One of the hottest handsets of the year, Micromax A116 Canvas HD will be in stores on February 14. Micromax is hoping that Valentine’s Day fever might just do the trick for the handset, which has been eagerly awaited by fans.

The company announced the release on its website with a line saying, “Colours can come alive” along with the date.

Valentine’s Day or February 14 is an interesting choice by Micromax as gifting is rampant on the day. And with a price tag of under Rs 15,000, Micromax is banking on the fact that the A116 could be a gift (albeit a bit lavish).

The A116 was launched little over two weeks ago, but hasn’t graced the market till now. At the time of the announcement, the company had said that the phone will be out in the stores by the first week of February. Micromax seemed to have missed that deadline, but the wait for the phone thankfully hasn’t been prolonged. 

The smartphone is powered by a powerful MediaTek MT6589 1.2GHz quad core processor that is one of the most power efficient chips in the market since it’s manufactured using a 28nm process. The phone also has a PowerVR Series5XT GPU and has 1GB of RAM. The CPU and GPU are more than enough to perform everyday tasks smoothly and to run HD games. The A116 Canvas HD boots Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, but Micromax has included some changes in the UI including quick toggles in the notification drawer. The phone comes equipped with a 2100mAh battery.

Other features of the phone include:

The Micromax A116 Canvas HD was launched a day before the Samsung Galaxy Grand. We had asked readers to pick one based on specs alone and there the Micromax handset won comfortably. However, the Galaxy Grand got its own back with a win in the Grudge Match.

Our Galaxy Grand review is out and it performed admirably. However, we are still waiting to get our mitts on the A116 Canvas HD. Stay tuned for a full-fledged review of the handset. In the meantime, check out the specifications review of the A116 Canvas HD.