand here as its M2 claims to offer talktime of 31.5 hours over 2G network and 24 hours over 3G network with its 4200 mAh battery. The Gionee M2 offers Standby time of 555 hours. Meanwhile, the Canvas Beat packs 1900 mAh battery which again is nowhere close to what Gionee M2 offers. Infact even Canvas 2.2 and Canvas Power offer more battery capacity than the Canvas Beat.
It is obvious that Micromax has listed expected Talk time while using the smartphone in Dual-SIM configuration. But there is no clarity on battery life of Gionee M2 in dual-SIM configuration mode.
Final Thoughts
The Gionee M2 is priced a grand higher at Rs 10,999 compared to the Micromax Canvas Beat that costs Rs 9,499. Both smartphones carry exact same hardware. It is quite surprising that the Canvas Beat offers so much less battery capacity than the Canvas Power. In a way, Canvas Beat is worthy upgrade but the difference between both handsets is marginal on hardware front and huge on the battery front. Only the real world experience can define which of the either handset wins.