LAVA has given us some amazing models with the Iris series. This series delivers you good mid-range phone with decent hardware and lot of great features. Today we will be checking out Lava Iris Win1. This one is a budget Windows based phone that is quite amazing in terms of features. It looks nice and performance wise it gives you a lot more than what it offers. The cost of this device is around Rs.5000. At this low price it does not mean that Lava Iris Win1 is an entry level phone. It is more than that. The positive aspects of this phone are, it gives you a good grip and has nice touch support. While the performance is also better. Things that I did not like much about the device is the camera. It is agreeable under this entry level model. The good part of this phone is that you can have a decent Windows Phone 8.1 OS device under a very low price. And the hardware provided on the same is enough to run different apps and games. It is quite surprising to have such a nice model. This type of devices is ideal for gifting purpose. Those who are not expecting much at the gaming part will enjoy it. But remember as it runs on Windows Phone OS, feature wise it is low compared to android.
Specification:
- Sim – 3G Ready Dual Standby Sim (GSM+WCDMA)
- OS – Windows Phone 8.1
- Display – 4inch WVGA LCD Capacitive Display
- Processor – 1.2Ghz Quad Core Snapdragon CPU
- RAM – 1GB
- Storage – 8GB
- Expandable – 32GB
- Camera – 5MP Autofocus BSI with LED Flash. 0.3MP Secondary front camera.
- Battery – 1950mAh
- Price – Rs.5000
Package –
Design –
Lava Iris Win1 is not a very flashy phone. It gives a look of budget model. It is thick but portable due to small screen size. You can hold it well with one hand. Due to Windows Phone 8.1 OS you get ample of great features and simple customization options. There is hardly anything to look in the UI part.
Front:
At the front there is a 4-inch capacitive LCD screen that offers a maximum WVGA resolution of 800×480. It is a nice screen but not effective like mid-range devices. It is clear enough to read text, chat and watch videos. But it is not really fair to expect much from that. The touch quality is great and it has a nice smooth responsive screen. There are three capacitive touch keys at the bottom side. Among which first one is return key, the center one is home key and the last one is search button. There is a 0.3MP camera sensor in the front.
Sides:
There is a volume rocker placed on the left side and a power button on the right. They bump out from the sides, making them easy to locate.
Top/Bottom:
There is a micro usb port and audio jack on the top side.
Back:
A 5MP camera is placed on the back with LED flash. The speaker is placed at the right bottom side. Lava Iris Win1 has a removable back cover. This cover has rubberized finish that adds more to the grip. The battery is removable. It runs on a 1950mAH battery. There are three slots inside. Two among this are SIM slots and one is Micro SD card slot. You can add upto 32GB of microSD card on the same. The speaker is also visible when you remove the back cover. The speaker looks a bit big in size and has a decent volume.
Overall the phone has got a good design. It is a nice budget phone with many new features which is hard to find at such a low cost. The updated Windows OS gives you extra benefits of using latest apps and few games also on the same. The touch quality is great but for a LCD screen the multimedia output is not much satisfying. Performance wise Lava Iris Win1 is a good device.
Camera:
Lava Iris Win1 comes with dual camera. There is a 5MP back camera with 0.3MP front camera. The back camera is supported by LED flash. And image quality here is not very great. It is a common thing on budget models. You can find that this phone is not really good in camera quality. Taking pictures in light is nice. You can get decent quality output. The front camera gets darker. Autofocus is also not much effective. If you need decent pictures try not to shake your hand much while taking pictures. For camera this phone is not so great.
Sample pictures: Click the images to see full size.
Performance:
Iris Win1 is the first Windows phone by LAVA. And here it looks like LAVA proves the device quality by offering more than what is needed. Iris Win1 is powered by a 1.2Ghz Quad Core processor and 1GB RAM. It gives you a decent performance and works with all kind of apps and games. It also comes with 8GB internal storage that is enough for adding data. And to extend the storage you can add a MicroSD card upto 32GB. The device has a 4-inch WVGA display on which you can play various games, chat and surf web. The screen is not so great in sunlight. It is a good device with decent performance. You get 3G ready sim slots. And all type of common connectivity options. The device runs on a 1950 mAH battery which is also quite decent. If you are playing many games, then it will work fine for the entire day. The battery life is around 7 to 8 hours of optimum use. Windows Phone 8.1 OS is good for processional use. It lacks features like Android. For example pin zoom in the browser for a web page does not work very well. And there are also not many apps available for this smartphone. Multi-tasking is good here. The phone does not lag much when you use different apps at the same time.
Conclusion:
Iris Win1 is a decent budget model that works well due to good hardware. Windows Phone 8.1 OS is nicely optimized and works well on the 4-inch screen size. If you are looking for a budget windows phone for day to day usage then this is a good choice. It also lets you to play few latest games. Multimedia quality is also nice. Video playback is not so effective on this low resolution screen. The same is applicable to images but the phone has a nice speaker volume. It looks like the device is made for long usage. Battery life is nice here. Camera quality is not so nice. At budget of Rs. 5000 it is obvious that you won't get everything. It is a great phone for chatting, surfing web and music.
Pros
- Best budget Windows Phone
- Good performance
- Good battery life
Cons
- Average Camera
- Average Display Quality
