Micromax Canvas HD A116 Review

Micromax had started offering mobiles in the year 2008 with the aim to provide users with low priced mobile phones having great specifications. It targeted the entry-level segment by focusing on its low price strategy and wide distribution making Micromax a popular brand in India. It had launched its first entry-level smartphone, the 2.8 inch Andro A60 that operated on Android v2.1 and had a touch feature back in 2008. After the success of the Andro A60, Micromax went on to make several low-budget smartphones that matched the features of the high-priced models.

 

The AISHA feature was incorporated in the Micromax A50 Superfone Ninja which was the first Micromax smartphone to have this feature. Micromax stands as the third largest manufacturer in India and 12th in the world for its volume. Its popularity is due to the amazing innovations that are coupled with its affordable prices which have become the USP of this company. One of the best examples for this is the Micromax Canvas HD A116.

Micromax Canvas HD A116 runs on the buttery smooth Android v4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS. This 5.0 inch smartphone is powered on a 1.2GHz ARM Cortex A7 quad core processor along with a 1GB RAM. The smartphone is available in India at a price of Rs. 13,999.

Display and Design

Micromax Canvas HD A116 is a 5.0 inch IPS LCD capacitive multi-touch screen phone that gives resolution of 1280×720 pixels with pixel density at 294 PPI. The size of this smartphone has dimensions 5.67 x 2.91 x 0.42 inches and it weighs around 156 g. This lightweight phone is lighter than Huawei Ascend D2 which weighs 170 g. The Canvas HD A116 also provides better display resolution when compared with Lava Lris 502. Conversely, its resolution is poorer when it comes to Huawei Ascend D2 and ZTE Grand S.

Power

Micromax Canvas HD A116 runs on the Android v4.1.2 Jelly Bean OS. This amazing smartphone is powered on ARM Cortex A7 Quad Core 1.2GHz processor along with the MTX MT6589, PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 1GB RAM. It also provides a 4GB internal memory and a microSD card slot that is expandable to 32GB. Comparatively, Huawei Ascend D2 and ZTE Grand S have a 2GB Ram while the Lava Lris 502 has a 1.0 GHz single core processor.

Camera

Micromax Canvas HD A116 has an 8MP rear camera that features LED flash with 3264×2448 pixels video recording. It also has a 0.3MP front VGA camera that gives 640×480 pixels video recording. As opposed to this, Huawei Ascend D2 and ZTE Grand S have a whopping 13MP rear camera with a better front camera.

Connectivity

Micromax Canvas HD A116 comes with various connectivity features including 3G HSDPA HSUPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP. Apart from this, it also features micro USB 2.0, 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack, Microphone and Dual SIM (GSM+GSM) Dual Standby.

Battery

Micromax Canvas HD A116 has a 2100mAh Standard Li-Ion battery that gives standby time of up to 174 hours and talktime of up to 5 hours. In comparison, Huawei Ascend has a better 3000mAh battery capacity.

Pros

-          It offers 3G connectivity.

-          Its Dual SIM Dual Standby makes it the best phone to buy.

-          It has Good Processor power ensuring that phone operates at faster speeds.

-          It as an 8MP rear camera that gives better and clearer pictures.

Cons

Micromax Canvas HD A116 has a drawback in the form of its battery life. Its 2100mAh battery gives less battery capacity which doesn’t last for a longer time.

Sony Xperia Z Review

With a cutting-edge camera, a super-slim design and the ability to withstand life's knocks and bumps (and Android Jelly Bean to boot) the Xperia Z is a phone that's got us fired up about Sony Mobile again.

Earlier handsets such as the Sony Xperia S and Sony Xperia T were extremely promising from a brand striking out on its own - but it's with the Xperia Z that Sony is really banking on making a cataclysmic dent in the makeup of the smartphone market.

If you don't believe us, just look at its marketing hype - Valentine's Day saw ads on several, consecutive pages of major newspapers in the UK and you can't pass a billboard without seeing it in glorious Technicolor, accompanied by a strong statement that Sony has "reinvented the phone."

And the early signs it will do so are promising: a quad-core 1.5GHz Snaprdragon Krait processor, 13MP camera, 16GB storage (expandable, woohoo!), 2GB RAM, water and dust-resistant, 1080p HD screen with Bravia Engine, LTE, to name a few. You couldn't make this stuff up - this is the company that had a part in the Satio, after all.

As soon as we took our review unit out of the box, we were mesmerised. This feels and looks like a premium, high quality product. Sony is one of the few manufacturers that can take what is, effectively, a plain black square and make it into something beautiful. Manufactured from piano black, high gloss glass both front and black, it could have come from the same stable as theGoogle Nexus 4.

Though maybe we are overestimating it, viewing the Sony Xperia Z through geek-tinted goggles - because while we were blown away, others came out with the line that Sony will be hoping doesn't cross too many punters' lips: "looks like every other smartphone out there though, doesn't it?"

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One thing the Sony Xperia Z certainly does have in common with every other smartphone out there is the fact that it is a pure magnet for fingerprints. You'll struggle to keep it clean all day long without either surgical gloves or a can of Mr Sheen in your bag.

