Box contents A quick run into what you get with the box.
- The phone
- Headset
- USB charger
- Guides / warranty documentation
- Battery
Look, feel, quality and performance
On a casual first glance one might mistake the phone to Samsung Galaxy S2. Micromax looks good and fits well on the palms, thanks to the textured back panel. Weighing 118.4 gms, its pretty light as well and does not disappoint you on the build quality especially for the price it comes at. The front has a Gorilla Glass slab with no physical buttons but has soft buttons. The 4.3 inch display is a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a resolution of 400 x 800 pixels that translates to 217 ppi pixel density. Don’t get very excited about the Super AMOLED claims. A90S Super AMOLED is rather a cheaper 256k color panel vs the traditional 16million color panel found in the true Super AMOLED displays. Ah! that explains now why Micromax is able to still retail it for lower price.
A textured back panel adds to the extra grip and also looks good
The dual-SIM slot inside and also a 1600 mAh Li-Ion battery that is good for a up to 5 hours talk time on 2G and up to 4 hours on 3G network plus a standby upto 180 hours. Though on real term average usage, the battery just holds up for a day.
On the bottom you got the microphone hole, on the right hand side is power on/off button, on the top is the 3.5 mm earphone jack and the charging port with a cap and on the left hand side sits the volume rocker.
[gallery link="file" columns="4" ids="1666,1667,1668,1669"]
8 MP camera on the rear with LED flash and also you find a tiny noise-cancellation microphone to capture audio during video shoots. Micromax has managed to improve the camera performance in comparison to the old A90, though it can be improved further. But still it manages to reproduce good colour and depth.
The 720p video is decent enough.
Micromax A90s has a Dual Core 1 GHz processor which is an upgrade to the old A90 which had a single core processor. Dual-core 1 GHz processor is powered by MediaTek MT6577 chipset doing a tango with PowerVR SGX531 GPU. Resulting power would be sufficient for normal usage but if you play around with heavy applications, you will find the device slightly straining hard.
A90S comes pre-loaded with Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich and I would not suggest you dream of getting a JellyBean update. The OS is almost stock Android with a light customization. Micromax has bundled its own apps like HookUp messenger, mZone and also you have its MStore, which allows you to download certain Micromax freebies, not sure how much it might excite you.
Ofcoure the dual-core processor will handle most of the regular games but certain high graphic games might show incompatibility with the hardware specs. Anyways, when I spoke to some of them who bought the device they seem to be content with the game availability to their hardware, so unless you are a hardcore serious gamer, the device should be fine for you. On a slight sore note, the device screen is a 3 multi-touch point, so it might hamper certain gaming experiences.
What is attractive is the screen wall paper and also the fact the wall paper is displayed even in the call dialer screen, which is refreshing when compared to the boring black dial screens.
Talking about calls, you also get an option to overturn the phone to mute the incoming calls. There are also certain other features like minute reminder, quick responses settings.
Messaging is also quiet a decent experience and again you get the wall paper background displayed in your message interface which is visually a refreshing change.
Browsing is again a decent experience with a fairly good loading time and quiet responsive. A90S also can be used as a WiFi hotspot wherein you can connect upto 5 other phones and laptops to the internet.
[gallery columns="5" link="file" ids="1671,1672,1673,1674,1675,1676,1677,1678,1679,1680,1681,1682,1683,1684,1685,1686,1687,1688,1689,1690,1691,1692,1693,1694,1695"]
Final note
[pros]- Good looks
- decent build quality
- Super AMOLED yes but only 256k display
- Poor battery life
- 512 RAM restricts the gaming experience
