Micromax Canvas 4: First impressions review

Micromax has finally launched its much-anticipated Canvas 4 smartphone. The smartphone is Micromax's new flagship and its most expensive smartphone. Having played with the device for a short period, here is our first impressions review:

Features alone have never been the only constituent in making Micromax the number one homegrown manufacturer. It has always been the perfect blend of aggressive pricing and features that has driven the sales of Micromax devices and accelerated its growth. But from what I could gather from my brief experience with the Canvas 4 is that the company seems to have taken the wrong turn this time.

Priced at Rs 17,999, this dual SIM phone seems to be a little expensive. There is nothing new in the design except the aluminium casing that surrounds the edges. The design is plain, simple and lacks any wow factor. The phone is made of plastic and its removable back panel has a glossy finish which I did not like. The Micromax logo in the centre of the back panel also spoils the look. The phone is light in weight, but overall, the design does not impress.

The phone can be unlocked either by shaking or blowing air. This isn't much more than a gimmick. While viewing angles are good, the colour reproduction is not impressive. The screen is responsive and smooth to navigate. The company claims the screen has been optimised for glove use, but I couldn't test that.

Its 13 megapixel camera captures decent photographs and the burst shot mode lets you capture up to 99 photos in less than 15 seconds and allows you to choose the best one. But 99 images? Do we really need those many shots to select the best shot from? The phone also lets you shoot 1080p videos. The Canvas 4 is packed with a 5 megapixel camera, but we will tell you in our full review of the Canvas 4 how good the 5 megapixel is for selfies.

The company claims to have included a spate of innovative features like video pinning, look away to pause video, flip phone to mute. But none of them are innovations that Micromax claims them to be. These are merely copied features that we have experienced in many phones and apps a long time ago.

The phone has decent space to store your stuff. The Canvas 4 offers an internal storage of 16GB, of which 12.48GB is user-accessible. The phone supports a microSD card up to 32GB.

The company, which is known for pricing its products competitively, appears to be forgetting its driving force and trying to gradually move to cater to a new segment. I doubt that people would be willing to spend Rs 18,000 on a Micromax product, which not only lacks freshness and but has nothing awesome inside.

Stay tuned for our comprehensive review of the Micromax Canvas 4.