Well finally the Micromax Ninja 4 a.k.a. Micromax A87 is here and will be available within few days. As expected it is the same Ninja 3 with a bigger screen, higher price and surprisingly with some trimmed down features.
With reference to my previous article about the Ninja 4, based on the inputs from the Micromax Ad, I assumed that the Ninja 4 will be the Ninja 3 with a bigger screen, it turned out to be true, however a 3MP camera on the Ninja 3.0 and a 2MP camera on this Micromax A87 (Ninja 4) is a big disappointment.
So you get a bigger screen and a low res camera for Rs. 1000 extra.Having said that it does compete well with the Karbonn A7, Karbonn A5 and Spice Mi-355. These are with 800 MHz processing speed where as the A87 is a 1GHz powerhouse. We are not yet sure about the RAM but it could be the same as on Ninja 3 (A57) (Now confirmed the RAM on Micromax A87 is 256MB). It will be a hard choice for the users – a 1GHz processor with trimmed down features versus 800 MHz with better features.
Micromax Ninja 4 (A87) key features and specifications
- 1GHz Qualcomm processor with Adreno 200 GPU.
- Dual SIM Dual Standby.
- Android 2.3.5 – Gingerbread.
- Thickness = 11.7mm.
- 4.0 inch (10.1cm) capacitive touchscreen with
480×320800×480 pixels (WVGA). - RAM = 256MB, ROM = 512MB and MicroSD card slot.
- 2MP fixed focus camera, 3G, 2G, Wi-FI, GPS, Bluetooth and 3.5 mm jack.
- 1400 mAh battery with 175 hours standby and up to 5 hours talktime.
- Price Rs. 5,999. .
Apart from the screen size there is nothing that can convince the user to buy this handset. In fact even if the user does makes up his mind the 2MP camera will definitely change it. I believe Micromax Ninja 4 is not competing with other brands but in this case it is competing directly with Ninja 3. Anther update the MM site says WVGA screen if that be the case the Ninja 4 does look attractive.
Ninja 4 review
The handset looks pretty impressive and has got a very good screen resolution. The RAM of 256MB however spoils the fun. This handset is good for users who are not into gaming. A 1GHz CPU coupled with Adreno 200 GPU seems to be under heavy load cause of two things. The higher screen resolution which means more work for the GPU and a 256 MB RAM that is just not sufficient.
Performance
The handset does lag at times and mostly heats up a bit with minimal usage. There is no front camera and a 2MP fixed focus camera is just for the sake of “yes it has a camera”. Other features are pretty good like 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. I used the GPS and got a lock within 5 seconds.
I tried Angry birds, Temple run but for some reason it failed to work, probably cause of limited RAM. I think the handset is really good and a proper tweak with the OS could have made it much better. As of now there is limited RAM and so many pre-installed apps most of which are useless.
This phone performances well when Browsing or using YouTube app. The A87 is not at all made for games as most of the gaming apps will fail. The handset supports only 2 point multi touch. In settings -> Applications there is an option of preferred install location wherein you can set the default to external SD card that way any apps you install will be stored in the external storage by default.
There is no built in flash support, and you cannot play HD videos, I tried playing using stock player, it did not work. Then downloaded MX Player it could play HD videos but with a lot of lag and halts cause of software decoding (less RAM) and hardware decoder was not supported.
The sound quality is good, loud but the earphones (that came with the box pack) are completely useless – low quality, just buy a better one.
Ninja A87 Gallery
Micromax A87 unboxing and review video
Let me know what you think?
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