The budget smartphone market in India is the most rapidly progressing segment with every manufacturer jumping the bandwagon of launching such handsets. As the consumers are showing more interest in buying such value for money smartphones, the manufacturers are piling up offerings in the sub Rs 15,000 price range. Lately, Micromax Canvas Beat A114R that was announced for the Russian market has been listed for sale in India bearing a price tag of Rs 9,499. Let us take a quick review of the smartphone.
Camera and Internal Storage
The Canvas Beat arrives with an average 8 MP primary camera that is teamed up with auto focus, LED flash and HD 720p video recording capabilities. This snapper is accompanied by a 2 MP front-facing camera that can help in quality video calling and for capturing gorgeous selfies. The camera capacities of the handset may not be the best ones that we can expect from a sub Rs 10,000 priced smartphone, it is definitely good enough for decent photography.
The internal storage capacity of the Canvas Beat stands at 4 GB of which only 1.5 GB is user accessible. This storage space can be further extended up to 32 GB with the help of a micro SD card. This is the standard package that the smartphones in this price range come with and there is nothing great to mention about it.
Processor and Battery
The chipset incorporated in the Micromax Canvas Beat is a Broadcom BCM23550 unit that houses a quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 processor, Broadcom VideoCore IV graphics unit and 1 GB of RAM. Definitely, this is a decent package for a budget smartphone in this price range provided that there are not many Broadcom based smartphones in the market.
The battery unit in the handset is a 1,900 mAh one that is claimed to provide a backup of up to 5 hours of talk time and 150 hours of standby time. The main downside for the budget smartphones is their battery backup and the same is experienced by this one as well.
Display and Features
The display unit in the Micromax Canvas Beat is a 5 inch IPS LCD display that packs a qHD screen resolution of 960×540 pixels. The display is also average and it can handle the basic tasks without any quality degradation. The viewing angles would definitely be good as it is an IPS panel, but it will become evident that it s a budget device owing to the low screen resolution.
It runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean that is outdated now and it has to be noted that there are various devices in the sub Rs 7,000 price range running on Android 4.4 KitKat. Consequently, Micromax would be appreciated if it rolls out an update to the device anytime soon.
Comparison
From the specifications and pricing of the Canvas Beat it can be said that the device will enter a direct rivalry with a slew of other budget smartphones such as MTS Blaze 5.0, Lava Iris Pro 20, Intex Aqua i5 HD and more.
Key Specs
| Model | Micromax Canvas Beat A114R |
| Display | 5 inch, qHD |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz Quad Core Broadcom BCM23550 |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Internal Storage | 4 GB, Expandable up to 32 GB |
| OS | Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean |
| Camera | 8 MP/ 2 MP |
| Battery | 1,900 mAh |
| Price | Rs 9,499 |
What we Like
- Quad Core Chipset
- Competitive Price
What we Dislike
- Dated Operating System
Price and Conclusion
The Micromax Canvas Beat priced at Rs 9,499 will definitely be the right handset for those users who seek to own a budget smartphone that has decent specifications. Especially, if you are planning to upgrade to a smartphone for the first time, this device will be best suited for you. It will not receive any latest OS update as it has not been announced by Micromax, which is a downside.
