Micromax A70 First Impressions

you wasted your money on galaxy pro.

No phone in this range will match A70. I've personally tested Galaxy 5 with customised ROM (nothing short of Cyanogen mod 7.1) but A70 in its stock form out performs them all.

Can't get over the feeling that I'm using a better device.

yes almost all phones with this range will have only 256 mb ram out of which only 160 will be available as some RAM is reserved for GPS and other system apps.

Wait till you read my Coming soon Galaxy Pro Review. :)
 
arjun123 said:
Wait till you read my Coming soon Galaxy Pro Review. :)

pro is not a phone in my taste, either it should have a full sliding qwerty keyboard or none. blackberry style is not my style. yesterday i could easily type on the touchscreen in broad daylight(yes screen was put to full brightness) while walking on a railway track.

the point is A70 has some decent legibility left in broad daylight provided screen is set to full. brightness. and if brightness is set to normal then you are done for:S
 
@Aditya: Looks like my phone is cursed :( the enxt day after I posted this review, phone started to lag very badly. Must be because I installed every app and running everything that I used to on the Nexus One :ashamed:

I got pathetic battery life ( 6 hours fully charged on 3G). The battery cover has developed a small gap and it squeaks every time I press tehre :(

On the other hand, Supra has much much better luck than me :p his phone lasts 2 days with 3G and doesnt lag.

So I have done a factory reset on my phone and will start with ground up and install only few apps and report.

As far as screenguard/cover, I dont use any so I dont know. Supra did mention that he's using a Blade screenguard and Blade cover and that works properly on the A70.
 
Wait till you read my Coming soon Galaxy Pro Review.

Motorola Charm is available for now arnd 6999 :)

Cortex A8 720Mhz, SGX 535 GPU, awesome build quality, the keyboard is way way better than the plasticky Galaxy Pro ! Only issue was Android 2.1 and no custom ROMs available.

Btw Blade Screenguard and E71/Blade Pouch fitted fine for me :p
 
Supra said:
Motorola Charm is available for now arnd 6999 :)
Cortex A8 720Mhz, SGX 535 GPU, awesome build quality, the keyboard is way way better than the plasticky Galaxy Pro ! Only issue was Android 2.1 and no custom ROMs available.

Btw Blade Screenguard and E71/Blade Pouch fitted fine for me :p
It has a cortex a8 600mhz and powervr sgx530.
But even then it has most powerful soc among sub 10k phones.
 
SunnyBoi said:
@Aditya: Looks like my phone is cursed :( the enxt day after I posted this review, phone started to lag very badly. Must be because I installed every app and running everything that I used to on the Nexus One :ashamed:

I got pathetic battery life ( 6 hours fully charged on 3G). The battery cover has developed a small gap and it squeaks every time I press tehre :(

On the other hand, Supra has much much better luck than me :p his phone lasts 2 days with 3G and doesnt lag.

So I have done a factory reset on my phone and will start with ground up and install only few apps and report.

As far as screenguard/cover, I dont use any so I dont know. Supra did mention that he's using a Blade screenguard and Blade cover and that works properly on the A70.
battery life was the same for me too, yesterday I'd put it for data download continuously and had put the phone on full brightness all the time .

Today the battery has much more juice left i think will write in the evening. we'll ask supra what config he's used to get that much of battery life.

i've put go weather...so it sucks. without go weather the perfomance was good, still it is good.

was browsing using opera11 and 10 tabs opened in background. checking for cmw porting. browsed for 45 mins approx. that's pushing the browser to limits.

after rooting the phone vibrates on loading some apps/ running it.

i've inslalled uninstaller... as you had mentioned that you had to delete the apps from the root folder. I'll check whether uninstaller can do any thing in that respect.

also i had tried universal androroot 1.6.1 and 1.6.2 ( former works for earlier builds of froyo and hence works in galaxy five). z4root is the option.

back cover is very sturdy, have virtually rip cover off.. every time to change sim.

don't worry, your phone will be back in to mint condition.:) all the best..

thanks for the screen guard.
 
A friend wanted me to look for a phone below 10K so she could facebook. This seems to tick all the right boxes. Since she's not a power user, good signal reception,good battery life (considering she'll be using it only for fb), good sound quality and a good screen should suffice. If there's another phone i

should be looking at, please do tell.

Regarding battery life, i'd say give it a week or so to get the optimal performance.
 
