Micromax A116 Canvas HD Full Review

Micromax finally launched the much anticipated Canvas HD. You can purchase the phablet from Micromax Official Website. Snapdeal is conducting the deal. It comes with the brand new MediaTek MT6589SoC. It’s the first smartphone in Indian market to run the MediaTek quad core chip. Based on 28 nm ARM Cortex A7 architecture it’s the most energy efficient application processor. Performance wise it’s not as powerful as Cortex A15 or Cortex A9 but quad Cortex A7 can handle multitasking comfortably. It also comes with 1 GB RAM for faster multitasking. There is no doubt that it will score high in benchmark tests. There is a 8 MP camera is rear with dual LED flash and a 2 MP front camera. I guess camera performance will not be groundbreaking. But higher megapixel value will increase sampling and color will be vivid. But low-light shooting seems to follow the trend set by  Micromax A110 Canvas 2. Bloatwares like MiZone, MiStore, Hookup, couple of games are already installed in Micromax A116 Canvas HD. You may not feel the need of using these apps. But you can’t remove or hide these apps unless you root it. Facebook, Google Maps will also run in background. Let’s analyze individual segments-

1. Performance

Built on Android 4.1.2 JellyBean Micromax A116 Canvas HD couples MediaTek MT6589 SoC and 1 GB RAM. The SoC packs quad ARM Cortex A7 application processor cores clocked at 1.2 GHz and PowerVR SGX544 GPU. Overall performance will be decent. According to ARM, Cortex A7 is 20% more efficient in terms of performance while it consumes 60% less power.

Check out the following calculation-

DMIPS/MHz for Cortex A7 is: 1.2 x 1000 x 4 x 1.9: 9120 DMIPS (clock pulse in GHz X 1000 to convert it in to MHz x number of cores x DMIPS value provided by ARM)

Micromax A116 Canvas HD Gaming

DMIPS/MHz for Cortex A5 is: 1.2 x 1000 x 4 x 1.57: 7536 DMIPS

In simple words the more is the DMIPS value the better is the performance.

Now if you check out some other handsets based on this formula-

Samsung Galaxy S3 with Exynos 4412, Cortex A9: 1.4 x 1000 x 4 x 2.5:  14000 DMIPS

Upcoming NVIDIA Tegra 4 based on ARM Cortex A15: 1.5 x 1000 x 4 x 3.5: 21000 DMIPS

Qualcomm Krait are extremely powerful as DMIPS value of Krait is 3.3, now if you consider dual core BlackBerry Z10 with Snapdragon S4 MSM8960: 1.5 x 1000 x 2 x 3.3 : 9900 DMIPS

Consider recently launched Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos with Broadcom BCM28155 dual core Cortex A9 CPU: 1.2 x 1000 x 2 x 2.5: 6000 DMIPS

From this formula you can conclude that Micromax A116 Canvas HD ensures better performance as compared to Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos. But in benchmark test Galaxy Grand is better. In Quadrant benchmark test it scores 3619 while in Nenamark 2 it scores 40.3 fps which are really impressive. But don’t think your device is comparable with other high-end devices like Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2 or HTC One X or HTC Butterfly. See the following chart-

2. Display

Micromax A116 Canvas HD Display

Canvas HD sports 5 inch IPS LCD display with HD resolution. This is the same display panel that was used in Canvas 2. Major advantage of IPS LCD panel is, it increases viewing angles considerably. Color rendering is excellent resulting in vibrant output. But the major disadvantage of IPS LCD panel is it consumes 15% more power as compared to TN LCD panel. But the processor architecture used here in Canvas HD is a power efficient one and will yield satisfactory result for sure. Display ppi is 294 which is pretty impressive. It’s a 16m color display. But the major drawback of IPS LCD panel is power consumption. IPS LCD consumes 15% more power as compared to TN-LCD panel. But wide viewing angles and excellent color rendering have overcome that drawback. But sun-light visibility seems to be better than previous versions. Ambient light sensor is present in this handset too. It can automatically adjust brightness according to requirement. One more thing in addition, MT6589 comes with integrated MediaTek’s MiraVision picture quality engine. It not only increases color rendering but also ensures well balanced brightness-contrast ratio.

