The Micromax Canvas 5 wants you to rethink your opinion on Indian phones


It’s usually the Chinese smartphone market that’s in focus here at GizChina, but a neighbouring market — India — has been hogging the attention quite a lot since the last few months. First it was Gionee, then OPPO, and then Xiaomi that entered the Indian market. OnePlus One and Meizu are eyeing the country’s smartphone scene as well, which pretty much explains why we’re getting so excited about the Indian market.

However, there’s this domestic company that’s been doing exceptionally well in India. Its called Micromax, and it recently also toppled Samsung to be the #1 maker in the country. Now that Micromax has a respectable portion of the pie, it is looking to make its name heard in the high-end segment, and also appeal to ‘geeks’ who’ve been giving Micromax phones a miss.

micromax-teaser

The Micromax Canvas Nitro, a budget octa-core phone

The Canvas Knight remains to be the Micromax flagship, but it’s been that way for a while now. And that is why, Micromax is about to out the next-gen flagship; it’s making sure the smartphone is truly next-gen and not only by its own standards. The Canvas 5 is what we are talking about.

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Micromax Canvas 5: Specifications

The Canvas Knight was among the first phones to ship with the 2GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6592T chipset, so it is safe to assume that this new baby aka the Canvas 5 will come with the MT6595, which we saw on the Meizu MX4, or a variant thereof. Some other highlights of this upcoming smartphone are an 18 mega-pixel camera (the Canvas Knight had a 16 mega-pixel one), 2GB of RAM and perhaps 16GB of on-board storage.

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Now for what should matter to you more than what I’ve said previously: the Canvas 5 will come with CyanogenMod pre-installed, to join an elite league of smartphones that ship with the highly customizable OS. Since Android L has only been announced, it’ll most likely be Android v4.4 KitKat that the engineers use as base for the CyanogenMod ROM.

Like I said before, Micromax phones have usually targeted the entry-level to mid-range section of the market. However, with the Canvas 5, you can expect Micromax to eye the high-end market, and thus expect the device itself to be priced on the higher side (22,000 INR / US$360 or above).

With the Xiaomi Mi 4 and the OnePlus One set for an Indian launch later this year, do you think Micromax will have a chance with the Canvas 5?

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15 Comments

  1. Kingu Prima
    October 20, 2014

    hi, do you know when the grey version of the Meizu MX4 with 32 or 64Gb will be back for international shipping ? Thanks !

    • October 20, 2014

      @Gizchina:disqus please throw some light 😀

  2. Walwa
    October 20, 2014

    Bitch, please… Micromax from India, Myphone from Philippines and Wiko from France mostly buy their lineup from TInno Mobile which is a Chinese owned and based company. They merely stamp their logos on them.

  3. Jay
    October 20, 2014

    If it’s priced 22K INR, why would anyone buy a MediaTek phone and not go for a Snapdragon 801 based OnePlus One? The latter is a far better deal. Either way, you’re going to be sending money to China!

    • October 20, 2014

      Doesn’t go well with the Make in India campaign, but… well.

      • well
        October 20, 2014

        Well, well, well…

    • Abdul Rehman Sorathia
      October 21, 2014

      OPO does not include an SD card storage
      Also if it is damaged it has to be sent way back to CHINA, on which the shipping cost has to be paid by us

  4. OZ
    October 20, 2014

    India can and should make good Mobile phones. After all they have IT/software talents.

  5. PoliceWala
    October 20, 2014

    CyanogenMod will definitely get Micromax more buyers among geeks since currently their skin is awful and full of bloatware. However, they will have to price this very aggressively since they will compete with the Mi 4, OPO and Honor 6. For us consumers, such competitiveness is a godsend.

    btw @Yash Garg, I had taken part in the review contest on the mtkforums last month, and am curious to know when the results will be out.

  6. Guest
    October 20, 2014

    Dear @Andi Sykes @Yash Garg & @Gizchina Team you all have amazingly reviewed new models such as Mi4,Iuni U3,Meizu Mx4 & even Huawei Honour 6,but I still don’t know why you not reviewing the past july released & the most famous model,Nubia Z7 Max?Any specific reasons?Thanks in advance!

  7. Madhan Kumar
    October 20, 2014

    Dear @Gizchina:disqus @yash3339:disqus & @Gizchina Team you have all,amazingly reviewed the very recently released new models such as Mi4,Iuni U3,Meizu Mx4 & even Huawei Honour 6,but I still don’t know why you not reviewing the past july released & the most famous model,Nubia Z7 Max?Any specific reasons?Thanks in advance!

  8. Robert
    October 20, 2014

    Hi, i am from Czech, please information about Indian e-shops that are sent to Europe ? Any advice?

    • sethu
      October 21, 2014

      No. All Indian eshops wont ship electronics to Europe. If u wish I can help you to buy xiaomi products and any other mobiles in specific

  9. ve
    November 4, 2014

    360 is high. why dont they sell phones that us common folk can afford