Introduction:
Lava has impressed us with many of their Iris series of smartphones like Iris 501 or Iris 455. But those were the Smartphone running on Android 4.1, now a days as most of the manufacturers are coming with budget Phablets running on latest Android 4.2, Lava has also decided to come up with a strong competitor in form of “Lava Iris 504Q”. This is their latest powerful Flagship smartphone featuring 5-inch HD IPS display with One Glass Technology (OGS). We will let you know about OGS in details later. Furthermore Iris 504Q is powered with 1.2GHz Quad-Core Processor along with 1 GB of RAM. There is an 8 Megapixel rear camera with 2 Megapixel front camera along with you can capture Full HD 1080p videos and of course high quality pictures. Apart from the configuration, the design and packaging is very good, durable and attractive with sleek and slim body. We get all these just at the price of Rs. 13,499/- which is reasonable according to the product quality.
There are many other smartphones available in the same price range as of now in the Indian market such as recently launched Xolo Play T1000, HTC Desire X or LG Optimus L7 II and Micromax’s successful Canvas HD A116. Do you think Lava Iris 504Q can be a strong competitor for these devices? Let’s find out but before going in deep testing, let’s have a look at its complete specifications:
• Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean)
• Dual SIM (GSM + GSM)
• 5-inch HD IPS display with OGS technology
• 1280 x 720 pixels resolution
• 1.2 GHz quad-core processor
• 1GB of RAM
• 8 Megapixel rear camera with LED Flash, BSI sensor
• 2 Megapixel front-facing camera
• 1080p video recording and playback
• 4GB internal memory (2GB user memory), 32GB expandable memory with MicroSD
• G Sensor, Motion sensor, Proximity sensor
• 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, USB OTG, GPS
• 2000 mAh battery
Design, Body and keys:
You will love the phone in first look. With complete black body, Iris 504Q looks very similar to Karbonn S5 Titanium. Weighing just 140gm this phone has dimensions of 140 x 73 x 8 mm making it one of the lightest and slimmest smartphones in the market. Though the phone has large 5-inch display, but its thin and slim design offers best and comfortable grip. No matter you hold it in your hand or keep it on desk, it appears like a decent and stylish phone. Its rear packaging is build up of black colored matte finish material. I like the build quality because the rear panel never takes your fingerprint and remains clean. Furthermore it is protected with a chrome bezel around the borders to protect the device if fallen from your hand but I doubt about slipping the device as I am using it since past two weeks and so far I never found it slippery. Because of its rear build material and sleek packaging, Iris 504Q offers a great grip in your hands. You can even access the entire phone with just one hand because of the smart placement of keys. Let’s find out the same in details.
At the front of the device we have a 5-inch IPS HD display with 3 Capacity buttons at bottom. At the top of the screen we have earpiece with clean audio, a 2 megapixel front camera and notification LED which is hiding in the earpiece itself.
There is nothing but a Call MIC at the bottom of the phone while 3.5mm Headphone Jack and Micro USB 2.0 port is placed on the top.
We have only 2 physical buttons on the entire body of Iris 504Q which includes the Power/Lock button at the right side and Volume up/down at left. This is the best part I found with this phone because these keys are easily accessible with your thumb along with the 3 capacitive keys. In short there is nothing on the lower half body. Hence you can use the phone with just one hand.
Coming to the rear side of the device we get 8 Megapixel camera with LED Flash and Noise cancelling Mic for video recording. Lava’s logo at the middle and a Loud Speaker is located at the bottom. The placement of this speakers appears to be wrong sometime because when you keep the phone on plain surface or cloth, speaker volume gets completely or partially blocked due to which you cannot hear the notifications sound.
Apart from this, I love the slim design, quality build material, key placement and all. Everything about this phone appears to be downright solid. Infact I must say, Lava has finally launched a smartphone with competing material and stylish design since long time. Well done Lava.
Accessories:
The accessories shipped with Lava Iris 504Q includes:
- A Headphone
- USB OTG Cable
- Charger
- Micro USB Cable
- A Manual
- Extra Screen Guard
- a Flip cover.
The flip cover provided with the box seems good but the rear panel attached to the same is of glossy plastic material unlike the original rear matte material. Hence if you are using the flip cover set, the device may be slippery with wet hands. You need to take care of the same.
Screen / Display:
Lava Iris 504q comes with HD IPS capacitive touch screen with OGS technology and it is beautiful. One Glass Solution (OGS) technology actually removes the space between the display and touchscreen, allowing you to almost touch what’s on 5-inch display. With smooth touch sensitivity the screen offers awesome viewing angles from any side. Thanks for the IPS LCD panel. Its HD 1280 x 720 pixel resolution and well saturated colors offer great fun while watching HD videos or colorful pictures. The display has 293 ppi pixel density which makes the screen much brighter, sharper and clear. No matters from which angel you are looking on the display, your picture appear clear and vibrant. To make it much better, manufacturer has provided daylight visibility which means you can also read the display comfortably under sunlight.
