After a brief stint, a couple of years ago, Micromax re-entered the Middle East region, through its new channel development partner Tchannl in April this year. Within a few months of signing the distribution and market development deal, the company went ahead with launching a bunch of new feature phones and smartphones.
Among the new products launched, the company also unveiled the Canvas 2 (2017) smartphone as its hero device. Coming in at a very affordable AED 499, the Canvas 2 (2017) is meant to be a entry-level Android device for the budget-conscious.
The Canvas 2 comes with a 5-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 720 pixels by 1280 pixels. The phone’s design is quite different from the earlier iteration. Micromax has also included a fingerprint sensor on the home button, which is quite fast at recognizing fingerprints.
The back panel of the device is removable – however, the battery is not. The glossy finish at the back makes it prone to fingerprints and smudges. While the design and build quality of the device is good, it also feels a bit plasticky.
The phone is also fairly thick by today’s standards, at 8.5mm, but it isn’t too heavy. On the right edge, you get the power and volume buttons, while the Micro-USB port is oddly placed at the top, next to the 3.5mm audio socket. You will also find two symmetrical speaker grilles on the bottom, though only one of them actually has a speaker behind it.
The battery compartment of the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) can be popped off to reveal two Micro-SIM slots and a separate microSD slot. You can also see the battery, but it’s fixed in place, as mentioned earlier. On top of the screen, Micromax has also includes the Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for extra protection of the display.
Under the hood, the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6737 processor and it comes with 3GB of RAM. The phone packs 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 64GB via a microSD card.
At the back, you get a 13-megapixel primary camera, while the front sports a 5-megapixel shooter for selfies. The phone also runs on Android 7.0 Nougat operating system. We did play around with the two cameras a little, and as far as our first impression goes, we’d say this is still fairly average.
The primary rear camera takes a little bit longer to focus, however the shots come clear and in sharp focus. The detailing of the shots was good, and Canvas 2 does a good job at capturing fine details in daylight. However, under low-light conditions, your images will turn out to be grainy.
In terms of performance, the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) was able to offer only entry-level performance as suspected. While apps ran decently, and we didn’t have trouble with touch response, the overall experience of the UI felt a bit sluggish. When it comes to battery life, the phone’s 3050mAh battery was able to offer around 10 hours of battery backup on a single charge, which is quite OK for a budget phone.
Overall, the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) offers good design and build quality, decent camera and average performance and battery life at a very affordable price point. If you are looking for a standby device to carry around along with your primary phone, the Micromax Canvas 2 (2017) could be one your choices.
Price: AED 499
