The Canvas Express 2 smartphone is Micromax’s latest budget handset which you will be able to buy exclusively from e-commerce website Flipkart. Available at Rs 5,999, this device is one of the cheapest smartphones from Micromax. This device with great specifications is in direct competition with Carbon Titanium Mach Five (read review). We will try to know more about Express 2 in this review.
Look and design
Micromax Canvas Express 2 may be a budget device but it does not look cheap at first glance. The entire body is made of plastic. The gold strips on the edges of the handset give a metallic feel. Overall, the look is like a premium device. The 5-inch screen, thin frames and slim profile make the phone compact and easy to use. Due to the plastic body, the weight is also less.
The volume rocker and power button are placed on the right edge of the handset. The speakers along with the microUSB port are placed at the bottom and the 3.5mm audio socket is placed on the top. The design is kept very simple and elegant which goes in the favor of the Express 2.
Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 has a 5-inch display with 720×1280 pixel resolution. Its color reproduction, brightness and sunlight legibility are good. This is a device with a great display at this price.
Specifications and software
Apart from the 5-inch 720pixel screen, the device packs a 2,500mAh replaceable battery, 1.4GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592M chipset, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of inbuilt storage, microSD card support (up to 32GB), and dual-SIM connectivity.
The Micromax Canvas Express 2 smartphone runs on Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system. However, today most Android smartphones in the range of Rs 10,000 run on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Let us tell you that the information given on the box of the handset states that the Canvas Express 2 can be upgraded to Android Lollipop. However, after checking the system update screen, we found that no update is available at the moment.
The user interface is very simple, very similar to the stock version of Android KitKat. There are not many options for customization, but the basic settings and controls are provided. Considering the price, we found the user interface to be effective. Hopefully, buyers of this device will not be disappointed either.
There are many pre-installed apps on the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2. The system also displays ads intermittently which is very annoying. The good thing is that most of these apps can be deleted.
Camera
The Canvas Xpress 2 has a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. With this sensor, we expected good resolution images, but found that the camera sensor lacks a lot in terms of detail and sharpness. The images look good at first glance, but zooming in exposes the camera’s shortcomings.
However, the camera’s performance in terms of color and lighting is good. Photos taken outdoors generally lack noise and its white levels are also good. Due to this, colors do not look washed out or oversaturated. Photos taken in low light can be described as satisfactory. We should also keep in mind that it would be pointless to have high expectations from the camera of a handset in this price range.
The handset’s camera app is very similar to Google’s popular camera app. Because of this, most of the settings and modes are visible on the screen. The only complaint is about the small viewfinder area.
Performance
In terms of performance, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 sometimes disappointed and sometimes pleased. The device performed well in playing our test videos and benchmark tests, but the performance in daily use and gaming was not satisfactory. The user interface works a bit slow, apps take a long time to load and the smartphone becomes very slow while gaming. Games like Angry Birds 2 and Dead Trigger 2 did not run well. Apart from this, the battery drained very quickly while playing these games and the handset also got heated up.
The benchmark scores were better than our expectations. The smartphone scored 28,560 and 10,864 in AnTuTu and Quadrant tests respectively. The GFX Bench and 3DMark test scores were 16fps and 6,365 respectively. The benchmark scores were satisfactory but there were some lags while using the handset which cannot be ignored.
There was no shortcoming in the basic functions of the phone. Call quality, signal strength and Wi-Fi strength are good. The sound output from the speaker was a little below the set limit. The biggest disappointment was the battery life of the Xpress 2. The phone’s battery lasted only 6 hours and 5 minutes in the video loop test and in daily use, the battery power drained faster than expected. The phone’s battery did not last for a full day, that too with normal use. By evening, we needed a charger.
Our verdict
The entry-level smartphone segment is a key market for any phone manufacturer. Micromax is trying to make its presence felt with the Canvas Xpress 2 smartphone. The device looks good and is compact too. It is extremely easy to use, meaning it fits all the basic needs perfectly. The specifications of the device are such that are usually found in more expensive devices. In such a situation, it is an attractive option for the buyer of a budget smartphone.
However, when compared to Carbon Titanium Mak Five, the shortcomings are clearly visible. The poor performance of the device in graphics-based tasks and frequent slowdowns in running apps and games are the biggest shortcomings of this smartphone. The camera is good on paper, but a bit weak in taking pictures with detail. RAM and internal storage are less, which will also affect the general use of the device. There is no unique feature in the device. In other words, it has no USP.
If you are looking for a simple entry-level smartphone that looks good, then the Micromax Canvas Express is a good option. If you do the basics, then the device will do just fine. However, if you want a more advanced device, then we would suggest you consider the Karbonn Titanium Mach Five or spend a little more and buy the Yu Yuphoria smartphone.
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