What is Micromax up to? This was the question everyone had recently when the company co-founder Rahul Sharma met a few journalists. The answer came in the form of a phone, and a rather attractive looking phone: the Micromax Dual 5. After a brief lull, the Dual 5 is not the only phone Micromax have in its product line-up for 2017. But it is arguably the most important one.
In the last one year Micromax has seen the China-based companies like Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Lenovo encroach on the space it used to occupy in the mainstream and budget phone market. This year, hence, it hopes to push into the premium category, even as it works to fight it out in the mainstream market. In the coming days, Micromax will launch many more phones, some priced more affordable and some that will sell at entry-level price points. But the Dual 5 is starkly a more premium phone. Or rather it is an unabashedly premium phone, considering that it shares more than just similarity with a Qiku phone that is sold in China.
The Micromax Dual 5 is also unabashedly ambitious. This is the reason why Micromax has packed it to the brim, giving it almost any feature you can think of. The only big feature that is missing is the water and dust proof body. But then no other phone in this price range has it. Other than that the Micromax Dual 5 has got some really cool hardware inside its sleek and sharp body.
The good
Micromax says that the Dual 5 is a phone that looks premium. And I agree. Although with some reservation. It is a good looking phone, built well and offered in classy rose gold, to borrow a phrase from Apple. But it also has a design that we have seen again and again. It looks very similar to the HTC 10 with its all-aluminium body and curved back cover. But it has sharper edges -- less than 5mm -- and that adds some personality to it. The quality of metal in the phone is top class and so is the finishing.
Unlike many other budget phones, the Dual 5 has no plastic inserts. But just like what we see in the high-end phones, the phone has rubber lines to ensure good network performance. The phone also has two rear cameras (more about that later) and under camera lenses, a fingerprint scanner that is fast, precise and rightly placed.
Unlike many other budget phones, the Dual 5 has no plastic inserts. But just like what we see in the high-end phones, the phone has rubber lines to ensure good network performance
On the front, the same quality workmanship is visible that is there on the metal rear cover. The 5.5-inch screen has a layer of 2.5D curved glass layers that melds into the frame, giving the phone a seamless look. Under the screen there is home button, menu button and back button. All of them are touch-sensitive covered with the same glass that is on top of the screen.
As noted earlier, the Micromax Dual 5 is an attractive phone. The chamfered edges, curved back cover, curved glass, quality metal, a seamless design does make it stand out. Although because this is also a fairly common design, it doesn't have the same personality that OnePlus 3, which is a tad more pricier has, or the good looks that Samsung A5, also pricier, boasts of with its metal and glass body. It is also, with its slim bezels, fairly compact phone for a device that has a 5.5-inch screen.
There are a number of features that Micromax has highlighted in the Dual 5. But personally what I love most about the phone is its screen. Made of AMOLED panel, this 5.5-inch screen with FullHD resolution is plenty sharp and brilliantly vibrant. It shows deep colours and has contrast that makes it a joy to use, whether you are using the phone indoors or out in the bright sunlight. The contrast and colour depth is so good that black on this phone is deep shade of black. There is no grey here. Although all AMOLED screens show fantastic colours, the Dual 5 is particularly good at it.
The second feature that is lovely is the rear camera. The camera uses two Sony-made 13-megapixel sensors. One of these sensors is a regular sensor that clicks full colour photos. This sensor is also paired with an F1.8 lens. The other one uses a monochrome camera. with two of these sensors the Dual 5 offers some special modes, which help it stand out.
Performance of the regular camera in the Dual 5 is very good. In good light it clicks images that have rich colours and ample detail. The phone also handles dynamic light, for example a sun shining behind a building, deftly, rendering these scenes with good colours. But in low light, the performance is not that good. This is where the second lens kicks in. Once you move the slider to Dual in the camera app, there is a night mode that a user can select. And this night mode really works. It uses both cameras to click a picture and then combines the data to create an image that looks has very minimal light bleed, is sharp, has good colours and the perfect exposure.
The Dual mode can also be used to click portrait photos that have blurred background. This feature is similar to what you get in the iPhone 7 Plus and it works equally well. Although the AI in the iPhone is better at recognising silhouette of a person and then applying the blur, the Dual 5 is also almost there. When used for the portrait photos, Dual 5 gives very nice looking images, even in lower light inside a room.
The front camera, which too clicks 13-megapixel images, in the Dual 5 too is a competent performer. In good light it clicks fairly nice images, which have ample details. The soft glow flash, meanwhile, helps the camera click better selfie images in low light compared to what most other phones in this price range can manage.
The okay
Although camera, build quality and screen are the big highlights of the Dual 5, it has several other cool features too. The phone comes with 128GB internal storage, which is very generous for its price. In today's world of WhatsApp forwards and 4K videos you can never have enough storage. Then there are some cool security features. Although not everyone will appreciate or make use of these features -- personally I don't -- a lot of consumers will find the anti-theft feature, which clicks the photo of the person trying to unlock your phone and then emails it to you, and the dual mode, which allows a user to keep some apps in a separate virtual area on the phone, very useful.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and 4GB RAM. While using the phone, I found the performance satisfactory. The user interface is smooth and while multi-tasking I didn't notice any lag. The phone runs cool, deals with multi-tab browsing using Chrome well enough and runs popular games with ease.
The Dual 5 has a decent mono-speaker, although I still prefer the one in the OnePlus 3 , which is a pricier phone. Did I say that already? Okay. The battery life too is good at around 12-14 hours depending on how you use and how much you use it in Delhi's summer. If you are outdoors in summer, the battery drains faster because of the heat and temperature. The phone comes with fast charging so you can charge it quickly when you are running short on time.
The bad
But not all is hunky dory. It can't be in a phone. The Dual 5 too has some areas where it is weak. And that area is software. Not only the phone uses older Android Marshmallow -- the Nougat update is coming soon, says Micromax -- but it also uses an Android that is heavily customised. And I don't like these customisations.
It's not that these customisations are bad or create performance issues. No, not at all. It is just that they are tacky and unnecessary. Worse still, they use confusing language. At times there will be a prompt the options instead of giving option to consumer to choose from "Yes" or "No" will say something like "now" or "set it". Or something like that. And such confusing layer is everywhere. There is a folder called Black Tech! The anti-theft app describes itself as "a secure anti-theft, a closed data". I am sure Micromax will fix these issues with the software update, but still it's little odd to see them in a device.
The Greek hero
This brings me to the concluding part. Should you buy the Dual 5 or not? And my answer is that I recommend it if you can overlook the tacky software. It's fast. But it is also a little confusing to use this phone because of all the features it offers. But those who like many features, will probably think different.
The Dual mode can also be used to click portrait photos that have blurred background. This feature is similar to what you get in the iPhone 7 Plus and it works equally well.
Personally, I would have recommended the Dual 5 more heartily if its software was better. Hardware wise, it is a fabulous phone. It's camera can hold its own against any other camera in its class. In fact, in low light when the dual-camera mode kicks in it clicks fantastic photos. And the screen of the Dual 5 is among the best we have seen this side of Rs 40,000.
The Dual 5 is like a Greek hero. It has all the virtues but one weakness, one Achilles' Heel that stops it from the greatness. Yet, despite its some flaws it is a phone worth Rs 24,999. But that is the offline price for the phone, which means you will most likely end up seeing it in shops at a price that is even lower. The closer it is to the Rs 22,000, the better value for money it represents.
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