Micromax Dual 5 is a mini-DSLR smartphone competing in the wrong league

Micromax first dual camera smartphone Dual 5 is priced at Rs 24,999 in India

Aiming to achieve a 10 per cent market share in the premium smartphone category in 2017, domestic smartphone maker Micromax launched its first dual camera smartphone Dual 5 at Rs 24,999 in late March.

At this price segment, Micromax Dual 5 competes with the Honor 8, Asus ZenFone 3, Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) and Vivo V5 Plus.

Here is what works for the device

The premium device comes with an all-metal body with chamfered edges and with its "Arc design", the phone looks stylish and is comfortable to hold with one hand.

The volume keys and power button are placed on the left edge while a SIM tray and an additional smart key are placed on the right edge.

For selfie lovers, the smart key comes as a saviour helping users click pictures seamlessly. The smart key can be assigned to other apps also and will open that specific app without unlocking the device.

At the back, the phone features a dual camera, flash and a fingerprint sensor which is easy to locate and unlocks quickly.

Powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor blended with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, Dual 5 stands out as not many devices in this price segment offer such a combination.

We shuffled through multiple apps and also played a heavy graphics game for more than eight hours and Dual 5 ran without showing any hint of sluggishness.

Colours on its 5.5-inch display appear bright and even high-definition videos ran smoothly with an acceptable clarity and sharpness.

Once charged, the 3,200mAh battery lasts for a day and also charges quickly with Quick Charge 3.0 support.

Dual 5 also comes with multiple security features like anti-theft and SafeSwitch, SecureVault, 360 Security and 360 Clone that make it stand out among the competition. SafeSwitch ensures that the data is not lost if the device is lost or stolen.

The 13MP dual camera at the back has multiple capturing modes that gives each picture a different touch. With dual mode feature users can click a picture with DSLR-like effect -- a sharp focus on the subject while blurring the background.

The smartphone also offers 4K video recording, GIF as well as slow-motion and time-lapse options.

Even in the low-light, the camera worked well and captured images that were rich in detail.

What does not work

Though the phone does not slow down while multitasking, as you use it for a longer duration the device heats up.

The rear camera takes a few seconds to process the images, which can be annoying when you want to click various pictures in one go.

Dual 5 runs on Android 6.0, wherein many smartphones have already adopted the latest Android 7.0 Nougat.

Overall, the Dual 5 is an affordable smartphone for those users who are interested in mobile photography and love to upload DSLR-like pictures on their social media profiles. In addition, users also get "bokeh" effects (the effect of a soft out-of-focus background that you get when shooting a subject) that most photographers want in their pocket.