Micromax launched the Canvas Doodle 4 Q391 in May this year for Rs. 9,499. The Doodle 4 which is the successor of the last year’s Doodle 3 A102 sports a 6 inch qHD IPS display. Let’s take a detailed look at the phone and see if it is worth the price tag in the review.
Display, Hardware and Design
The Canvas Doodle 4 sports a 6 inch (960 x 540 pixels) qHD IPS display that is not the best considering the screen size and the price tag. This does not gives the phone the advantage to make use of the 6 inch screen. The viewing angles on the phablet are good, but the screen is too reflective and the sunlight visibility is also not the best. Brightness levels on the phone are good but it does not produce the best colors as they look a bit dull in some cases. The phablet is good for playing games and long time reading. It comes with a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection that protects it from scratches.
Coming to the design, the Doodle 4 is definitely huge, thanks to its 6 inch screen but Micromax has made sure it is not heavy. The phone is not bulky and is lightweight. There are thin bezels on either side of the display that makes handling the phone easier. The phone has thin metal rim across the device that offers a good grip. However, it must be noted that users with small hands will have to struggle a lot to handle the device.
At front the phone 2MP front facing camera, earpiece and the usual set of proximity and ambient sensors.
Below the display, the phone has three capacitive touch buttons on the bezel. These offer haptic feedback when pressed, but are not backlit.
The phone has volume rockers and power/lock key on the right side of the phone and are easily accessible.
There are no keys on the left side of the phone.
The 3.5mm audio jack is present on the top of the device.
Micro USB port and microphone are present at the bottom of the device. The phone measures 165.5 x 85.3 x 8.5 mm.
The phone has a white plastic back cover that feel smooth and offers good grip. There is a 8MP camera with LED flash at the back followed by the Micromax branding at the center and loudspeaker grill at the lower back.
The phablet is dual SIM and comes with two micro SIM card slots that are present underneath the back cover. Also present is the micro SD slot that accepts cards up to 32GB.
The phone has a non- removable 3000mAh battery.
Camera
Canvas Doodle 4’s 8MP camera takes good macro and daylight shots but then again they are not the best. Touch to focus while taking a photo takes longer than usual especially in case of low light. Night and low light images came out blurry and grainy while HDR added noise to photos. However, photos taken using the LED flash turn out decent and do not add too much noise on the object. The front camera is poor and not good enough for selfies. The camera has the usual tools like beauty mode which claims to enhance your image but does not do a very good job. Other features like different scene modes, filters, anti-flicker, panorama etc are also present to help you take better shots.
Check out the camera samples of Doodle 4 (Click for full resolution images)
Daylight
Flash
HDR OFF
HDR ON
HDR OFF
HDR ON
Video
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08G_4DbUqtA
The phone takes video at 1080p resolution at 30fps and the quality is good. Audio for the video recorded is also pretty clear.
Software
The Canvas Doodle 4 runs Android 5.0 Lollipop and sticks to all the Material Design elements. It provides almost a stock Android experience.
Homescreen and Notification Center
The homescreen is pretty standard and camera and dialer can be launched from the lock screen directly. Widgets can be added to screen and the notification center has the usual WiFi, Bluetooth, flashlight, location, data connections and others.
Apps
The phone comes with usual set of Google apps while pre-installed apps include Evernote, NewsHunt, Quikr, Snapdeal, Housing, Hotstar, Mannons, Chaatz, Skitch, Clean Master. Some of these cannot be unistalled.
Music Player and FM Radio
The music player is also standard and shows Album Art along with song that is being played. Music experience over earphones is good and there is an option for audio enhancer under Sound and Notification in Settings that improves the audio experience over earphones. Similarly there is a speaker enhancer that boosts volume for speaker. The loudspeaker output is also good. Equalizer offers standard options for the type of music you play. FM radio on the other hand offers the usual UI and lets you record songs from radio stations.
Dual SIM and Connectivity
The phone supports micro dual SIMs. Both the SIMs support 3G, but you can use 3G on only one SIM at a time. Connectivity features include, 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP and GPS. The call quality on the phone is good and we did not experience any call drop during our testing period.
Storage
Out of 1GB RAM you get about 478MB is free when the phone is idle, with just the default apps running in the background. Only 4.87GB of storage space is actually available out of the 8GB of internal storage. Unfortunately, apps cannot be moved to SD card.
Magic Gestures
The Doodle 4 comes with a magic gesture feature that allows you to open a function on the phone without unlocking it. There are several gestures assigned to each function for example drawing the letter O gesture on the phone when the screen is locked will directly open clock or M gesture will take you to Music, Z gesture will take you to gallery and so on. Other gestures include slide up, down, right and left. This feature works most of the time but as the phone’s screen does not have the best touch quality, the results can be inaccurate.
Performance & Benchmarks
The Doodle 4 has a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582 processor and comes with 1GB RAM. First up, the touch quality of the phone is not the best and does not respond most of the times at the first go. When multiple apps are running in background the phone tends to perform slower. Gaming on the phone is smooth but then again the low resolution display does not bring out the best gaming experience especially for those with high end graphics. The phone did not face any heating issues at the time of our testing period. Check out the synthetic benchmark scores below.
Battery Life
The Doodle 4 has a non removable 3000mAh battery. Although the phablet has a 6 inch screen, the battery life of the phone is very good and lasts for an entire day plus few more hours on regular to medium use. Also, the phone’s battery does not drain out even if it is kept idle.
Conclusion
The Micromax Canvas Doodle 4 scores points when it comes to the overall build of the phone which is sturdy and lightweight at the same time. However, one of the main drawbacks of the phone is its 960×540 resolution display that does not do justice to the 6 inch screen. Moving on, this time Micromax does not add a stylus to Doodle 4 despite of the large display and neither does it bring any new exceptional feature. Also, the phone supports only 3G at a time when even smartphones from Rs 5,000- Rs 10,000 category come with 4G support. There are many other smartphones in the market that offer better specifications and features at the price of Rs. 10,000.
Pros
- Good build that is lightweight
- Good Battery life
Cons
- Low resolution display
- Screen is not very responsive
- Average camera
- Average performance