Few days back Micromax had announced the cheapest Octa Core smartphone, the Canvas Xpress 2. This device is also the second phone in the Canvas Xpress series and we had previously reviewed the Canvas Xpress. The Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 (E313) comes with 5 inch HD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection and is powered by 1.4 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6592M processor with Mali 450 GPU.
The phone packs 1GB of RAM and 8GB internal storage which is expandable via micro SD card. On the camera front, the phone packs a 13MP rear camera with dual LED Flash and a 2MP front-facing camera. Here is the detailed review of the device.
Design and Build:
Design wise, the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 is one of the better looking budget smartphones out there. While we see most of the budget smartphone not concentrating on design, Micromax has done a good job with the design. The edges of the device is given a golden finish which actually looks good. The rear panel has a matte finish and again feels good although the quality is not up to the levels of Redmi 2. The rear panel has also a curved design towards the edges giving the device a good grip.
The power and volume keys are on the right side and has been given a black color which adds up to the appearance of the phone. The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top and micro USB charging slot is at the bottom along with the speaker. The rear panel has the 13MP camera and the Micromax logo in gold colors. The front panel has the 5 inch HD display, front camera, sensors and the three on screen buttons. Overall, we can easily saw that Canvas Xpress 2 is one of the better looking devices in the budget category.
Display:
The Canvas Xpress 2 flaunts a 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) IPS display, which is one of the better displays available in this price point. There is also additional protection in the form of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and the touch response on the display was also impressive. The colors looked good on the display and overall quality is good considering this is a budget phone.
The brightness levels are also good on the display and we don’t have too much to complain in this aspect.
Software:
This is one area where the Canvas Xpress 2 disappoints big time as it runs two generations old Android 4.4.2 KitKat. Ideally we would have expected the phone to run Android Lollipop in 2015, but the company has promised Lollipop upgrade for the phone. The interface looks very similar to stock experience on KitKat with the default notifications and toggles.
The company has also included a bunch of unwanted apps which occupy the storage. These apps includes M!Games, M!Live, and also MAd app along with other apps like Newshunt, Housing, Hotstar and many more which is unnecessary for an average user. You can uninstall these apps in case you do not use them. The experience is stock with no changes to the UI and there is also three on screen buttons for navigation.
The phone also comes with default apps like File Manager, calculator and more. Overall, the UI of the app is pretty old and might not be the best experience in this price point.
Performance:
Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 runs on Mediatek Tru Octa Core processor with 1GB RAM. The overall performance of the device was good and we didn’t experience any lags or issues which running apps or switching between apps on a daily basis. The gaming performance of the device was also decent for a budget smartphone and it was better than what we saw on many other budget phones. The heat generated while playing games was considerably low.
The phone features dual-SIM card slots, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, but 4G LTE is missing in the device and it supports only 3G. There are quite a lot of phones in this price point offering 4G including Coolpad Dazen 1 and Redmi 2.
The call quality on the phone was decent and we didn’t notice any issues with calls. The speaker output was decent for a budget phone. The phone comes with 8GB of internal storage and out of which close to 4.5GB was available in first boot. You can expand the storage via micro SD card, and also install apps directly on to the SD card.
Camera:
The phone packs a 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash and also a 2MP front camera. 13MP camera on the Canvas Xpress 2 is first of its kind in the budget category and most of the other devices have 8MP cameras. The camera interface of the phone is almost a year old interface and is kind of disappointing, but it is pretty snappy as well. The interface does offer almost all features you would like on a smartphone and there is also dual mode.
The camera performance was pretty good for this price point and there was good detailing and color quality in the photos taken in day light. But at times, the phone lacked consistency in saturation. Considering the price, the camera performance looks pretty good. The low light performance was decent and there was noise in the photos, but were of acceptable quantity. The video quality was just average even though it can capture in full HD (1080p).
Here are some of the samples taken with the camera.
Battery:
Canvas Xpress 2 packs a 2500mAh battery and the capacity is good for a budget device. The phone does give good battery life in normal usage which includes calls, browsing, email,causal gaming and social networking apps. We tested the battery on two instances and found that if you are an average user, you can easily get a day of battery life on this device.
Verdict:
Priced at Rs 5999, is the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2 the best value for money budget phone? After having used the Micromax Canvas Xpress 2, we can easily say it is a great device for the pricing with good performance, good design and build and also a performing camera in the budget category. The only reason which goes against the Canvas Xpress 2 is the software which is pretty out-dated, but we are hoping Micromax will release the Lollipop update soon.
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