Micromax launches A90 and A100, its Android ICS smartphone offerings
Indian handset manufacturer Micromax has launched two new Android smartphones in the market- A90 and A100. The smartphones run on the Android operating system and feature large touch screens. The smartphones cost for Rs 9,999 and Rs 12,990 for A100 and A90 respectively. Let's have a look at the devices-
The smartphone has a 4.3 inch Super-Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode (AMOLED) touchscreen display (480x800 pixel resolution) and runs on Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It is powered by a 1 GHz processor and comes with 512 MB of RAM. The memory of the device is expandable up to 32 GB with a microSD card.
There is an 8 MP rear camera with flash that can also record videos and a 0.3MP front facing camera for video calling. On the connectivity front, it has bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G, and comes with a USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot. The smartphone also has GPS support and a FM radio.
The device measures 125mm x 65mm x 10.6mm and it has a 1,600 mAh battery that the company claims will provide up to 5 hours of talk time and 174 hours of standby time. The smartphone is currently available in black colour.
The smartphone sports a bigger screen in comparison to A90, it has 5 inch touchscreen display and runs on the same Android ICS OS. It is also powered by a 1 GHz processor, comes with 512 MB of RAM and its memory is also expandable up to 32 GB with a microSD card.
A100 has a 5MP camera (in comparison to an 8MP camera that A90 has ) with flash that can record videos and a 0.3MP front facing camera. On the connectivity front, it has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G, and comes with a USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot. Like A90, this one also comes with GPS and FM radio.
The device measures 142.2mm x 72.6mm x 11.9mm and it has a 2,000 mAh battery that the company claims will provide up to 5 hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time. A100 is also available only in black.
As of now, Micromax is the number three handset company in India (behind Nokia and Samsung) with a market share of 6.3 per cent, according to a survey by Voice&Data, CyberMedia group's journal for the telecom industry. With the new handsets, the company looks to target the large screen smartphones segment, since it is a well known fact that the philosophy 'Bigger is better' has been proven a number of times in today's handset market.
Samsung tasted success on a large scale with its 5.3 inch screen monster Galaxy Note, and ever since the company has been increasing the screen size of its devices (Galaxy Nexus sports a 4.65 inch screen while Galaxy S III sports a 4.8 inch screen). Even Apple is not far behind, since according to unconfirmed reports, the company's new iPhone (due to be launched next month) will also sport a bigger screen (reportedly 4 inch).
However, the fact remains that the Samsung's and Apple's smartphones will continue to cost a bomb, so people looking at cheaper alternatives for large screen devices can definitely opt for these. But the success of the handsets will depend on their quality and performance, two aspects that are often compromised for reducing cost.
Last we checked, very few e-commerce sites are selling A85 (the company's costliest smartphone offering), which had seen a sharp price cut from Rs 18,990 to Rs 11,990. Some prominent sites even say the model has been permanently discontinued. Given that A85 ran on Froyo as against the latest models which are on ICS, one can assume that A90 and A100 are among the costliest handsets of Micromax.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)
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