MicroMax Andro A60 Full Review with Video

December 14, 2010

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MicroMax just announced the Andro A60 a couple of days back, Since then we have got numerous request to dish out the full review.

When we first laid our hands on the handset, Honestly, we were quite skeptical of its performance. But, over this time period we have changed our opinion on a whole. Just like with every device there are good things and bad things. Lets take a close look at the MicroMax Andro A60 – Android 2.1 Smartphone.

Price

When the Phone was launched, we saw a box MRP. of over 11000 INR, we were shocked, and simply could not believe it. Micromax trying to sell a Phone like this at a price so absurd. Since, Micromax usually creates a new market pricing for value vs features. In this scenario the price of the A60 was finally set at INR. 6990/- Which according to us is Excellent, since its bound to go down a little more in the coming weeks.

So we Rate Pricing : 10/10

Design and Build

The design of the phone leaves a question mark in your mind, The first impression of the device makes you wonder what it is. Is it a pedometer, a Blood-pressure monitor, Dictaphone, Stopwatch? What is it?

No matter how strange it might look, the design of the Andro A60 makes it ergonomically correct, Now, whether you have small hands or large, the slimmer bottom part of the phone fits comfortably in your hand. That being said the design of the phone could have been a little more towards chic, and less towards ordinary.

Build quality of the handset is actually pretty good, considering its all plastic construction. The back cover does tend to squeak once in a while, but, is not enough to bother anyone. Overall good solid construction, the front glass also seemed pretty solid, and should be able to withstand drops.

We Rate Design And Build 6/10

MULTIMEDIA and CAMERA

Music and Video players are your usual Android Apps, But, the reason we needed to test the apps was the fact, wether, the hardware is capable enough to handle multimedia.

Music Player, with standard features lets you select your music via various sorting options: Artists, Albums, Songs and Playlists. Good quality audio software does not entail good sound- infact the loudspeaker is only decent. and if you want good quality sound consider investing in a good pair of earphones. Video on the other hand plays well and is pretty good even considering the low res display (which is actually good for this size screen). the hardware is capable of video playback, enough so that you wouldn’t face and choppiness or lag.

The camera is just short of a marvel for this device. The autofocus works great and rarely misses the object in front. The camera – picture clicking speed- is also no less than impressive. Beautiful videos from the camera make it an overall excellent package. Night mode/ low light shots are simply poor, period. We hope Micromax adds a Flash in their next Android Device. That would make it an awesome package.

We Rate the Multimedia and Camera : 8/10

Call Quality and Messaging

A very large grill in front of a extremely clear sounding earpiece. As we always say a phone is only as good as the phone calls it makes. And this phone is just great. The earpiece is loud and crisp. The microphone is also well placed and has a very balanced input.

Call Quality varied for us in our tests. We sometimes got really bad sounding connections and other times no problems. Also, it is practically impossible to tell if the loss was caused by poor network , poor antenna or just hardware flaws.

Messaging on this phone is a feat, which if someone can accomplish, is a commendable affair. the regular Qwerty input is a pain in the rear, And frankly one thing that we truly disliked about the phone, The resistive touchscreen does contribute to the failure of INPUT, but, here a better (or custom) keyboard from Micromax would have really helped.

We Rate the Call Q and Messaging 7/10

TouchScreen Display and Equipment

The resistive touchscreen on the device needs improvement (or atleast a stylus). The super sensitive touchscreen is not difficult to use while browsing or general UI movement. But, typing on this screen is practically impossible, the extra sensitive resistive nature of the screen registers a touch when and where you don’t need it. (it gets annoying).

The display on the whole otherwise is good, nice vibrant depth of color, contrast is also decent. We didn’t expect it to be a performer in the sun and well, it wasn’t. 320x240px is a good enough resolution for this size, if you cant read the text anyway – zoom in – or make it larger System wide. Android gives you that option.

Everything else needed is already there in the device, WIFI , Bluetooth, An AGPS antenna(in a sub 7k device is simple awesome), and guess what 3g data speeds. So, no field left un-tackled by MicroMax.

We rate Equipment and Touchscreen 6/10

Conclusion

While this device has all the bearings of a great smartphone, Call quality issues and an irritating Messagig(touchscreen) experience are a let down. For a 6990 Price bracket, However, this device is simply better than everything out there and its just the begining from MicroMax. With news already of better Android handsets in the future. This will not let down the users.

Beginner Android takers will simply love what this device brings to the table.

FINAL SCORE 3.7/5.0

Battery Test Results

Test Type	Result (wifi on)	Result (wifi off)
Phone Call 2g	3.5 hours	4 – 4.5 hours
Phone calls 3g	2.0 hours	2.2 hours
Video	4.0 hours (10 hours music)	7 hours (12 hours music)
Internet	4.5 hours	N/A