As is fast becoming the norm, you can expect to pick the Sony Xperia Z up in white too. On top of that, O2 in the UK is exclusively offering a purple variant.

If you're coming from something like a Samsung Galaxy S3, it'll feel similar, if a little larger, in terms of size: the Sony Xperia Z rocks in at 139 x 71 x 7.9mm/5.47 x 2.79 x 0.31 inches, so there's little room for anything else in your hands.

Coming from something smaller like, say, an iPhone 5, you'll certainly notice the difference. But it's amazing how quickly you'll adapt.

At 146g/5.15oz, it's by no means the lightest handset out there - but the Sony Xperia Z exudes a heftiness that belies a quality device. It's on a par with Apple's offering when it comes to the thickness.

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The ports are spread out with the headphone jack up top, the SIM slot and volume rocker on the right - either side of a silver standby button - while both the microSD and charging ports are on the left, alongside contacts for accessories. A watertight port covers each.

The front of the Sony Xperia Z is minimalist - showing off only a Sony logo and front-facing camera. The rear is a little busier, with various tech info printed on it, plus the Sony Xperia logo, an NFC badge, camera light and the all-important lens. That back is stuck fast - as is becoming the custom, you'll have no luck if you want to remove the battery.

Turn it on, and you're not disappointed. Coming from the blackness, the 5-inch screen springs into life. Whether or not you'll like it is down to personal choice.

Some who've used the Sony Xperia Z describe the screen as a disappointment because Sony has gone for TFT - albeit with 1080 x 1920 pixels, giving a pixel density of 441ppi, which would explain why it looks a bit washed out. If you've come from a Super AMOLED screen you'll definitely feel the difference.

We're still fans - this is a razor sharp display from one of the world's premier screen manufacturers, although it doesn't have the wow factor of the HTC One's Super LCD 3 screen.

The only thing that lets it down is viewing angles - if you look at the Sony Xperia Z's screen, dead on, it's sharp enough. If you look at it from the side, it has a strange ability to look incredibly washed out. It's no huge problem - but it does mean the impressiveness of the screen is diminished compared to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One.

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One of the selling points of the Sony Xperia Z is that it is also water resistant. There's something slightly unnerving about taking a £529 phone and dropping it in the sink - but that's exactly what we did. And it worked absolutely fine.

Clearly, you'll need to make sure the ports are covered using those watertight protectors, that much goes without saying.

And here's some more good news: the price of the Sony Xperia Z is dropping quite quickly, already making it cheaper than the likes of the HTC One and could soon sneak under the £30 contract mark for a half-decent whack of minutes.

While it's actually the same price as the comparable SIM-free 16GB iPhone 5, the cost is now closing in on the iPhone 4S on PAYG, so we can't help but feel the Xperia Z is finding its natural pricing level.

Sony Xperia L review

Design

It's a good-looking handset, with Sony's dynamic curve design that gives it a distinctive arcing shape. It's not especially slim at 10mm but that curve makes it seem thinner than it is. Top and bottom have an unusual looking slant to them too, which shows off the metallic strip that runs all the way around the handset. At the bottom there's also a rather attractive LED effect that pulses when you receive alerts.

On paper, the 4.3-inch touchscreen sounds like a step too far down towards budget level, with a resolution of 854x480 pixels -- well below the Xperia Z's full HD 1,920x1,080. At 228ppi it has roughly half the pixel density of the Xperia Z, and even behind some midprice rivals like the Google Nexus 4(320ppi). But while it's perhaps lacking a bit in detail, it still manages to deliver rich and vibrant colours with good contrast that show off movies to good effect.

Android, software and processor

It's running Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean which is a perfectly fine operating system, but one that's now starting to look a bit old, especially with version 4.3 already starting to appear. Still, the age isn't immediately obvious since Sony has updated its user interface and you can now arrange the icons on the various screens in different ways -- alphabetical, most used or your own custom arrangement.

The dual-core processor is backed by 1GB RAM which is pretty much the least we'd expect on a phone of this price these days. It does a decent if unspectacular job of keeping all its various processing balls in the air, though it did start to lag just a little with a handful of apps running at the same time. In our AnTuTu benchmark test it managed 10,918 -- not bad, but noticeably behind Samsung's recent S4 dual-core devices like the S4 Mini and S4 Zoom.

Photography
The 8-megapixel camera includes an LED flash, autofocus and Sony's Exmor RS sensor for better capability in low light. It starts up very quickly and you can get it going even quicker with the Quick Launch mode, which takes a snap or starts the video running as soon as you switch on. Other features to play with include HDR, panorama mode, image stabilisation and calibrated smile detection (you can set it to detect different levels of smile). Picture quality is pretty good overall, with nice sharp edges and accurate colour balance.

There's 8GB of memory on board, though you can bump that up by a further 32GB via microSD card -- not for apps though, just pics, vids and music. The battery held up reasonably well too, giving us around a day and a half of steady use.

Conclusion

The Sony Xperia L is far from the cutting edge of smartphone development, but it's a good looking, solidly built low to midrange device with a decent screen and a pretty good camera. The processor is a little lacking, and it's a shame it's not running the latest version of Android but it's a solidly capable handset for the money.