@sunny used system apk manager from market to freeze and remove Opera mini, Saav, MiRoamer ....... still not removed anitvirus and "Mobile guard" ( I'm scared of your method of deleting folders directly from root folder) you can find it here

"mobile guard" seems to be a good tool it "frees" 'a lot' of ram up to 31 MB while running 'optimizer'. Pls check and tell me whether it is a eyewash. But there is a considerable increase in perfomance after I run this.

Tried to over clock it using cpu master and using Atutu benchmark ( not a standard one though). I've freezed one apk called qualcomSettings.apk using the systemApk manager and rebooted. still overclocking is not possible. under clocking I could do using cpu master min is now set to 122.

Must Have : also I've installed an excellent app called Lidroid system toolbox, you can find it here. This app allows you to backup all apps, contacts etc. Also LIdroid is a very top rated developer for HTC high end models, going by his app I have to agree it. a very classy product.

as you all can imagine, I've installed busy box (1.18.4) and terminal. Will taking a romdump shortly. you can find how to do it here

syncing repo of Koushik.....

lgcamera what a camera: also installed lgcamera but could not intialize the video recording to 720 p, working on it though.

Earlier the system had started to lag as I had installed many apps. but after going through many apps and removing the unwanted items including weather wallpaper, system has become very fast. will be working on it.

and @supra pls give us tips on how you configured the phone to get a long battery life.
 
^^ Nice writeup...you are coming with a daily log almost....Way to go...do keep us updated.
Well for battery 1st thing I do is charge is fully after switching the phone off in the nite and switch it back on and put charger again to let it again charge till full. I dont charge till battery is down to 5% again.
Also I have uninstalled the antivirus as well the other NetQin Product. No widgets on the home screens which access data...only the nornal Go Launcher Task Manager, Message and Go Weather (with time) widget.
I am using it as my primary phone now (with Vodafone 2G) and its easily lasting a weekend day (yesterday ie Saturday) with 1 hour of calls, 1 hour of Wifi, 1.5 hours of EDGE data and some 1 hour of Music :)
And I also managed to let the phone fall :( from a height of 3-4 feet (from comp table) and i must say all parts r very sturdy :D

All in all after 5 days I must say I am happy with the phone. Btw once you giys get out of the experimental mode and keep only the necessary apps ....battery life should be ok :)
 
Atlast my account was activated :p

I'm following this thread from quite some time,

Here's what I got with my A70:

Installed the Custom ROM from PlayfulGod. (Please don't install it unless a fix for wi-fi is released )
Wi-fi doesn't work now and I accidently deleted my Stock ROM backup (to free space on SD card but didn't notice what I did :( )

Rest all is cool, you can use z4root for rooting (the custom ROM is already rooted).

Apps I use:
ES File Explorer.
GO Launcher EX with Cartoon Theme. (With the Task Manager Widget)
Extensive Notes Pro.
Opera Mobile (Dolphin Browser HD lags too much! )
Titanium Backup Pro (Removed many stock applications using this!)
ROM Manager with ClockWorkMod Recovery.
Barcode Scanner.
I use a really small Boot image (266kb) to save some MBs on phone memory :p
Terminal Emulator (For the ROM Dump thingy!)
AdFree (to remove ADs )
Best of all: aDownloader (Downloads both torrent and normal files)
Real Player (Removed stock music player)
Just waiting for some cool ROMs to be released and I'm also getting into some ROM development (will be done in a month or so )
Awesome mobile it is ;)
 
Supra said:
^^ Nice impressions and addups from ur side :)
Can u link us to the ROM and where u gt it from :)

Here it is: playfuldroidz.com/wiki/index.php?title=Micromax_A70
Hopefully, I won't need mod approval of my posts soon :huh:
 
Supra said:
^^ Nice impressions and addups from ur side :)

Can u link us to the ROM and where u gt it from :)

Here it is: playfuldroidz.com/wiki/index.php?title=Micromax_A70

Hopefully, I won't need mod approval of my posts soon :huh:
 
@supra : thank you very much for the battery tips, I've almost stabilized my application list :huh:. I've ordered for ZTE blade screen guard from ebay. also went in for a Class4 8GBer. (waiting for shipping to arrive.)

Had installed, busybox, terminal emulator, (removed : z4root, busybox installer- as i rooted and installed busy box. seems there was no use for these apps after the purpose was over, Pls correct me If I am wrong ) yesterday night I tried to take a romdump. but was unsucessful. the program exit. thinking to going in for a factory reset and rooting so that rom dump can be taken.

@ akshaybz. nice review. welcome to A70 club. Pls do provide us a link with Playful god is he XDA dev? was the rom a Gingerbread or remastered edition of stock rom, quite exited to hear it.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

here's playfulgods wiki for mircomax :cool2:

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

@ akshay: can you please explain how you had installed the rom.

also on Aug 29's build he says would have solved wifi issues...... hope you will be updating us on it.

