A closer look at Micromax A116 Canvas HD’s quad-core MediaTek MT6589 chip
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD has created quite a buzz with the impressive specs, and we take a closer look at what’s ticking under the hood.
We’ve seen Micromax announce another device for its smartphone portfolio, which when launched in February will stand out in the sub-Rs. 15,000 segment as an affordable quad-core offering with a 5-inch IPS display. Pre-orders for the Micromax A116 Canvas HD start after Republic Day.
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD has a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor coupled up with a PowerVR SGX5 GPU, and 1GB of RAM. The A116 also boasts of dual-SIM capabilities. It has 4GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.
The real star whose performance we’re waiting to see is the MT6589 from Mediatek, which the company claims is the world’s first commercially viable quad-core Cortex-A7 SoC. The MT6589 has 4 Cortex-A7 cores, clocking in at 1.2GHz, and uses a PowerVR Series 5XT GPU. The combination of the two allows for the processor to provide support for full HD content, along with being able to handle a 13MP camera. It also supports 3D content, and is capable of shooting in 3D and convert 2D footage to 3D on the fly.
Multimedia goodness aside, the MediaTek MT6589 processor inside the Micromax A116 Canvas HD also supports dual active SIM cards, meaning that if you are engaged on a phone call on one SIM, the other SIM can still be used to receive and make calls and texts. It also supports HSPA with speeds of up to 42Mbps, a significant jump over the MT 6577, its predecessor, whose capabilities were bottlenecked at 7.2Mbps.
While it is fairly obvious MT6589 might only be able to match up with 50-60 percent of the current generation’s top-end quad-core phones’ performance, given that the Micromax A116 HD only costs a fraction of what these premium phones do, the phone’s sheer performance potential is going to create quite a buzz.
With such powerful parts ticking under the hood, along with the fact that it will ship with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD certainly looks like a good option for those who want processing power on a budget.