The Noisy Cricket. Review on Micromax X274

The audience

This phone was bought for use by my mom. The main features i was interested in were

1. High sound output : since my mom usually carried the phone in her handbag, she missed a lot of calls as the ring never made it out of the bag .

   
   




2. Large battery : reducing need for frequent charging.

   
   




3. Large screen and keys etc : ease of reading

   
   




4. Utility features like torch etc,

   
   

Besides the above, i was really looking for the cheapest phone around, even willing to settle for a single sim phone.

The options

Nokia had a cheaper phone, but the small screen and buttons pushed it down the list. Also the puny battery in comparison sealed it's fate.

Say hello to micromax x274

What attracted me to the x274 was the prominent speaker in the rear. This thing is loud. Even at the lowest volume this is louder than any phone i have owned. At the max volume it is headache inducing, i am not joking .

With a 1800 mah battery, the phone is expected to be in standby for close to 15 days. Satisfactory.

Screen is a massive 6 cms across, and keys are large enough to be depressed without disturbing neighbouring ones. Good tactile feedback as well.

Single led torch is adequate. Besides these core advantages, it also has the following

Bluetooth, wireless fm, mp3 player, video player, camera with max 640x480 res. Which can also be used as a webcam

The body is all plastic, with a nice matte pattern in the back which prevents slippage. The phone is large and chunky which adds to the convenience. Call quality is good. Text is sufficiently large for sms and contacts, etc. Box comes with all needed stuff.

The noisy cricket

While the sound for the ringtone, and music / fm playback are loud, strangely the key press sounds are almost muted. At the max volume it is barely audible. As an important feedback mechanism, the "click" sound should be audible. The reason for this oversight is hard to understand.

While one would like loud sounds in some occasions, the need to mute the sound is also desirable in other occasions. Unfortunately, the x247 fails on this front, miserably.

A. There is no way to switch off the shutting down sound, or even reduce it's volume. Since i usually set the phone to switch off automatically at a late hour, like 11 pm, having to listen to an earth shattering shut down tune is irritating to say the least. What aggravates matters is the fact that the phone doesn't switch off, no, it requires the user to push a button... And till then the racket continues!!! The only solution is to not use the auto switch off feature.

B. Similarly, there is no way to set the volume for the alarm. The default volume is loud enough to wake up every one in the house, and even in the next one! The solution is to tape over the speaker till an acceptable volume is output, then raise the volume for the ringtone and music.

Other oversights

1. The 6 cm screen is not efficiently used. Even with such a large screen, when dialling, the numbers are unsatisfactorily small.

   
   




2. No equaliser or audio pre-sets. The small speakers are quite shrill, and an equaliser could have made a lot of difference when listening to music.

   
   




3. There is gprs, but the browser is seriously deficient, making it impossible to use the feature. Also, the phone memory is used and this means large pages cannot be opened. There is no way to switch to using the memory card for this.

   
   




4. Probably due to lack of memory, when scrolling through a list of messages the phone is slowed down.

   
   

Conclusion

For all the pros, the lack of volume control is a major deterrent - to quote michelin "what is power without control". So, what makes the x274 worth holding on to is the humble cello tape! I suggest that micromax offer a free cello tape roll along with the phone.