Review : Micromax Canvas 4 Plus

Some would say that Micromax is on a roll, touted as one of the dominant force in the Indian smartphone industry. The domestic manufacturer is closing down on Samsung to claim the No.1 spot for the largest smartphone vendor in the Indian subcontinent. There’s no denying that company’s recent products have significantly improved when it comes to build quality.

Micromax’s latest addition to its lineup is the Micromax Canvas 4 Plus, which surprisingly was launched in a subtle way without creating all the hype the company is known for.

OVERVIEW

Since the launch of the Canvas Knight earlier this year along with the recently launched Yu Yureka, Micormax is constantly striving to offer high-end specs at mid-range prices. The recently launched Micromax Canvas 4 Plus does boast off a fairly appealing outer demeanor along with a decent set of specs. This device is priced on major e-commerce websites at approximately Rs. 14,000.

The smartphone arrived in our test lab, hence without any more delay, let’s check out how the Micromax Canvas 4 Plus performs in our grilling review.

HARDWARE

The Micromax Canvas 4 Plus is by no means a slouch when it comes to specs. It sports a MediaTek Octa core chipset, 1 GB of RAM with 16GB expandable storage. The Canvas 4 Plus runs on a 2000 mAh battery with Android Kitkat OS on board.

Check out the key specs below:

BUILD QUALITY AND DESIGN

There no denying that the Canvas 4 Plus appears to be a makeshift version of the iPhone, with a similar slim form factor, rounded edges and also bendable. Yes! You read that right; we were fiddling around with the phone to test its durability and it led to some awkward moments in our test lab. The phone did bend and the golden bezel running across the sides are now slightly off their normal position.

Moving on, there’s a gold a backplate that covers most of the back. The front houses the display along with the three physical capacitive buttons rearranged right below the display. Meanwhile, the back houses the primary camera on the top right while the phone’s loudspeaker is placed bang in the center below the metallic strip.

Placed on top of the phone, are the micro-USB port along with the 3.5mm jack. The right edge houses the power button and a tray for the micro-SIM card, while the left side houses the volume rockers along with a flap for a regular sized SIM card. Opening the rear is quite task, as one needs to be dexterous to pull out the flap and then get a hold of it with a fingernail. In addition, the tray on the right also makes it  mandatory to use a pin to pop it up.

 That being said; the overall design of the phone is quite ergonomic, it feels pretty light and provides a really good grip. The slim form factor of the phone fits in the hand rather well making it rather good for one handed usage.

The Canvas 4 Plus is not quite robust as one would like though the overall build quality and design of the Canvas Plus are rather satisfactory, unless you have a problem carrying an iPhone look alike.

CAMERA

The phone comes equipped with a 13 MP primary camera bundled with LED flash along with a 5 MP front camera for selfies, which is pretty decent, though does not justify the megapixel count.

The rear snapper can take some fairly good shots in well lit conditions. Colour reproduction is pretty decent though images don’t come across quite as sharp given 13 MP camera, especially while taking macro shots. While taking long shots, the camera again had issues getting the exposure right. In addition, the camera couldn’t take quality shots in low light as they appeared a tad grainy.

Here are a few samples taken from the primary camera-

Meanwhile, the front 5MP cam can take pretty decent selfies, though going by the number of megapixel count, it does not justify the image quality. Hence, it’s safe to say the overall camera performance is just about average, given the specs of the camera unit.

PERFORMANCE AND OS

The Micromax Canvas 4 Plus is quite a beast in terms of performance; it just zips through day to day tasks without a twitch. The phone’s benchmark scores say it all, scoring a whopping 31,649 in Antutu, a Quadrant score of 16,122 while it racked a Nena Mark II score of 68.3 FPS. The phone can handle anything thrown at it, from high-end games to HD videos. It won’t fetter while multitasking, perfect for heavy users.

Coming to the OS, the Micromax Canvas 4 Plus runs the Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) apart from a few minor functional tweaks. The UI is very similar to the Canvas Nitro. The pitch black screen displays only notifications on multi coloured strips which is rather refreshing. It displays quick notifications and updates and works well with QuickLook (aka Blinkfeed for non HTC devices).

Micromax has also added Air-shuffle which enables users to wave their hands over the ambient light sensor to shuffle music and radio stations, along with taking pictures via the camera app. Something we saw in Samsung’s pricier smartphones and also works seamlessly on the Canvas 4 Plus. In addition, Micromax has also bundled the Swift Key keyboard which is rather delightful. Also crammed in are quite a few apps which cannot be uninstalled, while the OS also comes pre-loaded with a few trial games including Smash It.

Overall, the UI is rather swift and responsive and works really well with the set of pre-loaded apps.

DISPLAY AND MULTIMEDIA

The Canvas 4 Plus sports a 5 inch HD AMOLED display, which is pretty satisfactory, it works well indoors and outdoors. Texts appear nice and sharp, though viewing angles aren’t that great. In addition, colours do appear quite over saturated and overblown. That being said, the overall display is rather satisfactory. You will totally appreciate media consumption on the display, despite the 720p screen.

The audio quality is pretty good, there’s an Audio enhancer when you plug in the headset, along with a feature called ‘BestLoudness’ to further bolster the volume.

PHONES, NETWORKS, AND BATTERY

The call quality of the phone is pretty top notch, both indoors as well as outdoors and we didn’t experience any call drops either. Meanwhile, Wi-Fi connectivity is pretty good as the phone latches onto available networks at ease.

In terms of battery performance, the phone is better than many of the phones in the given price range. It can easily last a day of usage, with an average 4-5 hours of talktime.

CONCLUSION

The Canvas 4 Plus is a great phone for its price but has its own limitations. As we already mentioned, if you don’t have any qualms over flaunting this iPhone look alike infront of your peers, the Canvas 4 Plus is a good all round performer.

Sporting an octa-core chipset, the phone does not compromise on its performance. Notably, its performance is at par with the cheaper Micromax Canvas Nitro (A310). There are however, other worthy alternatives in a similar price bracket, the evergreen and dependable Moto G (IInd Gen) or for that matter the Huawei Honor 6, which have more to offer than the Canvas 4 Plus, if you’re willing to spend an extra couple of thousand.