Unable to buy the Micromax A116 Canvas HD? Here are five alternatives!

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD is one of the best budget smartphones that money can buy. But the demand for the phone is so high; it is difficult to get your hands on one. So, here we list five smartphone alternatives to the Canvas HD within Rs. 15k.

One budget smartphone that has created a buzz in 2013 is the Micromax A116 Canvas HD. For a budget of Rs. 13,990 you get a device that offers a 5-inch IPS LCD display with a 1280x720 pixel resolution. It is 10.7mm thin, and weighs a mere 156 grams. It has a quad-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and PowerVR Series5XT GPU. It also houses a 2000mAh battery, an 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front facing camera. It runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and is upgradable to Android 4.2.

When we put the Canvas HD through its paces, we found that it not only outperforms other smartphones in its price bracket in terms of the benchmarks, but also has a good camera, display, and build quality – making it a value for money smartphone on all fronts.

The display on the Micromax A116 Canvas HD is great and vibrant, with good colour reproduction. Apart from the Flipboard bug and random crashes, the smartphone’s overall interface and performance is quite smooth. It is no wonder that the Micromax A116 Canvas HD is virtually out of stock everywhere, and there is a waiting on every online shopping portal

If you are one who has a budget of Rs. 15,000 and is looking to pick up a smartphone that offers great value for money today, we list five alternatives that you can consider instead of the A116 Canvas HD.

Nokia Lumia 620

If you are someone who isn’t inclined towards the Android OS, we suggest you take a look at the Nokia Lumia 620. For Rs. 14,999, the Lumia 620 is powered by a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, coupled with 512MB of RAM. It features a 3.8-inch 800x480 pixel ClearBlack display, 5MP rear camera with 720p HD video recording, VGA front-facing camera, 8GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD card to 64GB), and a 1,300mAh battery. Users also get 7GB of SkyDrive cloud storage with the smartphone.

The Lumia 620 runs on the Windows Phone 8 OS. If you are someone who uses a Windows desktop/laptop, a Windows Phone 8 smartphone is a nice way to integrate you into the Windows ecosystem.

For its price, the Lumia 620 is very well-built, and its vibrant display has great viewing angles. The WP8 smartphone is available in a large array of colours to satisfy a variety of users’ style needs. The only disadvantage of Windows Phone 8 is that the app ecosystem isn’t as robust or varied as Android or iOS. If you would like to load your device with apps and customize your screen with widgets, you should stick to the Canvas HD.

Lava Xolo A1000

The Lava Xolo A1000 is one of the underdog contenders to take on the Canvas HD. The processor under the hood of this budget smartphone is 1GHz dual-core and it is supported by 1GB of RAM. The rest of the specifications of the A1000 are quite impressive. It boasts of dual-SIM support, runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and has a 5-inch 720p HD display. The rear of the smartphone houses an 8MP shooter with BSI a feature that is absent from the 8MP camera of the Canvas HD. The front of the A1000 has a 1.2MP camera. The smartphone also has a 2100mAh battery, which is slightly higher than the 2000mAh battery on the Canvas HD. The A1000 also has 4GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.

Apart from the processor, the Xolo A1000 seems to have all the bells and whistles to take on the Canvas HD. The device is priced at Rs. 13,999.

Karbonn Retina A27

Priced at Rs. 9,090, the Karbonn Retina A27 has a 4.3-inch qHD (960x540 pixel) IPS display. It also sports a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 512MB RAM and 4GB built-in storage (2GB available to the user), expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card slot. The specifications of course cannot be compared to the Canvas HD but if you are looking for an entry level Android device, then you can definitely take a look at the A27.

The A27 also boasts of dual-SIM capabilities and runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The rear of the smartphone houses an 8MP camera where as the front houses a 2MP camera. The smartphone is relatively slim at 9.1 mm thickness, and it weighs a mere 126.5 grams. The Karbonn Retina A27 also boasts of 3G (HSDPA 7.2Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, and GPS / aGPS connectivity. A 1,800mAh battery powers it. With a 4.3-inch display and a resolution of 960x540 pixels, the Karbonn A27’s IPS display has a pixel density of 256 ppi, which is quite good.

We have reviewed the Karbonn A18 and the Karbonn A21. Both the smartphones have impressed us as entry-level Android devices and we think the A27 will stay true to tradition.

Huawei Ascend G600

Another budget smartphone that has impressed us with its specifications is the Huawei Ascend G600. It has a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 768MB of RAM and 4GB of built-in storage. Add to that an 8MP camera, a 4.5-inch 540 x 960 pixel display and Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, and you have quite an impressive budget smartphone. It is powered by a 1930mAh battery, which means that the device has the potential to last through a day of above average use.

Priced at Rs. 14,990 the G600 is more expensive than the A116 Canvas HD but if you want a device that will run all the apps from the app store and give you smooth overall performance, you can consider this device.

LG Optimus L9

The LG Optimus L9 runs on Android 4.0 ICS, has a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processor, the PowerVR SGX540 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It has 4GB built in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The rear of the smartphone has a 5MP camera and the front has a 0.3MP camera for video calls. It also has a 2150mAh battery.

But the best feature of the LG Optimus L9 is its display. It has a 4.7-inch IPS display with a 960x540 pixel resolution. The display on the smartphone is very vibrant and the viewing angles are excellent. Consuming multimedia content and just generally working on the device was a lot of fun. The camera on it could have been better though. The battery on this device is a behemoth easily lasting over a day of average use. LG has done away with the bad skins it was known for and kept it fairly simple. You also have access to a quick memo app that lets you take notes on the display or highlight certain things for a screenshot.

The only downside is that the L9 is priced at Rs. 17,399 which is way higher than the price of the Canvas HD.