After much leaks and rumours, Micromax has announced its first smartphone, the Canvas Infinity, which boasts an Full Vision, a feature that only a handful of smartphones bears. The company has priced it at Rs 9,999, and it is the first Indian manufacturer to opt for this kind of display.
However, other specs look interesting as well, though some find the Processor a bit old in nature. That said, will it prove to be the ‘Chosen ONE’ to bring back Micromax to its former glory? We spent some time with the device and here is what we think of it.
Design and Display
The first glance on the device and you will find it way different from other devices that rule the market at this price point. This is primarily because of the screen, which covers the majority part of the smartphone. Coupled with this with a compact form factor and you get 5.7-inch display. Some might say that the display is more or less like the one present in the LG G6, but, hey it still looks pretty good. The navigations buttons are on-screen, while at the top you see an earpiece and front-facing camera. At the right, there are volume controls along with a power on/off button, which is easy to access, while the left is bare. At the base, there is a micro USB port, while at the top, one will find a Headphone jack.
The back panel is made of aluminium and is removable in nature. At the back, you will find a rear camera positioned at the top-centre of the device and just beneath it, there is a fingerprint sensor. If you south then at the base you will company’s logo and speaker grilles. Once you remove the back panel, you will find a removable battery along with two SIM card slots and one micro SD card slot. That said, the Canvas Infinity is one of the most uniquely designed smartphones present at this price point and it does give a premium look for this budget.
Moving on to the display, which also happens to be the main highlight, it comes loaded with a 5.7-inch HD IPS display. Unlike other HD screen resolutions, this one comes with 1440 x 720 pixels and boasts an aspect ratio of 18:9. The display gives a pretty decent look, however, during our initial testing we found out the display colour changes quite noticeable when you view it at different angles, a total mood spoiler. However, expect from that, it is quite bright in nature and has a good outdoor visibility. We will talk more about this in our upcoming review.
Hardware and Software
Coming to the hardware specifications, the device is powered by an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The storage is further expanded up to 128GB via microSD card slot. It is too early to comment on the performance of the device, but on papers, it looks like an underdog when compared to other smartphones like Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 or Redmi 4 and more.
On the software side, the Canvas Infinity runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with company’s own UI running on top of it. The company has totally redesigned its user interface. There is no App drawer and there is no Around U service, which was an integral part of both Micromax and Yu smartphones. The notification panel has been also changed and you can see the notification when you swipe down, while for accessing the shortcuts, you need to swipe right in the notification panel.
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Micromax has also added some nifty features like Smart Action through which users can wake and lock screen by double tap, flip to mute or snooze alarm, call a contact by placing the phone close to ear and more. Then there are smart gestures: one can draw O for the camera, M for music and C for the phone. Stay tuned for our detailed review of the user interface.
Camera
On the camera front, the device sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with Aperture f/2.0, 1.12-micron pixel size, an 81.5-degree field of view, 5P lens and LED flash. For the front, there is a 16-megapixel shooter for selfies and video calling. The company has kept the camera UI pretty simple and you different options like Time-lapse, video, photo, beauty, panorama and portrait. During our initial testing, we found out the photos came out to be good, though the camera was not able to handle glare effectively. The front facing camera does a decent job, which is a good thing.
Battery and Connectivity
On the battery front, the Micromax Canvas Infinity packs a 2900mAh backup, which is comparably low when compared to other smartphones present in the market. On the connectivity front, it offers 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, AGPS, dual-SIM, and micro USB port. As for the sensors are concerned, it comes with gravity, proximity, light, Accelerometer and magnetic sensors.