[jp1]

I find hardly anyone interested in Micromax A60 Android phone, may be due to its 'china' tag. I thought by sharing my experience with the same, it may benefit few people out there.

Before I start the review, let me explain my requirements and why I bought this phone. I was never interested in a business phone due to the fact that I did not want to get my official mails on my phone so that it wont follow me wherever I go. My work environment is such that I am supposed to be always on duty, whether I am at office or at home. So to minimize the disturbance, I decided not to have my emails on my phone and I check my mails only when I am at office. But, as I work with computers all the time, android always fascinated me, but the phones were expensive. I was also interested to buy a GPS device and also wanted to get a data card for my laptop as I normally use my official datacard. And I knew that Android had all these. So when Micromax launched A60 at Rs 6,999, i decided to take the plunge even though I was not sure about their support or how reliable the device going to be.

I bought this phone a month ago from Mobilestore in Bangalore at around Rs. 6,800. The phone came with one year warranty and Mobilestore offered their own extended for another 1 year which means I got 2 year warranty. I also got an iball headset worth around Rs 200 as a gift. In addition, a 2 GB sd card came along with the phone.

Since I have not seen or used any other Android phone, my review not to be taken as a comparison with anything else as I have no idea about other phone's capability.

OS : It runs Android 2.1 and as per what I know, it is not upgradeable.

Memory - it shows 168 MB as internal memory (as per MobileGuard) + it has a 2 GB sd card.

Also came with a handsfree cable, not yet used other than to listen mp3 music.

Battery - 1280 mAh

Built in 3.2 mega pixel camera. Not very interested, so have not used it much.

Accelerometer works fine

Screen is resistive and not capacitative - I have no idea with both technologies. I am using a touch screen phone for the first time. Even then, I have no difficulty in working with it. It has three levels of brightness which works very well in interiors, but bit difficult to use outside when it is sunny,

Email : Even though I never wanted my emails on my phone, that was first thing I configured on the phone. I configure my gmail accounts and it was very easy. I did not try any other emails.

Browsing - works well, no issues. Use daily for around 10 minutes before going to bed to catch up all news headlines including team-bhp

Messaging - I hardly use it, but find it easy to use.

GPS : The GPS seems to be having its own mind when to work or not to work. It mostly do not work if you enable only 'Use GPS Satellite', but it works most of the time if you enable both 'Use Wireless networks' and 'GPS Satellite'.

Following GPS related programs installed

GPSStatus - nice utility showing the GPS satellites around you, good one

brut.googlemaps - Installed and used while travelling from Bangalore to Munnar. I kept only 'Use GPS Satellite' and disabled 'Use Wireless networks'. It worked half the time. For example, in Salem town, it did not work at a particular stretch. I took the route Bangalore->Salem->Perundurai->Kangayam->Udumulpet->Marayur->Munnar. Most of the forest areas I could get GPS working, but most of the smaller towns, there was no link. It worked within Munnar town.
OsmAnd - Used only in Bangalore. it works on and off and tried downloading maps using MobileAtlas and copied the same to the sd Card. Scale 15 alone took nearly 200 MB covering south (Karnatka, TN, Kerala). I prefer brut.googlemaps to this.
AndNav2 - Used only in Bangalore. Did not find it better than brut, so discarded
rmaps - Used only in Bangalore. Again did not find it better than brut, so discarded

Data connectivity : I have a BSNL GPRS unlimited 249 plan, no 3G. Even though I stay in Koramangala, inside my house, I dont get good BSNL signal. So I hardly get 15kbps inside my home. On my terrance I get upto 1. mbps and above and the 3G signal comes on. Even in my office (Koramangala), I get 3G signal and the speed i get max is around 120 kbps. I am not able to figure out why in my office I am not getting the same speed as at my home (terrace).

Internet tethering - Tried with the micromax usb driver provided along with the phone. Not a very clean application. it goes off some times and then you need to disconnnect the usb from the phone and try it again, it is annoying. Another problem is it does not recognize that application is already installed and keeps popping up 'new hardware found' message. It took some time for me to settle down with this application.

