Review | Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 Offers Amazing Specs on a Budget
Review | Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 is the new ultra-budget performance smartphone for Rs 5,999.
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Micromax, the company that started the budget smartphone revolution in India, is focusing on ultra-budget smartphones in 2015.
The latest offering by the company is the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 which is priced at Rs 5,999 and competes with the likes of the Xiaomi Redmi 2 and Motorola’s Moto E 2nd Gen.
This smartphone goes on sale on August 4 exclusively on Flipkart. We have the phone with us, so let’s see if you should go for it.
What’s Good?
The Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 looks amazing for a budget smartphone. The champagne golden frame gives it a premium finish and it has a solid build.
There is no sign of shabby build quality on this smartphone and it feels good to hold in your hand as well.
To put Gorilla Glass on a budget phone is phenomenal and Micromax has loaded the Xpress 2 with a 5 inch HD (720x1280p) IPS display that is quite bright and non-reflective with good viewing angles.
The price point is the key here and the Xpress 2 still manages a MediaTek MT6592M SoC with a 1.4GHz octa-core processor which is paired with 1GB of RAM. The phone offers a lag free experience and can handle multitasking up to 10 apps.
The phone’s performance is comparable to the Motorola Moto G 3rd Gen, which is priced at double the cost of the Xpress 2. The Xpress 2 handles heavy graphic games with ease as well, but they do take their own sweet time to render at times. Still, the Xpress 2 performs better than the Moto E 2nd Gen and the Xiaomi Redmi 2.
The Xpress 2 comes with one of the best 13 megapixel rear cameras on a budget phone this year.
It has an OmniVision sensor, a LARGAN 5p lens and dual-LED flash unit as well.
The focus takes a little time but once you are locked and loaded, the image results are crisp. The only thing missing is optical image stabilisation. But you can’t get everything in Rs 5,999.
The speaker quality on the Xpress 2 is also really good if you watch videos and listen to music on your phone.
What’s Bad?
Not everything is amazing on the Xpress 2. It’s a budget phone at the end of the day and Micromax has cut some corners.
The Xpress 2 comes with a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for selfies. The image results are hazy and grainy in daylight. Low light selfies don’t come out well. The Moto E 2nd Gen and the Xiaomi Redmi 2 have better selfie cameras than the Xpress 2.
The 2,500 mAh removable battery on the Canvas Xpress 2 does not last long due to its power hungry octa-core processor. We could manage just a little over 15 hours on the Xpress 2.
Micromax offers only 8GB of in-built storage with the Canvas Xpress 2 with usable storage of just 4.69 GB.
Sure there is an option of expanding the storage, but it’s limited to only 32GB. And when you expand the storage, the phone tends to heat up and lags. We noticed this after we added a 32GB micro SD card by Sandisk.
Unlike the Moto E 2nd Gen that comes with Android Lollipop out of the box, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 runs on an older Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS.
It can be upgraded to the Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system though, but that is not a hassle free process.
Sadly, the Xpress 2 is not a 4G LTE smartphone, it’s a 3G Dual SIM smartphone, so it’s not future ready for 4G connectivity.
Why Buy it?
For Rs 5,999 Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 is a worthy rival to the Motorola Moto E 2nd Gen and the Xiaomi Redmi 2. It also performs better than its competitors and offers a good primary camera.
The phone offers the right mix of entry level features on a smartphone with a good user experience.
If you are looking for an entry level budget smartphone, then you should definitely consider the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2.
Register for the flash sale of the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 here.