Micromax has come out with another octa core smartphone, called Cavnas Nitro A310. With A310, Micromax has introduced many new features like a leather finished back panel just like new-gen Samsung devices and HTC’s Blinkfeed like home screen.
The Micromax A310 is also quite powerful with an octa core processor, 2 GB RAM, and Mali 450 MP GPU. It comes with an impressive features as well including a 13 Megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera, 8 GB ROM, 32 GB expandable storage slot, etc. Here is an exclusive hands on report of the new Micromax Canvas Nitro A310 which has been launched in India for Rs 12,990.
Design
As I stated earlier, the Micromax A310 comes with a faux leather finish back panel – just like the new age Samsung devices have. The plastic unit though is not as rich as like that of Samsung devices but it still feels good in hand and is not cheap. Also, considering the price difference, I would not complaint much.
The back panel and the side panels are merged together to form one single unit. At the top middle of the back panel lies a 13 megapixel camera, besides which lies an LED flash. The brand logo of Micromax is engraved below the camera unit. A tiny microphone is above this camera while a speaker grill is at the bottom of the back panel.
Like most Android smartphones, it too has the power button on the right hand side, volume rocker on the left, 3.5 mm jack at the top while the Micro USB port at the bottom. In the front, a speaker grill is just above the display while three touch buttons are located just below the screen.
Frankly speaking, the handset is in no-man’s land when it comes to looks. It is not eye catching but doesn’t look bad either. The phone is quite light but isn’t the slimmest phone around. There is nothing remarkable about the phone (though Micromax wanted to make it by arming it with the leather finish panel) but it still is a decent looking handset.
Display
The Micromax A310 has a 5 inch display with high definition resolution. The display has superb response to touches. It also has good colour output. The brightness, however, is just okay for bright outdoors. In hot summers, the brightness would not be enough for outdoors.
The A310’s display has a glass coating on top of it and it does not get smudges that much. We tried to scratch it but it didn’t get much of that either.
OS
The Micromax A310 has the Android 4.4.2. Though it has got the traditional Android user interface, Micromax has introduced one new feature called QuickLook. It is just like the Blinkfeed of HTC. To access it you have to swipe to the extreme left of the home screen where it compiles your social network feeds and new itsems from various sections like Business, Arts, Technology, Politics etc in a tiled format.
Performance
The Micromax Canvas Nitro has a 1.7 Ghz Mediated MT6592 octa core Processor which is assisted by 2 GB RAM and Mali 450 MP GPU. The phone thus expectedly got very high scores of 30132 on Antutu during our testing. We could not test its gaming performance due to lack of time but the phone felt really fast.
It has a decent 2500 mAh battery while most 5 inch devices have 2000 mAh battery but we will talk about it later during our full review.
Camera
The Micromax A310 has a 13 megapixel rear camera with auto focus ability. In the front, it has a 5 megapixel fixed focus unit. There is an LED flash in its rear panel too. It does not have any noted camera feature and has the normal Android camera App and comes with HDR, Panorama, and burst modes.
During our quick review, the rear camera impressed us in good lighting but its charm fades indoors. Using HDR option improved the pictures even more. The LED light especially dissapointed us; it completely deteriorates the picture by darkening all other objects except the subject focussed on.
The front camera was infact much better. Alas, it is a fixed focus unit. However, it produces superb pictures.
Storage and Connectivity
The Micromax A310 comes with 8 GB of internal storage of which 5.68 GB is available for users. There is a micro SD card slot in the Canvas Nitro too which can accomodate a 32 GB card. Sadly, it does not have USB OTG functionality.
The phone comes with two SIM card slots with capability of 3G. There is Bluetooth and WiFi facilities.
Images by Sushil Kumar