Lava Iris 455 review and Unboxing – 4.5 inch dual core smartphone with Jelly Bean OS

The lava Iris 455 comes powered by the same chipset that powered the Lava Iris 501 handset. The 455 sports a smaller 4.5 inch screen with dual core processor and a 5MP rear auto focus camera. The handset is priced at Rs. 7,799.

Iris 455 Box Pack
Inside the box there is the lava 455 handset with an additional free cover. You get a black and a silver back cover. In addition there is a screen guard, data cable, power adapter, battery of 1500 mAh capacity, earphone and user manual.

Design and Display
The handset is light weight at 120 grams with 9.9 mm thickness. After using a 5 inch handset you will really start liking it especially if you were not comfortable with a 5 inch screen. The finishing is very good and the silver line on the sides gives it a premium look. You can switch the rear cover to black or sliver and both blend well.

There are 3 backlit buttons on the front side. The backlit buttons are better visible in the dark. When you plugin the charger the middle backlit button LED turns red (see image) and when the charging is over 90% to 100% it will turn green. Unfortunately the LED does not light up for notifications.

All the buttons (power / volume rockers) are on the left side. The micro USB and the 3.5 mm jack are placed on the top side. The handset comes with G-Sensor, light, proximity and magnetic sensors. Though, the box pack does not mention anything about the magnetic sensor.

The capacitive touchscreen display is 4.5 inches with qHD resolution (960×540 pixel ~ 244.77 ppi) resolution. The viewing angle is okay, and the font/ picture quality is pretty sharp. The touch is smooth and I did not find any issues.

Processor and Benchmark
Lava Iris 455 is a dual SIM, dual core handset with the MTK6577 chipset with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU. The same hardware as on the Micromax A110, Xolo A700, Xolo B700,Xolo A800 and Lava Iris 501 to name  a few.

Benchmark scores

• Quadrant Benchmark: 2694.
• Antutu Benchmark: 5987.
• Nenamark2: 24.0 fps.
• Linpack : Single 39, Multi 63.
• Multi Touch: 5 point.

RAM, Storage and OS
The handset comes with 512MB RAM and 4GB storage with micro SD card slot (32GB support). The free RAM is 190MB and 786MB is allocated for app of which 701MB is free and 1.77 GB free as internal phone storage. The handset runs on the Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 OS. You can install apps on the external SD card.

5MP Camera and Entertainment
The still camera output is good. It can record videos in 720p at under 20fps. This may seem low but hold on. First of all I missed out another option i.e. in video mode there is the fine option that can record 720p videos and another HD option that can record in 1080p resolution. There is an option in setting -> battery – CPU Power saving mode. Now if you switch that on you will get a very low frame rate when recording videos, but if you switch that off you can get up to 30 fps. So in all the camera can record 720p at 30 fps and 1080p at around 15fps. However the camera quality is not very good. I feel the camera quality is better on Celkon A200 and slightly better than on the Xolo A700.

You can check the sample images and videos at the end of the article.

The handset can play 720p videos with ease. I did try playing 1080p videos that did work for few seconds but then started lagging. Full HD playback is not that smooth.

Others
There is 3G (HSDPA 7.2Mbps), 2G (class 12), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3, GPS with A-GPS, 3.5mm jack and micro USB. All worked pretty well. The sound (loudspeaker / in call) is loud and clear. I got the first GPS lock in less than 10 seconds.

Battery
The 1500 mAh battery gives talktime of up to 6 to 8 hours depending on 2G or 3G network. There is a CPU power saving mode in battery settings that will limit the CPU usage to conserve battery life and also lower the temperature.

I charged the handset to full 100% day 1 @10:10 PM and the next day at 9:30PM then battery level was at 15 % asking for to connect to charger. At all the time 3G was on, had received 4 calls of less than a minute watched some videos, used the camera, surfed, chat, used whatsapps etc. For moderate usage the battery will last for over 19 hours.

Tech Guru Xolo A1000 Review

The Xolo A1000 sports a 5 inch IPS screen with HD resolution powered by a 1GHz dual core processor with 8MP camera with BSI sensors and running on Jelly Bean OS. The handset is priced at Rs. 13,999.

Box Pack
Inside the white box pack you will find the handset, screen guard, power adapter, USB to Micro USB cable, battery of 2100 mAh capacity, quality earphone, warranty information and quick start guide.

Design, Display and OS

The Xolo A1000 looks like a premium handset with that glossy white colour. The handset is 8.8mm thick, pretty slim but its heavy. You can easily make out the difference. It’s heavier than MMX A110, Lava Iris 501 and many other handsets including the Micromax A116.

