Mobile Grudge Match: Micromax Superfone Canvas 2 A110 vs Karbonn A21

As the battle of the budget droids wages on, Micromax and Karbonn are the two companies that have managed to shine through dust. From super cheap feature phones to super affordable Androids, both these companies have come a long way from being just another second tier mobile phone company to someone who can easily put up a good fight to even top tier brands like Sony, Samsung and the rest. Their recent commercials for new handsets are proof enough. Today, we’ll be pitting together two very popular handsets in the market – the Micromax Canvas 2 A110 and the Karbonn A21.

Both of them are priced around the Rs.10,000 price bracket and have a very similar feature set. They also happen to be among some of the cheapest dual-core handsets you can find in stores. Let’s see which one manages to come out on top.

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Micromax Superfone Canvas 2 A110 – Rs. 10,300
After the huge success of the Canvas A100, Micromax had some big shoes to fill with the Canvas 2. Luckily for Micromax, the handset has been received extremely well by the masses and has been selling like hot cakes ever since it launched. On paper, the phone is unlike any other budget droid you’ll come across. There’s plenty of real estate to enjoy thanks to the 5-inch screen; you get dual SIM functionality, ICS out-of-the-box, dual-core and an 8MP camera. While this is all fine and dandy, to be honest, we weren’t thoroughly impressed with the phone. It’s not that we are expecting it to perform on the same levels as a 30K handset, but we would have loved if Micromax at least got the basics right. Little touches like the inclusion of an ambient light sensor and a hot-swap microSD card would have made all the difference. We also wouldn’t have minded a slightly smaller screen but with a better resolution. This way, it could have avoided the banding issue. We can hope to see these features in its next iteration.

Karbonn A21 - Rs.9,900
The A21 is quickly gaining momentum in the sub-10K price bracket and is proving to be a worthy contender to the Canvas 2 A110. Where the A21 loses out in screen size, it makes up with a higher pixel count. The phone also looks and feels a lot better than the Canvas 2 thanks to better aesthetics. It also has the slight upper hand when it comes to gaming, which is evident from the benchmarks in the image below. Due to the slightly smaller size, the A21 is also a bit lighter.

Let’s head to the score card for a head-to-head comparison.

The symbol indicates a better spec over the other handset

The bottom line
It’s clear that both the handsets are quite evenly matched, but after a tough battle, the Canvas 2 A110 does manage to edge out the Karbonn A21, primarily due to the larger screen and the camera. You really can’t go wrong with either of them as they both offer a lot more value as compared to other offerings from Samsung or Sony right now. If I had to pick one out of the two, I would go with the Karbonn A21 as higher pixel count and small but crucial features like an ambient light sensor or a hot swap microSD card slot take precedence over a larger (similar resolution) screen in my book. If it were your money on the line, we would love to know which one you’d go in for and why.

Visuals : Jagdish Limbachiya