Touch response is also good but during the test I found that while running heavy applications or HD games, sometimes the touch responses slowly. This happens very rare and can be acceptable. Overall a 5-inch IPS display with vibrant colors offering 1280 x 720p resolution with 293 ppi makes you will feel like a display of high end devices like one from HTC or Samsung manufacturers. In short the display we found in Iris 504Q is definitely one of the most impressive in this price range and surely the best so far from the brand, Lava.
OS, Processor, RAM:
Lava Iris 504Q comes preloaded with Android 4.2.1 JellyBean operating system. However there are yet no words from the manufacturer about updates, according to the hardware we can guess that the device may receive further OTA updates in future. Unlike several other budget smartphones, the OS here is not the completely Stock one. Lava has made few changes to optimize the performance and this has been impressive. They have changed the default messaging system with few Notification pop-ups on the lock screen. Talking in details, you can now also send smiley, stickers, pictures, videos, audio, contact, slides, etc; with the default messaging system. Apart from this when you receive any message; you get a preview window on your home screen. If it is important, you can tap to view or close it right away.
Talking about the Lock Screen, Lava has worked on the same for the first time. When you get a message, you get an animated pop up showing number of unread messages. Furthermore you can also add Widgets right on your lock screen. By default you get 2 lock screens one having the camera shortcut and the default lock screen. By sliding it to right, you can add as many screens you want for adding widgets which can be accessed without unlocking the screen. You can add as many screens and widgets as you want. With Iris 504Q, Lava has also provided you the DayDream settings that brings up Digital Clock, Colors or Photo Slideshow on your screen while charging or while the phone is on Dock. I saw this feature for the first time after updating Sony Xperia Z with latest Android 4.2.2 firmware.
Furthermore Lava has also introduced few gesture supports in the phone such as you can change the music tracks, videos or photos by just waving your hand over the display. You can also capture an image using the gestures, no need to tap the screen or button. However the Gestures are not as effective and good as we have seen in other high end devices like Samsung. Lava Iris 504Q is powered with 1.2GHz Quad Core processor and 1GB of RAM which makes the device powerful enough to carry out multitasking comfortably. The optimized Android 4.2 OS makes it much better to offer smooth performance. Even the device is able to play Full HD videos without any lag. I am not sure about what GPU is included in the device but Iris 504Q is capable to run most of the HD games without any problem. We will talk about gaming later in this review. Overall the entire device is much better and worth at the price of Rs. 13,499/- with such good configurations and features.
Benchmark Tests:
We also ran few Benchmarking tests on Lava Iris 504Q to find out how is it more or less compared to other smartphones available in the same price range. Let’s have a look at the scores.
Atutu and Quadrant
Nenamark 2
Multimedia, Gaming and Web Browsing:
As mentioned above, Lava Iris 504Q has pretty good hardware to carry out heavy stuffs comfortably, it seems good in multimedia experience as well. We tried playing few Full HD 1080p Video clips and Movies on the device, the result we found was pretty good. You can experience a full length HD movie without any lag or freezing on a brighter, sharper and vibrant IPS display. It was really a great fun. Though the Video Player is the stock one which comes with Android 4.2 but it supports all major video formats including MP4, AVI, MKV and MOV. Iris 504Q comes with stock Android Music Player but as we have seen in several Iris smartphones earlier, it comes bundled with Fusion player as well. You can sort out the songs as per Albums, Artists, etc; and also you can stream radio within the player. Most of all you can edit the music, share it on facebook directly or even click YouTube icon which will bring you the HD video of currently playing Song. There are much more such features provided in the player such as you can click “Related Music” and the player will bring you similar songs from the web directly on your phone. Speaker provided with the device is loud, clear and quite enough to enjoy music of video in group without using the headphones.
Apart from Multimedia, Iris 504Q is also good for browsing. The phone comes pre-loaded with default Android browser and Opera Mini; however you can download the preferred browser from Google Play. No matter whichever website you load, all of them loads fine and offer you desktop type UI. Pinching in and out is good allowing you to read each text clearly on the sharp display. Seems like Lava has made some enhancement here and also you can also save any web page for offline reading. This phone can be a better choice for people who love reading ebooks as well.
Now talking about games, I am not able to find which GPU Lava has used in the device but it appears to be impressive. Iris 504Q comes pre-loaded with some HD games like Modern Combat 2 which means it can handle high end games comfortably. Apart from the MC2 we also tried other games like Dead Trigger 2, Real Racing 3 and NFS Most Wanted, the gameplay was amazing without any lag or freezing. We will show you this in our Video Review of Lava Iris 504Q.
Overall the device is one of the best in budget price for Multimedia, Browsing, and Chatting and even for Gaming. So far Lava Iris 504Q has been impressive for us. Now let’s find out if it stands on the mark with its Camera and Battery life.
