I am not a good reviewer of tech products. Basically, I am not tech savvy though I am fascinated by tech gizmos. However, I thought I should write a few things about this phone which I purchased (after a good amount of searching the net and seeking opinion from people) about a month back. I was looking for a second mobile phone to house the free SIM card which BSNL gave as companion to my landline connection.
My natural choice was for a dual SIM phone that would accommodate my two SIMs and at the same time obviate the need to carry two mobile phones in the pocket (one itself is too cumbersome, some times I feel). I chanced up on this mobile in a discussion forum and did some research on it and once I was realised that this is the one that would suit me, ordered it. I bought it online from Flipkart and paid 4.5k. The phone was delivered within three days.
The consignment contained the usual things: phone, charger, a folding type of cover (not leather, but very useful), two scratch-guard films for the screen, a stylus, manual, 2GB µSD, headphones, etc. The whole package was quite attractive and did not give the impression that I was buying a cheap run-of-the-mill phone. So far so good!
The phone looks good, actually very good. It has full metal body and and a good, clear three inch 240x320 screen that reproduces colours quite well (but not as good as my four year old SonyE T700!). Everything that is given as per the specs (bluetooth, 3.2 MP camera, audioplayer, GPRS etc.) works fine.The phone is quite interesting in that a lot of features which are available on the phone can be "discovered" by playing with it. I did not have the patience to read the manual (I never do!) and hence I do not know if these are mentioned in the manual. But the touch screen is a fun thing to play with. You rest your finger on an icon or an item and a short while later a sub-menu will prop up, prompting you to do a few things. Normally, a person would miss that and I have seen such frustrations being expressed in discussion fora (where people say they are not able to store a number or edit a contact). There may not be a menu or option for that shown on the screen, but you can get it by doing what I just said.
A few good things that I like/dislike about the phone: it is very good looking, you can flaunt it. The Yamaha speaker sound is very good (the sound is no good if heard with the earphones). Camera is good (but not as good as the 3.2 MP in my SE T700!). Please see a couple of sample photos taken with the Lava 10. Video quality is poor. Radio catches stations even in remote locations (better than my T 700 and a few Nokias that are there in my home). Snaptu comes pre-loaded and you can check Facebook and Twitter easily. Surfing is slow. I have the habit of reading newspaper headlines on my mobile, but I find my T700 is better suited than this phone. I loaded Opera Mini ver 6.0, but it loads quite slow. I loaded the mobile version of Gmail and used it for a few days; but it got corrupted thrice. Now I am back to my T700 for checking my emails. One thing I like about the SMSs is that they appear in "Gmail format" - all the mails and replies to them appear as one single item, one below the other. You can read the entire conversation without opening each SMS separately. It can also be deleted singly or in one go. Very useful feature. The menu allows you to respond to a text message by a text reply or a call. You can blacklist numbers (very useful if you don’t want your ex to call you!). Texting is very easy; once you turn the phone, the G-sensor takes over a shows a horizontal typewriter like keyboard. You can use the stylus to type out your SMS. The touch screen is good; no complaints there. Only thing is that you have to calibrate it one in a while (which can be easily done by touching a moving dot on the screen). Finally, the dual SIM works fine; you can choose the SIM from which you want to call/text. But I am still using it as a single SIM phone (no heart to let go off my T700!).
I shall conclude: Lava A10 is a good feature-rich phone. Really VFM. It is relatively cheap, but the looks don’t reveal that. You can flaunt it. Works fine, though a bit slow. I am very happy with the phone and so far there have been no issues. So I shall happily recommend it to anyone who wishes to spend her/his hard-earned money on a good phone. Thanks. Take care!