Micromax did seem like showing some surprises, not just with the number of smartphones being introduced, but with the plans, openly showing what the company intends to achieve, but did the newly launched smartphone from the brand changes anything?
I played around with both the devices, the Canvas 6 and the Canvas 6 Pro, and the first thing that came to my mind – Why did Micromax had to have two variants? If there was a Pro variant, it had to be similar to the Canvas 6, at least with the design. Micromax has made it strikingly different, and that confuses me very much if I am a buyer and looking to get one of these.
Why did Micromax have to call one a better performer, and it the same price tag? For me, or for many others, a fingerprint scanner won’t matter, and frankly even the material for the exterior won’t, if the performance is better. The company might call it as options to the user to choose from, but for me, that is a confusion and a competition the company is creating for its own device.
The smartphone market currently is very confusing for anyone who is looking to buy a phone, but it has been some brands that have taken a considerable lead over the others in the past year. Xiaomi, Lenovo, Coolpad, and other Chinese entrants have aggressively placed themselves against the top-tier leaders like Samsung, LG, Sony, and even the brand that was known for the big numbers locally – Micromax.
Read: Differences between Canvas 6 and Canvas 6 Pro
Now, the way Micromax has priced its latest phone, the Canvas 6 and 6 Pro, is commendable, at least given how the scene earlier was and now knowing that it isn’t the same market that was in 2014 and earlier. The phones are to put up on sale for Rs. 13999, but they are priced the same. Now, here’s what annoys me.
- Do you want a well designed and well-built phone with a good camera for selfies? The Canvas 6 is for you.
- Do you want a better performer with better RAM? The Canvas 6 Pro is for you.
Oh, there are better alternatives from other brands, but if you end up, in some way, looking at just these two.. the confusion is even more than what it would have been while comparing with smartphones from other brands.
Why not price the phones differently and not compromise with the build quality on the Canvas 6 Pro?
Storage is better on the Canvas 6, with a 32GB ROM on it when compared to the 16GB ROM on the Canvas 6 Pro! What was the idea behind that? cost cutting? The part about having a lower grade front-facing camera to keep the pricing the same is understandable, but with the things that matter a lot to the user, you better give it a thought and not hesitate in pricing the device a little higher.
The metal unibody design on the Canvas 6 felt very good in the hand, and frankly, the Canvas 6 Pro took me back to the times when Micromax never cared about the design, with a polycarbonate back and the only difference from those phones in the past, is with the new logo that the company introduced.
You still need to satisfy the users with everything in a single device, not by asking them to compromise with one feature to get access to the other. Let’s just hope you get to know about it when you get feedback from the consumers because limiting options to storage-based ones and connectivity-based ones was something they would still have digested, but this goes out of hand when you decide to give users a choice between design, camera, and performance.