Then I tried pdaNet . I find it better than the micromax provided USB driver. Very stable. I am on trial period, after that I think i have to pay around USD 25 to get a license to continue to use it (for browsing secure sites).

Other applications I installed. I always download the apk to my computer and then copy that to sd card and install.
AutoAnswer : Nice application, while driving I keep it on Auto answer and I could answer any call without taking the phone. Phone speaker also comes on so that I can hear the other side.

MobildGuard : pretty good application to see what is happening with the device, like memory usage, Bandwidth consumed on gprs, balance available etc. Also can be used for browsing the sd card

ASTRO - File manager. Good application to manage the sd card

No lock : An nice utility to keep your phone in No lock mode, otherwise it keeps going in lock mode.


Things I don't like :
- Shape of the phone
- Battery - drains out fast if you use 3G and to some extent when use GPS. It hardly last for a day. But without these, it goes up to 3 to 4 days. I understand most Androids are like this.
- Phone goes off. Few times it got switched off by itself. It happens when it is in idle mode. In the last one month of usage, it has gone off, may be 5 times. I am suspecting GPS, I use GPS almost daily. I think it gets shuts off when I heavily use GPS, running various programs related to GPS, but I am not too sure about it. Then to swtich it on, you have to remove the battery and re-insert it.
- No FM

- One thing I found to extend battery life, switch off and on before going to bed so that all unwanted applications are closed.

Overall I feel it is a VFM phone. Even though it serves more than my requirements, little disappointed with the internet tethering. It could be due to signal strength, I dont think it is due to the phone.

That is is about my first Android phone, so far good, hope it continues that way.

[Fordmanchau]

Guys , am having issues with the HTC wildfire's GPS .
It's taking too long to find and connect to any of the satellites.
infact it has only been able to connect just once.
Any trouble shooting ideas?
Everything else is fine, navigation and all works fine with wifi, but I see that the route advised does not take into account the changes done even a year back . And how can I plot an alternate route ?

[clevermax]

You face the delay even in open sky? in my desire it just takes few seconds to connect and show the exact location...

which maps do you use?

[Fordmanchau]

Originally Posted by clevermax

You face the delay even in open sky? in my desire it just takes few seconds to connect and show the exact location...
which maps do you use?

Yes, even in the open sky, i walk for 5 min for my lunch, and i kept waiting for the whole time for connection.
I have not downloaded any maps, it only has the preloaded gmaps on the phone.
Which one do you have ?

[Spinnerr]

Originally Posted by jp1

I find hardly anyone interested in Micromax A60 Android phone...

Similar question, why not Motorola QUENCH XT3, isnt that a better sleeker looking hardware when compared to Samsung Galaxy 3? This is also priced at between 11.5K - 12K.

Is it the moto tag that is making people think twice?

[Raccoon]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Well GPS chips are power hogs on every phone, Android or not. Infact, normally, everything, including WIFI and GPs will be off, only calling and texting which will give me a great battery life.

As for Samsung Galaxy 3, I am thinking of Optimus one because at 11200, it does seem to be a much better deal!

Right, but in general Android does not seem to be very power efficient. Blackberry and even Symbian are known to be better in that respect. If you use it only for moderate calling, you may get upto 2 days, I guess. But even with just EDGE on, don't expect that much. I would not call that "great" battery life. :(

And yes, it does matter which network you are on and signal strength, how much you are on the move, etc.

[sparkglow]

Hi,

I am in the market for an Android phone of upto 12k budget. My requirements are decent battery life, decently responsive touch screen, email-maps-browsing on the move.

Kindly suggest a good phone within my budget that would match up to my requirements.

Cheers!

Sparkglow

[Bluengel180]

LG-optimus one.......

[joe1980]

Originally Posted by sparkglow

Hi,

I am in the market for an Android phone of upto 12k budget. My requirements are decent battery life, decently responsive touch screen, email-maps-browsing on the move.

