Moto E Contender, The Lava Iris X1: Full Review

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Lava Iris X1 Grand

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The Moto E is one tough nut to crack. Other Android phone brands despise it. Companies like Micromax and Lava and others were taken aback by the spectacular performance of the Moto E and the huge appreciation it has received in India.
Lava X1 is Lava’s challenger to the Moto E, and we’ve already had a hands on with the device. Now we take a detailed look into the phone to see how it scores up against its competing low budget KitKat devices.

Design, Hardware and Build:

Design though “inspired”, is good to the eyes. Especially the touch panel

The phone is another Lava phone with iPhone-esqe design features, using a lot of plastic. The device is light to hold in comparison to the Moto E, which is heavy on weight and features. The back cover looks extremely flimsy, but Lava provides a flip cover in-box and that is one good point about the Iris X1.

The screen goes to sleep when the flip cover is closed. The volume rocker buttons are marked on the cover and can be easily pressed, so they’re quick to access when traveling. The only issue with the flip cover is its affinity to attract dirt. Lava has provided three microphone openings for active noise cancellation.

Unlike the Moto E, the X1 can be appreciated as it has the power button and the volume rockers on right and left side respectively, which is much simpler to use.

Another attractive feature is the capacitive touch buttons at the bottom of the screen. These buttons are invisible in the bezel and light up when you need them.

Display and Multimedia:

The text is good to read on X1 even at 281 pixel density.

The 4.5 inch screen on the device is an IPS display. The resolution of the screen is 854 x 480 pixels. The display is capable of good color reproduction. The blacks are predominant on the display, and that gives a pretty saturated color. The viewing angles are a bit of a disappointment as the screen tends to dim down when viewed from the side.

2 finger multi touch is disappointing.

The display only supports two finger multi-touch. This flaw makes gaming on the device no fun. The display also has a matte feel which doesn’t feel all that smooth.

The videos and images look good on the display. Though sometimes, the videos tend to get choppy. Even games like Candy Crush Saga and Subway Surfers had a jerky performance.

Camera:

The X1 holds a 8 mega pixel auto focus camera with LED Flash. The image is captured using a BSI sensor. The secondary camera is a 2 megapixel shooter. The camera is decent for the price point. It is definitely better than the five megapixel shooters that are dominant at this specifications range.

The camera shoots videos at a maximum of 480p which maybe a downer for many.

Phone and Battery:

The X1 is powered by 1800 mAh battery. Lava claims it gives a standard talk time of about 9 hours 45 minutes. The phone would last you a whole day on regular use.

The phone keypad is pleasing to the eyes and easy to use.

Android and UI:

Simplistic KitKat is the best thing LAVA did.

The operating system running on the Iris X1 is a fairly unhampered Android KitKat OS with minimum bloat-ware. The only add-ons are an FM radio, a torch and the Office suite. This basic look gives full customizable options in the hands of the users.

Performance and Gaming:

The phone has a 1.2 GHz Broadcom quad core processor. It is supported by a 1 GB RAM and 4 GB ROM. Even with a quad core processor, the phone has several lags and might get annoying after a while. The phones normal functions are decent, but the multimedia performance needs a performance boost.

Conclusion:

The Phone is a decent try but Lava needs to buck up on the performance issue.

Lava seems to have come out with the device in a haste, and they could have worked more on it. Of course, the company lacks the innovation capability and years of experience that Motorola Mobility has. The phone has a good look, and the untampered Android KitKat is its strength. Lava does have to learn some lessons from the X1 and hopefully the X2 (if it ever comes out,) will have fewer of X1’s flaws and more of its fortes.

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