Having used it for about a year now, it would be only fair to say that it is a pretty good phone in the mid-range segment which packs a lot of good features and gives you great value for money.
The Canvas series is a pretty renowned series for Micromax and I being a first time Android user was on the look out for a phone which would deliver on several levels without compromising on anything I was looking for. Overall, Canvas 5 did not disappoint in this regard.
FEATURES
Battery Life: For an Android phone, I think I was quite satisfied with the performance it delivered. It has a 2900 mAh Li-Ion non-removable battery which lasts from somewhere around 1 day 4 hours to 1 day 20 hours with normal(and some heavy) usage and data’ON’. With data’OFF’ occasionally, I’ve seen it last well over 2 days. With data’ON’, battery would typically last lesser with normal usage, for most other Android phones released in 2015 or before, from what I’ve heard.
Processor & Chipset:It sports a MediaTek MT6753 chipset with a 1.3 GHz ARM Octacore processor. It is integrated with WorldMode 4G LTE and CDMA2000® 3G for global high-speed mobile network compatibility.
The Octacore processor is meant to support running several applications in parallel and it functions well, if one were to actually employ the same. At the same time, it also helps battery life because all cores may not be active at the same time, thus conserving energy.
However, one stupid thing is the "battery saver" feature, if you were to switch it on at low battery levels, it would actually power off your phone sooner than if you wouldn’t turn it on, on most occasions, because the Octacore itself takes care of the energy saving, based on which core is active. The "battery saver" feature probably consumes power to optimize the saving for all cores uniformly, even the ones not active. The feature ends up contradicting the idea of battery saving. But if you were to brave it out in the low battery period without the so called "battery saver", you would actually get better results.:)
Cameras: It features a 13 MP rear camera and a 5 MP selfie camera. Both produce sharp images with 4128 x 3096 resolution. There are several modes to suit your needs, ’HDR’, ’Face Beauty’ and’Night Mode’ among them. Typically I use the above 3 along with the normal mode. The autofocus and face recognition features work well and the pictures are particularly good in’HDR mode’.
The camera being reasonably good is actually not a big surprise, considering it uses a f/2.2" Samsung 3M2 image sensor unit, Samsung being known for their CMOS image sensors with ISOCELL technology. CMOS providing higher amplifying of pixels compared to CCDs and ISOCELL technology taking care that neighbouring pixels boundaries are physically defined while reducing their size for improved resolution to absorb more light.
Some claim it also utilizes something similar to Nokia Pureview oversampling technique. But that would mean it would have very good zooming possibilities with good light sensitivity. Whereas it shows pretty good zooming ability, the low light photography isn’t as great as one would imagine even with LEDs for both cameras, with that kind of technology. But then, low light photography has always been a moot point, even for most high-end Android smartphones.
It also supports good videos with 1080p at 30fps. Nothing negative to report in that regard.
Memory: It has a 3 GB RAM which is great considering it has an Octacore processor and the pre-loaded apps which are typically running at any given point of time, consume around 1 GB by default, whenever I’ve noticed. Performancewise, this works out well.
To complement the RAM, it has 16 GB internal memory, expandable upto 64 GB. Pretty decent by any standard and adequate for my usage. I did not face any issues in external memory interfacing with data card and USB interfacing with other systems.
Look & Feel: It is actually of a quite sleek built, weighing only 143 g, a tough inbuilt plastic like cover at the back with a stylish thin metallic frame at the edge. Comes in several colors and has an overall attractive built. The inbuilt cover like frame makes you think twice about using an external cover, which is why I used it without one for quite some time.
If one were to use an external cover, there are a variety of exciting choices available for the particular model.
The clear black HD display is 5.2 inches with 1080 x 1920 screen resolution with 423 pixels per inch density. More than adequate for the human eye.
Android Experience:Another good thing about the phone is that it is pure Android with no external UI skin to complement it, which is why one should have lesser ads compared to those with an external skin(like most other Android phones) and also upgradability to subsequent versions of Android operating systems should be much simpler and faster because of the absence of an external skin.
About the usage, I only having used a Windows smartphone before this, didn’t find this to be bad at all. As is known, Android appstore has way more apps than Windows. Of course, one has to watch the battery life more closely, this doesn’t have the possibility to last 3-4 days with regular usage and it doesn’t have sandboxed applications. But if one uses the right apps, there is a lot of scope of security and safety with this phone with its various features.
Other Features:The bluetooth works well and it has 3G and 4G possibilities if one chooses to configure the same. It also has the dual SIM feature. Navigating the phone is pretty smooth, not like Windows phones, but quite smooth. I did not face any issues till date with the usage. That coming from a user, who regularly checks e-mails and does a lot of media viewing everyday among other things. There are also options to optimise the battery life further, to switch off apps which you don’t need to run. And over a period of time, Android learns your preferences with the learning model to optimise it. It also has an inbuilt torch which can be quite useful even as an additional LED like feature. It has a IPS LCD touchscreen with Corning Gorilla 3 protection. The audio works pretty well.
Pricing:Like mentioned, it is belonging to the mid-range segment. When I bought it, it was around Rs. 12, 500 /- or so, and now it could also be available at around Rs. 11, 000 /-. For the kind of phone it is, one probably couldn’t ask for much better in that range.
To summarize my feelings, I would say that it was a pretty good purchase which has served me quite well. I liked my previous phone quite a bit, but this is no less if not more. By combining good features of some other phones and dishing out some of its own, It packs quite a punch in its weight category.;)