Kindly suggest a good phone within my budget that would match up to my requirements.

Cheers!

Sparkglow

I would recommend you the Xperia X10 Mini Pro. It gives me an excellent battery life and I feel it to be much responsive. On top of everything it is small and fits my pocket.

[sheetumanu]

Originally Posted by sparkglow

Hi,

I am in the market for an Android phone of upto 12k budget. My requirements are decent battery life, decently responsive touch screen, email-maps-browsing on the move.

Kindly suggest a good phone within my budget that would match up to my requirements.

Cheers!

Sparkglow

LG Optimus One
Samsung Galaxy 3
HTC Wildfire (if you stretch your budget a little)

[asliarun]

Originally Posted by sparkglow

Hi,

I am in the market for an Android phone of upto 12k budget. My requirements are decent battery life, decently responsive touch screen, email-maps-browsing on the move.

Kindly suggest a good phone within my budget that would match up to my requirements.

Cheers!

Sparkglow

I had the same requirement a few weeks ago, and finally ended up buying the Optimus One P500. Paid about 12.5 for it, and have been quite happy with it (rather, my wife uses it and is quite happy with it).

Clinching factors: Android 2.2 out of the box (has some really nice features like saving an app in the SD card rather than phone memory, is supposedly faster than 2.1), good build quality (compared to the other options in the price bracket such as Galaxy 3) with a slightly rubberized grip on the backside, very good battery life for an Android phone, decent display resolution for a entry level phone, okay-ish camera.

However, one thing to note: At this price range, one can at best hope for a compromise that has no glaring flaws (like really poor battery life, really poor display, etc.). This might sound a bit negative, but you'll probably start feeling this when you start using the phone intensively and start loading a lot of apps. Then, the 600MHz processor and the memory will not seem enough, and you will start wanting to watch Flash videos on the browser etc. On the plus side, the price paid is not very high, so an entry phone like this will not depreciate drastically over the next year or so.

Considering the rate at which smart phones are evolving, it is very difficult to buy a "future-proof" phone by paying a premium. It is better instead to spend less on a mid-level phone and then replace it later when it becomes too out of date. In any case, phones are prone to breakage and failure.

All in all, I think that the P500 is a very good compromise for the price.

I just looked at the Motorola Quench XT3 that Spinnerr had pointed out in an earlier post, and it does look good - it also has Gorilla glass which is nice for an entry level phone. I did not review this phone when I was purchasing.

Another phone worth checking out is the Dell XCD35. It seems to have a much better display. It has half the talk time of Optimus One though.

[sheetumanu]

Originally Posted by joe1980

I would recommend you the Xperia X10 Mini Pro. It gives me an excellent battery life and I feel it to be much responsive. On top of everything it is small and fits my pocket.

Xperia X10 Mini Pro still runs on Android 1.6 I guess

Mods: my sincere apologies for back to back posts

[kiku007]

Huawei IDEOS Android 2.2 launced by Aircel @ 8.5K. Welcome the price war in the budget android phones.

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http...22%2F0&h=8b2c2

There was a buyer in e-bay India who was selling this phone @ 9.5K for quite sometime. Should have made good money by now

Edit: New launch from Motorola as well
http://androidos.in/2011/01/motorola...00/#more-15816

[clevermax]

Originally Posted by Fordmanchau

Yes, even in the open sky, i walk for 5 min for my lunch, and i kept waiting for the whole time for connection.
I have not downloaded any maps, it only has the preloaded gmaps on the phone.
Which one do you have ?

I also have the Google maps as of now. It just takes few seconds to connect to gps sats and I am located on the map! No idea why your phone behaves like that.

[Bluengel180]

Got my orange san fransisco today

3.5 inch capacitive OLED display
512 mb Ram
Rest of the specs are the same as the Dell XCD35




Icing on the cake?purchase price+unlocking+shipping = 8000INR