The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 is here to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The P650 is loaded with 1.2GHz quad core processor running 4.2 Jelly Bean OS with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage. This tablet is priced at under Rs. 16,500 is it worth it, find out.
Box Pack
The box looks attractive and is quite heavy. The Sar value is mentioned on the box – 1.00 W/Kg@1gm head and 1.49 W/kg@1gm body. Inside you will find the tablet attached with a good quality snap cover. Other accessories included are power adapter, data cable, earphone and warranty statement / user manual.
Design, Display and OS
The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 tablet weight is 448 grams without snap cover, the weight with snap cover is over 500 grams (585 grams). Tab is 9.55mm thick. The P650 has got curved edges and available in blue and white (sliver) colors. The one that I used for the review is shiny silver color with matte finish and the snap cover is white color.
The snap cover is something that you might have seen with the Apple iPad. You can fold it and use it as a stand, check the review video. The cover comes with a plastic case – the tablet is clipped in. Volume rockers are placed on the right side along with micro USB port and a single SIM slot that houses a normal SIM. This tablet supports 3G with phone functionality. The power button, 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port is placed on the top.
There is no dedicated buttons on the front panel, when you power on the tablet you will get the onscreen buttons. There is in call speaker and front camera of 2MP resolution. The Build quality and finishing is very good, though the tab feels a bit heavy.
The Micromax Canvas Tab P650 runs on Android 4.2.1 and sports an 8 inch screen with 1024×658 pixels with 16M colors, but because of the absence of dedicated navigation buttons the usable screen resolution is 976×768 pixels.
There are accelerometer, orientation and magnetic sensors. The magnetic sensor is indeed present and may sound weird as most of the Micromax handsets never come with this particular sensor.
Memory, Storage and OS
RAM is 1GB of which 650 MB is available and of the 16GB storage 1.73 GB is allocated for apps (1.59GB free) and 10.95GB as USB storage (it’s a tab and hence they used the word USB storage instead of phone storage). There is micro SD card slot that supports 32GB card. You can install / move apps on external storage. I tried connecting a pen drive using OTG cable, and it doesn’t work. OTG not supported.
Performance and Benchmark
The Canvas Tab P650 is powered by quad core cortex A7 MT8389 chipset clocked at 1.2GHz with PowerVR SGX 544 MP GPU. The performance is smooth without any lags.
Benchmark scores
- Quadrant Benchmark: 4052.
- Antutu Benchmark : 13274.
- Vellamo Benchmark : HTML5 – 1497, Metal – 503.
- Nenamark2 : 51.2fps.
- Epic Citadel Benchmark: 59.1 in high performance and 27.0 in ultra high quality mode.
- Multi Touch : 5 point.
- OTG is not supported.
The scores are a little better than as seen on Samsung Galaxy Tab 3.
Camera and Entertainment
The rear auto focus camera is 5MP resolution without LED flash. Still image long shots are okay and close ups are good. The camera can record videos in 1080p resolution at 30fps the video quality is also good. There is a 2MP front camera, its fixed focus. Check out the samples and video at the end.
Gaming
I tried Dead Trigger in high graphics mode and Asphalt 7, both these games worked smoothly without any issues. The games got installed on the external SD card. I then tried the MC4 (Modern combat 4) that unfortunately did not work.
Others
There is built in 3G, you can use the handset as a phone, either via Bluetooth, earphone or simply place the in-call speaker near the ear and talk (this might look odd cause of the size). 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth worked well. I did not get the time to check the GPS, but I think you should get a lock within 30 seconds easily. Speaker volume is much louder and clear.
Battery
The 4800 mAh Li-ion battery gives a talk-time of up to 10 hours and usage time of up to 5 hours. I played some games for about 16 minutes and battery level dropped to 6% and temp rose by 2 degrees, the max temp was 35 degrees.
Micromax Canvas Tab P650 review (verdict)
The MMX Canvas Tab competes with Samsung Galaxy tab. If you compare it with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (T211) (with 8GB and 3G), there is much more that the P650 is offering, the price is near about the same. It will be interesting to see what Xolo Tegra Note will be priced at.
Of course Canvas Tab P650 is a better option specs wise but brand wise Samsung still rules. Nevertheless Canvas Tab is a good option with snap cover.
P650 image gallery
Sample Images shot using Canvas Tab P650
Micromax Canvas Tab unboxing and review video
Games that can be played on Canvas Tab
1080p (full HD) videos recorded using P650 tablet
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