Review: Why you shouldn't underestimate the Lava Iris 870

  SINCE its UAE debut in March, the India-made Lava Iris 870 has made quite an impression in the mobile phone industry. It’s easy to underestimate this affordable smartphone, but it really does deserve a more closer look. This is exactly what we did at the Expat Media headquarters when we took the phone for a month-long user test. Here’s our report.

What’s in the box?

The smartphone pack comes with the handset, a charger, earphones, a one year warranty card and a set of manuals, but we were impressed by the thoughtfully packed extras: a rubber case and a screen protector. Those cost at least Dh50 in the aftermarket.

Look and feel

For a smartphone that costs less than Dh400, the phone surprisingly doesn’t look or feel cheap. In fact it feels like we have a Dh2,500 phone in our hands. It’s stylish with a clean finish. The matte gold back cover added a classy touch. The screen size is a good 5 inches, which means this phone is big enough for comfortable mobile browsing yet small enough to fit in your purse or pocket. It also feels like the manufacturer really put a lot of thought into making the design functional. The power and sound buttons are located on the upper right side of the phone, making it easier to work on the controls. The audio jack is also located on the top side of the phone, which makes a lot of sense if you were to put on a pair of earphones and slip this phone in your pocket.

Functionality

The most surprising thing about the Lava Iris 870 is its functionality despite its price. This one really over delivered and we were just impressed. Camera: This one tops our list. This phone is an absolute star for selfies and other creative shots with an 8MP back camera and a 5MP front camera that come with plenty of tricks, including a wide selfie format and various beauty filters. Switch to Intelligent Selfie mode to use the 8MP back camera to take your photo, and the phone’s computerized voice will tell you exactly what to do, and take a photo for you. You can also use the 5MP front camera and switch to Smile Shot mode or Gesture Mode so that the camera can either detect your smile, or your peace sign gesture before automatically taking a photo. Both photo and video qualities are surprisingly good as well, even with low lighting (not a problem with Night Pro mode). Touch response: The multi-touch phone is very responsive, even with a light touch. Speed: The phone comes with a Quad Core processor with a CPU speed of 1.5 GHz but tech speak aside, we just liked that the phone responds quickly and hasn’t froze on us at all. Bonus feature: This phone actually supports dual sim, which is absolutely perfect for expatriates who want to keep their UAE number and home country number, or for the phone geeks who want to use both etisalat and du sim cards. Torture test: We accidentally left this phone behind in the car at midday, which meant it endured about four hours of high temperatures of up to 37 degrees Celcius. When we got hold of it later, the phone flashed a warning sign that said the device was too hot to use at the moment, so we switched it off for a while. But apart from that, there has been no sign of damage. It is still working beautifully right now. Battery life: A one hour charge sets you up for at least 24 hours of internet browsing, with plenty of photo and video shoots in between. Memory: There’s a lot of room for improvement in this area since the RAM is only 2GB and the internal memory is 8GB, but you can always expand the memory with an aftermarket 32GB micro card. Verdict: If you’re looking for an Android smartphone that’s easy on the budget but big on functionality, this is it.  

Iris 870 features at a glance

Dual SIM Screen Size: 5 inches Multi-touch: Yes OS: Android Version: 5.1 CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz Internal Memory: 8 GB RAM: 2 GB Primary Camera: 8 MP Secondary Camera: 5 MP Loudspeaker: Yes 3.5mm Jack: Yes WLAN: Yes Bluetooth: Yes GPS: Yes Radio USB: Yes Weight: 141.2 g Battery: 2700 mAh

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