Since the day of its launch, the Micromax Andro A60 has created a buzz in the market. Firstly for being the most pocket friendly Android smartphone (it costs only Rs 6,500), then for being from an Indian company and of course for its iconic design.
However, being low in price does not imply that it is missing out on features.
It has an unconventional design. While most of the handsets available now have flatter boxy designs, the Andro’s curvy design (slimmer at the base and fatter at the top) makes it comfortable to hold and operate. The phone has a matte graphite colour finish with Chrome trimmings at the corners alongside the display. Thus as far as looks go, the Andro does fairly well and has managed to catch a lot of eyeballs too.
It has a 2.8 inch touchscreen LCD display which is capable of displaying 52, 000 colours in a standard Resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. However, Andro’s resistive touchscreen is a heart-breaker. Although the screen is quite responsive to the slightest touch but in this age of capacitives, a resistive touchscreen feels like stone age and we dearly miss the ‘pinch to zoom’ function while playing Angry Birds.
Overall the display is bright and vibrant but the low resolution and resistive touch are a bit of mood spoilers.
On the performance section, the snappy 600 MHz processor does most tasks quickly but the moment you start multitasking it starts slowing down and needs longer breathe times. But occasionally closing the unwanted applications gives it the much needed space and power. The 150MB Internal Memory doubles up as the RAM and make sure you keep enough space free, otherwise the Andro will surely choke up.
The Andro A60 features a 3.2 Megapixel fixed focus camera, although the box mentions it as an auto focus one. The camera is just for beginners and not for enthusiasts. It does not have a Flash also. In bright light, the images are good and colourful but lack detail and sharpness.
Running on Android 2.1 Éclair, the Andro A60 is able to run most applications available from the Android marketplace but sadly applications requiring high performance and related to high graphics won’t be able to run properly on the handset. Inclusion of GPS and AGPS (Assisted GPS) is much appreciated. With the 3G services starting all over the country, users will be able to use these services as a personal navigation device too.
Typing on the smaller touchscreen is quite a pain for everyone and even more for people with fatter fingers. To counter this Micromax has added the Swype application to the Andro. While message typing, its software recognises and suggests words also.
The performance of its battery is average. Despite of having a 2.8 inch screen and a smaller processor, the Andro manages a day’s worth of usage. Make sure you get a battery saving application installed when you start using Andro A60.
Call quality of this phone is great and the microphone provides isolation to the voice making it easier to hear even in noisy places. The earpiece is loud and clear and so is the loudspeaker. The supplied earplugs on the other hand are mediocre and the output from the 3.5 mm jack as well. You can change as many earplugs but the phone’s output through the handsfree is underpowered and starts distorting the sound when playing at higher volume.
Andro is manufactured by ZTE Corporation. With the kind of expertise ZTE has in making devices users can be worry free about the Andro A60’s sturdiness.
Although the box mentions the price at Rs 11,999 the Andro is available in the market from Rs 6,500 onwards.
So to sum it all up, the Micromax Andro A60 makes a good smartphone for those who are just entering the smartphone arena. Rightly named as ‘My First Android’, the Andro A60 is the right phone to buy and experience the Android before you could try better smartphones.