Last month, Micromax unveiled its new sub-brand ‘in’ and announced its comeback in the smartphone segment. The launch invite with the tag line ‘Aao Karein Cheeni Kum’ (let’s cut down on sugar, but the wordplay on ‘Cheeni’ word also refers to the Chinese) hinted at the anti-China sentiment and following that early this month, the company unveiled two new smartphones – Micromax IN Note 1 and Micromax IN 1b priced starting at Rs. 10,999 and Rs. 6999 respectively. I’ve been using the device for quite some time now, and here is the Unboxing and First Impressions of Micromax IN Note 1.
Table of contents
| Box Contents |
| Specifications |
| Design |
| Display |
| Software |
| Connectivity |
| Camera |
| Battery |
Box Contents
- Micromax IN Note 1 (4GB+128GB) in Green color
- 18W charging adapter
- USB Type-C to Type-A cable
- SIM ejector tool
- Quick Start Guide and Warranty Information
Micromax IN Note 1 specifications
- 6.67-inch (2400 x 1080 pixels) 20:9 Full HD+ display with 450 nits brightness
- Octa-Core MediaTek Helio G85 12nm processor (Dual 2GHz Cortex-A75 + Hexa 2GHz 6x Cortex-A55 CPUs) with up to 1000MHz ARM Mali-G52 2EEMC2 GPU
- 4GB LPPDDR4x RAM with 64GB / 128GB (eMMC 5.1) storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
- Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD)
- Android 10
- 48MP rear camera with Samsung GM1 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, f/1.79 aperture, LED flash, 5MP 115° ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture, 2MP macro lens and 2MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture
- 16MP front camera with OV16A1Q sensor with f/2.0 aperture
- Rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, Google Assistant button
- 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
- Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C
- 5000mAh battery with 18W fast charging
Design
The Micromax IN Note 1 has a glossy back that reflects light to produce an X-shaped pattern which looks great. The back panel is made of plastic but mimics phone with a glass back which is quite common on smartphones in this price segment. As for the button placement, the power and volume rockers button are present on the right side and the 3.5mm jack, primary microphone, USB Type-C port, speaker grille are present at the bottom. On the left side, there is a dedicated Google Assistant key and the secondary microphone is present at the top. To the back, you’ll find the 48MP rear camera module, physical fingerprint scanner, and further down, you’ll find the IN branding.
Moving on, the build quality is decent on this phone and the in-hand feel is good as well. Although it has a glossy back, it does offer a decent grip but attracts fingerprints and smudges as well. The white colour variant should probably do a better job in hiding the smudges and fingerprints compared to the Green colour variant. It is to be noted that you don’t get a protective case in the box and has to be purchased separately.
Display
Coming to the display, the IN Note 1 flaunts a 6.67-inch 20:9 Full HD+ display with 450 nits brightness and 60Hz refresh rate. It has a centred hole-punch that houses the 16MP front camera and the bezels are thin on the top and sides compared to the bottom. It is an LCD panel and the quality of the display is good – it is bright, sharp, has good colour accuracy and the viewing angles are fine as well. This phone does support adaptive brightness and you can also choose the Screen Color mode – Standard, Vivid, Cool, Customize. As expected, there is support for Dark Theme, Ambient Display, and you can also hide the hole-punch, according to your preference.
Further, there are 8 pre-installed beautiful wallpapers and as usual, you can set custom wallpaper from Google Photos, Gallery etc. Moving on the DRM Info, it is Widevine L3 compliant which means the IN Note 1 can’t stream HD/FULL HD videos on apps like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, etc. Hopefully, Micromax pushes an update soon to enable HD playback on these apps.
Software
The Micromax IN Note 1 runs stock Android 10 out-of-the-box with September 5, 2020 Android security patch level and has support for multi-user as well. Micromax has done a few customisations in the UI like the quick toggle icons, Camera interface.
Out-of-the-box, you get the usual Google Apps and apart from that, Sound Recorder, FM Radio, and SIM Toolkit are pre-installed. Further, another app named ‘DuraSpeed’ is pre-loaded as well that helps boost the foreground app by restricting background apps. It is present on the Settings page, but the option to disable was greyed out for some reason.
There are no ads on the UI and for the most part and Micromax has promised guaranteed updates for 2 years. The IN Note 1 is powered the MediaTek Helio G85 12nm SoC with 4GB of RAM and up to 128GB (eMMC 5.1) storage. In my limited time with the device, navigating through the UI, multitasking was smooth and I didn’t face any issues of an app crash, lag or whatsoever. The touch response was good and it was responsive. That said, I’ll reserve my verdict regards to performance in the full review.
Connectivity
The IN Note 1 has a triple card slot which supports Dual SIM + microSD (nano + nano + microSD). There is support for Dual 4G VoLTE, Dual Band WiFi (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS. Enhanced 4G LTE mode and WiFi calling are supported out-of-the-box.
Camera
As for the optics, the IN Note 1 features a quad camera setup on the back which is a combination of a 48MP primary (Samsung GM1 sensor, 0.8μm pixel size, f/1.79 aperture, LED flash) + 5MP (115° ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture) + 2MP (macro lens) + 2MP (depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture) and the front camera is a 16MP shooter with OV16A1Q sensor, f/2.0 aperture.
The camera UI has been customized by the company and there is a range of modes like Night Mode, HDR, Pro Mode, GIF, Filter, Beauty, Panorama, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, Intelligent Scanning, Macro. You can record videos up to FULL HD 1080p at 30fps from the rear camera and up to 720p from the front camera. The available picture size is – 48MP (4:3)/36MP (1:1), 29MP/12MP (4:3)/7MP. I was not able to find a dedicated Portrait mode, but there is an Aperture mode with up to 7 levels. As for Camera2API, the IN Note 1 has ‘FULL’ hardware support level among the 4 different levels.
Check out the camera samples below. I’ll have to say more about the camera in the full review.
Battery
It packs a 5000mAh battery with 18W fast charging via USB Type-C and also has reverse charging that lets you charge other devices with an OTG cable.
The phone will be available starting from November 24th from Flipkart. We’ll have to say more about the Micromax IN Note 1 in the full review which should be dropping soon. Stay tuned!