Micromax Canvas Win W092 is one of the two Windows Phone devices launched by the company this week, and is the cheapest Windows Phone device to be released in India. The Canvas Win W092 is priced at INR 6,500 ($110) and will be available in the market starting early July 2014.
The budget smartphone aims to compete with the Nokia Lumia 520, another popular affordable Lumia available in the region. I spent some time with the device at the launch event, and here are my first impressions of the phone.
Design
The W092 features a 4-inch IPS display. The build quality is decent and the body is all plastic, which is okay for a $100 phone, but looks cheap compared to its premium sibling, the Canvas Win W121. It's quite boxy, and thicker than all Lumia and Asha devices. Despite that, it's not very heavy, and fits very well in the hand. The phone's a fingerprint magnet though, both on the back panel as well as on the glossy display.
The bottom of the phone sports the regular Windows Phone buttons – back, home, and search. Unlike the Lumia 630, these are not virtual, soft buttons. The two spines sport one button each, the volume rocker and the power button, while a dedicated camera button is missing on this one as well.
Hardware
The Canvas Win W092 is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor clocked at 1.2 GHz and packs in 1GB RAM. The specifications are identical to the Canvas Win W121, and quite great for a budget phone. The 1GB RAM is a great choice since some of the budget Lumias include only 512MB RAM, which keeps a lot of gaming enthusiasts or spec enthusiasts away. The 8GB internal storage with a memory card slot is decent too.
The phone includes 1500 mAh battery, which is less than the W121, but should be good enough for a 4-inch device. Of course, the dual SIM phone misses out on most sensors which is understandable for a budget device.
Camera
The phone packs in an 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 0.3MP VGA front camera. Again, Micromax brings in a differentiated advantage against several budget Lumias which do not feature front camera or flash. The camera is the major difference between the two Canvas Win smartphones.
The few photos I took in the well-lit ballroom didn't turn out to be very good. I'll not dismiss it entirely, and would like to try it in different environments, specially outdoors, once I get a review unit. For a phone of this price, my expectations are low, and just an average snapper should be enough to impress me.
Software
The Canvas Win series is the only one other than the Lumia 630 which comes with Windows Phone 8.1 out of the box. The Windows Phone 8.1 operating system is nicely optimized for low-end devices. There's the usual signature experiences from Microsoft, but you'll obviously miss the huge catalog of Nokia apps and experiences.
Like for the W121, Micromax has chosen not to bundle any of their own apps or from their Indian partners. Although, this could change for the retail box since I've only checked out the demo devices as yet.
The Micromax Canvas Win W092 is a decent budget smartphone. While the design is average, Micromax doesn't cut corners on hardware and camera which would deliver a fine Windows Phone experience. I'm not sure if it hurt low-end Lumias, but it's definitely a tough competitor against sub-$100 Android smartphones.
What are your thoughts on this new Windows Phone?
