When it comes to dual SIM mobile phones, there is little room for any handset maker to innovate. But, Micromax seems to be an aberration and an example of it is its latest handset, the M2.

The Micromax M2, in a nutshell, is a music centric dual SIM mobile phone. By music phone, I do not mean a phone that is capable of decent music playback but a device that is dedicated for music and has enough capability to easily replace your Portable music player.
First look and design

The look of the device reminds me of none other than the Apple iPod Nano 4G and it’s a child’s guess why the handset has been designed so.

Moving forward, this phone has a unibody design made out of metal that adds a touch of class and adds durability to the phone. A big congratulation goes to the designer of this phone to have done this while keeping things stylish as well. To give an actual measurement of the size of this device, it is slightly bigger and fatter than the iPod Nano 4G, which is acceptable considering it includes a phone as well. All in all the design is superb and is much liked.

Due to the unibody design, a few drastic design changes had to be incorporated in to the phone. For instance, the SIM card slots are on the top side but are protected against dust by the caps that fit nicely and leave no space. Also the battery compartment is towards the lower end of the phone – covered with a big chunky plastic cover that also houses the mobile Antenna as well.

Feel and usage

The phone has a curvy design that fits neatly in to an average palm beautifully. Although the shiny metal body might end up being a constraint for handling this phone and you might end up dropping this more often but its built quality helps the phone survive few boot stomps and would even work without a flaw after that.

The phone has a simple design that ensures minimal key usage. All the keys are placed in the front of the phone only and no side keys are there on this phone, making usage easier and less confusing.

Display, keypad and camera

The M2 has a small two inch display which is capable of reproducing vibrant images and has a higher Resolution of 240 x 320 pixels, which is great for viewing videos.
The display is good for viewing by a person with normal eyesight but people with slightly weaker eyesight may face some problems. The keypad is big and nicely laid out with proper key spacing and key feedback as well. Typing on this for longer hours is not a problem for people with bigger thumbs as well. The multi-tap and T9 dictionary inputs can be chosen by the users as per need.

The camera is a good one which has been added to the device to just make sure it has everything. Although the 2 Megapixel camera does justice to pictures in light but it fails miserably in low light conditions. The camera application’s portrait orientation, for some unknown reason, has been made as default. But otherwise I am happy with the snapper.

Performance

Although the M2 is a dedicated music phone but still it is a very basic mobile phone at heart. It has all the normal features and functionalities of a Dual-SIM phone except the way its menu has been laid out. However, users will get used to it within a few minute.

Talking about the call performance, the M2 has a good signal reception. Even in areas where the signal quality is on the lower side, the call does not disconnect or drop. The earpiece quality is above average and the users get to hear everything loud and clear. The microphone also does a pretty good job but also accumulates a lot of ambience noise.

In terms of music, this phone is a star.

The phone’s sound output is SRS certified and the box carries a certificate to prove this as well. The phone speaks for its music quality with clear audio and volume. The sound output is balanced with clean bass, Mids and Hi’s. Most popular audio formats like MP3 and WMA are supported by this device as well.

The M2 also comes with a bigger headset along with a stereo hands free kit as bundled accessories. The quality of the hand free kit is average and if you want to listen to good sound, you will have to invest in some good quality earplugs. The bigger Headphone is good in terms of quality and reproduced the voice well, but the only regret is that the padding on the ear pieces is a little hard and the ears start to pain after some time of usage.

Battery backup

Before conducting this review I had heard from many people that the battery life of the M2 is not satisfactory and it dies too quickly. But having used it, I have a different opinion all together.

The battery life of this phone is average when it comes to Talk time and slightly better when comes to music playback. The phone returned slightly over 4.5 hours of talk time without any music listening time included that too spread over two days of usage. And for music alone, M2 would give you close to 8 hours of playback time which is not bad considering that the dual SIM mobile radio was on the whole time and it consumes a lot of battery.

Overall, I would again say that the battery backup of this device is average but not bad as some people might say. If you are a modest user this phone will last for 3 days between charges with average calling and music listening time.

Conclusion

The M2 is a superb music device which looks great and is not so heavy on the pocket with a price tag of anywhere between Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500. If you do not own a dedicated music player, then go ahead and buy this device. And, you might even tempt to rest your music player once you get your hands on the Micromax M2.

Well that is all good in this phone but there are something that I still do not like about this device such as the non expandable memory. I think Micromax is listening and will do something about this in the upcoming music phones. Secondly, with the hard earpiece padding the fun of having a good headphone is totally ruined.

But overall the M2 is a great phone that comes with a great headphone and superb music playback capabilities. Micromax has also added a protective silicone case in the box, a nice little additional surprise for the buyers. And a whole lot of additional protection for the phone.

Intex Vision, to my knowledge, is the only phone in India that has been designed for the visually impaired. However, the design of the phone is not new as a similar phone was launched by iBall, named as Senior. The only difference is that the former comes with Braille letters on its keypad.

The built quality of the phone is nothing great. But, the plastic body offers enough grip and the light weight of the phone ensures that it is easy to hold and helps it survive few falls on the ground.

There are four physical keys on both sides of the phone and one SOS button at the back of it. On the right side, there is a torch switch and a phone lock switch. While, volume rocker and radio keys are on the left side.

All the switches protrude out of the body just enough for you to operate them without the need to see them. Also, placing keys on the sides make things easy especially since the screen is good only for 12 digit number and not much of menu options are there. In any case, the menu should and has been kept as simple as possible as the phone is meant for people who cannot see things properly.

The menu consists of only five options: messages, multimedia (radio and music player), settings, phonebook, and call centre (call logs). To keep the matters simple there are only two navigation buttons and one each of call/Ok and call end/back button.

The Braille keypad has huge multitap buttons which give enough feedback when pressed. The phone also speaks what is being typed but this feature is limited to the numbers and does not work for other features including messages. This feature can be disabled also.
The SOS button, at the back, is big and orange in colour. When the button is pressed, the phone sends out SMS to four pre determined numbers.

There is also a hearing aid feature, which converts the ear phone into a hearing aid and amplifies the surrounding sound that helps elderly people with hearing loss. The feature works pretty well in amplifying the voices without much distortion.

Other features of the phone include wireless radio, 3.5 mm jack, Nokia type charging port, Micro USB port and expandable memory slot (8 GB). The phone has also slot for two SIMs.
The battery is of 800mAH, which is good for powering the device for two days of medium use. Phone and SMS memories can hold 1,000 contacts and 250 messages respectively. One of the good thing of Intex Vision is that the phone now supports Hindi, which was not the case earlier.

Verdict and Price

The phone is excellent in its intended purpose – it will certainly be of help to people with hearing and visual impairments and even other people, especially elderly will find it useful for its simple user interface.

What makes a stronger case for Intex Vision IN2020 is its price – at Rs 2,500, it is very affordable for a special purpose phone. The similarly designed iBall Senior is priced at Rs 3,500. I would certainly recommend it for people whom it is intended for.