Micromax, as we all know, has been one of the foremost smartphone brands in India throughout the last couple of years. 2013 saw the huge domination of Micromax, Karbonn, Lava, Spice and a whole host of other home grown smartphone brands in the Indian market. What worked for these local mobile phone vendors? This can mainly be attributed to two major reasons. Firstly, these manufacturers worked hard on providing a good mixture of features and services which were not far behind premium segment phones in a particular category. Alongside, it always offered these features and services at much lower prices than usual. This proved to be a winning market strategy and propelled home grown brands into the top bracket as far as the sales figures and statistics of 2013 indicate.
Alongside, Micromax is leading the pack among all home grown manufacturers currently and is only second to Samsung in the Indian market. It is way ahead of other premium competitors like Nokia, HTC, Apple and Blackberry in the smartphone segment. Micromax is now relying on providing better services and more cutting edge technology to its customers. The last few launches reflect this changed philosophy of the company. Instead of using lower prices as the main selling proposition, the company is looking at scaling up its design, tech and feature aspects to be major winners. Micromax recently got Hugh Jackman on board as its ambassador in a move that has rocked the Indian smartphone world. The talismanic Hollywood star can make a huge difference in the brand redefinition exercise that Micromax is trying to achieve.
Alongside, the new launches from the company are aimed at wowing customers with premium features and affordable prices which still remains a major USP. However, these smartphones are a little different from what we are used to and should carve major niches in the smartphone market. Micromax recently launched the Canvas Duet II and the Canvas Blaze HD smartphones which support both GSM and CDMA, a revolutionary feature in itself. Going by the official online Micromax store, the Canvas Duet II and the Canvas Blaze HD both come at a competitive price of INR 16, 000 which should be viable enough for the average Indian customer looking for premium features at a good price.
Delivery time is capped between seven to ten days as per the official notification for prospective buyers of these phones on Micromax’s official website. The Canvas Blaze HD is an apt successor to the highly appreciated Canvas Blaze which was launched as an outcome of a Micromax-MTS partnership in December 2013. Alongside, Micromax has not revealed any official information on any similar partnership with MTS working behind the launch of the Canvas Blaze HD in spite of the visibly clear MTS logo present on the rear panel of the all new Micromax Canvas Blaze HD. The Micromax Canvas Duet II earlier came with a sticker price of INR 15, 790 on an e-commerce portal in the earlier part of February. Even in the recent past, both these smartphone models were kept as official listings on the online store of the company without any price tag or sticker.
The Micromax Canvas Blaze HD is quite similar to its Canvas Blaze predecessor. It has support for both CDMA and GSM based networks along with dual SIM capabilities. Alongside, the Micromax Canvas Blaze HD makes use of the Android 4.1 OS along with possessing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 MSM8625Q 1.2 GHz processor. 1 GB of RAM is provided along with internal storage capacity of about 4 GB. This can be scaled up to a decent 32 GB in all through the microSD card slot provided on the device. Alongside, the IPS display of 5 inches comes with pixel resolution of 1280 by 720 which should be good enough for smartphone enthusiasts. Micromax has also provided for a powerful primary camera of 8 megapixels placed at the rear and a front camera of 2 megapixels which should work well for video chatting and other operations. The smartphone also possesses a decent 2000 mAh battery which should provide standby time of approximately 150 hours and talk time up to 5 hours. Other features on this smartphone include 16M colors, support for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS and accelerometer and proximity sensors.
The all new Canvas Duet II or EG111 as the smartphone is also known is another winner on the company’s hands. This smartphone also makes use of dual SIM and dual network functionalities. Both GSM and CDMA networks are backed up by this smartphone. Alongside, the Jelly Bean 4.1 Android OS is run by this smartphone in addition to possessing a Media Tek MTK 6572M 1.2 GHz dual core processor. 1 GB of RAM is present along with a High Definition display of 5.3 inches with pixel resolution standing at 1280 by 720. The primary rear camera is of 8 megapixels and there is an LED flash provided as well. The front 2 megapixel camera is handy enough for video chatting enthusiasts. Internal storage is capped at 4 GB while the micro SD card slot helps increase this to 32 GB.
This smartphone uses a powerful 2300 mAh battery which provides standby time of 180 hours and talk time of 6 hours. Connectivity features include support for GPS, Bluetooth, GPRS, EVDO REV A, Wi-Fi and EDGE. This smartphone is also available for purchase on the e-commerce site Flipkart.com which is quite popular in India. This is the second Micromax smartphone which provides CDMA network support after the Micromax Canvas Blaze series. Micromax may just have two winning aces up its sleeve with the Canvas Duet II and the Blaze HD, both of which are extremely value for money propositions.
Dual network support and dual SIM functionality are other attractive features along with decent tech specs and good performance. Micromax should be able to draw even more customers with these recently launched smartphones, both of which are slated to make a mark in the Indian mobile phone market!
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