After owning and using it for almost 20 days now, here’s the review. I have been using Android phones since a long time and tried all major companies so far. So far, Its perfect for what a sub-10K Android Smartphone should look like.
Without getting into too much of sentence writing, here’s the final review in pointers..
Positives:
Massive 5-inch screen
Dual-core 1 GHz CPU
Decent 8 MP camera with dual LED flash. 0.3MP secondary camera.
Dual Sim (GSM + GSM) with dual standby
Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich
Phone can be rooted which is good. I immediately rooted this phone after getting it and removed the bloatware / nonsense apps that Micromax supplies.
Supports USB OTG i.e USB On-The-Go.
Plays 720p videos and video recording is 720p too.
Inbuilt internet browser is good. Provides good speed. 3G speed is good too.
Negatives:
The phone doesn’t support all EDGE/GSM bands unlike other phones. This in-turn can show your phone in Roaming with a ’R’ symbol appearing in the network icon inspite you being in home network. (Don’t worry, you will be charged normal rates by your service provider tioll the time you are in home network). However, the ’R’ appearing 24*7 in the icon is irritating. This will primary happen if you have 3G service enabled and your service provider actually borrows it from other service providers and is giving to public. In my case, Vodafone borrows it from Airtel in Bangalore and my SIM shows in roaming 24*7.
Low resolution of 854 x 480 which makes images, icons, etc. lose their sharpness.
GPS - Doesn’t load at all (atleast for me). Keeps searching for GPS till hours. And, network location is not completely accurate.
Another important feature that’s missing is an ambient light sensor.
UI is not the smoothest
No Magnetic sensor (Compass won’t work)
Music player / quality is very OK. Basic headset provided. Can’t expect something like HTC, Samsung or Sony Ericsson. (If you are used to listen to music through a phone always, this phone isn’t for you)
Not all 3.5 mm jack headphones support this phone (if you’re trying to use an external one since supplied headphones are useless)
The 512MB RAM makes the phone feel sluggish at times.
Unlike other phones, Facebook contacts, pictures don’t SYNC automatically to your contacts, even if you enable it.
The phone gets extremely HOT if you talk for a longer time or at times during charging.
Many a times, application close suddenly due to an error (may be to do with hardware).
Others:
Total Internal storage (2.53 GB)
It is very difficult to see the phone screen in broad daylight and the brightness needs to be adjusted constantly / kept maximum always.
Low speaker / loudspeaker volume (can be adjusted in engineer mode, however, becomes irritating if original settings are touched)
No option to reboot the phone. You have to switch it off and then switch it on again (time consuming)
Though its Andriod 4.0.4, most features, looks, menu appears as Android 2.3.6.. MMX hasn’t provided complete features of 4.0.4 as you see in other phones
No option to disable ’auto-download images’ in Whatsapp Messenger. All images would be automatically downloaded (if you have a limited MB internet connection, you’re gonna be irritated).