Meanwhile..... i got my SDcard 8 gb Class 4. partitioned it as 1.5 GB Ext 4 and rest 5.9 gb as fat.

Rom not recognizing ext4.....what to do????:huh:

Thinking of doing a factory reset....but my questions are. After a factory reset

1. How to take the full backup of the stock rom. ?

2. In case of emergency/need how to install back the factory ROM.?

3. How to make Phone recognize my ext4 partition.
 
I can help you with 1st and 2nd one,

JUst Boot into CWM recovery!

You can back as well as install ROM from there ;)

Don't know abt 3rd one :(
 
Done a Factory reset to the phone. All data wiped out but Root permission still exist.

Backed up Boot animation.

Installed Rom Manager from market.

Ran Rom manager ---> Selected "Flash Clockworkmod Recovery" (1st option) a list of phones pop up --> scroll down---> the last option is Micormax A70 :clap:

(The phone has to be rooted for this to be installed)

After installing Clockworkmod, select reboot into recovery option in Rom Manager ---> the phone will reboot into clockworkmod recovery v 4.0.1.5

(Vol up/down key is used to move up and down the menu. Power button needs to be used to select/activate a menu)

I have partitioned my 8 gb class 4 with 2 gb ext, 256 mb swap and rest as FAT.

How ever I faced a small issue yesterday. First I partitioned my SD as 2 GB ext4 but accidentally skipped swap.... and rest as fat. Format was complete and I went back to recovery menu. (but I wanted a swap so formatted again)

On formatting the second time. It took a lot of time and never came back to the menu even after an hour ( I had to remove the battery to reboot)

so after reboot I booted back to recovery (using rom manager as said above) and have backed up my current rom using backup and restore menu.

i will be uploading my stock rom backup and factory boot animation to dropbox. I will providing it a zip file for both of them... just let me finish syncing with dropbox.

@sunny, supra & akshay...... these are not for you but for any new guys comming into a70 echo system........

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

Had installed the custom rom from playfulgod.

Wifi not working. :mad:

boot animation is depressing :no:

Not a single application more compared to stock rom. I did not see any terminal emulator either.

so flashed back to stock rom from backup. you can download it from here

also i've uploaded the stock micromax boot animation to dropbox you can download it here

Hey what happened to all the guys ??:huh:
 
I've concluded its a phone not worth wasting time on. This is purely my opinion. If you've had better luck, good for ya.

My messaging, call logs, everything is screwed up on the phone, new calls, messages come up on random places, not on top like other android phones. I haven't installed even 25% of apps I did before and still getting shit battery life. Bloody thing lags like hell, etc etc etc.

Strangely dad likes it. swapped this for his OLED Blade :D. Will keep the OLED blade with me for sometime and see if he gets frustrated with this POS. If yes, then I'm just gonna throw it away. seriously.
 
SunnyBoi said:
I've concluded its a phone not worth wasting time on. This is purely my opinion. If you've had better luck, good for ya.

My messaging, call logs, everything is screwed up on the phone, new calls, messages come up on random places, not on top like other android phones. I haven't installed even 25% of apps I did before and still getting shit battery life. Bloody thing lags like hell, etc etc etc.

Strangely dad likes it. swapped this for his OLED Blade :D. Will keep the OLED blade with me for sometime and see if he gets frustrated with this POS. If yes, then I'm just gonna throw it away. seriously.

hey, you threw the towel so easily man.....

I'm back to the stock rom...... Just made it as my primary phone today.. after thorough testing.

battery life chronicle: I charged yesterday night 0020 am upto 99% only. still 50% left (data is permanently on :-:even in train) go weather is always drawing data and power.

so far so good.

changed boot animation using BAC,

If you've got any issues with stability why didn't you go for a factory reset.

the phone is very lovable. will keep the post

I've subscribed to airtelgprs (Rs.98 for 1 GB for a month not as fast as docomo but always connected :) )

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

I've been using go launcher ex, go sms pro, go key board with iphone theme. go weather widget. (all are free in market)

missed call alert coming on the top notification panel correctly and perfectly.

sms are also coming correctly with pop up+ preview & .

mind you that two days back i had rooted this phone and tried install romdump. I accidently copied and pasted the entire readme into the root prompt. a lot of commands flew and I got a segmentation fault to take the memory dump. could never take the romdump. that's why did a factory reset. Its my fault.
 
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