Summary Of Review
Rating 3/5
Micromax, an Indian smartphone manufacturer, has been struggling to build a name for itself in the face of strong Chinese competition in recent years, and it only decided last year that the moment had come to make a type of return. The company has released a slew of smartphones in recent months, with the In Note series standing out as a major salvo in the low-cost segment. It is now returning with a successor in the form of the In Note 2. The phone is priced at 13,490 and comes with good hardware, including an AMOLED display and MediaTek's Helio G95 SoC. It's time to see how the In Note 2 performs in everyday situations.
The Micromax In Note 2's subpar camera performance and poorly adjusted AMOLED display, both of which the firm has advertised as the phone's major assets, let it down. The battery life isn't amazing, but the performance is adequate. The phone also receives style marks for its design language, which adds a touch of flair, as well as the clean stock Android experience.
THE LOCKDOWN
From the back, the In Note 2 resembles Samsung's Galaxy S21 (review) series. The camera housing has the Contour Cut design that smoothly blends with the frame, albeit the construction materials are, predictably, nowhere near as nice as Samsung's flagship phones for 2021. Micromax has chosen a glossy plastic surface on the rear, which looks nice but collects a lot of smudges. With a light in-hand feel, a slightly boxy form meets my palm, while the bottom and top borders are curled. The phone's rear panel is completed with the In logo and a quad-camera arrangement, while the bottom houses a 3.5mm headphone socket, a USB C slot, and a speaker grille.
A fingerprint sensor has been merged into the power button on the side, and above it is a single volume control bar. Overall, the design, while eerily similar to the Galaxy S21, is eye-catching and undoubtedly works in the device's favour.
In terms of display, the In Note 2 has a 6.43-inch AMOLED panel with FHD+ resolution and a refresh rate of 60Hz. After a careful examination of the available pictures, I can conclude that Micromax's execution of the panel is not faultless. By default, the display has an unnerving blue-ish hue, which is accentuated when the Vivid colour theme is selected in the settings. Even with the customising option enabled, the display quality is either too warm or too chilly. I understand the limitation of a higher refresh rate panel due to the screen's OLED nature, but incorporating at least a 90Hz screen would have been preferable for the device.
Aside from that, the display gets quite bright in broad sunlight, and WideVine L1 certification is available for HD video on OTT services. I believe the bottom bezel may have been cut, but the miniscule punch-hole with no backlight bleeding compensates.
Moving on to the cameras, the In Note 2 boasts four of them, the primary one being a 48MP snapper. The remaining cameras are a 5MP ultra-wide, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth shooter. Overall, even by budget standards, the Note 2 is not a particularly capable image-taking machine. Phones like the Redmi Note 10 (review) and Realme 8 (review) series have raised the bar so high that it appears the In Note 2 may struggle to match. Daylight photographs do not put much strain on the phone, but the shutter speeds are modest, resulting in a lot of blur in the images. The dynamic range is patchy, but touching on the screen works nicely for focusing.
The images are great in terms of detail, however there is a lack of exposure in the darkest parts. In low-light circumstances, the ultra-wide camera's viewfinder is similar to that of VGA cameras, and the photos it produces are only marginally better. Portrait mode background separation is decent, while macro photos are unimpressive. Low-light photography suffers from poor colour reproduction and exposure management, however I did see modest improvements when using the specialised night mode. Finally, there is a 16MP selfie camera onboard, which produces nice images when the lighting is good but has a propensity to overexpose on occasion.
his tried-and-true The In Note 2 is powered by a MediaTek Helio G95 processor, and although its processing capabilities are adequate, the power efficiency of the 12nm construction is disappointing. The In Note 2 performs admirably as an everyday smartphone, with quick app switching, lag-free social media surfing, and moderate Chrome usage. More GPU-intensive operations, such as BGMI gaming at anything above 45fps with visuals set to Smooth, do put a strain on the device.
There is 4GB of LPDDR4X RAM to contend with, which should be plenty to run at least a couple intensive programmes in the background. Aside from that, there is 64GB of UFS 2.1 storage, which can be increased to 256GB through a microSD card slot.
On the bottom is a single speaker unit that produces loud but mediocre sound quality. The fingerprint sensor is quick and accurate on the majority of instances. In terms of mobile internet and telephony, Jio's 4G LTE service performed admirably. In terms of software, Micromax is using a full stock Android skin, which offers the UI experience an a clean look while also making it user-friendly. My main issue is how frequently Micromax will release software upgrades.
The Micromax In Note 2's battery is a normal 5,000mAh Li-Po cell that can be fast-charged at 30W. The battery life on the In Note 2 was nothing special. In actuality, the tablet scored just 8 hours and 46 minutes on PCMark's Battery 3.0 test. My usage of the gadget gave around 5 hours of screen on time at approximately 60% screen brightness, which is about average. The included 30W charger can charge the battery in around 90 minutes.
FINAL VERDICT
Micromax has relied heavily on the usage of an AMOLED display on the In Note 2, although its implementation appears to be a little odd. The Infinix Note 11 (review) has a superior panel at a cheaper price point with a larger screen. The Note 2's camera quality flaws, as well as its very mediocre battery performance, don't assist its cause. However, the eye-catching design, light in-hand feel, and clean software experience might entice some buyers.
Pros:
- Stylish design and clean software.
- Charge times are reasonable.
Cons:
- Cameras that lack lustre
- The AMOLED display has not been properly calibrated.
- Battery life might be improved.
