Micromax officially launched the Canvas Turbo in October last year. This smartphone has some great features and is the first full HD smartphone from the company. The Canvas Turbo has a 5-inch display based on Continuous Grain Silicon technology, we got the device from Micromax and here is the full review of this Indian smartphone.
Design
This is one of the best smartphones in the market and is the best smartphone by any Indian company. The Canvas Turbo is a very slim device, it has an aluminum body with matt finish on the rear side. The power/lock key is placed on the right hand side along volume keys, the placement of buttons on the sides make easy navigation. The left hand side of the phone holds 2 micro SIM slots, the phone’s back panel is non-removable and is made of aluminum.
The front of the phone is dominated by the 5-inch display and has a 5MP camera on top of it along with three touch sensitive buttons in the bottom for Home, Menu and Back navigation. The rear of the phone is divided into 3 parts, the central part is the back door which is made of aluminum.
The upper and lower parts are made of plastic, a normal user may not differentiate between the central aluminum and the plastics on top and bottom. Overall the design of the phone is very attractive and is easy to hold in one hand. With matt finish on the rear the phone is little slippery.
Software
The Canvas Turbo comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean Operating System with a little modification in the UI. Micromax has not used the stock launcher and changed it with some other launcher, rest of the phone’s interface gives the stock Android feel, it comes with the same notification bar and settings menu. Micromax has included some ringtones and wallpapers to match with the profile of the company.
Additionally this Indian manufacturer has included the iFloat application. A lot of people compare it with Samsung’s multi window feature but we wont do that. This is totally a different thing altogether. The iFloat app in Canvas Turbo allows user to add multiple windows on one screen, the UI of iFloat is very simple and user friendly. One can add multiple windows on the display for better multi-tasking, there is also option to decrease and increase size of the windows present on the screen.
Another good thing about the Canvas Turbo is its Camera, the Canvas Turbo just like Canvas 4 comes with Sony camera and offers some of the best shots in the low lighting conditions. Micromax offers a different UI in the camera application. Micromax calls its camera the Camerazzi and offers some good features like GIF animation, 3D panorama, Burst mode, Object Removal among others. The camera on this device is capable of shooting full HD videos and comes with HDR mode.
Hardware
Micromax has really used some tough materials on the phone, it does not feel cheap or look cheap. The phone is premium in looks and feel, the build quality is amazing and feels tough. This is the first Indian smartphone that surprised us with the performance, features and build quality. On the hardware front the Canvas Turbo has a 5-inch multi touch display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with 440PPI density. It comes powered by a 1.5GHz Quad-Core MediaTek processor coupled with PowerVR SGX544 GPU and 2GB RAM.
There are Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Proximity and Ambient light sensors on board along with 16GB of internal storage capacity. The device has a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front facing camera for video calling purpose. And all of these use a 2,000mAH battery to function effortlessly on this device.
We generally don’t get quality earphones with smartphones made in India. The Canvas Turbo is bundled with a nice quality earphone with mic, it features a soft rubberized wire and call answer button on it. The sound quality of the earphone is great with good bass effects.
Display
Micromax Canvas Turbo, the company says it can Juggle Many Lives, well it truly can Juggle many lives. The phone’s USP is its 5-inch full HD display, it is the first smartphone from Micromax to have a full HD resolution. The display offers bright visuals, the text is very clear, pictures and videos looks brilliant. There are no lags or frame drops while playing HD games or FHD videos, Quad-Core processor supports the display perfectly.
Camera
This smartphone has a 13MP rear camera with LED flash from Sony. There is a 5MP front-facing camera for video calling. The rear camera on this device is amazing and takes great pictures in day light. Color reproduction is good and images look natural and real. Budget smartphones comes with poor cameras, and make no mistake this is a high end Indian smartphone offering best value for money. The Camera app did sometime report issues and was closed automatically but that we expect to get fixed with the kitkat update coming in a couple of months.
Images taken in low light conditions came out to be brilliant, although there is little noise and that is clearly visible when zooming in the images but its good for a smartphone camera. The rear camera on this smartphone is also capable of shooting full HD videos, the camer UI on this smartphone comes with a lof features and funtions. Features like Cinemagraph, 360 degree Panorama, Burst mode and Object eraser are included in the camera UI of this phone. Here are some samples of the images taken at night using the Canvas Turbo
Performance
We have reviewed quite a few phones in the past and this one turned out to be the best of all. In our review session we bombarded the phone with a lot of HD games and HD videos, we tried maximum to make this device report error or force close applications but that dint happen. Full HD games like Shadow Guns, Modern Combat 2, Air Attack HD and Nova 3 played perfectly on this device. We did not experience any issue while playing any of these games on this smartphone. Some of other smartphones we reviewed previously also came with FHD resolution but had problems playing these games. Thanks to the Quad-Core processor and 2GB RAM on board as it really helps the phone to perform better and faster than its rivals, multi tasking is also amazing and works just the way it is designed.
This smartphone comes with Dual SIM feature, it supports micro SIM on both the slots. The phone is 3G enabled and thus we used 3G internet on the phone to test the speed. Web pages loaded in average time and apps downloaded faster, there were some issues on the WiFi and at times web pages took little longer than normal load time to load the pages and content on this smartphone. Calling experience is again average on this phone while texting is really amazing. The keyboard is perfectly tweaked to offer accurate touches while typing.
We did not run any benchmarking apps on this device because we strongly did not wanted to compare this device with other devices in the market. Another reason for not running benchmarks was that the phone was extremely fast, there were no issues playing any games, running apps and watching movies.
The 2,000mAH battery might look tiny on paper; we too felt that mere 2,000mAH battery will not do justice to the giant display and Quad-Core processor. During our review session, which lasted for 1 full day, the phone’s battery did not disappoint us. It gave us a backup for 13hours, we used the phone mostly for playing HD games and watching movies. We used 3G and WiFi at regular intervals for internet needs, we played music on loudspeaker and attended about 15 calls with average texting. Micromax has done something with the software to increase the battery life of the device, otherwise a 2,000mAH battery cannot last that long.
My Verdict
This is by far the best smartphone we have reviewed in the past. Moreover with a price tag of Rs 18,000 it’s a great deal. Canvas Turbo does not report any issues except the one software bug with the Camera App. Also this device is likely to get a software update in the coming months which will bring Android kitkat to this device.
The only drawback this smartphone has is the lack of external memory storage. The device does not have a micro SD card slot, although this smartphone supports USB O-T-G and one can connect pen drive or any mass storage using OTG cable but a lot of people prefer micro SD cards for secondary storage and not OTG. So if you don’t mind setting up OTG for storage or if you are happy with the 16GB memory then you can go ahead and buy this device. Also I recommend this smartphone to people who are looking to buy a smartphone in the 20k to 25k budget category, this one comes for just 18k but offers something more than what other 18k smartphones can.
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