Mumbai: Reports emerged yesterday that Micromax would be announcing a 5.7-inch phablet in its Canvas series this week and now we have complete details of what the device would look like as well as a confirmation of all the specifications. Like the Canvas 4, which was a rebadged BLU Life One, the Canvas A240 is most likely to be a rebadged BLU Life View, which was recently announced in the US and is available for $300.
Essentially, it seems that both Micromax and BLU are sourcing at least some of their smartphones from the same OEM. We are not sure what Micromax will call this phone under its Canvas series, but we are hearing murmurs it would be called the Canvas Doodle 2.
Coming to the design, we are told that the aluminum band that was first introduced in the Canvas 4 will be retained while the rear panel will be divided into three parts – an aluminum middle part and plastic top and lower edges. The top plastic edge slides open that also houses the two mini SIM card slots.
The phone attempts at emulating the gradual curve seen on the HTC One. The front is dominated by an almost edge-to-edge 5.7-inch 720p display with a pixel density of 258ppi, which is quite respectable considering the price point this phone will target. Like always, the phone will retain the three capacitive buttons under the display.
On the specifications front, we are looking at a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. A MediaTek MT6589 chipset hums under the hood with four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.2GHz each. It comes with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot for good measure.
It comes with a 2,600mAh battery and considering the hybrid rear casing, we have our doubts whether it would have a removable battery. The larger footprint and use of a metallic back casing ensures that the phone weighs a not-so-comfortable 220grams but we doubt if that will be a deal breaker of any sorts.
The Micromax A240 runs on Android 4.2 and will come with Micromax’s own touches on top, which we believe will include all the customizations we saw in the Canvas 4 including the vertical panorama mode, the new video player and could even include the tacky blow-to-unlock mode.
The device will take on Samsung’s Galaxy Mega 5.8, which is currently priced at approximately Rs 23,000. Not only will Micromax play on the pricing but will also market the specifications, which are better (at least on paper) on most counts.
The Galaxy Mega 5.8 has a qHD display, a dual-core processor and a combination of an 8-megapixel rear and 1.9-megapixel front-facing cameras, all of which the Micromax A240 easily trounces, again on paper.
Micromax is reportedly launching this phone some time this week and is expected to price it at around Rs 18,000.
BGR.in /Rajat Agrawal
