Micromax Canvas 6

Micromax looks to bring it back to the glory days with its flagship Micromax Canvas 6. Priced at Rs. 5,499, the Canvas 6 looks stunning, but it does not seem to deliver the same delight as it does with its looks.

Micromax Canvas 6 is a poorly put together product. It has removed certain features like Gorilla Glass which are expected from a modern phone, making it dated. Neither does it push on other levels, like performance, to make up for this loss. This product is not recommended for masses as better phones exist in the market in the similar price range.

Micromax Canvas 6 has a unibody metal chassis with chamfered edges which looks classy.  There are sharp lines along the edges which make it a bit difficult to handle, plus it is quite weighty. The overall size of Canvas 6 makes it a little cumbersome to carry. The sides, however, are thick enough to offer a good grip, though the back is slippery. The fingerprint scanner is cushioned at the back and recessed into the metal chassis with the reflective coating. Overall, it is a good-looking phone. The primary issue is the lack of Gorilla Glass, which is becoming standard in the flagship market. So you should be extremely careful with this phone or attach an external screen guard on it.

Micromax Canvas 6 comes with a standard 5.5-inch IPS display which has a 1920 x 1080 pixels full-HD resolution. The pictures on the screen are sharp, and the colours are vibrant and vivid. While it may not be compared with the quality that phones like Samsung and Huawei offer, this kind of texture and brightness is appreciated at this range. It can achieve a good amount of brightness level when it is maxed out. Canvas 6 also has decent sunlight legibility so that you can read your texts outside with little struggle.

Micromax Canvas 6 has a 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753T paired with a 3GB of RAM, and sizable 32GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 128GB with a microSD card. The app performance is good and quite fast, and it can run moderate games without lags. However, graphics-heavy games can stutter a bit. The phone has a problem with warming up especially when you play games for a long time, but at this range, it is expected. Benchmark tests land this phone at 36,996 points, which is the same as Canvas 6 Pro. GPU tests, however, found the performance go down to 4361 points, which might be the reason for the laggy performance of graphics-heavy games.

Micromax Canvas 6 is fitted with a 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture which has LED flash and Phase Detection Autofocus. It makes the focusing speed fast and decent. However, shutter lag is noticeable, especially during low-light photography. Landscape images are decent, and the level of details are quite accurate though they may appear less bright than expected. However, the HDR mode steps in and helps to better the image, adding a bit of sharpness to it as well. However, there is  shutter lag, which gets worse in low light. Images of distant objects might look great at first, but a bit of zooming in can reveal chromatic aberration that disrupts the image quality. Close-up photos, however, are better since the sensor capture good details.

While a fair amount of lights can give you good quality images, low-light shots are inferior. The photos can get blurred, is often blotchy and takes in too much noise.

The front 8MP camera captures passable photos. The camera app is similar to all Micromax phones which different modes like Panorama, Face Beauty, Motion Track, etc..

Video recording can go up to 1080p which are quite average.

Micromax Canvas 6 comes with an impressive 3000mAh juice pack. Light-to-moderate use can easily last it for a day or more. A video loop test found that the battery could last for 8 hours and 37 minutes which is quite average. Micromax Canvas 6 does not come with fast charging. While many low and mid-range phones do not support fast charging, Micromax falls behind them because it has an extremely slow charging potential, going from 10% to 100% in almost 4 hours. Overnight charging is suggested.

Micromax Canvas 6 does not stand out among its competitors. It has good performance levels and an impressive battery though the charging is extremely slow. However, the camera on this set is quite average. The lack of Gorilla Glass is a serious issue for the durability of the phone. Micromax Canvas 6 Pro has been brought out in the similar price range and same features. Canvas 6 is a better choice since it has a better battery, a fingerprint sensor and a sturdy metal body. However, Redmi Note 3, at a similar price range, is a much better recommendation with good battery capacity, powerful performance and better camera.