UberMensch Tech

Gone are the days of the VGA front-facing camera, that no one bothered about, With selfies having become mainstream now, phone makers have been quick at moulding their products to meet this industry demand. We are now seeing smartphones fitted with high-res front-facing camera with several tricks up its sleeves to woo audiences. Micromax decided to build a phone just for selfie lovers, and went all out with a 13MP front sensor packaged with several face-enhancing tools, and just so that you know what the phone is meant for, it went ahead and named it the Canvas ‘Selfie’.
Read on to know if its meant just for selfies or has enough substance to justify the Rs 15,999 price tag.
Build and Design: 8/10
The Micromax Canvas Selfie is by far the most good looking smartphone to come from Micromax’s abode. Shedding off the typical design and black hue, the smartphone is available in Pearl white and Sapphire blue colours. It comes with a curvy design, unlike the usual candy bar shape, and has a metal frame. The design takes cues from Samsung’s premium lineup with a faux leather back featuring stitches along the edges. The white leather stretches all the way lightly towards front lower side too, giving it a plush look.

The front of the device is fitted with a 4.7-inch 720p IPS LCD display along with a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. Below the display, one will find three touch buttons. We got the Pearl white unit for review, and you may have to keep your hands clean all the time to ensure you don’t soil its white back. On the back, you will also find the rear snapper with a large ring surrounding it (also seen in the latest Yu Yuphoria), flanked by dual LED flash. The back also has a metallic Micromax logo and the word Selfie has been etched at the lower end, right above the slot for speakers.

The right edge of the device has a dedicated camera button and a tray that holds your SIM card as well as microSD card. The left edge comes with a volume rocker.

Features: 6/10
The Micromax Canvas Selfie is powered by an octa-core Mediatek MT6592 processor clocked at 1.7GHz. It includes 2GB RAM. The 16GB onboard space, out of which 12.14GB is available, can be further expanded up to 32GB via microSD card slot. This obviously isn’t a lot of space for most users. It’s a dual SIM device with a single tray with slots for a micro SIM and nano SIM. The nano SIM slot also transforms into microSD card slot, which means only one SIM can be used at a time.  In order to use two SIMs, you will have to let go expandable memory slot. This seems like a major drawback of the device.

The 4.7-inch HD display gives a pixel density that goes up to 312 ppi. It runs on Android OS, v4.4.2 (KitKat), along with Micromax customisations. The device comes with a 13MP rear snapper with dual LED flash, and a similar front-facing camera with LED flash.
Software: 7/10
The Micromax Canvas Selfie runs Android KitKat OS, upgradable to Lollipop, with a layer of the company’s own skin. First thing we noticed is the new skin is more iOS-inspired with rounded icons. The device is loaded with apps, but thankfully you can uninstall most of the third-party apps. However, you will also find Micromax’s apps like M!Live and M!Games. There’s a trending apps section that keeps recommending apps like Teen Patti, Guevara, Snapdeal and others.

However, the new skin atop the Android KitKat OS in the Canvas Selfie doesn’t come with an app drawer. These apps are scattered across four panes. It is also bundled with games, like Where’s My Perry, Smash it!, Hitout Heroes and Grow Away. A one-time trial version of these paid games is available.

Google Now popped up each time we unlocked the device. In sometime, one can easily get the hang of the UI, and navigating around is simple.
Performance: 7/10
The Micromax Canvas Selfie doesn’t have top end specs. But the octa-core Mediatek MT6592 processor coupled with 2GB RAM turns out to be a decent enough performer.
The device is a tad slow to respond while handling multiple tasks, but there are no random closing of apps. On running benchmark tests, the AnTuTu score was 32925 and the Quadrant score was 13,663. The PCMark test score is 2118. It is still a tad better than the Yu Yureka and almost equivalent to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3G. The Xiaomi Mi 4i priced about Rs 2,000 less appears to be a better performer.

The Geekbench single core and multi core scores were 444 and 2454, respectively.

With around 10 apps running in the background, we tried browsing with multiple tabs. The device did stutter and we faced a few lags. It couldn’t smoothly run us through photo-heavy websites.
The call quality is good and we didn’t find any network issues even in confined spaces like the elevator. The bundled earphones worked perfectly fine and were great at isolating the outside noise even while travelling crowded trains.
Display: 6/10
The Selfie comes with a 4.7-inch IPS display. While most devices under Rs 10,000 come with a 5-inch display, it is disappointing to see a smaller display. The display isn’t crisp or the best we’ve seen around, but it did manage to handle 1080p and 720p videos quite well. We didn’t find the images distorted or pixelated, either.

Zooming in and out is quick, and we didn’t find problem reading on the small display while travelling either. The viewing angles are good and the display won’t disappoint you even when navigating or reading in bright sunlight.
Camera: 7.5/10
The Canvas Selfie is aimed at selfie lovers and comes equipped with a 13MP front-facing shooter (Sony sensor) with LED flash. Firstly, the face tracking works just fine, and the company has also added some face-enhancing tools that are seen right on the camera user interface. This means, it allows skin smoothening, whitening, teeth whitening, reduces dark circles and so on, before you press the shutter. Once you take a selfie, there are some beautifying options, but they didn’t seem really useful and rather simply gimmicky.  In bright light, the device is capable of taking good images and indoor images also seem decent using the flash.

The heavily skinned camera UI

The images show how the tools help smoothen and whiten the skin, before taking the selfie.

An indoor selfie

Skin lightening and smoothening features

These photo enhancing options are also available for the rear snapper. The 13MP rear camera ensures some great images outdoors in daylight. Colours are punchy. However, images with low light conditions aren’t sharp. We tried taking a macro shot, which looked rather pixelated and noisy. Though the camera comes with a dual LED flash, it doesn’t really help much at tackling low light. The camera seems a little laggy when focussing on a subject.

Daylight

Indoor ambient light

Battery 6.5/10
The Canvas Selfie comes equipped with a 2,300mAh battery, which lets you squeeze through a day with moderate usage. On our loop test, the device lasted a little over 7 hours. Overall, the battery shouldn’t be a problem if you are an average user indulging into a healthy mix of instant messaging, browsing, music and photos.
Verdict and Price in India
Firstly, the Canvas Selfie is an extremely good-looking device. As the name goes, the highlight of the device is its 13MP front-facing camera, and it has managed to deliver on its promise. At Rs 15,999, if your primary reason for buying a device is stylish looks and taking selfies, then this one fits the bill right. However, those looking for an overall powerful performer with a larger and better display along with a decent front camera could look elsewhere.
While the Canvas Selfie is a decent performer, there are others at the same price range and even lower, who offer larger, better display and performance. For instance, the Xiaomi Mi 4i priced at Rs 12,999, is overall a good, cheaper option with a 5MP front-camera that is loaded with several beautifying tools and does a decent job at it.