Micromax Bling 2 A55 - (Don't) Bring the Bling

Micromax kind of hit it off with the fairer sex about a year ago with the Bling. Its squared off, rotation styled design with crystals outlining the center selector button made it a handset for the lady with style. I'm not talking about the Java based UI, just the design of the handset. To keep up with today's fast paced trends, it's not just about looks, functionality plays a vital role for today's modern woman, so enter the Bling 2 A55 - an Android powered Smartphone. I was curious to know if the sequel could fare as well as the first edition so here's a closer look.

Design and Build Quality
The Bling 2 employs a standard candybar, touchscreen styling. It has a glossy white finish and on the front there’s a dash of black  surrounding the screen. The smartphone has a 2.8-inch screen with a resolution of 240 x 320 pixels. The typical touch-sensitive buttons for Menu, Return and Home are placed below the display in a triangular formation with a little "Bling" thrown into the design as the Home option is engulfed in an arc of glittering 'Swarovski' crystals. Hopefully these won't fall off as easily as they did with the previous models. Moving to the back panel, the name “bling” is written in calligraphy and is supposed to denote a touch of femininity. Taking a closer look, you’ll notice the camera lens is also surrounded by a ring of the same crystals as in the front. You’ll find a volume rocker on the right and a mini USB port for charging and transferring data on the top. At the side of the USB port, there’s a 3.5 mm audio jack. Now just in case you're wondering whether those are original crystals, the fact is that these are actually Swarovski Zirconia which is not original crystal but more of a synthetic substance called Cubic zirconia which has all the glitz like that of a diamond. In a way, these are just simulated crystals.

Low resolution display not too good to view

In one line, the build quality of the whole handset is quite decent and the smartphone could be called good looking, but quite a few of my female colleagues and friends seemed to disapprove of the look of the handset. Even the crystals didn’t seem to sway their decision to the positive.

Features
Interface
The smartphone runs on Android 2.2 aka FroYo out of the box, which operates smoothly without any hassles most of the time. The other times, I did feel it was a little buggy. For instance, exiting an app takes a little longer than usual. The same goes for trying to open an app. Something very irritating about the A55 is that the response time while accessing the touch-senstive keys was too sluggish. The display is not too easy to view under bright sunlight. The fonts are small and so are the icons. This can also make the onscreen QWERTY keypad quite frustrating to use especially if you have stubby fingers. However, since it's a handset for the ladies, it shouldn't be an issue.

The crystal studded camera is poor

Multimedia
The A55’s audio player is probably the poorest I’ve ever heard, not only in terms of detail but also when it comes to the volume level. Even after cranking the volume all the way up, it wasn’t as loud as required when you're living in a loud city like Mumbai. The details were just about okay with mids and highs being quite apparent while the bass being almost invisible. I thought perhaps the bundled earphones were not up to the mark, but even after trying them with far superior options, I was unimpressed. The same cannot be said for the speakerphone of the Bling 2 however, as it sounded pretty loud and clear. The Bling 2 supports MP4 and 3GP video formats in low resolutions. There was pixilation noticed but the playback was quite smooth. However, the screen’s small size doesn’t make it the best to watch long video clips on. For other formats, you can download RockPlayer from the Android Market or any other for a wider range of codec support.