Camera:
The new Lava Iris 504Q features 8 Megapixel rear camera with LED Flash. It is having a BSI censor which we have seen in several high end smartphones. I have clicked several images with this phone in different environment; I must say the camera is impressive. It surely captures a high quality clear image in outdoors or better light environment but you may face a bit problem in low light, however LED flash does its job very well. Even in packed dark room, you get a better image quality compared to several other budget smartphones that can even cost higher then Iris 504q. It offers better exposure, noise reduction, and perfect colors even in poor lighting conditions. We will post some comparison images taken by Iris 504Q and other same ranged smartphone cameras later.
Apart from the Gesture capturing, Lava has also provided several features for enhancing the pictures such as HDR, Panorama, ISO settings, Exposure settings, color effects, scene modes; you can image properties, Face Detection, etc. It also allows you to capture images in Burst mode, which means you can capture multiple shots at the same and choose the best of them before saving. Lava has also provided ‘Multi Angle View’ feature. This is very similar to Panorama where you can capture a large angle image. Furthermore, similar to many high end devices, you can capture images even while recording Videos. You can record Videos at Full HD 1080p resolution and play it on Wide screen TVs or Monitors. There is also a 2 Megapixel front facing camera for making video calls and conferencing in better quality. It is capable to capture images in 1600 x 1200 resolution while videos can be captured in 640 x 480p resolution.
With Iris 504Q the manufacturer has also enhanced the gallery to make it more attractive for users. When you open the Gallery section, all images appears sorted in folders. You can further change its view to Grid View or Filmstrip. Similarly when you open Video Gallery, you will find all your video thumbnails playing. Just like we saw in Samsung Galaxy series which is also known as Air View. You can also edit your Images as well as Videos right from the gallery itself. All these features are seen for the first time in Lava’s Iris series of smartphone.
Built-in Apps:
Lava Iris 504Q comes with few useful built-in apps and games such as Fusion Music Player, Hungama, Movie Studio that helps you make movies on the go using pictures, videos and audio of your choice, and few more apps. You also get games such as CricketFever, SharkDash, WonderZoo and a HD game, Modern Combat 2. They have also provided Gameloft Live from where you can purchase and download games directly on the phone. As we saw above the phone is able to run HD Games comfortably, most of the games available on Google Play can be downloaded on Iris 504q.
Connectivity and Storage:
The device comes with 2GB built-in storage as well as 1GB of ROM. Obviously 2 GB is not enough for storing videos, music, pictures or documents. You can simply expand the storage upto 32GB using MicroSD card. Best part with 504Q is you can install apps and games directly on external storage, just make sure to select the proper option from Settings > Storage.
As far as connectivity is concerned, Iris 504Q supports WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, USB OTG and GPS. Though they have provided some features which are found on high end devices like G Sensor, Motion sensor and Proximity sensor, it lacks features like NFC. Anyways, that doesn’t matters a lot at the price of Rs. 13,499/-.
Battery:
I tested the device for over 10 days and tried all usage type like 3G, WiFi, Mobile 2G data, etc. To be frank I found the battery life quite impressive. I kept the phone connected on WiFi 24/7, did some browsing, watched a video, listened to few tracks, and also did few hours of chatting on Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. The phone took over 12 hours to get down from 100% to 1%. Though the device is running on 2000 mAh battery, you can expect a better battery life so far from any of the Iris smartphone. On 3G the device offers you 8 to 10 hours of battery life. Similarly if you are an average user, using the phone on 2G for whatsapp, Music and phone calls, then I guess you may get over 24hours of battery life.
Conclusion:
At the price of Rs. 13,499/- Lava Iris 504q is definitely one of the best smartphone available today in the market with better configuration and smart features with gesture support. Its premium build quality and stylish design makes it feel like a rich handsets. Its HD IPS display offers great fun while watching Movies or playing Games, even the 8 Megapixel camera appeared to be impressive at such budget price. You can capture a good image in low light, of course not like the Sony or Lumia devices but better than other budget phones. Once charged the battery 100%, you can feel free to remain out for an entire day if you are not going to watch videos on the device. Iris 504Q will surely last with its impressive battery life. On the negative side, I didn’t notice anything else apart from few lags while multitasking with Heavy applications or HD games simultaneously. Otherwise the performance is too good.
Overall, according to me, Lava Iris 504Q is a unique budget smartphone available at present in Indian market at such low price. If there is any phone that can be compared with this, it is Micromax Canvas 4 but that too cost about Rs. 4,500/- higher than 504Q. If I had to by a budget phone, I will definitely go with this Iris’s latest member.
PROS:
- Better Build quality
- Attractive and stylish design
- Better Camera lenses
- Better Battery life.
CONS:
- Camera gesture support keeps clicking images
- Lags sometimes while running heavy apps or HD games.
