The Micromax Q66 eclipse is an affordable dual SIM smartphone with a stylish QWERTY, which is also its undoing. Overall, at a price tag of Rs. 5,499, the Q66 does not truly justify its worth and is hence not recommended.
Pros
- Affordable
- Stylish QWERTY
- Ships with a leather pouch
Cons
- Poor SIM latch build quality and faulty mechanism
- Mediocre keypad ergonomics
- No bundled memory card
The Q66 ships with a stylish leather pouch, which can be fastened to your waist belt or attached to the hand-grip that accompanies it. The pouch with the hand-grip resembles a tiny ladies purse, that can be carried around like a vanity bag. In spite of its compact design, the Q66 is quite heavy weighing about 118 grams. It is built like a tank with harder than normal plastic and portrays a near perfect square shape with rounded edges.
The Q66 incorporates a QWERTY keypad that has three overlapping hues of black, blue and purple. This interesting colour pattern gives it an attractive look. The keypad is built with out-dented keys which are separated by very narrow spacings between them. This hinders the navigation comfort across the keypad to a large extent. The keys lack tactile feedback and require extra effort from the user to register an input successfully. Overall, the build quality and ergonomics of the keypad is ordinary.
The battery cover is clumsy and does not come off easily. Another sore point is the poor build quality of the SIM 2 latch, which fails to latch on during SIM card installation. In spite of multiple trials, the latch mechanism failed and the latch door came off the hooks. Thus, we could not install the SIM card into it.
The menu interface is neat and well organised. The trackball is handy for menu navigation and browsing. However, it lacks precision and is a bit slow in responsiveness. Overall, the menu and graphic user interface provides satisfactory ergonomics.
Performance
The Q66 eclipse delivered consistent signal reception across all the three zones. There were no instances of dropped calls, but we experienced a slight drop in the voice clarity across zone one and three. The loudspeaker produced distorted sounds at volumes higher than 50% and yielded wavering voice clarity throughout the test. The handsfree headset delivered good voice clarity across all the three zones, but the audibility was very feeble even at the maximum volume. The Q66 scored decent Bluetooth transfer speeds. The captured photo colour and image crispness was better with indoor shots than outdoor shots (night mode), as the atmosphere was a bit cloudy with failing light conditions. Thus, we felt that an integrated flash LED would be handy in such scenarios. The music test yielded a mixed bag of results. The bundled earphones delivered good bass and treble balance sans distortion at volumes up to 75%. However, the loudspeaker produced distorted sounds at volumes higher than 50%, while also lacking good bass output. The display quality is average with limited viewing angles and its legibility under bright sunshine is mediocre. However, a plus is the video playback quality - smooth, without any stuttering - though of course the screen's drawbacks do also contribute to the overall viewing experience.
Our Take
The Micromax Q66 eclipse is an affordable dual SIM smartphone with a stylish QWERTY keyboard that is marketed as its main selling point. However, we want better keypad ergonomics that can harness the true potential of the QWERTY keypad. The poor build quality and faulty mechanism of the SIM 2 latch is a major disappointment. Overall, at a price tag of Rs. 5,499, the Q66 does not justify its worth due to the shortcomings, and is hence not recommended.Specifications: SIM (GSM+GSM); Display: 2.4-inch, Screen resolution: 320x240; Memory: microSD expandable up to 8GB; Battery: 850mAh, Talk-time: up to 4 hours, Standby-time: up to 8 days; Dimensions: 71x71x18; Weight: 118 grams;
Ratings
Features: 6.5
Performance: 6.5
Build Quality: 6
Value for money: 7
Overall: 6.5
| Brand | Micromax |
| Model | Q66 eclipse |
| Features | |
| Physical Specs | |
| Form Factor | Clamshell |
| 2G Network Bands (MHz) | Dual GSM 900/1800 |
| 3G Network Bands | N/A |
| Screen Resolution | 320x240 |
| Screen Size (inches) | 2.4-inches |
| Maximum Screen colours | - |
| Touchscreen / Dual Screen (Y/N) | N |
| Battery Rating | 850mAh |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) in mm | 71x71x18 |
| Weight | 118 grams |
| Expandable Memory Type | microSD |
| Hot Swappable (Y/N) | N |
| Available Colours | Black with blue |
| Other Features | |
| Operating System | Proprietary |
| Charging via USB (Y/N) | Y |
| Hardware Keypad (Regular/QWERTY) | QWERTY |
| Accelerometer (For auto rotate) (Y/N) | N |
| Address Book Capacity | 1000 entries |
| No of calls in register | - |
| Talk Time / Standby Time * | up to 4 hours / up to 8 days |
| No of Profiles # / Customisable (Y/N) | 7/Y |
| Offline Operability (Y/N) | Y |
| Inbuilt GPS / A-GPS support (Y / N) | N |
| Connectivity | |
| Browsing (GPRS/EDGE/3G) | Y/Y/N |
| EDGE max speed | - |
| 3G max speed | N/A |
| Connectivity (WiFi/Bluetooth/IR/USB) | N/Y/N/Y |
| Bluetooth Version/A2DP support (Y/N) | - |
| Accessories | |
| Bundled Accessories | Charger, handsfree headset, USB cable, leather pouch |
| Size of memory card provided | None |
| Overall Build Quality (So 10) | 6 |
| Overall Ergonomics (So 10) | 5.5 |
| Keypad Design (So 10) | 6.5 |
| Camera Specs | |
| Camera Resolution (Mega Pixels) | 2MP |
| Video Capture Resolution | 176x144 |
| Dual Cameras / Auto Focus / Flash (Y/N) | N/N/N |
| Mirror for self portrait (Y / N) | N |
| Camera Settings (So 10) | 6 |
| Zoom (Optical/Digital) | 3x digital |
| Multimedia | |
| Music Formats supported | MP3, MIDI, WAV, AMR, Embedded with SRS wow HD |
| Video formats supported | MP4, 3GP |
| FM Radio (Y/N) | Y |
| Performance | |
| Signal Reception and Voice Clarity (So 10) | |
| Zone 1 | 6 |
| Zone 2 | 7 |
| Zone 3 | 6.5 |
| Device Earpiece Volume | 6 |
| Device Loudspeaker clarity | 6 |
| Handsfree Clarity | 7 |
| Speaker Volume (on call) | 6.5 |
| Bluetooth Transfer Speed (kbps) | 851 |
| WiFi signal strength (Zone 2) | N/A |
| Captured Photo Quality (So 10) | |
| Captured Photo Colour | 6 |
| Captured Photo Crispness | 6.5 |
| Captured Video Quality | 6 |
| Loudspeaker Audio Quality | 6.5 |
| Bundled Earphones Quality | 7.5 |
| Display | |
| Quality of display | 6.5 |
| Viewing angle of display | 6 |
| Legibility in bright sunlight | 5.5 |
| Video Playback Quality (So 10) | 8 |
| Price (MRP, Rs) | Rs. 5,499 |
Contact: Micromax Informatics Ltd.
Phone: 0124 – 4009601
E-mail: N/A
Website: www.micromaxinfo.com
Price: Rs. 5,499
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