Micromax Dual 5

Primary camera:  13 MPFlash: Dual-color LED FlashSecondary camera:  13 MPThe indigenous company is betting big on the rise of dual camera smartphones, which is why it’s decided to launch the Dual series. So let’s begin with the camera capabilities of the Micromax Dual 5. It comes equipped with two 13-megapixel sensors at the back, with one of them capturing images in the normal RGB mode, and the other one capturing them in monochrome. The camera viewfinder is feature-rich with various options such as Photo, Video, Beauty, and of course, Dual to harness the potential of the twin shooters. You also get the HDR and professional mode, among others.  Dual 5’s implementation of the two rear cameras ensures enhanced colour reproduction (as they can capture up to four times more light), and we’re quite impressed by the vibrant images it captures. The device also nails the details, which remain sharp even when zoomed in. The camera does justice to landscapes as well as close-ups. However, the HDR mode doesn’t seem as effective in all the situations. You also get a depth-of-field effect with the option called Blurry (we know, it doesn’t sound like a name of a feature). The effect works really well, and delivers pleasing results, though you might notice softening of edges around the blurred areas. Another mode offered by dual cameras is Night, and that seems to be quite powerful when compared to images taken in street light normally. Talking about low-light, the dual-tone LED flash does come in handy by illuminating the scene. While the device can lock the focus quickly thanks to PDAF support, it takes the time to process HDR or dual-camera modes. Let’s take a peek at the images clicked by the Micromax Dual 5.Here's a demonstration of Micromax Dual 5's DOF capabilities.If you’re a selfie enthusiast, then the Micromax Dual 5 has got you covered, as it has a 13-meg snapper at the front. The selfies offer a good amount of sharpness and are quite vivid too. You also get varying levels of Beauty modes with the handset. For dim settings, it gets assistance from a soft LED flash. For videos, the primary camera can record up to 4k or time-lapse and slow-mo videos, whereas the front shooter captures in 1080p.

Size: 5.5 InchResolution: Full HD (1080 x 1920 pixels)Display Type:  AMOLEDPixel Density:  401 ppi

Operating System: AndroidOS Version: 6.0, MarshmallowIf there’s one aspect where Micromax hasn’t been able to make strides in – it's the software. From using stock Android to using custom icons along with a few preinstalled apps, and from offering Indus OS (on its budget offerings) to the highly-customisable CyanogenMod OS (with the YU smartphones) – the company has tried it all. The experiment continues with the Dual 5 too, as it comes with 360 OS – featured on QiKU Q Terra, launched in 2016. QiKU has now changed names to 360, and we won’t be surprised if Micromax’s latest offering is rebranded version of a phone from 360’s portfolio in China.   And if we were to go by our experience, then this experiment bears mixed results. Our review unit of the Micromax Dual 5 failed to sign in to Google initially, and failed to connect to Google servers. We were able to sign in afterwards, but then Gmail never synced because of issues with Play Services. However this might just be a specific issue with our model, and we’ve reached out to the company for a fresh unit – and we’ll update this review accordingly. As mentioned in our review of QiKU Q Terra, 360 OS is filled to the brim with options. This is noticeable as soon as you unlock the phone, thanks to the custom theme and icons (which may not be too pleasing, though it’s a matter of personal preference), three home screens offering a number of apps. While there’s no preloaded bloatware, you do get apps from the 360 OS itself such as 360 Security, 360 CLONE, etc. An app called Heat Source shows the temperature of the Dual 5 along with naming the apps that might cause it to heat up.  The 360 Security is a tuneup app which lets you boost the phone’s performance, check for the apps that are sucking the battery life, clean junk files, etc. The 360 Health Guard is an interesting app… if you feel like you’re addicted to your phone, then this will show you the data to highlight the same by mentioning how many times you’ve locked and unlocked your phone along with the timings, so that you know the frequency too. It also displays the apps you’re using the most.   The Micromax Dual 5 also supports gestures, both when the screen is on as well as when it’s off. For the smart key, the same concept exists, i.e. when the device is locked, then you get options to enable the torch (the torch gets displayed on the lock screen, and then you have to turn it on yourself) or start voice recording. In the unlocked state, you can use the key to close all the apps and use it as a shutter button while using the camera. The key is quite useful, though we think its implementation could’ve been even better. For instance, it doesn’t help if we’ve to toggle the flash even after pressing the key. We’d have also liked the ability to quickly launch some apps with this button.  Another weird issue we found on our unit was that it required the location to always be enabled. The Dual 5 would keep giving us prompts from time to time for the same, but it became hard-to-ignore whenever we opened the camera app. Even after pressing OK, the prompt would come back, and didn’t even allow us to capture photos. With the Dual 5, Micromax is also betting on the security quotient. The phone comes with a standalone chipset for storing passwords and fingerprints. As per the company, the device utilises military-grade EAL 5+ security, which is much better than the EAL 2 certification adopted by other phones. Then there are apps like SecureVault which lets you hide your personal files with your fingerprint. There’s an anti-theft functionality as well, which prompts the user as soon as the SIM card is removed and if the phone isn’t unlocked, the data is remotely wiped.  

CPU:  Quad core, 1.8 GHz + Quad cor...GPU: Adreno 510RAM: 4 GBMemory: 128 GB + Up to 128 GBSIM Slots: Dual SIM , GSM+GSMBattery: 3200 mAHWhile Micromax might have flirted with MediaTek chipsets more often than not, this time around, it has chosen to go the Qualcomm way. At the heart of the Dual 5 lies the Snapdragon 652 SoC, which is available in an octa-core configuration comprising of two quad-core processors running at 1.8GHz and 1.2GHz respectively. The chipset has proved its worth in quite a few smartphones, and we found it to be quite efficient in case of the Dual 5 too. There was nary an instance of lag, and to ensure smooth multitasking, there’s 4-gigs of RAM. The Adreno 510 graphics unit takes care of the graphics rendering, and we loved the impressive graphics while racing in Asphalt Nitro or playing as a first person shooter in Modern Combat 5.The phone’s heat dissipation issues come to the fore when it’s used for extended periods. It gets hot at the rear, and the metal body makes it more noticeable.The Micromax Dual 5 promises to take care of all your storage needs, as it comes with 128GB of flash memory on board. After accounting for the OS and other resources, you’ll get around 109GB – which should be more than sufficient for heavy apps and games along with videos and songs. If not, then you can make use of the expansion slot to top it up further up to 128GB. Sadly though, you’d need to sacrifice on the dual-SIM functionality as the Dual 5 features a hybrid secondary slot. The primary SIM slot supports a nano-SIM, while the secondary one can accept either a micro-SIM or a microSD card. You do get 4G VoLTE compatibility, along with the usual connectivity options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS. Tasked with keeping the Micromax Dual 5 alive is a 3,200mAh embedded battery. While the capacity might seem less, the battery life isn’t. We were easily able to eke out up to a day and a half worth of backup with the moderate usage of listening to music via Bluetooth, playing some games and internet surfing. Even with strenuous usage, it should be able to last you an entire working day. The testament to that is our battery test, wherein we play a 720p video on loop with both the brightness and volume set at 50 percent and only cellular network enabled, since the Dual 5 was able to continue for roughly 16 hours before running out of juice. It also comes with Quick Charge 3.0 support, which claims to fully charge the Dual 5 in 45 minutes.