The Micromax Canvas Infinity is now the best looking smartphone under 10k, and it has an excellent camera to boot. If Micromax can solve the UI issues, this is a phone worth buying.
Micromax Canvas Infinity Review : Detailed Review
Micromax Canvas Infinity Review : Detailed Review
Until last month, all budget smartphones looked pretty much the same. LG broke that cycle with the Q6. The phone brought the most desirable design feature from the company’s flagship, called the Full Vision display, to a more affordable segment. While the looks good, its performance isn't great. Now though, there is a new smartphone on the block from Micromax, offering similar design at an even more affordable price, and it is called the . The phone packs decent hardware and is a potent contender in its category. However, there is more to discuss.
Display and UI
The Canvas Infinity is all about its display, so let’s begin with that. The phone features an edge-to-edge display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, similar to the one we saw earlier on the LG Q6. While the IPS LCD is bright enough for all kinds of lighting conditions, the 1440 x 720p resolution does look a little stretched out on the 5.7-inch display. The display also has a slightly cooler colour tone and does not look as good (side-by-side) to similarly priced phones in its category.
Note: Before we begin presenting our findings, it’s worth noting that Micromax’s review unit is extremely buggy. Our particular unit has major touch issues on the panel, while there was even a dead pixel on the display. Furthermore, the entire device freezes at times and is fixed only after a restart. The issues have been communicated to Micromax and the company has acknowledged the same. A new review unit is being sent to us for the same, and the same will be reflected in the review if things change.
Display and UI
The Canvas Infinity is all about its display, so let’s begin with that. The phone features an edge-to-edge display with an aspect ratio of 18:9, similar to the one we saw earlier on the LG Q6. While the IPS LCD is bright enough for all kinds of lighting conditions, the 1440 x 720p resolution does look a little stretched out on the 5.7-inch display. The display also has a slightly cooler colour tone and does not look as good (side-by-side) to similarly priced phones in its category.
Note: Before we begin presenting our findings, it’s worth noting that Micromax’s review unit is extremely buggy. Our particular unit has major touch issues on the panel, while there was even a dead pixel on the display. Furthermore, the entire device freezes at times and is fixed only after a restart. The issues have been communicated to Micromax and the company has acknowledged the same. A new review unit is being sent to us for the same, and the same will be reflected in the review if things change.
Our test unit also had some minor light bleeding issues, along with one dead pixel. However, assuming that this was just an issue with our test unit, I can say that Micromax has done a decent job of bringing this kind of display to the sub-10K segment, albeit with some flaws.
The UI on the other hand is a total disaster in my books. Instead of using the simpler stock interface, which Micromax has used on previous phones, we have a custom skin running on top of Android 7.1.2 Nougat. The whole UI is ridiculously buggy and makes the phone freeze from time to time. All pre-installed apps ask for critical permissions to manage your phone calls, contacts, camera, etc. For example, the camera app requires permission to make calls, which should not be required in the first place. I’ve as well, but the company seems to be continuing with it any way.
If the UI wasn't enough of an annoyance, you also have apps such as the “App center”, and “system update”, that keep populating your notification panel, suggesting apps and showing adverts. These apps already take critical permissions from you (mentioned earlier) as soon as you turn on the phone for the first time. You can’t uninstall them and at best you can block all notifications. Micromax has also added a theme manager called “Personalise” to the UI, that is literally empty. Overall, it seems the UI is just put in place for advertising purposes and in the process has left out some essential things, like baking the critical permissions in the UI itself.
If the UI wasn't enough of an annoyance, you also have apps such as the “App center”, and “system update”, that keep populating your notification panel, suggesting apps and showing adverts. These apps already take critical permissions from you (mentioned earlier) as soon as you turn on the phone for the first time. You can’t uninstall them and at best you can block all notifications. Micromax has also added a theme manager called “Personalise” to the UI, that is literally empty. Overall, it seems the UI is just put in place for advertising purposes and in the process has left out some essential things, like baking the critical permissions in the UI itself.
Build and Design
The Canvas Infinity is essentially a budget smartphone and it feels like one for the most part. Micromax has used an old school approach to build quality here. While the back is made of metal, it is actually just a metal plate on top of a plastic holder, and the entire rear housing can be removed to reveal a removable battery. Further, instead of SIM trays, you get access to dedicated SIM slots under the back, along with a dedicated microSD card slot, which supports upto 128GB. Now, some people may like the removable back and battery solution, but some may criticize it as well. From a fair bit use, I think that Micromax has done a good enough job and the phone seems sturdy enough.
The beautiful 5.7-inch display uses 2.5D curved glass on top, but no oleophobic coating, which makes it quite resistive to swipes. However, the new taller stance and slimmer bezels around the display results in a more compact overall footprint. This means the device is easier to use in one hand, even with that large display.
Performance
The Micromax Canvas Infinity features an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC, which seems out of place in the budget segment in 2017. However, Micromax has done a decent job by eking out most of the processing power from it. While the erratic UI takes the shine out of the phone's performance by giving the user a sluggish UI, the phone does a really good job with gaming. I tested games like Asphalt 8 and Vainglory, which are both graphically intensive games and neither felt unresponsive. I did see an occasional frame drop or two, but that is about it, and quite acceptable from budget devices. What’s not acceptable is that day-to-day performance is not very smooth and even common apps like Facebook, SMS or even the camera sometimes take a couple of seconds to load. The phone is equally laggy when switching between apps, which again seems like the UI’s doing.
The Canvas Infinity is essentially a budget smartphone and it feels like one for the most part. Micromax has used an old school approach to build quality here. While the back is made of metal, it is actually just a metal plate on top of a plastic holder, and the entire rear housing can be removed to reveal a removable battery. Further, instead of SIM trays, you get access to dedicated SIM slots under the back, along with a dedicated microSD card slot, which supports upto 128GB. Now, some people may like the removable back and battery solution, but some may criticize it as well. From a fair bit use, I think that Micromax has done a good enough job and the phone seems sturdy enough.
The beautiful 5.7-inch display uses 2.5D curved glass on top, but no oleophobic coating, which makes it quite resistive to swipes. However, the new taller stance and slimmer bezels around the display results in a more compact overall footprint. This means the device is easier to use in one hand, even with that large display.
Performance
The Micromax Canvas Infinity features an older Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC, which seems out of place in the budget segment in 2017. However, Micromax has done a decent job by eking out most of the processing power from it. While the erratic UI takes the shine out of the phone's performance by giving the user a sluggish UI, the phone does a really good job with gaming. I tested games like Asphalt 8 and Vainglory, which are both graphically intensive games and neither felt unresponsive. I did see an occasional frame drop or two, but that is about it, and quite acceptable from budget devices. What’s not acceptable is that day-to-day performance is not very smooth and even common apps like Facebook, SMS or even the camera sometimes take a couple of seconds to load. The phone is equally laggy when switching between apps, which again seems like the UI’s doing.
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