What I got with the phone? -Data cable, battery, manual, screen guard
Why I bought the phone - I never bought the phone for the cam(which is average but can take decent closeup pics in light). My earlier one Lava Iris 401e had poor internal memory, so I was only on the look out for one with higher memory and which had atleast 16m colors. This mobile suits my requirement. Although it says 4GB internal memory, you get 2GB which’s enough for me.
Price and usage-Bought it for 5600/- from flipkart, it’s now available for 5500/-. And I’ve been using it for over 5 months and quite content.
Touch screen and typing speed- Feels smooth on your hand, the touch screen moves easily too and I can type pretty fast on its keyboard.
Battery and security features-Ah yes, the battery capacity - hmm, it drains quite fast if you’re playing games for a long time. It has a battery management feature that seems good but I’m yet to really use it. If the battery gets low, I just recharge rather than patiently go through on how to better manage the battery:)
I think its security features are like in every other Lava smartphones you get. I have not made any adjustments except for setting a number password on screen. If I enter wrong password thrice, it clicks my photo silently with front cam and emails to my personal ID:) But let me tell you, the front cam is just ok, so the photo I end up receiving is almost dark and I don’t recognize myself lol.
Multitasking-I don’t multitask, so never tried using more than one app at a time.
Clarity of pics and videos-Really good to me, especially the pics.
Toughness-Has already fallen couple of times on tiled floors but hardly a scratch on the sides. The phone’s quite strong.
Nice internal memory-There’s sufficient internal memory to setup basic apps like antivirus or anything that’s really useful for me and which I can’t switch over to SD card - like Indian railway apps, paying telephone bills, bank apps etc.
Front and back cams-Back cam’s decent only if you’re taking close up shots. Front cam as mentioned earlier is also just ok(actually I find it handy to use as mirror when I’m travelling, hehe)
Taking videos-If you want to take closeup videos in the dark, you can keep the flash switched on to provide sufficient light during the shooting.
Other stuff I like-The panel available from the home screen has separate, visually clear tiles for me to change or set Wifi, internet, audio settings, brightness etc that’s displayed as big separate tiles for quick access.
Cons-It’s not easy to see numbers or messages when you’re outside in bright sunlight(unlike my earlier Nokia phone). As mentioned above, the cam’s just fair and battery is a concern if you’re into high gaming or internet usage(for hours at a stretch).
Experience with Lava service centres-Good so far. I’d a Lava Iris 401e earlier that shut down for no reason. Luckily it was within warranty and the service centre near my place took care of it. Show copy of bill, that’d be all. However, they could take time, possibly a week or little more than that. You could google for authorised lava centres at your state.
Conclusion-I really like Lava for their value for money mobiles. I am happy with this one. It serves all my needs. For those who are looking for a smartphone use without any real need for cam and not too much into gaming, this is a very good, budget choice.
Update(as on Oct 23, 2015)
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After using this phone for over 18 months, I still find it quite reliable however I’ve also noticed some frequent lag especially when moving from one app to the other. It kinda buffers for 5-10secs before I can open another app. It doesn’t happen every time but occurs more than reasonably expected. Also, after fixing USB cable to transfer media to PC & back, the phone tends to automatically reboot:/