Micromax Canvas 2 A110 Review

The reign of the budget phablets has begun! Since 2011, the Samsung Galaxy Note was the ideal device to buy that was a hybrid between a smartphone and a tablet. Today, the market has a few premium phablets and 2012 has seen the launch of a surplus of budget phablets.

Today, we have with us the Micromax Canvas 2 A110. It is a 5-inch phablet and borrows its looks from one of the best-selling smartphones in the market. Is it your budget replacement for a premium device?

Build and Design

One look at the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 and you could be forgiven for thinking that it is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. It isn’t as slim as the Nexus but it does have a very reminiscent form factor. This is a very good thing as it distinguishes the device from the other 5-inch sub 10k devices available in the market. The front of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has the 5-inch IPS LCD display. Above the display rests the earpiece and to the right of the earpiece rests the front facing camera. Below the display rests the three capacitive buttons representing the home, menu and back button.

The look of the A110 is very reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The rear of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a textured finish giving it a very good grip. The rear panel is plastic, but it has a premium feel to it. It also has an 8MP camera. The volume rocker rests to the left and the microUSB port is at the top along with the headphones jack. The right side houses the microUSB port. 
Under the hood, the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a 2000mAh battery and it also boasts of dual-SIM capabilities. Overall the design of the device is very good taking a leaf from the Samsung Galaxy Nexus’ book and that is a very good thing. The design and build of the device is surprisingly good, especially considering the price point.

The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a 5-inch display with a 480x854 resolution

Features and Specifications

To start with the specifications, the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 480x854. It is powered by a 1GHz dual-core CPU, 512MB of RAM and runs on Android 4.0.4 ICS straight out-of-the-box. The OS isn’t exactly a vanilla experience as it has the jazzy Micromax wallpaper and Micromax app store in your face but you can easily download a third party skin from the Play store. The device has 2GB built-in storage that can be expanded up to 32GB via a microSD card.

The rear of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has an 8MP camera with an LED flash and the front has a video-calling camera.  The specifications of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 under the hood are quite good considering that the device is a sub Rs. 10k smartphone but we wished the RAM were a bit more to ensure a smoother performance.

The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 comes with a bunch of preloaded apps such as M!Buddy, CricketFever, HookUp and more but two work mentioning are the Micromax MZone and the Micromax MStore. The MZone gives users access to information such as Cricket Allerts, Love Guru, Naughty Jokes (yes, that’s right), Art of Living, Friends Chat, News and more. The MStore on the other hand gives users access to information such as Bollywood news, entertainment and applications as well. These applications are in addition to the already available Google Play store.

All in All, it’s nice to see device come preloaded with content that is different from stuff that can be downloaded from the Google Play store.

The phablet boasts of dual-SIM capabilities

Despite its size, it is convenient to use with one hand

Performance

For a sub Rs. 10k phone the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 is quite the performer. The power under the hood is decent to say the least. In its price bracket, it is one of the best performers. You can take a look at this in the benchmark scores below. 

From the above scores, it is clear that the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 isn’t the best when it comes to raw performance, but it isn’t the worst either. Averaged out it ranks second. But the package deal that the Micromax brings to the table is very good.

For a sub Rs. 10k phone, the device performs quite well. The power under the hood ensures that the device feels extremely smooth while multitasking and the low 512MB of RAM isn’t a hindrance.

The IPS display of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a 480x854 pixel resolution display, we expected its performance to be quite good but weren’t expecting the textures to be sharp. To start with videos looked quite below average but the viewing angles were quite good. There was a lack of sharpness to the videos and it really wasn’t a pleasant experience. The audio output from the speaker was better than some of the other devices in its class that we have tested. The audio for the apps sounded good and the volume for the videos was a tab lower than we’d like.

Browsing the internet on the device was a pleasant experience

The Micromax Canvas 2 A110 has a 5-inch display. It is a big display but surprisingly comfortable to use. One hand operation can be a problem for some but the two handed operation of the phone is butter smooth.

The top houses the headphones jack and the microUSB port

The rear of the device is textured adding to the grip

Since the Micromax Canvas 2 A110’s display is IPS, we found that it was quite clear and nice to read text on. Browsing the Internet was a good experience, and the screen is large for prolonged reading. At full brightness under indoor conditions, the device performs very well. Under direct sunlight, you will find it hard to read the display. In terms of battery life of the Micromax Canvas 2 A110, it will last you for about one and a half day of above average use. That includes making some calls, social networking and a bit of YouTube. Considering most high-end smartphones barely make it through the day, this is a very good thing about the device.

The left of the phablet houses the volume rocker

The right of the device has the power button

Last but not least, the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 boasts of an 8MP camera at the back. It isn’t the best performing camera especially at night and the daytime images are just acceptable. This isn’t going to replace your point and shoot.

Bottom Line

The look and build of the Micromax Canvas 2 A100 is very good. The power under the hood is good to run all the apps. In its raw performance, there are better performing devices available out there but everyday users will not notice the difference. It also comes preloaded with its own app store in addition to the Google Play store. The preloaded theme may be too vibrant for some but that can be changed with ease. The only downside to the device is that the display resolution isn’t the best for viewing videos and playing games. If a package deal of looks and performance is what you want, you can consider the A110. If raw performance is the need of the hour, then you can take a look at some of the competing devices.