We expect both, the Samsung Galaxy Grand i9082 and the Micromax Canvas HD A116, to be heavy-weights. Samsung is the reigning champion in sheer volumes of smartphones sold, while Micromax is a fast-rising challenger with its budget prices. With their respective launches in January 2013, both now have dual-SIM Android phablets in their portfolio, with mid-range pricing and specifications to offer the user a pretty good experience.

Here's a quick spec comparison, showing where internals of the two devices differ:


The Samsung Galaxy Grand is costlier, but among other things, offers a better chance of continuing OS updates beyond it's current Android Jelly Bean OS version. For its part, the Micromax A116 could be a hit with the enthusiast segment, if the developer community becomes interested in building custom ROMs to refresh the phone with new features. However, developers will begin to show interest to make these ROMs only if the phone has enough users. A bit of a catch-22?

Some websites offer a somewhat misleading comparison of the two 5-inch phones above, with the lower-priced Karbonn A30 (5.9-inch) and the much-higher priced Samsung Galaxy Note 2 N7100 (5.5-inch). We do not think them to be a fair apples-to-apples comparison, and thus left those out of the picture.

The Micromax A116 seems attractive on paper, with a quad-core processor and 720p HD resolution screen. It is still too close to call yet, so stay tuned for our detailed review of both the phones, which will tell you more about their relative performance and features.


You may also want to read:
Review of the Micromax A110 Superfone Canvas 2 Android smartphone priced below Rs. 10,000
Review of the Samsung Galaxy Note II, a phablet priced at Rs. 37,000

Tags : Micromax, Samsung, A116, I9082, Phablet, Android, smartphones, comparison