Micromax has launched its new Canvas series phone called the “Canvas Sliver 5”. The phone is priced at Rs17,999 and the company has launched a phone in this price segment after a short gap as it was focusing mainly on the lower price segment fighting for its domination that is being challenged by a lot of manufacturers lately. The Canvas Sliver 5 is a 5.1mm, 97gms phone which makes it the slimmest and the lightest 4G supporting smartphone in the market. Also company has roped Hugh Jackman for promoting this device. The phone will be available in two colours: a black variant and a white variant. The white variant will come with golden back.
Design
The device is a treat to look at. With an end-to-end thickness of 5.1mm, the Micromax Canvas Sliver 5 is a beautiful device. The device is quite similar to rectangular shaped Canvas phones with 4.8inch screen. On the front, we have the earpiece along with 5MP FF camera and other sensors. The edges are made of aluminium with gives it a premium touch. The phone is said to be crafted with aircraft grade aluminium to make it strong as well as light. On the back side, we have the 8MP camera towards the top left edge of the phone along with flash and Micromax logo branding on the glass back and the speaker grill at the bottom. The volume rocker buttons are located on the left of the phone while the power button and SIM card slot is on the right of the device. You will need a pin to access the SIM card tray. At the bottom of the phone is 3.5mm audio jack, micro-USB charging slot and the primary microphone and on the top are cut outs for better antenna reception.
Display
The phone has a 4.8inch AMOLED HD display with 720X1280 resolution and 306ppi pixel density. The contrast ratio 8,000,000:1 makes the display look alive. The phone uses Oncell technology which has helped the company in keeping the device at a thickness of 5.1mm. It comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection on the top to keep the device safe from scratches and falls. The viewing angle are decent and the brightness of the phone could have been better.
Connectivity
The Micromax Canvas Sliver 5 is a 4G ready smartphone. The phone supports nano SIM and lacks dual SIM capabilities. Other connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with A-GPS among others. The phone supports all the normal sensors such as Accelerometer, Proximity etc.
OS, Chipset & Battery
The device comes with android Lollipop 5.0 out of the box. As always, the UI of the phone is stock android and not much changes are made to the UI which is good. The phone sports a 64 Bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 Quad Core processor with 1.2 GHz clock speed and Qualcomm® Adreno™ 306 GPU. It has 2GB DDR3 RAM and 16GB ROM which is not expandable and this might make some users unhappy. Considering the price of the phone, the processor doesn’t impresses so much. The Canvas Sliver 5 packs a 2000mah high density lithium polymer battery under the hood and the company promises 8 hours of talk time as the battery is crafted to ensure superior battery optimisation but it can only be ascertained after using the phone. The 2000mah battery which is quite inadequate for mobile savvy generation is quite understandable considering the thickness of the phone.
Camera
The Micromax Canvas Sliver 5 comes with an 8MP rear and a 5MP front shooter. The front camera unit is a fixed focus camera for taking selfies and comes with a beauty mode that has features such as skin smoothing, skin sharpening, enlarging eye etc. On the back side, we have an 8MP Sony auto camera with CMOS IMX219 Sensor from Sony for lower power consumption and blue glass filter that increases the clarity. The phone comes with 4P Largan lens and 75.6 degrees wide angle lens that is capable of taking HD pictures and recording videos with 1080p clarity at 30FPS. Other camera features includes professional mode with DSLR like settings, Night shot, Panorama shot and beauty mode.
Verdict
There is nothing special in the specifications of the phone and the price quoted by the company is a bit too high for such specifications. Phones with better specs are available at lower prices in the market. But the aesthetics of the phone indeed impresses and the company has been successful in delivering a beautifully carved, sleek and stylish smartphone with just right specs.
