Home grown mobile phone maker, Karbonn has been promoting its new A21 Android smartphone vigorously. The handset has also gained lot of popularity, according to the last two Handset Hotlist survey of The Mobile Indian.
The Karbonn A21 comes with 1.2 GHz Dual Core Scorpion processor, 5 megapixel primary camera, 1.3 megapixel secondary camera, 4.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, dual SIM, WiFi, expandable storage capacity of 32 GB and the latest Android ICS operating system. It is currently available for around Rs 9,900.
But for about the same price, Micromax is also selling its latest smartphone Canvas 2 A110. It too comes with Android ICS operating system, 5 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen, dual SIM, WiFi, 0.3 megapixel secondary camera, 8 megapixel primary camera, 1 GHz dual core processor, and expandable storage capacity of 32 GB. So, let’s compare the two handsets.
Display:
The Canvas 2 A110 comes with a 5 inch LCD capacitive touchscreen with 854 x 480 pixels resolution. On the other hand, the Karbonn A21 has a 4.5 inch capacitive screen with about the same 480 x 800 pixels resolution.
Clearly, the Micromax smartphone is a bit bigger and probably its screen is equally good as the Karbonn A21. So here, it is upto individual to decide which screen size they would adopt.
Processor:
The Karbonn A21 has a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Scorpion dual core processor while the Canvas 2 A110 has a smaller 1 GHz dual core processor. Both have the same 512 MB RAM and the Android Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It is difficult to pronounce a judgment on the performance of the handsets at this point of time but from the figures itself, the Karbonn A21 seems to have a little edge.
Camera:
Both the smartphones have dual cameras. The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has an 8 megapixel rear camera and a 0.3 megapixel front camera. It has dual LED flash as well.
On the other hand, the Karbonn A21 has a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1.3 megapixel front camera. It has an LED flash. Both the smartphones come with auto focus capability.
Battery:
Karbonn A21 has an 1800 mAh battery that claims to provide eight hours of 2G talktime and five hours of 3G talktime. According to Karbonn, A21 has 290 hours of Standby time on 2G network as well.
The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 comes with a bit bigger 2000 mAh battery, promising 5 hours of talktime or 180 hours of standby time on 2G network. So, it seems that both the handsets offer about the same battery life irrespective of their nature.
Connectivity:
Both comes with the standard Android connectivity features like WiFi, Bluetooth, Micro USB port, GPS with A-GPS support, and 3.5 mm jack. However, the Micromax Canvas 2 has Bluetooth 3.0 while the Karbonn A21 has Bluetooth 2.1 version, meaning the former’s Bluetooth is more advanced and thus will support higher file transfer rate.
To be specific, Bluetooth v3.0 offers 24 Mbps of theoretical maximum data transmission speed between devices, which is substantially higher compared to the 3 Mbps maximum speed promised by Bluetooth 2.1.
Conclusion:
We have not used or reviewed either of the smartphones so here we will highlight opinions of some users’ who have penned their views on either of these handsets on Flipkart.
A Karbonn A21 user, who identified himself as N Shaji and is also a certified user of Flipkart, in his analysis of the phone said, “Back Cover looks flimsy; Even though screen display can be compared with Xperia P, touch response of A21 has a lag of fraction of seconds.”
But he also praised it saying that it gives 12 hours of continuous battery life while browsing, and also has a good touch screen display and graphics. Other users had complained that the phone doesn’t support 3G calling with SIM, low resolution, and that the network connectivity is poor in Karbonn A21.
The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has also its share of issues. Many buyers on Flipkart said that the phone has low resolution, and absence of ambient light sensor and magnetic sensor. There are mixed opinions about the performance of the phone. While some said that the 512 MB RAM renders it almost useless while playing graphics intensive games, others have praised it.
Frankly, we neither believe the comments nor rubbish these; we like to reserve our comments for the time being but on the basis of the specification itself, we think both have almost equal performance. If you are a user of either of the smartphones, please share your experience with us.