Micromax returned to India with its new sub-brand IN and promoted it with slogans such as “IN For India” and “Cheeni Kam”, which means less Chinese, to take on Chinese brands in India. The two new smartphones introduced under the brand are inexpensive devices, targeting the mass market in India. We are going to talk about the first phone – IN Note 1 here. The phone is for sale on Flipkart starting at Rs. 10,999 and if you are thinking of buying one, here are some reasons to buy and not to buy Micromax IN Note 1.
Also read | Micromax IN Note 1 Vs Others: is it better than Chinese phones in the segment?
We have been using your sales unit for some time and if you have any questions read on for our first impressions of the IN Note 1.
Reasons to buy Micromax IN Note 1
Large perforated FHD + display
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Micromax IN Note 1 has a large 6.67 inch screen. It’s bigger than what you get in many other models for this price. The screen has a small hole in the center to accommodate a 16-megapixel selfie camera, which looks good.
Also, here you get Full-HD + screen resolution, which is not very common for budget phones these days. The screen also comes with an oleophobic coating for protection.
Performance to match
The new Micromax phone is powered by the MediaTek Helio G85 processor, which is a capable processor in terms of performance in this price range. You will be able to play games and multitask without any problem. In addition, the processor is paired with 4 GB of RAM and storage variants of up to 128 GB.
Large battery and fast charger
The Micromax In Note 1 comes equipped with a 5000mAh battery, which is good as it has become a standard size these days. Plus, you get an 18W fast charger in the box which is fast and can fully charge you in over 2 hours. We’ll talk more about battery backup in our full review.
Ports and connectivity features
We are impressed with Micromax to offer all the connectivity features and all the necessary ports. The phone comes with a 2 + 1 card slot, which means you can use two SIM cards and a microSD card at the same time.
You also get a dedicated Google Assistant button to launch the Assistant, but you can’t customize it to launch other apps. In addition, there is a USB Type-C port at the bottom to support fast charging, a 3.55mm headphone jack, a microphone and a single speaker. There is a secondary microphone on the top for noise cancellation.
Reasons not to buy Micromax IN Note 1
Platic build quality
The phone comes with a plastic back panel and a plastic frame, which is not that impressive. The back panel is a bit light in terms of quality. You can feel it when you press the panel with your fingers.
Some YouTubers even reported in their reviews that the back panel easily detaches from the body. They shared images on Twitter and you can see the same in the screenshot above. However, we do not feel any problem at this time.
Additionally, the phone is also 9mm thick and weighs over 200g, so it is not as compact. There is a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, which is a bit smaller in terms of area.
Overall, we think the build quality could be improved a bit more. Still, it’s not that bad, as most of the other phones in the segment have the same build quality.
Screen brightness issues
Although this is a large FHD + resolution screen, there are still issues. First off, auto-brightness isn’t as reliable and you’ll see some issues when it’s on, especially outdoors.
Another downside to the screen is the brightness level, the maximum screen brightness would be 450 nits, but at LUX it is only 317 which means it is not that bright. Some other phones in the segment offer more brightness in LUX.
Software issues
As for the software, there are some major changes in the IN Note 1 compared to previous Micromax phones. This time around, you’re getting almost stock Android with negligible customization, which is a really good thing.
However, there are some annoying UI issues. First there are the icons which are not symmetrical and you may feel that some are large and some are small. Moreover, when you are surfing the internet, you may also feel a little nervous.
You also don’t get Widevine L1 support on this phone, so you won’t be able to stream HD quality videos. However, this can be fixed by an OTA update.
Overall, we’re impressed with Android’s standard bloatware-free UI, but if the company fixes these issues through OTA, it’ll be easier to use.
Slow storage (eMMC)
The IN Note 1 comes with eMMC 5.1 type storage, which means it will gradually slow down as the phone ages, which we have already seen on several devices with this type of storage. However, as of now, you won’t experience many multitasking and gaming issues except for some slow loading issues in heavy games.
One thing that you should also keep in mind here is that in this price range some brands like Realme now offer the fastest type of storage which is UFS storage.
Rear camera user interface and focus issue
The IN Note 1 camera module houses a 48-megapixel main camera, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide camera, a 2-megapixel macro camera, and a 2-megapixel depth camera. So, you can see the camera specs are good, but there are some software issues that need to be addressed.
First of all, the phone struggles to focus. When you open the camera and try to focus on a subject, you have to tap the screen to focus on that subject and then it makes a sound that looks like what we heard on the old Android phones.
Likewise, the camera struggles to focus while recording video, resulting in blurry shots. Usually you click on good images when the lighting is good and the colors look natural too, but again when you can’t focus you will get a blurry image.
You can check out these sample cameras to get a feel for yourself, rest assured we’ll share our in-depth reviews in the full review.
Selfies lavados
One thing we have noticed about the front camera is that it delivers washed out shots when the lighting is not right. I mean, when you’re trying to take a selfie in a well-lit room and unfortunately a light source is interfering with the camera, the background color may be washed out. You can see it in the example below where the wall color is fading.
Outdoors, you can click on a good selfie, not that impressive, but you can use it on your social media. In general, I am not very impressed with the front camera.
Final words
Micromax has done well in offering India-centric smartphones to give competition to Chinese brands and has also been successful on a certain level. The Micromax IN Note 1 is a good phone in terms of specs, but the company has failed in some places, especially in software optimization, which can greatly affect the overall user experience. At this time, we cannot recommend this phone, but when some of these issues are resolved through OTA updates, we will let you know in our full review.
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