After a long hiatus, Micromax is back, but this time its vying for a share of the online market. The company's recent Dual 5 smartphone has striking similarities to the Qiku 360 Q5 and to be perfectly frank, the Micromax Evok Power doesn't really turn heads, at least on initial impressions. Priced at Rs. 6,999, the phone is against the Xiaomi Redmi 3S, Lenovo Vibe K5, Coolpad Mega 3 and more.
Specifications:
Display: 5-inch, 720p
SoC: MediaTek MT6737
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB
Camer: 8MP, 5MP
Battery: 4000mAh
OS: Android 6.0
Design and build
The Micromax Evok Power has an interesting design. On first glance, it looks like the phone has a bumper case attached to it, but the black rubber strip running around the phone is actually part of the design. Micromax says it spoke to Corning, learning that users drop their phones on the sides most often. Hence, it chose this rubber layer over the frame, to avoid chips and scratches. The back panel of the phone is removable and has a metallic finish, similar to what we saw on the Lenovo Vibe K5. Build quality seems sturdy and the rugged side cladding will definitely help the phone withstand accidental drops.
Battery, connectivity and security
Removing the back, you get to the 4000mAh non-removable battery, which we are still testing. Above the battery, you have two 4G SIM card slots and a dedicated microSD card slot. The fingerprint sensor is on the back, which works, but seems somewhat slow.
Display and UI
Beyond the build and design, the phone starts to feel somewhat similar to prior budget-centric phones from the company. It features a 5-inch 720p display that isn't very bright and a somewhat reflective. While viewing angles seem fine, white balance is way off and colour reproduction is nowhere near perfect. We saw some light bleed issues, which we've tried to represent in the image below.
Further, touch response seems sub-par and we observed a few false touches as well. The UI adds to its woes, as the device feels sluggish often, even when navigating through the homescreens and menus. There are quite a few apps pre-installed on the phone, most of which can thankfully be uninstalled.
Steroid launcher and Micromax account
Micromax has employed its Steroid launcher on top of Android, which does not add any additional value to Android 6.0 Marshmallow running underneath it. The implementation of Steroid launcher, though is done in the same way as other launcher apps. It seems to us that the stock Android UI could have been left alone, since Steroid launcher doesn't particularly add many big features to this device. You also get an iOS-like Control Centre by swiping from the bottom, which has pretty much the same functionality as the standard notification shade. The launcher incorporates Micromax’s Around service app, which offers a single interface for all your shopping, travel, stay, food and news needs.
When you start the phone, you are also prompted to sign in to a Micromax account, which will filter notifications for you and offers backup support. All you have to do is sign up. It is not mandatory that you do so, but if you do, one needs to know that Micromax will be sharing your information and data with its unnamed “third party vendors” and “business partners”. To be fair, Micromax isn't the only company doing such things. We have indeed noticed privacy related problems in other smartphones too (the Lava Z25 being a recent example). One must note that being a common occurrence doesn't particularly make it right.
What is even more concerning is that Micromax won’t provide any guarantees or warranties. It will have no responsibility for any loss of private information or corruption of your files. In addition, if you sign up for the Micromax account, you will be automatically signed up with an UDIO mobile wallet as well.
Performance
Coming to the performance, the SoC is partially responsible for the sluggish UI and performance therefore does not seem very dependable. While the phone had no issues going through the regular set of application such as Gmail, Chrome, Youtube, dialer, messaging or camera, it had a hard time running games. When we fired up Asphalt 8, we could observe regular frame drops and stutters during gameplay. That being said, the game was still playable.
Camera
Now considering the price, the Evok Power offers an average camera at best. Images taken in different lighting conditions have decent colour saturation, but there is a definite lack of details across photos taken in different lighting conditions. The front facing camera is again average and is usable for video chats and occasional selfies.
Images have been resized to fit
The Micromax Evok Power is a budget offering, and it has an interesting design. However, sluggish performance, an average camera and a sub-par UI do get in the way. On first impressions, we aren't particularly impressed with this device.