Ever since the launch of the Micromax A116 Canvas HD, every budget smartphone maker is gunning for the top position as the best budget smartphone running a quad-core processor. The specifications of all these devices are very homogenous, and there are only a few places where these devices distinguish themselves from one another. Some have 4GB built-in storage where as others have more. Some have a mere 512MB of RAM and others show off 1GB. Some have a 5-inch HD display, others have a smaller display with a qHD resolution.
In terms of its specifications, the Lava Iris 504q brings nothing new to the table. It has a 5-inch display with a 1280×720 pixel resolution and boasts of a slim design at 8.4mm in thickness. The smartphone houses a 1.2GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. It supports 4GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card. The rear of the smartphone has an 8MP camera with BSI sensor and the front has a 2MP video-calling camera. A 2000mAh battery powers the entire package. The smartphone boasts of dual-SIM capabilities as well.
To distinguish itself from the competition, the Lava Iris 504q boasts of gesture control. Using the gesture control capabilities of the smartphone, you can perform actions such as clicking photos, changing tracks on the music player and video player, tuning FM channels and browsing the gallery on the smartphone.
When we used this function on the smartphone it worked but felt quite gimmicky. It also took a heartbeat longer than we’d like when using the camera app to click pictures. Rather than waving your hand in front of the smartphone you can simply swipe your finger in front of the front facing camera to perform the action. This was not only easier to do, but was a lot more accurate as well, without any touch-induced shake.
Coming to the other capabilities of the Lava Iris 504q, it is built just like any other budget smartphone in its price range. The front has the 5-inch display and the rear has a rubberized finish, which adds to the grip. The left side houses the volume rocker and the right the power button.
The top of the Lava Iris 504q has the microUSB port and the headphones jack. The device also shows off the USB OTG support. So, essentially you can plug in your pen-drive into the smartphone and access content from it. You will requite the USB to microUSB connector, which comes in the box.
The UI of the Lava Iris 504q is fairly vanilla Android and that is a good thing. It does come with a bunch of preloaded apps, but nothing that you won’t find on the Google Play store. The display of the smartphone was quite good and we saw a bunch of videos on it that were preloaded on the device. They not only ran well, but the smartphone showed off some good viewing angles too.
The Lava Iris 504q also comes with a flap cover that switches off the display once it is closed and wakes up the smartphone once you open it. This isn’t the first time that we seen such a smart cover on a smartphone. Previously we have seen a similar cover on the Lenovo IdeaPhone S890.
In the limited time we spent with the smartphone, it feels like your run-of-the-mill Android quad-core powered smartphone with some gesture capabilities thrown into the mix. Lava claims that the smartphone will run for 15 hours on 3G network, 12 hours on 2G network and shows off 240 hours of standby. We will put this claim along with the other capabilities of the smartphone to the test once we get our hands on it for review.
