The Micromax A50 also called Superfone Ninja is a cool dual SIM android powered handset that comes with high end features for a price of under Rs. 5,000. Most of the features are impressive but there are a few disappointments, but overall the A50 is worth it.
First Impression
The white plastic body with a metallic finish with a silver band covering the sides gives it a very distinct look. The handset body gets slightly curved at the bottom. The physical buttons might look a bit odd, but when the phone is active they light up well, very useful when you are using the phone at night.
The 2 MP camera is placed at the rear along with the speaker outlet. There is a micro USB port on the left side along with volume buttons and on the top there is the power button and a 3.5 mm jack. The Jack and the micro USB port do not have any protective covering.
Performance and Display
The 650 MHz processor works efficiently with the android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS. The flow is smooth without lags. The capacitive touch screen display is fun to use, very smooth and responsive. However the display screen resolution is a bit disappointing, it’s not very good, the images / icons are not that sharp you can actually see the pixelated edges. This is more visible when you are in a room. But you can easily read the display quite comfortably in direct sunlight with full brightness.
Camera
The 2 MP camera comes with many features like smile detection, panorama mode, burst mode up to 16 shots, face detection mode and self timer. There is no flash. But anyway the camera quality is very low. It is good for close-up shots which you can put on Facebook. There is no front facing camera. Check out the 2 MP sample image listed below.
Dual SIM
Open up the back case and you will find the slots for inserting the microSD and SIM cards. The slots are overlapping each other, the bottom one is for the microSD, the middle is for the SIM 1 and the top slot for SIM 2.
Connectivity
By default the 3G network is disabled, you will need to enable it. I had no issues setting up Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The connectivity features can be switched on and off by tapping the top screen and dragging it below. When not in use the 3G feature can be switched off so that the system is not using any bandwidth. I did use the GPS which locked on to the satellite within a minute.
External microSD card a must
The camera, Aisha (Artificial Intelligence Speech Handset Assistant) feature, music player and some more apps require an external microSD card. I would recommend you get a SD card, if you are planning to buy this handset – Internal space, just 108 MB free on my A50.
Aisha
The Aisha is actually the android Iris powered by ChaCha. The Aisha is not very accurate but it is getting better and better with each updates. I tried “What is the Time” and it did recognise it and then tried find me Pizza and interestingly it started the Google maps and showed the nearest location where I can get a Pizza. It will take you some time to get used to Aisha especially because of our Indian accent.
Adobe Flash Player
The flash did not work with the default browser. I tried downloading dolphin browser there too the flash did not work ( plugin required ). Searched Adobe Flash plugin and Google play but it did not show up. I guess Flash is not supported, will try and see if I can get it to work.
Games
I downloaded the Angry Birds Space which is available for free on Google Play. It seems to work pretty well. The birds are not very clear you can see the tiny pixels around them but when you play the game it’s very smooth without any lags. But as you advance into high levels the system gets slower.
One of the user Harihar Mahavadi claims that he was able to play NFS on the Micromax A50, now sure how it did, but I asked for some images and here it is.
Battery
The box pack says that the 1200 mAh battery will last for about 10 days and gives a talktime of about 4 hours. I will test it out and update the status within few days.
Review: Pros and Cons of Micromax A50
There are a lot of good things to talk about, first of all the price, which is too good at Rs. 4,999 you can even get it cheaper on some online stores. There plus points are built in GPS, 3G supported, Dual SIM, 650 MHz processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, watch youtube videos and built in FM radio (you need to use the headset for the radio to work).
The physical buttons do not work when you receive a call, you need to tab and swipe the green answer button that will be displayed on the touchscreen. Another useful feature is the Scheduling ON /OFF where in you can set the phone to shut down completely at a particular time and then switch back on at some other time. I added the shutdown at 12:00 AM and startup again at 6:00 AM and it worked fine. This feature will help increase battery life, as the phone will remain shut during the time that you have specified.
I could not find any option to use any other MP3 files as ringtones. So for now I am left with the default ringtones to choose from. Okay you can set MP3 as ringtone the option is present in the music player app. Run the music player and load the MP3 you want as ringtone then press the menu button (the left side button) you will see the option set as ringtone. You can even use live wallpapers and they work well without effecting the overall performance.
The screen resolution as I mentioned before is just okay, not very good. The 2 megapixel camera shoots low quality pictures. So basically there are the two things that are a real disappointment.
How to get Adobe flash working on the Micromax A50
Adobe Flash is not supported but there is a work around and you can get it working with some limitations. Just download the Skyfire browser. Yes I did try this browser before and I could not see the flash working, infact it does work but in a different way. Just head on to skyfire.com or search google for skyfire apk. Download and install it. Well that’s it.
Open the browser and start start browsing. If there is any flash content on the page, you will not see it instead you may see a flash icon but you cannot play it directly on the screen. Just press the option button the left physical button. You will see 3 options video, explore and share. If the video icon is blinking then it has some flash content. Tap it and you will see the video powered by Skyfire. Tap it again to view in full screen. Well this is how flash can work on this handset, but it does work.
Should you buy it?
Well I would say, yes, definitely yes, you are getting too much for such a low price. As for the 2 MP camera and the display resolution, considering the price factor and other features, simply ignore it. Buy from Flipkart.
Micromax A50 Unboxing Video
Apps and Games that run on A50