Lava Iris

Pro 20

Review in pictures

If looks could kill…

• One of the better designed smartphones from an Indian vendor

• At 112g, the Lava Iris Pro 20 is the lightest smartphone in its category

• It’s quite sleek as well with a thickness of 7.7mm

• Has the usual layout of buttons and ports

• The blue rear panel is highly flexible, but lends it a distinct look

Rich display even with lower resolution

• The smartphone features a 4.7-inch display• Even though it bears a low resolution of 960 x 540 pixels,

the display is pretty good• Legible outdoors as well, though you’ll need to increase

brightness• Protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass

Rear shooter is good enough for casual purposes only…

• At the back, the Iris Pro 20 has an 8-megapixel camera

• It’s supplemented by a dual LED flash for shooting in low-light conditions

• The camera app is stock Android

• It offers options like smile detection, best shot selection, HDR, panorama, multi-angle view, etcetera

• The camera captured accurate colours, though image quality isn’t extremely impressive

… and the secondary camera might not lure selfie-addicts

• Just a VGA camera at the front

• Good enough for Skyping purposes, but not for taking selfies

Here are a few samples from the primary camera:

Nothing much to talk about in terms of software

• The operating system on offer is Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

• Minimal amount of customisations on top

• Graphs for viewing the status of battery, CPU, etcare a valuable addition

• It also comes with preinstalled apps like Lava Care and OfficeSuite

Gets you through the usual tasks

• The smartphone is powered by MediaTek’s 1.2 GHz MT6589 quad-core SoC

• For rendering graphics, it has PowerVR SGX544MP

• This combination is mated with a gigabyte of RAM

• The smartphone performsfairly well for the usual tasks

• There are some lags while playing heavy games like Riptide GP2

Battery that lasts you through the day

• Powered by a 2,000mAh non-removable battery

• Once charged, it can run for more than a day of moderate usage

• In our standard battery test, the smartphone lasted for a period of eight hours while playing a 720p video non-stop

• Offers a power saving mode shutting down non-essential features when the battery level is low

Huge disappoint in the storage department

• The device offers a paltry 4GB of onboard storage

• Out of which only 1.4GB is available for installing apps and 0.9GB for personal data

• This means that you can neither install heavy games nor too many regular apps and games

• However, the memory can be extended via a microSD card

Bundled goodies for protecting your device

• The retail pack includes a screen guard to protect the display

• It also comes with a flip cover, which can be adhered to its rear panel

• The cover also supports the device in upright position in landscape mode, making it ideal for watching movies

At a glance

• 4.7-inch, 960 x 540 pixels (234 ppi)

• 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6589 processor

• PowerVR SGX544 GPU• 1GB RAM• 4GB in-built storage with

microSD slot• 8-megapixel main camera with

dual LED flash, VGA secondary camera

• Android 4.2 Jelly Bean• 2,000mAh battery• 2G / 3G dual-SIM (one is regular

SIM and other is micro-SIM), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS

-• Run-of-the-mill specs• Average rear camera• Low internal storage• Priced on the higher

side

Pros and cons

+• Distinct design• Great handling

Sibling rivalry: how is the Iris Pro 20 different

from the Iris Pro 30

• The devices are strikingly similar both in terms of their looks and the internals

• However, there are some differences which makes the Iris Pro 20 one rung lower than the Iris Pro 30

• The Lava Iris Pro 20 has a qHD (960 x 540 pixels) display as compared to the 720p display offered by the Iris Pro 30

• The Iris Pro 20 gets only a VGA camera at the front

VS

Price: Rs 12,799

Pricing and verdict

“The Lava Iris Pro 20 takes the philosophy of the ‘Pro’ series

to deliver a stylish smartphone at an economical price tag

further. It surely is successful in that regard, although its

average hardware configuration and camera

sour the deal slightly”