3. Battery

The only thing I am worried about Micromax A116 Canvas HD. The phablet is using 2000 mAh battery. Micromax is claiming the phablet can deliver up to 5 hrs of talk time and 174 hrs of standby time.

4. Camera

Micromax A116 Canvas HD Camera

Don’t expect too much from rear camera. You can expect decent shooting experience in day-light. But low-light shooting will not be something to cheer about. It should have a BSI sensor for low-light shooting. Lens manufacturer, sensor size and aperture size are unknown. I don’t think sensor size is big enough. Micromax is claiming in their product page that the device can record only 720p but gogi.in found that the device can record and play full HD 1080p. It’s the same video format that Canvas 2 has but video recording quality is better than Canvas 2. But front camera gets some boost. It’s a 2 MP camera unit. Other camera features are burst mode, panorama mode, 4x digital zoom and of course dual LED flash. Hopefully, this time LED bulbs are visible in dark.

5. Connectivity & Data

Micromax A116 Canvas HD 

Connectivity

MediaTek MT6589 comes with Miracast technology for multi-screen content sharing and pre-integrates MediaTek’s leading 4-in-1 connectivity combo, which supports 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and FM radio. So the connectivity segment is pretty advanced in Canvas HD. Yo would have expected Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA as the MT6589 support both these connectivity options. But you can’t use Wi-Fi adhoc network in Canvas HD much like what has happened in Canvas 2. But Bluetooth version is upgraded to v4.0 which is more power efficient.
Micromax A116 Canvas HD comes equipped with HSPA+ radio that can hit up to 42 Mbps speed which is pretty impressive. You can download data in lightning fast speed. Max upload speed remains the same 5.76 Mbps. Class 12 GPRS/EDGE are there as well. You can download data in 2.5G network at max 237 Kbps speed.

7. Dual SIM Technology

As you already know Micromax A116 Canvas HD comes with dual sim card slot. It’s supports dual sim standby technology. You can 2G+2G or 3G/WCDMA+2G which ever is required by you. You can receive calls if data network is connected on other sim.

8. Entertainment

Music player, video player and stereo FM Radio are there. No additional sound enhancement is there like Beats Audio or SRS Wow or Dolby Digital etc. But 3D sound effect will be on if you connect the headset with your handset. Overall loudspeaker performance will be reasonably loud and good.

9. Dimension

The handset is is slightly thicker as compared to Canvas 2. Canvas 2 comes with just 9.7 mm profile while Canvas HD is measured to have a dimension of 10.7 mm. Overall dimension of Micromax A116 Canvas HD is 144 x 74 x 10.7 mm and weight of 156 gm. Weight is pretty standard for a 5 inch phablet but it’s even thicker than Samsung Galaxy Grand Duos 9.6 mm).

10. Gaming in Micromax A116 Canvas HD

Micromax A116 Canvas HD Gaming

Well, MediaTek MT6589 is not comparable with Exynos 4412 Quad, Nvidia Tegra 3 or Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro. So don’t expect that much from it. The earlier version Canvas 2 can run plenty of HD games like NFS Mostwanted, Nova 3, Asphalt 7, GTA 3, MC 3, Amazing Spiderman etc. You can expect these games to run with even better graphics in Canvas HD. It not just has double RAM but also the GPU is an advanced one. Depth of field, shadow effects will be prominent to a great extent. These games are run on Canvas 2 with compromised graphics. But this time it will be way better. Other crazy games like Temple Run, Temple Run 2, Rail Rush, Beach Buggy Blitz, Dead Trigger, Raging Thunder, Subway Surfer will be run smoothly.