Finally a full HD device from Micromax, the Indian mobile company, which has harnessed opportunities ignored by its bigger competitors and has offered low cost devices with reasonably good specifications in the past. This time the company is not taking any chances and has roped in “Hugh Jackman” to endorse their latest nifty device. You can read about their last two devices, the Canvas HD A116 and the Canvas 4 A210 here. In this review about Micromax Canvas Turbo, we are going to give you a detailed review of this smartphone, which is being sold at a price of Rs. 17990/-
First of all let’s take into account of what is different in this phone. While the specs are more or less same with its same segment counterparts (discussed below in detail). The unique features it claims to have are here.
This phone is being heavily advertised on sensors. Its latest proximity sensor apps like proximity unlock, upside silent, upside speaker and proximity dial are made their unique propositions. Their flagship app ifloat (quick launcher for calls, messages, browser, settings ) is another new feature they are offering. While smart sensor apps can be put to good use, some seem rather gimmicky and not of much use.
Video Review
Hardware
It has a 1.5 GHz quad core processor and is powered by MediaTek’s MT6589T. It has 2GB RAM with 16GB storage, out of which a user gets about 13 GB, while 1GB is available for apps. With aluminium unibody, the matt finish back panel provides a good grip and can be easily held in one hand. The weight is less than 140 grams which makes it portable and easier to hold for longer duration.
Display
The phone has a 5.0 inch (1920X1080pixels) IPS display at a pixel density of 440ppi. Micromax has used the CGS (Continuous Grain Silicon) technology for the display and results are fairly good. The viewing angles are great and the colour rendering is vivid and vibrant with crisp and clear images.
Camera
The camera quality is comparable to other similar phones in this segment. The Canvas Turbo comes with a 13 megapixel BSI sensor on the rear side with auto focus and LED flash while the front shooter is 5 megapixels. There are some new features like Object Eraser which can remove unwanted objects from the image also there is “Cinematograph” with which one can animate still photographs. Though the picture quality is fairly good, there is nothing noteworthy that is not available in other phones.
Software, battery and back up
This phone gave us a relatively good score of 15065 in ANTuTu test which is impressive considering the budget segment it comes from. The software interface is Android jelly bean 4.2 which means you can use two finger scroll for quick toggle and one finger scroll for notifications. The memory is not expandable and might seem insufficient to heavy users. The battery is decent sized 2,000 mAh battery and boasts of 105 hours of standby time and 7 hours of talk time. One can expect this to last for one full day with regular talking, gaming and working on the phone.
Sensors
Sensors like accelerometer, gyroscope, and proximity have been used smartly but one has to wait and watch to see if they perform as well as promised.
Gaming
To get a clearer picture of the much publicized specs, we tried playing some heavy games like frontline commando, Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger and here are our observations:
Playing the “Asphalt 8” gave us vivid and vibrant colour however while playing “Modern Combat” the touch screen calibration didn’t come out very well though the display was fairly good. “Frontline commando” also showed some touch and lag issues. Our observation is that the racing games and games like Dead trigger are fine because it doesn’t require much touch inputs but in more demanding games, the touch technology seems a little challenging and the response seems a little lagged but In subway surfer, the touch seemed fairly well and the display commendable.
Audio-Video
There is only one speaker and it gives good sound quality but the problem is that it is placed at the back which means if you keep the phone on any platform, the sound gets muffled. The earphone is good quality and comes with extra cushions in different sizes. As far as the video is concerned, the video playback is good at 720p though one can face some sync issues in 1080p.
Verdict
Being advertised as the “best value for money Android” smartphone, this device does have good performance, display and build quality considering the price, however some limitations like no expandable memory and some lagging issues with certain games can make it not the best choice for gamers and heavy users.
Specifications
| GENERAL | 2G Network | GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2 |
| 3G Network | HSDPA 2100 | |
| SIM | Dual SIM (Micro-SIM) | |
| Announced | 2013, October | |
| Status | Available. Released 2013, October | |
| BODY | Dimensions | 128.3 x 71 x 8.6 mm (5.05 x 2.80 x 0.34 in) |
| Weight | – | |
| DISPLAY | Type | IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Size | 1080 x 1920 pixels, 5.0 inches (~441 ppi pixel density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones |
| Loudspeaker | Yes | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| MEMORY | Card slot | No |
| Internal | 16 GB (12.5 user available), 2 GB RAM | |
| DATA | GPRS | Yes |
| EDGE | Yes | |
| Speed | HSDPA, 42 Mbps; HSUPA, 11 Mbps | |
| WLAN | Yes, Wi-Fi hotspot | |
| Bluetooth | Yes, v4.0 | |
| USB | Yes, microUSB v2.0 | |
| CAMERA | Primary | 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, LED flash |
| Features | Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection | |
| Video | Yes, 1080p@30fps | |
| Secondary | Yes, 5 MP | |
| FEATURES | OS | Android OS, v4.2.1 (Jelly Bean) |
| Chipset | MTK 6589T | |
| CPU | Quad-core 1.5 GHz Cortex-A7 | |
| GPU | PowerVR SGX544 | |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass | |
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| Radio | FM radio | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS support | |
| Java | Yes, via Java MIDP emulator | |
| Colors | Black, White |
