Moto E has been a runaway hit in India, courtesy its better build quality, display resolution and processing power than all the rivals at the Rs 7,000 price point. Seeing their biggest market under threat, Indian brands struck back quickly, and Micromax Unite 2 is among the best options to rival Motorola's cheapest model.Micromax Unite 2 not only addresses the two big issues that buyers have with Moto E (namely lack of rear LED flash and front camera), but also makes it more appealing to low-end buyers with support for 21 vernacular languages. Plus, it gives buyers a quad-core processor instead of Moto E’s dual-core CPU.But do these enhancements really make Unite 2’s user experience better than that of Moto E? We find out in our Micromax Unite 2 review:It seems as if Micromax has not put much effort into designing Unite 2. The smartphone looks like a slab with rounded edges and is unremarkable as far as its appearance goes. Made entirely of good quality plastic, the smartphone is slightly bigger in size than Moto E.It is, however, not the size that makes Unite 2 relatively difficult to hold, but the design itself. Moto E’s curved back and dimensions make it much more ergonomic, while Unite 2 feels chunky. Moreover, the wide bezels around the screen add to its overall size and make it bigger than it ideally should be.When it comes to build quality, Micromax has put together a very good smartphone, which feels solid in the hand, though it is little heavy.The display panel of Unite 2 is not a patch on Moto E’s. The Micromax phone has a 4.7-inch display with 480x800p resolution and 199 pixels per inch. The colour reproduction is pretty good and contrast levels are great; pixilation is not visible to the naked eye and there is no banding issue. Sunlight legibility is decent and there is not much issue of discolouration when the screen is viewed from the sides.However, when compared side-by-side with Moto E, which has a smaller screen (4.3-inch) but higher resolution (540x960p), the screen of Unite 2 appears pale in terms of clarity and sharpness.Like most low-end smartphones, Unite 2 runs on a Mediatek processor; the quad-core chip runs at 1.3GHz and is backed by 1GB of RAM. Internal storage is 4GB and users can add storage up to 32GB via microSD cards. Connectivity options are pretty standard: 2G, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and microUSB 2.0. The rear camera has 5MP resolution and is supported by LED flash for low-light shots and a 2MP camera can be used for video calls and selfies. It is powered by a 2,000mAh battery.Unite 2 comes with an almost stock version of Android 4.4, with a few Micromax apps preloaded. While most of the Micromax apps can be ignored, MAd is an app that comes up each time you make a phone call; it prompts users to watch an ad and get paid in terms of prepaid or postpaid balance. It is real bother each time you make a call and first time smartphone buyers are likely to feel frustrated by it, especially those who are unable to disable it.One of the key selling points of Micromax Unite 2 is the support for 21 Indian languages. The support, however, is limited to the areas where the keyboard comes into play. So, you can type a text message or email and save contact names in a vernacular language, but the menu, settings and names of apps will still appear in English.The Indic language support is powered by Reverie Smartpad, a keyboard based on Android Open Source Programme. Languages that it supports, such as Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada etc, can surely help it breach markets where people are less familiar with English, but the software needs a lot more polishing before that can happen. The languages we tried did not give the desired results as some of the text was translated inaccurately and plagued by spelling errors. However, the effort shows that Micromax is on the right path with the software and we can see improvements via OTA updates.Micromax easily has a winner at hand with Unite 2. The smartphone, with its quad-core processor, 1GB RAM and Android 4.4 operating system, performs just as well as Moto E. The device is fast and fluid, with no lags whatsoever in general usage. When pushed by running several resource-hungry apps simultaneously, it does show some stuttering but most users are unlikely to face much problem while operating it.The smartphone performs all common smartphone tasks, such as making calls, browsing the web, using Facebook and WhatsApp etc, with ease.Running casual games like Subway Surfer, Temple Run 2 etc is not problem at all, but there is noticeable lag while playing high-end games like Asphalt 8 even at low settings. On the low resolution screen of Unite 2, you will lose out on the finer details that the game’s graphics offer, but that is an issue most budget smartphones are grappling with.Multimedia support is as good as it gets on a smartphone priced under Rs 10,000. You can play all video formats and even 720p videos play well, but Unite 2, quite obviously, struggles with 1080p videos. Music playback is fine, but the audio output is not too impressive; it is okay, but does not compare to Moto E’s loud front speaker in any way.Call quality delivered by Micromax Unite 2 is good, even in slightly noisy areas. You can use 3G network only on one sim at time, but both sim slots are 3G-compatible; therefore if your data packs gets exhausted on one sim, you can start using 3G on the other number without switching sim cards.The 2,000mAh battery of the smartphone lasts around 12-13 hours on a single charge. Therefore, you can leave for office or college in the morning and come back home with around 20% battery remaining even if you leave the internet turned on and watch a few videos.This is, without a doubt, the one area where Micromax Unite 2 beats Moto E hands down. Moto E, despite being a fine smartphone, does a poor job when it comes to casual photography. Unite 2 fixes this issue, which can be a deciding factor for many.The images we clicked with Unite 2 are pretty great for a smartphone at this price. You get natural colours and details are sufficient and you can observe noise only upon zooming in daylight photos. Lowlight photos taken from a distance are filled with noise, but shots from close range (where flash is much more effective) appear much better. You can easily use it for some casual photos, but don’t expect it to replace your point-and-shoot.As a standalone smartphone, Micromax Unite 2 is easily one of the best handsets you can get under Rs 10,000 despite rather plain design. Compared to Moto E (which is currently leading the pack), it excels only in the camera department because the Motorola phone looks better, gives similar performance and has better battery life. Both smartphones are available at less than Rs 7,000 and your end decision would most likely hinge on the camera performance.