Micromax Unite 2 A106: a budget 4.7-inch dual-SIM phone reviewed
In mid-2014 the budget smartphone aisle in markets such as India and Southeast Asia was crowded with quad-core ambitions at rock-bottom prices. The Micromax Unite 2 A106 arrived in the thick of that race, promising Android KitKat, a 4.7-inch display, and a 1.3GHz quad-core processor for a price that made many Western rivals look overpriced. For shoppers browsing JB Hi-Fi shelves in Sydney or hunting online marketplaces in Melbourne, the name was unfamiliar but the spec sheet caught the eye of anyone who tracked the global low-cost segment.
Australia had warmed to dual-SIM behaviour for years, well before it became fashionable in North America. Frequent flyers between Perth and Bali kept a Telstra SIM for coverage on the edge of the outback and an Indonesian prepaid line for cheaper data once they landed. Workers on FIFO rotations out of Brisbane or Cairns often carried two numbers to stay in touch with their employer without dropping family calls. The Unite 2's dual-SIM tray fits that lifestyle neatly, even though the device was never officially launched through Australian carriers.
What set the phone apart was the way Micromax bundled regional language support with reasonably capable hardware. The handset ran Android 4.4 KitKat on a MediaTek MT6582 chipset, with 1GB of RAM and a removable 2000mAh battery. On paper it looked like a phone that could handle a long tram ride through the CBD, a sweaty train commute to Hurstville, or a weekend camping trip up the Pacific Highway.
Design, build, and feel in the hand
The Unite 2 followed a rounded, glossy template, with a white removable back cover and chrome-effect trim around the camera module. At 143 grams it sat comfortably in the hand, lighter than a typical paperback sold at Dymocks in Melbourne Central. The textured rear offered enough grip for one-handed use, useful for people clutching the phone while juggling a flat white and a Myki card at Southern Cross Station.
Below the screen sat three capacitive keys for Home, Back, and Recent Apps. The headphone jack lived at the top, the micro-USB port at the bottom, and the power button fell naturally under the right thumb. The rear speaker grille was loud enough to cut through a busy café on George Street but never going to win any audiophile awards.
For context, here is how the A106 lines up against two close budget rivals from the same window:
| Feature | Micromax Unite 2 A106 | Xiaomi Redmi 1S | Motorola Moto E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 4.7-inch, 480 x 800 | 4.7-inch, 720 x 1280 | 4.3-inch, 540 x 960 |
| Processor | 1.3GHz quad-core (MT6582) | 1.6GHz quad-core (Snapdragon 400) | 1.2GHz dual-core (Snapdragon 200) |
| RAM | 1GB | 1GB | 1GB |
| Rear camera | 5MP | 8MP | 5MP |
| Battery | 2000mAh, removable | 2000mAh, removable | 1980mAh, non-removable |
| Dual-SIM | Yes | Yes | No |
| Android version | 4.4 KitKat | 4.3 Jelly Bean | 4.4 KitKat |
That snapshot already hints at where the Micromax needs to compensate and where it can pull ahead.
The 4.7-inch display and everyday viewing
The IPS panel on the Unite 2 ran at 480 x 800, around 199 pixels per inch. That is far from retina-grade and not in the same league as the crisper 720p screens found on competing devices of the same year. Viewing angles were decent, so passengers crammed into a peak-hour train from Wynyard could follow Netflix subtitles without too much colour shift.
Brightness was the bigger limitation. Direct sun on Bondi Beach in summer made the display hard to read, and the auto sensor was slow to react when stepping out of an air-conditioned shopping centre into Brisbane's midday heat. Indoors, the panel was comfortable for WhatsApp chats, web browsing, and casual YouTube viewing, the workload most owners would throw at it.
Colour reproduction leaned cool, with whites that took on a faint blue tint. The phone accepted the same video formats as other Android handsets of its generation, so users jogging along the Yarra River with budget earbuds could enjoy podcasts or locally downloaded lectures without issue.
Quad-core performance under the hood
The chipset at the heart of the A106 was the MediaTek MT6582, a 1.3GHz quad-core part paired with a Mali-400MP2 GPU. This was a budget workhorse, deployed across dozens of handsets aimed at first-time smartphone buyers. With only 1GB of RAM to share between the system and user apps, multitasking was always going to feel tight, but the chip kept everyday operations snappy enough for messaging, browsing, and the occasional turn-based game.
Casual games like Temple Run or Subway Surfers ran fluidly. More demanding 3D titles exposed the GPU's limits, and frame rates dipped during longer sessions. Browsing with several Chrome tabs open forced the system to reload pages once the RAM ran out, a familiar frustration for anyone toggling between Instagram and a live AFL scores app.
