Micromax Launches Canvas Win W121 and Canvas Win W092: First Indian Brand Windows Phone 8.1 Devices Compete With Nokia Lumia Smartphones

On 16 June, India witnessed the launch of the first Windows Phone 8.1 devices from an Indian smartphone brand. Micromax, which claims to be the tenth largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, has come out with the Micromax Canvas Win W092 and Canvas Win W121 smartphones that run on Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1 operating platform.

Both Micromax Canvas Win W092 and Canvas Win W121 are in fact affordably priced considering the nature of the Indian smartphone market.

Canvas Win W092 is priced at Rs 6500 (£64) while Canvas Win W121 has a price tag of Rs 9500 (£93). Both the smartphones have dual SIM card slots, and are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor.

In India, Micromax's Canvas Win W121 could do well to compete with the "budget priced" Nokia Lumia 630 (retailing at Rs 10,940, £107) that runs on Windows Phone 8.1.

In terms of technical specifications, the Canvas Win W121 has a 5in IPS touchscreen supporting high-definition (HD) video playback. An 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front snapper adorn the smartphone.

Canvas W121 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, along with a 1GB RAM. The smartphone provides an internal storage of 8GB (expandable up to 32GB with microSD card).

On paper, the Canvas Win W121 has superior technical specifications in comparison to Nokia's Lumia 630 that incorporates a 4.5in display, 5MP rear camera (no front camera), 512MB RAM and the 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor.

The pricing of Micromax's Canvas Win W121 also seems pretty apt considering the smartphone's major technical specifications. The device could also do well to grab the attention of certain Lumia 630 users.

Micromax's other smartphone, the Canvas Win W092 is a toned down version of the Canvas Win W121. The former has a 4in screen, 5MP rear camera and a front VGA camera. It comes with 8GB internal storage (expandable to 32GB via microSD card) and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core processor, with 1GB RAM.

With mid-range smartphones flooding the Indian smartphone market, the competition between local and international brands is bound to heat up. It will be a matter of interest to watch how Micromax (with its latest offerings) fights the likes of Microsoft Mobile (which considers India as a priority) and Samsung, both of which have a range of mid-range smartphones to their name.