There are 3 touch buttons on front, in call speaker, sensors and front 1.2MP camera. The power button is on the right side and the volume rocker plus an extra button on the left side. The extra buttons when pressed for few seconds will take the screen snapshot. The same button can be used as camera click button when using the camera app.

The 5 inch One Glass Solution (OGS) IPS display supports a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. The touch is good, very smooth, viewing angle is good, but I found the handset lagging a little when using multiple apps, probably cause of the HD screen.  There is light, accelerometer and proximity sensor.

The handset runs on the Jelly Bean 4.1.1 OS.

Memory and Storage
The Xolo A1000 comes with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage with micro SD support. Of the 1GB RAM you get around 670MB free RAM. Internal storage for apps is 0.92GB free and phone storage is 1.54GB. You can install apps on the external SD card.

Processor and Performance
It’s the same Mediatek MT6577 dual core processor with PowerVR SGX 531 GPU same thing found on the Micromax A110, Lava Iris 501, Xolo A700 and Xolo A800 to name a few.

Benchmark scores

• Quadrant Benchmark: 2667.
• Antutu Benchmark: 5093.
• Nenamark2: 17.2 fps.
• Linpack : Single 39, Multi 61.
• Multi Touch: 5 point.

8MP Camera
On the box pack it is mentioned as 8MP AF camera but you can set the resolution to max 12 megapixels. Plus there is a front camera of 1.2MP resolution.  The camera comes with BSI sensors that give a slightly better capture quality as compared to the A110 and many of the other MediaTek mt6577 hardware with 8MP camera.

In video mode there is an option to record videos in 1080p resolution, however it is under 20fps. The video looks good but 30fps would have been better. Moreover you cannot play 1080p videos that are more than 24fps. So in all the camera performance is the same as on other MT6577 handsets and the 1080p recording option is with lower frame rate. You can check the sample images and videos at the end of the article.

Connectivity
No issues with 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth. The dual SIM is with dual Standby mode. The incall sound / speaker sound is loud and clear.

Entertainment
As mentioned the performance is similar to the A110, Iris 501 and other handsets with the same hardware specs. The HD screen resolution did have some impact on the overall performance with minor lags.

Battery
The 2100 mAh battery gives a talktime of over 10 hours and standby time of around 350 hours.

Xolo A1000 Review
The handset is with the same dual core MT6577 hardware but with HD resolution and 1GB RAM. The handset performance is not as smooth as we have seen on the A110 and the Iris 501. It would be better to either opt for a quad core handset like the Xolo Q800 which is a much better option. Also you can get the same performance with other MT6577 handsets that too at a much lower price.

Tech Guru Xolo Q800 Price, Features And Review

The Xolo Q800 is now listed on flipkart with a price tag or Rs. 12,499. This is much sooner than expected. Anyway the price is good and a good alternative to the Micromax A116 which is still difficult to get.

The Xolo Q800 comes with quad core processor (MT6589) with PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. There are some differences that justify the price tag. In fact some might still want to go with the Micromax A116. Well the Xolo Q800 sports a 4.5 inch screen as compared to 5 inch on the MMX A116. The resolution again is of 960×540 pixels as compared to 1280×720 pixels on A116. The Q800 unfortunately supports only a single SIM.

Tech Guru Lava Iris 430 Review

Lava Iris 430, the company’s upcoming Android Smartphone has surfaced on their official site. Lava recently launched Blockbuster Phoneday initiative, in which the company launches a product every Friday. Last week they launched the Iris 502, that already went on sale couple of weeks back. The Iris 430 packs a 4.3-inch (480 x 800 pixels) capacitive touch screen display, powered by a 1 GHz dual-core processor and runs on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Lava Iris 430 Dual Core Overall

Lava mobiles website is now showing the lava Iris 430 model that is powered by a 1GHz dual core processor with 5MP AF camera and 4.3 inch WVGA screen. This dual SIM handset could probably be priced under Rs. 8,000.

The specifications are nothing new. It’s dual SIM with dual standby phone running on Android 4.0.4 ICS OS. The 430 is powered by 1GHz dual core processor. The screen is 4.3 inches with 800×480 pixels resolution.

There are two cameras, one placed on the rear side with a 5MP resolution and another on the front side of VGA resolution.

XOLO LAUNCHS XOLO X500 04:24 Android, Intel, Lava, TECH NEWS No comments

Xolo X500 runs on Android ICS and is powered by Intel's 1.2 GHz Atom Lexington Z2420 processor.

Xolo today announced the launch of a new smartphone, called Xolo X500. It is the first dual-SIMphone powered by an Intel processor. Xolo X500 runs on Android ICS and is powered by Intel's 1.2GHz Atom Lexington Z2420 processor with Hyper Threading technology which allows multiple processes to run simultaneously.