Review: Micromax Xpress 4G Is a No-Frills Affordable Smartphone
Micromax Canvas Xpress 4G is the cheapest 4G smartphone in India, but is there something beyond that tag? We find out
The most affordable 4G smartphone available in the Indian market: That’s the pitch Micromax is riding with its Canvas Xpress 4G. But is there more to the phone than just its attractive price tag?
What’s Good?
Micromax Canvas Xpress 4G has a pretty slim and neat design, with a dual-tone colour scheme of blue and silver. The smartphone supports dual-SIM 4G and at Rs 6,599 is the cheapest one supporting 4G network.
Xpress 4G has a 5-inch 720p HD display, which is quite bright and vibrant, with decent viewing angles. The phone runs Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with a slightly customised skin overlaid. It has a 2GB RAM working with a 1 GHz Quad Core processor. The smartphone performed quite smoothly, with a few occasional lags in switching between apps and cameras. Gameplay performance was good, with smooth rendering and clean graphics.
The 2,000mAh removable battery clocked 8 hours on moderate to semi-heavy usage with a few hours of calls, 4 hours of WhatsApp messaging, 20 minutes of YouTube and 30 minutes of gameplay and web-surfing.
Key Specifications: Micromax Canvas Xpress 4G
- Display: 5-inch HD Display
- Processor: 1 GHz Quad-core processor.
- RAM: 2GB
- Rear Camera: 8MP Camera
- Front Camera: 2MP Camera
- Operating System: Android 5.1 (Lollipop)
Storage: 16GB, expandable to 32GB via microSD card - Battery: 2,000 mAh
- Price: Rs 6,599
What’s Bad?
This is a long list. Let’s start with the construction. The Xpress 4G has very sharp edges on all the corners of the smartphone. This translated to a bump on our hands after prolonged usage, apart from the pricky feeling while operating. A few intense rounds of gameplay, with a tighter grip made it worse.
With a sore palm, when we decided to call someone to share the news, the smartphone disappointed us there too. The in-call audio is quite patchy at times. Initially, we blamed the network, but it persisted even in open areas.
But you can’t take a sad selfie. The front has a seemingly ancient 2-megapixel camera. Of course the megapixel count doesn’t matter, but that’s when the image processing is good. Here the images are dark, blurry and need a lot of light and effort. The 8-megapixel rear camera produced natural colours but had a pastel texture.
Why Buy It?
The Micromax Canvas Xpress 4G has a few attractive selling points such as the display, design, performance, and affordability. But the shortcomings really couldn’t convince us about this phone.
Also, the phone faces tough competition in its price segment. If 4G is something which you’re not specifically looking for, we advise you to look at the Moto E or Xiaomi’s Redmi 2S.
This Xpress has derailed our expectations.
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