Synthetic benchmarks placed the Unite 2 in the lower tier of quad-core devices of its year, where rivals such as the Xiaomi Redmi 2 ran faster on a Snapdragon 410. For Australian buyers used to the smoothness of an iPhone 4S or a Galaxy S III, the Unite 2 felt like a step down in polish, but for feature-phone upgraders it was still a meaningful jump.
Android KitKat and the regional software pitch
Out of the box, the Micromax ran Android 4.4.2 KitKat with a light skin on top. The interface kept the familiar app drawer and notification shade, with custom touches limited to a few extra widgets and bundled Micromax apps. There was no guaranteed path to Android 5.0 Lollipop, something to weigh against rivals that promised (and often delivered) a longer update runway.
Where the phone tried to differentiate was in regional language support. Micromax bundled a translation suite covering Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, and Bengali, an unusual inclusion at the price point. That pitch worked well in tier-two Indian cities and migrated nicely to multicultural suburbs of Sydney or Melbourne, where Hindi and Punjabi remain widely spoken in family-run businesses.
Pre-installed bloatware was fairly restrained, though Micromax included its own app store, a M! Live content hub, and a few partner shortcuts. Removing or disabling the unwanted ones was straightforward through the settings menu, a small mercy for users used to phones loaded with apps they never asked for.
The 5MP camera in real-world use
The rear camera on the A106 was a 5-megapixel shooter with autofocus and an LED flash. In good daylight around Sydney Harbour, the camera pulled off passable shots with decent colour, although fine detail fell apart on closer inspection. Trees lost their leaves, distant buildings turned into impressionist smears, and text photographed on a whiteboard in a Surry Hills classroom was often unusable.
Indoor lighting exposed noise quickly. A barista behind the counter at a laneway café in Melbourne CBD would appear grainy unless the LED flash fired, which often produced harsh, red-eyed results. The HDR mode helped balance bright skies and shadowy foregrounds, but at the cost of slower capture times that demanded a steady hand.
Video recording maxed out at 720p, fine for sharing clips of a kid's weekend soccer match in Marrickville or a quick panorama from the lookout at Mount Ainslie. The front-facing 2MP camera was serviceable for video calls and the occasional selfie, though low-light situations turned into fuzzy paintings.
Battery life, dual-SIM behaviour, and connectivity
Battery life was one of the Unite 2's quiet strengths. The 2000mAh removable cell comfortably lasted a full day of moderate use, including an hour of calls, several hours of music on a Carlton to city tram ride, and the usual social media scrolls. With Wi-Fi on at home and mobile data off when stationary, light users sometimes stretched the battery into a second day.
Dual-SIM handling was managed by the standard Android settings, with granular options to pick which line handled voice calls, texts, and data. Travellers flying between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur could keep a local Australian number on SIM slot one and a roaming prepaid on slot two, defaulting data to the cheaper line only when abroad. Only one SIM could latch onto 3G at a time, with the other dropping to 2G, which mattered for anyone relying on simultaneous voice and data.
Connectivity mirrored the rest of the budget Android crop: Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with A-GPS, and FM radio. There was no 4G LTE, which limited the Unite 2 to the 3G networks that Telstra and Optus were starting to wind down by the time the phone reached the end of its support cycle. For the price point and the audience Micromax chased, the omission was forgivable.
Pricing in Australia and where the value lands
Importing the Unite 2 A106 through grey-market channels in 2014 usually meant paying between A$140 and A$180 depending on the seller and bundled accessories. That placed it well below the cheapest devices on Australian carrier plans, including entry-level Alcatel and ZTE handsets that locked buyers into 24-month repayments through Telstra or Optus.
For cash-only buyers in regional towns like Ballarat or Toowoomba, that price gap felt meaningful. A parent buying a first smartphone for a high-schooler, a tradie who wanted a rugged backup device, or a backpacker landing in Sydney for a working holiday could all justify the import gamble. The phone's mix of dual-SIM flexibility, removable battery, and microSD storage up to 32GB made it a practical tool rather than a fashion statement.
Against more polished alternatives, the Unite 2 was always going to lose a straight spec fight, but it earned its place in the conversation by being cheap, repairable, and refreshingly utilitarian. Buyers who recognised the trade-offs knew exactly what they were getting, and that is often worth more than the gloss of a flagship.
If the Unite 2 feels too modest but you love the form factor, our earlier look at the BlackBerry Q10: the QWERTY BlackBerry 10 phone with a touchscreen covers a very different take on productivity hardware. Bookmark New Mobile Arrivals and check back each week for fresh entries, because the archive of mid-2010s handsets worth remembering keeps growing.