Quick Review: Micromax A110 Canvas 2 with Jelly Bean Update

Initially, the Canvas 2 was released with Ice Cream Sandwich but Micromax promised an upgrade to v4.1 Jelly Bean and true enough to their word, an update has arrived. It's not Android the v4.2, like what you'd find on the latest high-end phones, but it's still pretty good. It results to smoother screen transitions and navigation, quick opening and closing of apps, and others. Now that the promised upgrade has arrived, let's have a little refresher on what the Canvas 2 has.

At first glance you'd think that it's another Samsung GALAXY phone. That's because if you view the front of the phone, it does closely resemble the GALAXY phones except it doesn't have a physical Home button.

The Canvas 2 has a relatively simple design with its edges being round and the back made of plastic. The front of the phone is dominated by the 5" display. Above the display are the front camera, earpiece and sensors while three capacitive buttons sit just below it. At the back you'll see the 8MP camera with LED flash and the speakers. On top of the device you'll find the micro USB port and the headphone jack. The volume rocker is on the left side while the power button is on the right side.

It measures 5.79" x 3.01" x 0.38" and weighs 168g. Considering that it only has a 200mAh battery, the Canvas 2 is a heavy device. Holding it up for extended periods of time may be inconvenient. On the other hand, it's the thickest of phones so it should fit most pockets just fine.

The Canvas 2 sports a 5" IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display with a resolution of 480 x 854 pixels. The screen size is just too big for a resolution this low causing it to be stretched out and just have a 196ppi pixel density. Text and icons do not appear as sharp as you want them to be although viewing angles are quite good. And despite the display being reflective, it's still quite usable under direct sunlight.

The rear camera is an 8MP shooter with autofocus and dual-LED flash. It includes features such as Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection and shoot videos. Even though it has a dual-LED flash, it performs quite poorly under low-light conditions, producing washed-out images. Fortunately, with enough lighting, it produces decent quality images with accurate colors. The front camera is just as you'd expect from a Smartphone, only good for video calls like in Skype conversations and taking self-portrait photos that look washed-out as well. However, since the phone has its front camera and is capable of operating for video calls, other VoIP features and apps are also applicable. One only needs to acquire a VoIP service from the many third party providers available in the market today like RingCentral.

Under the hood is a dual-core MediaTek Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1GHz. It also has a graphics CPU - PowerVR SGX531. There's 4GB of internal storage (2GB available for the user) and 512MB of RAM. The storage can be expanded up to 32GB via the MicroSD card slot.

You can get updates from the web because it is Wi-Fi ready and once you are connected to a network, you can share it with other devices through the Wi-Fi hotspot feature. Share files to and from another phone or laptop via Bluetooth. And connect your device to a computer through the micro USB port.

If we judge by specs alone, it's hard to recommend the A110 Canvas 2. But if we look at the price tag, it's definitely a good phone for Smartphone users who are on a tight budget.

Authors Bio
Tyrone is a freelance writer who's had extensive experience in the Outreach Program. This time he brings his extensive Writing expertise to Business and Technology. The articles he posts will surely be informative and comprehensive especially for individuals who are in dire need of these resources. He writes to cater RingCentral Phone Systems and other impressive pool of different clients.