One might remember Micromax as a brand that dominated the Indian market especially at a time when tier-one brands like Samsung and Sony used to price entry-level devices substantially higher than what they were worth for. Enter Chinese OEMs with their bang-for-the-buck devices, Micromax’s downfall didn’t seem too far off, with lack of proper planning and strategy, which meant phones sold in India were just rebranded versions of phones that already existed in other markets, that too with specs which once seemed appealing, and not anymore due to some great offerings on paper by brands like Mi who also killed Yu (bad pun?), another sub-brand of Micromax.

Believing they can gain some momentum by playing with the nostalgia factor in consumers’ minds, Micromax has launched an upgrade to one of its best-selling smartphones of all times, the Canvas 2, and are calling it the Canvas 2 Plus (again!).

At its time, the Canvas 2 was an impressive offering on paper, at least, with a then huge 5-inch display and a very affordable price tag with absolutely no Competition, thanks to some absurd pricing by other OEMs. The Canvas 2 Plus, on the other hand, comes with some mediocre specifications on paper and tougher competition to face.

The Canvas 2 Plus sports a 5.7-inch HD display with an 18:9 aspect ratio which Micromax is calling an ‘Infinity Screen’. The SoC under the hood is said to be a quad-core 1.3 GHz CPU coupled with 3GB of DDR3 RAM and 32GB of storage. While the exact chipset hasn’t been mentioned, our guess points to a MediaTek MT6737 chip which is nearly two-year-old now and grossly underpowered compared to what the competition has to offer. There’s a 13MP rear camera along with an 8MP front-facing camera and to power all the internals, there’s a 4000mAh battery which seems to be the only highlight of the device. The back has a fingerprint scanner along with the ‘bro fist’ Micromax branding. The smartphone also has support for 22 regional languages, and also supports face unlock, something that every single brand is using as a USP off late.

The Canvas 2 Plus will be sold for Rs. 8999, if you do intend to pick one up that is, and is aimed mostly towards the offline market. With brands like Xiaomi now having a substantial offline reach as well, it’s going to be extremely hard for Micromax to stay alive in the competition and they surely have to do better than just slapping a device with ordinary specs. What is your opinion about the Canvas 2 Plus? Let us known in the comments below.