Micromax Informatics, the largest domestic smartphone brand in India (the second largest overall after Samsung), has announced its latest entry-level smartphone in the country, dubbed the Canvas Fire 4G. As evident from the name, the smartphone comes with LTE connectivity with support for TD-LTE Band B40 (2300 MHz) and FDD-LTE Band B3 (1800 MHz). Micromax though, has not revealed the pricing just as yet, nor for that matter any details about the phones availability. However, the phone is expected to come with an entry-level price-tag and when launched commercially, will very likely compete with Lenovo’s recently launched LTE-enabled A2010 smartphone, which costs barely $79 on e-commerce site Flipkart. As for the hardware specs of the Canvas Fire 4G, the device comes with a 4.5-inch display of unknown resolution, a MediaTek MT6735M SoC with a 1 GHz quad-core CPU, 1GB RAM and 8GB internal storage. The handset will run Android 5.1 Lollipop, and sport a 5-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera.
Micromax also announced that it will introduce more LTE devices in the future, in partnership with MediaTek, specifically mentioning the company’s current flagship Helio X10 chipset, which will ostensibly be present in some of the upcoming devices from the company. Speaking on the occasion of the launch of the Canvas Fire 4G, the CEO of Micromax Informatics, Mr. Vineet Taneja, said, “At Micromax Informatics we have been putting in concerted efforts to bring the best in class 4G LTE smartphones to take Internet usage to an unprecedented level. Today’s partnership exemplifies the same endeavor and we are delighted to partner with MediaTek for its Helio Family. We have always endeavoured to offer products based on certain needs of the consumer. Moving forward, we will lead the 4G adoption in the country by converting all our popular value Canvas series to 4G. Canvas Fire 4G is the first in a series of such launches”.
Dr. Finbarr Moynihan, the General Manager of International Sales at MediaTek was also present at the launch, and speaking about the partnership with Micromax, he said, “India is the next 4G LTE smartphone battleground and key to MediaTek’s mission to power billions of devices globally. With MediaTek’s wide portfolio of LTE products from entry to premium, we have the right business and technology strategy, along with local collaborations to make LTE a reality for Indian consumers. The technology is going to change to higher speeds and networks and MediaTek is pleased to collaborate with Micromax Informatics to deliver a stable and affordable 4G handset experience”.