Micromax A116 Canvas HD delayed, price increased to Rs. 14,499

Speaking to NDTV Gadgets, a Micromax spokesperson said, "The Micromax Canvas HD A116 was the first device in the world to be launched on Mediatek's MT6589 Quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7 chipset. Like any other first device it took a while to scale up on its commercial production."

He further went out to share, "We made a sale of 3,000 odd devices as part of a Valentine Day offer, and because of the unprecedented consumer response we did a pre- booking of about 10,000 devices."

When quizzed in regards to by when the consumers who have pre-booked the smartphone will be able to get their hands on the smartphone, the spokesperson commented, "We are delivering these pre-booked orders on a 'first come first served' basis." It is expected that the consumers who have pre-booked the device will be able to get their hands on it by March 22, 2013. The company has also indicated that before the end of March 2013 customers across the country would be able to purchase the Canvas HD from the open retail market.

Not only is the shipment of the smartphone been delayed but its price too has been increased from Rs. 13,999 to Rs. 14,499. Micromax's retail partner Snapdeal.com has issued a statement on their Facebook page in regards to the increase in cost. In this post, the deal site has attributed the changes in custom duty as the reason for increase in price.

Snapdeal.com has apologised for the delay and has indicated that customers, who have already pre-booked the smartphone, will be able to get it for the original price of Rs. 13,999. The company is also giving a carry case worth Rs. 700 free to all customers who have pre-booked the Micromax A116 Canvas HD as a gesture to thank people for their patience.

Snapdeal.com also shared that if for any reason the consumers do not want to wait for the A116 Canvas HD, then it would refund the booking amount at the earliest.

Just to recap, the Micromax A116 Canvas HD comes with a 5-inch HD IPS screen that sports 1280x720 resolution and a colour depth of 16.7 million. It is powered by MediaTek's MT6589 quad-core processor that clocks 1.2GHz. The smartphone runs on Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) out of the box.

It packs in a 2000mAh battery. Micromax A116 Canvas has an 8-megapixel rear shooter with LED flash and 4X zoom and a VGA front camera. Other features of the smartphone include 1GB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, which can be expanded to up to 32GB via microSD card. It is a dual-SIM smartphone, which supports GSM frequency on both the SIMs.