Micromax Unite 2 review: A budget smartphone bridging the language barrier

Budget KitKat phones are suddenly all the rage these days thanks to the **Moto E**. After the **Lava Iris X1**, it’s now Micromax’s turn to dazzle us. The specialty of the Unite 2 is that it features 21 pre-loaded local languages, widening the user demographic especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Languages aside though, is it still a worthy contender compared to offerings from Lava and Karbonn?

Design and Build

The Unite 2 features a manageable screen size of 4.7-inches. The resolution isn’t much at 800 x 480 but this doesn’t really pose much of an issue as the pixellation or colour banding is barely visible. There’s quite a bit of bezel all around which makes the phone feel a lot wider than it actually is.

The most impressive part of the Unite 2 however is the build quality. This is the first time we’ve come across a Micromax handset in this price range that didn’t feel like it was put together in a hurry. The phone feels solid and looks pretty good as well.

The button placement is good and so are the ports. The soft-touch back cover offers sufficient grip and helps keep fingerprints at bay. We have a 5MP camera around the back and a single LED flash.

Underneath, we have two SIM card slots – a regular and a micro-SIM. We also have a hot-swap memory card reader. Overall, the Unite 2 is above average in terms of build and aesthetics, which is saying a lot for a Micromax phone. We appreciate the understated design and the fact that they’ve kept it simple, yet functional.

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Features

The display is really nice for a phone in this price range and so is the touch response. Brightness levels are good and thankfully, we have an ambient light sensor too.

The phone is powered by MediaTek’s MT6582M quad-core chipset and 1GB of RAM. Thanks to Android 4.4.2 and a relatively light weight skin, the user interface is super smooth to operate with no visible lag whatsoever. In fact, we found it a tad smoother than the Lava Iris X1 as well, which stuttered quite a bit during animations or even typing.

Performance is pretty good. At any given point, we have about 600MB of free memory available. Benchmark scores are also not bad and the phone is faster than Lava’s offering at the same price.

The main selling point of the Unite 2 is of course the language pack that’s built-in. Apart from the AOSP keyboard, Micromax bundles an additional phonebook and keyboard called Reverie. You can switch to the different languages from here.

You also get a bunch of pre-installed apps or should be say links to websites that look like apps.

Media

Micromax has stuck to the stock video and music player this time around. Audio quality is good and the loud speaker is very audible for alerts. You get 4GB of internal memory which can be expanded.

Connectivity

The Unite 2 is a quad-band GSM phone along with single-band 3G support. We also get Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0 and GPS. The phone also supports screen casting, which is an added bonus.

Micromax also throws in their own apps like M!Live, MAD, among others.

Camera

The Unite 2 packs in a 5MP shooter with auto-focus. The sensor does a decent job at capturing indoor images and the focusing speed is not bad either. You get the usual array of options like panorama, beauty face, etc.

Battery life

The 2000mAh battery provides enough juice for a full day’s usage. We managed to squeeze out 8-hours with ease and had about 17 percent remaining.

Verdict and Price in India

The Micromax Unite 2 is now available online for around Rs 8,500. It’s not a bad price considering the specifications and ease of use however we would have liked it if it were a bit less. Apart from the bundled languages, the Unite 2 isn’t a particularly feature-rich phone. But then again, it doesn’t pretend to be one either. For Tier 2 and 3 cities, the Unite 2 is a good options as it bundles a good set of local languages without having to sacrifice usability.