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Micromax Canvas Magnus A117 review

10/01/2014 11:05

Micromax Canvas Magnus A117 review :-

The Micromax A117 Canvas Magnus with 5 inch HD screen, running on Android 4.2 with 1GB RAM and 4GB storage is available for under Rs. 15,000. This dual SIM handset with aluminium casing is available in Blue and White colours.

A117 Unboxing
The box pack contains the handset, 2000 mAh battery, warranty statement, user manual, earphones (of average quality) and data cable. The SAR value is mentioned on the box : 0.44 W/kg @ 1g Head and 0.67 W/kg @ 1g Body.

Design and Display
Design wise the handset looks similar to the Micromax A110 and the Micromax A116, similar curves and slimmer towards the edges, however the Micromax A117 is made of Aluminium. Opening up the battery compartment itself is not an easy task. The back cover is Aluminium and is clearly mentioned.

Micromax Canvas Magnus A117 weighs about 141 grams with battery, thickness is 9.05mm, breadth is 74.06mm and length is 144.42mm. 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port are placed on the top, power / lock button on the right and volume rockers on the left.

On the rear side there is 12MP AF camera with LED flash and speaker out. There are dual SIM slots (SIM 1/ SIM 2) and micro SD card slot with 32GB cards supported. This handset comes with a 5 inch capacitive touch IPS screen with 1280×720 pixels (HD) resolution with 16.7M colors. Touch is smooth and responsive and viewing angles are very good. There is LED indicator for notifications.

Does the screen come with some protection? Well we are not sure and it’s not mentioned, and hence to be on the safer side better use a screen guard. There are accelerometer, light and proximity sensors and like many other Micromax handsets the magnetic sensors are missing.

Memory, Storage and OS
The Micromax Canvas Magnus comes with 1GB RAM of which 640MB is available and of the 4GB storage 1.61 is assigned as internal storage and 0.98GB as storage for apps. There is micro SD card slot – you can install / move apps to external storage.

This handset runs on Android 4.2.1. OTG is supported; I could connect my pendrive using an OTG cable. OTA updates are supported.

Performance
The A117 is upgraded A116 same stuff but with high MP camera and 1.5GHz MT6589T processor with PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. The GPU is more powerful than what we have seen on the A116 handset. The overall performance is pretty good and benchmark results are impressive.

Benchmark Scores

Quadrant Standard – 4754
AnTuTu – 15925
Vellamo – HTML5 1612, Metal 494
Nenamark 2 – 52.8 fps
Multitouch : 10 points.

12MP Camera and Entertainment
There is front 2MP fixed focus camera and rear 12MP auto focus camera with LED flash. The still camera quality is very good. In fact even in low light conditions (check the street light sample image) the output is really good.

On the box it is mentioned that the handset can record in 720p resolution, however it can record in full HD resolution at 30fps. Do check the sample images and videos at the end of this review. You can play full HD videos with ease using MX player in S/W or H/W mode.

Gaming
The handset no doubt is powerful and apps / games can be installed on external storage. I could not test some heavy games like Modern combat 4 (MC4) and Nova 3. I got an error with MC4, probably it could be an issue with the update – I usually copy the huge data and a small portion of the installation is then downloaded. I got this error on other devices that I recently reviewed; probably I will need to download the full data around 2GB.

Nova 3 also got an update and did not get time to download this game of about 2GB. In the gaming review video you will find the Asphalt 7, Dead Trigger is high graphics mode and the latest Dead Trigger 2. Game play is smooth though you might experience a little bit of lag, this could be because of the micro SD card (depending on card class).

Others
The sound is loud, I could not test the incall sound and GPS. But that should be good enough. Wi-Fi signal seemed pretty strong and Bluetooth, 3G worked well. The handset does get heated up and especially when you are outdoor, under the sun, using the handset it will heat up much faster and temperature could reach up to 47 degrees.

Battery
The 2000 mAh battery should last for a day with moderate usage. I did test the battery while performing the benchmarks and while playing few games. I used the handset for 31 minutes running Benchmarks apps etc, battery dropped from 82% to 75% (7%). Played games for 19 minutes and battery dropped by 6%.

Verdict
Micromax seems to have got the pricing right and are back on track. The A117 is better alternative to A116 and will soon replace it. It is also a good option (1.5GHz quad core) for under Rs. 15,000. Magnus A117 has got premium looks, its aluminium body and might become a hot selling smartphone just like Micromax A110 and A116.

Interestingly the Micromax A117 was silently launched along with Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 that got too much attention. But I think in the long run A117 will do better than the A250.

Check the Micromax Canvas Magnus A117 best price.