In the last few days, Micromax has launched many handsets in the market and an effort has been made to brand them according to the needs of the user. Has Micromax finally developed a budget 4G phone that everyone will like? Let’s find out.
Look and design
The Canvas Nitro 4G is a good looking handset. The design is very simple, but not boring at all. Micromax has designed the handset keeping in mind the daily use. It has a plastic body but it doesn’t look cheap at all. The volume rocker and power button are on the right side of the phone. These buttons have a little less protrusion which we did not like. We believe that users will get used to them with time. The headphone socket is at the top of the device and the speaker grill and micro-USB port are at the bottom.
The back cover is removable. It uses the unique sandstone texture of OnePlus One. This makes the handset easy to grip and it does not slip. However, fitting the back cover on the device is a bit difficult. There is nothing on the rear except a 13-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash.
The 5-inch HD IPS display comes with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Brightness levels are good and sunlight legibility is also decent. However, the colour reproduction is not accurate. Viewing angles are good due to the IPS panel.
With the Micromax Canvas Nitro 4G smartphone, you will also get a charger, data cable, earphones and a screen guard.
Specifications and software
The phone has a 1.4 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 415 chipset. Adreno 405 GPU works to bring life to the graphics. It has 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of inbuilt storage. Apart from microSD card support, other features like Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, FM radio and USB OTG are also present. Canvas Nitro 4G will be powered by a 2500 mAh battery.
Micromax has decided to use the stock version of Android Lollipop 5.0.2 in this device. This will be liked by those who want to experience the pure Android operating system.
Performance
There was no problem in playing games and using apps on the phone. The Snapdragon 415 processor makes the device speedy and with the help of 2GB of RAM, there is no problem in multi-tasking. The interface is very smooth and the animations never slow down the handset. The good thing is that both the SIM slots of the Canvas Nitro 4G support the LTE bands used in India. We noticed that this handset heated up quickly during regular use compared to other handsets running on octa-core MediaTek chipsets. However, this shortcoming does not reach alarming levels.
The video player played our 1080p resolution test video with ease. The sound output from the loudspeaker is very clear and the volume is also good. The earpiece that comes with the handset pleasantly surprised us with its performance.
The device scored decently in benchmark tests. We had no issues playing games like Rayman: Jungle Run and Angry Birds.
The 13-megapixel rear camera takes good pictures of landscapes. Macro shots look good on the phone’s display, but on zooming in, the areas that were not in focus are very grainy and blurry. The video recording output was also good.
The 5-megapixel front camera performs well in terms of selfies. You also get the option of several scene modes. The dual-LED flash units are perfectly effective in low light. Overall, the camera app is well designed and works fine, but the lack of detail and average quality in close-up shots disappointed us.
The 2500mAh battery lasted 8 hours 42 minutes on the video loop test. Considering the screen resolution of 720p, this is a bit low. With normal use, the phone’s battery lasted about a day.
Our verdict
Priced at Rs 10,750, the Micromax Nitro 4G is an overall good product. The design, build quality, stock Android Lollipop, bright display with Gorilla Glass 3 protection and LTE support on both SIMs make this device worth buying. On the other hand, the camera quality is not good and the battery life is disappointing. At the moment, it is also not clear whether the Android 5.0.2 operating system present in the Canvas Nitro 4G will be upgraded or not. Micromax is usually known to use the latest Android version in its latest smartphones.
Our suggestion would be to invest a little more money Motorola Moto G (Gen 3) Buy one that is waterproof and will be updated from time to time, or Xiaomi Mi 4i You can also invest in the Redmi Note 5 which has a more powerful processor and a better screen.