Micromax Canvas Infinity first impressions: A Samsung Galaxy S8-like display for ₹9,999

'Bezel-less' displays have actually become a thing. From the Essential Phone to Xiaomi Mi Mix, there are quite a few smartphones that come with near bezel-less displays. Samsung and LG have also experimented with the concept with their latest flagship smartphones, the Galaxy S8 and LG G6, respectively. OEMs' newfound obsession with bezel-less displays indicate that the market will be soon flooded with such smartphones. But at the moment, we can safely say bezel-less or near bezel-less smartphones segment to be precise, are niche.

This is exactly what Micromax is trying to tap into - delivering a smartphone that mimics Samsung Galaxy S8's 'Infinity Display' and costs less than ₹10,000. After all, Micromax's strength has been catering to the 'masses'. The Micromax Canvas Infinity is priced at ₹9,999 and perhaps is one of the best looking Micromax smartphones thus far. But is that it about the Canvas Infinity? Well, the 18:9 is the main deal of the Canvas Infinity, but the smartphone does tick all the checkboxes for a decent sub-₹10,000 smartphone. Ahead of today's launch, I briefly used the Micromax Canvas Infinity and here are my first impressions.

Without a doubt the Micromax Canvas Infinity is very good looking. The 18:9 'full vision' display-screen makes all the difference. The display feels taller as you would have noticed in other smartphones with slimmer bezels. The Canvas Infinity has a 5.7-inch IPS HD display (an impressive 80% screen-to-body ratio), quite close to Samsung Galaxy S8's 5.8-inch screen. Unsurprisingly, the Canvas Infinity does remind you of the Galaxy S8 from the front. During my brief usage, the display seemed bright enough while colour and saturation levels were decent enough.

The similarity with the Galaxy S8 ends here though. The back panel is removable and houses slots for microSD and two SIM cards. Even though it's a plastic back panel, it doesn't really come across as cheap. In fact, the design very well gels with the front. Though it makes me wonder should Micromax have gone ahead with a unibody design? What difference would it have made? Overall, the smartphone feels good enough when you hold it in your hands. All the necessary buttons like volume rocker and power button are well within the reach. Perhaps, people with smaller palms than mine may take some time to get used a taller smartphone. If someone has already been using a 5.5-inch or larger screen smartphone, switching to the Canvas Infinity should not be a problem.

Another major highlight of the smartphone is the 16-megapixel front facing camera. The camera is capable of delivering a 'real-time' Bokeh effect (DSLR-like depth of field) for selfies. I tried out this mode for a few selfies, most of them came out really well. The 13-megapixel rear camera seemed pretty fine as well. Wait for a more detailed take on the camera performance once we have reviewed the smartphone.

As far as performance goes, it felt pretty fluid during the time I spent with the device. The smartphone runs on Android 7.1.2 Nougat out-of-the-box. Micromax has said that the Canvas Infinity will receive Android 8.0 Oreo update as well. The company has also promised regular updates to the smartphone. It is worth noting that Android users have long demanded regular updates from the OEMs. Already, Nokia has been touting the 'Android update' as one of their USPs for their smartphones. It's certainly a welcome trend.

That being said, the combination of Snapdragon 425 processor and 3GB of RAM may be inferior to what Xiaomi and Lenovo have been offering for their phones in the budget category. But I am not expecting the Canvas Infinity to be a powerhouse anyway. The Canvas Infinity comes with a 2,900mAh battery, smaller than Redmi Note 4's 4,000mAh battery. But it's not the mAh capacity alone that decides the battery life. We'll be providing more in-depth details on the battery life once the smartphone has gone through a barrage of tests.

Summing up, the 18:9 display is indeed the main deal of the Canvas Infinity. At ₹9,999, there's barely any smartphone that offers the same display experience. LG, however, also offers a budget smartphone with an 18:9 display. Perhaps, the LG Q6 is superior to the Canvas Infinity, but it costs higher as well. The pricing of the LG Q6 starts at ₹14,990, approximately ₹5,000 more than the Canvas Infinity.

Stay tuned for our detailed review of the Micromax Canvas Infinity.