Micromax Canvas Nitro Review

Who would have predicted that Micromax would have to play catch-up in the price band it ruled just a year
ago? With the entry of powerful and competent devices from global manufacturers which cost less than Rs.
15,000, Micromax has had to slightly rethink its strategy. The newly launched Canvas Nitro features
impressive specifications and a price tag that would have been a good Rs. 5,000 higher before this budget
war happened.

Look and feel
Our instant reaction on holding the Micromax Canvas Nitro, with its weight of 146g, was that it felt heavier
than the other options in this price range. The rear of the Micromax Canvas Nitro looks quite similar to that
of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (Review | Pictures ) with its faux stitched-leather finish. The front is mostly
uninspiring with the 5-inch screen taking up most of the real estate. In fact, the phone on the whole looks
rather tepid and does nothing to capture attention.

We got the white version for review but this phone is also available in dark blue. The power button sits on
the right edge whereas the left edge houses the volume rocker. Both physical buttons have very little travel.
A 3.5mm audio jack can be found on the top of the phone, and the Micro-USB port for data transfer and
charging is on the bottom. Above the screen are the notification LED, a front-facing camera and an
earpiece. Micromax has decided to go with backlit capacitive buttons, but they are not illuminated evenly.
The rear cover can be removed easily and under it one can find the battery, two slots for Micro-SIM cards,
and a slot for a microSD card.

Specifications and software
Micromax has fitted the Canvas Nitro with the octa-core Mediatek MT6592 processor which is clocked at
1.7GHz and has an integrated Mali-450 GPU. The Canvas Nitro also features 2GB of RAM. Out of the 8GB
of internal storage space, only 5.68GB is available for users but you can expand this by up to 32GB using a
microSD card.
The phone accepts two Micro-SIM cards and they connect to the 850/ 900/ 1800/ 1900/ 2100 network
bands. It can also connect to Wi-Fi networks and other Bluetooth-enabled devices. A 2500mAh battery
provides the juice for the device. The 5-inch 720p display is great for the most part with vibrant colours
and good viewing angles, but things go downhill when viewed under direct sunlight. The screen is very
reflective and we had a difficult time trying to use this phone because of this.

Micromax has tweaked the software to add a few additional features which have been mostly borrowed
from Samsung's Touchwiz and HTC's Sense UI. For starters, Micromax adds a QuickLook page to the left
of the primary homescreen. QuickLook is nothing but Micromax's attempt to emulate HTC's BlinkFeed
which itself is based on Flipboard. One more swipe from the QuickLook page shows the settings where one
can choose which topics the feed displays. One can also add Facebook and Twitter accounts so that they
can reflect in the feed. However, there is no way to add feeds from specific websites. Moreover, there is a
weird blue tint to the background of text when any article is opened, making it rather difficult to read.
The lockscreen has a simple swipe-up gesture, and available notifications are displayed on a red band.
Some of the other software tweaks include the ability to pause video playback when the user looks away,
which is a direct lift of Samsung's 'Smart Pause' feature. It works most of the time, if ambient lighting is
good enough. There are a few tweaks to the camera software which we shall discuss in the camera
section.
Source:ndtv