Its been a while since Micromax has been around in the smartphone markets. Micromax's strategy has been to cut the corners wherever possible, use inexpensive but comparable alternatives to premium components and make the device look powerful on paper. This strategy has worked to some extent in the markets, however I feel that Micromax is still not ready to lead the smartphone market in the country and here are the reasons why...
Build quality :
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| The silver band breaks into chips because of wear and tear. |
Price cutting starts from the outer shell of the phone. The body is primarily made of plastic. In some of the recent models a strip of aluminium like material runs along the sides of the phone which reminds me of the iphone. But surprise, surprise its not aluminium but a brittle material of which small portions chip off as the device faces some wear. Also the plastic panel at the back attracts a lot of dirt and looses its original colour over time. The power/lock button too feels a bit loosened after a while.
Camera :
This according to me is a deal breaker. Most of the Micromax devices which cost more than 7-8 Thousand rupees have a camera of 5 mega-pixels or higher. One would expect to get decent captures out of it but its not the case. The camera greatly disappoints in terms of colour reproduction, contrast, exposure and white balance, both in low light as well as well lit conditions. Photos of landscapes look gloomy and colours, specially green look washed out which steals all the fun from shooting. Auto focus works good but when it comes to focusing on objects at about 6 inches or closer, auto as well as manual focusing fails.
Sensors :
One of the places where Micromax has spent less is the sensor section. Magnetometer or compass is absent from many of the devices. This results in the arrow in Google maps always pointing in upward direction no matter which direction you are moving in or facing. There is another very important shortcoming because of the lack of compass. As being an amateur astronomer I often use sky maps which aligns itself according to the direction at which I am pointing my device giving me the name of the celestial body immediately. In canvas devices however this feature cannot be used.
Heating :
Now this doesn't happen very often, but I have noticed this a couple of times. I don't know what causes this but a few of such heat-ups can damage the battery of the device rendering it useless for a use of more than 2 hours.
Updates :
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| Still waiting for the update for my canvas hd. |
With a really attractive specifications sheet you would expect the devices to get latest software updates. But Micromax has failed to update my canvas 3 beyond 4.2. Same with canvas 4 and other devices.
Alternatives :
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| Moto G priced at 13000 INR |
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| Moto E pricedat 7000 INR |
Despite being insanely cheaper than its counterparts, Micromax hasn't been a real competitor to Samsung or other brands. Granted the devices of such brands are expensive but a considerable amount of population prefers buying a phone of a tested brand with lower end specs than a phone with gimmicky specs of Micromax. And with Motorola entering the lower tier market with Moto G and then Moto E, the competition has only became tougher. Both the Moto devices have lower end specs, but they ensure and update beyond Kit-Kat and ship with the trust of The Motorola Brand.
Finally, the Micromax isnt all bad. Their products can satisfy the needs of an average joe. But they still lack the vision and the balance between quality and price to be a contender for the top spot.
