- Good build quality- Excellent display- Expandable storage slot
Lava launched 504Q as part of its Iris range of premium smartphones last year. It was a well-made phone compared to smartphones from other domestic brands and brought features like gesture control to the budget segment. Iris 504Q+ is an iterative update offering a superior camera, slightly better internals and better fit and finish, while retaining the gesture control. Does the phone have what it takes to beat the likes of Moto G in this segment? We try to find out in our review.
Looks and build quality
Unlike its predecessor, Lava Iris 504Q+ sports a very sharp, rectangular design with clean lines and corners that are not very rounded. The plastic has been replaced with metal with the front frame sporting a shiny chrome finish while the back panel features a dark grey metal cover with matte finish.
The front is dominated by a 5-inch 720p IPS OGS display with Dragontrail glass for protection.
Below the screen are the three touch-sensitive keys for Menu, Back and Home; the speaker is located at the back. The Home key also acts as the notification light and lights up in different colours. The Power button is placed at the right edge while the Volume rocker is at the left edge. Both keys are easy to access while using the device with one hand and offer good tactile feedback. The camera lens and the LED flash sit on top of the left side at the back. Removing the cover reveals the battery compartment and slots for the two sim cards and microSD card.
We'll have to say that the phone has great build quality and exudes a premium feel. It's one of the very few budget smartphones that boast of outstanding fit and finish.
Display It has a 5-inch 720p IPS OGS display made by Sharp with Dragontrail glass for protection. Lava Iris 504Q offers great viewing angles, vivid colours and good contrast. Images and text appear crisp and sharp and sunlight legibility is also good.
Software
Lava Iris 504Q+ runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and comes with an almost stock build of the OS. However, it does feature some themes that change the look of the phone to a minor extent. Just like its predecessor, the phone offers air gesture controls for apps like Music, FM Radio, Gallery, Camera and even the app launcher. These gestures allow you to browse content or activate the camera shutter without touching the phone and can be enabled through the phone's Accessibility settings. In our use, we found the feature to be a bit gimmicky. The controls don't always work as desired and you'll end up spending more time trying to figure them out. One of the useful features of the phone is the ability to set on and off timers.
Lava preloads apps like Sketch (for sketching), Variety Theme (for themes), and My Notes (for jotting notes) with the phone, in addition to a file browser and flashlight app.
Camera
Lava Iris 504Q+ sports a 10MP rear camera with 1.4μm pixel size, BSI II sensors, f2.0 aperture, large 1/3.2" sensor, an LED flash, and a 2MP front camera. The rear camera takes good quality images in daylight, but grainy ones indoors in less light. Colour reproduction is decent. We faced difficulty in focusing while taking macro shots but the outcome was acceptable. It's capable of shooting full-HD videos and the quality was acceptable.
The front camera does't take good quality images. It is good for video chats though. Overall, we feel the camera could have been the high point of this phone, but that is not the case.
Performance
Iris 504Q+ is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 processor, along with 1GB RAM. While using the phone, we did not encounter any hiccups while launching and switching between apps and there was no visible lag.
Casual games such as Temple Run 2 run smoothly. However, we encountered some frame drops while playing graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Riptide GP 2.
In terms of synthetic benchmarks, it scored 5,964 in Quadrant Standard, 16,963 in AnTuTu, 1117 in Geekbench 3(Multi-core) and 53.9 in NenaMark 2, lagging behind Moto G by a big margin in some tests. But we'd not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different, at times.
The phone sports a 2000mAh battery and lasts a full working day (14-15 hours) with moderate to heavy use.
Out of the 8GB storage, 5.48GB is available to the user. You can also expand the storage with a memory card of up to 32GB.
We were able to play most video and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. the dual-sim, dual-standby phone offers good call quality and signal reception. The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud sound output. Of course the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back.
Verdict
Lava Iris 504Q+ is a very well-built phone for its price. It exudes a premium feel and doesn't look like a budget phone. The display is another strong point of the phone. Having said that, the two headline features of the phone - its 10MP camera and gesture control, aren't really extraordinary and have their own flaws. It also does't come with the latest version of Android and lags marginally behind Moto G in terms of performance.
At a price of Rs 13,990, Lava Iris 504Q+ is a decent option if you're looking for a smartphone that looks good and comes with a bright, vivid display. But you should also take a look at Moto G, Nokia Lumia 630 and Xolo Q1100 if you're looking for better performance.
Looks and build quality
Unlike its predecessor, Lava Iris 504Q+ sports a very sharp, rectangular design with clean lines and corners that are not very rounded. The plastic has been replaced with metal with the front frame sporting a shiny chrome finish while the back panel features a dark grey metal cover with matte finish.
The front is dominated by a 5-inch 720p IPS OGS display with Dragontrail glass for protection.
Below the screen are the three touch-sensitive keys for Menu, Back and Home; the speaker is located at the back. The Home key also acts as the notification light and lights up in different colours. The Power button is placed at the right edge while the Volume rocker is at the left edge. Both keys are easy to access while using the device with one hand and offer good tactile feedback. The camera lens and the LED flash sit on top of the left side at the back. Removing the cover reveals the battery compartment and slots for the two sim cards and microSD card.
We'll have to say that the phone has great build quality and exudes a premium feel. It's one of the very few budget smartphones that boast of outstanding fit and finish.
Display It has a 5-inch 720p IPS OGS display made by Sharp with Dragontrail glass for protection. Lava Iris 504Q offers great viewing angles, vivid colours and good contrast. Images and text appear crisp and sharp and sunlight legibility is also good.
Software
Lava Iris 504Q+ runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and comes with an almost stock build of the OS. However, it does feature some themes that change the look of the phone to a minor extent. Just like its predecessor, the phone offers air gesture controls for apps like Music, FM Radio, Gallery, Camera and even the app launcher. These gestures allow you to browse content or activate the camera shutter without touching the phone and can be enabled through the phone's Accessibility settings. In our use, we found the feature to be a bit gimmicky. The controls don't always work as desired and you'll end up spending more time trying to figure them out. One of the useful features of the phone is the ability to set on and off timers.
Lava preloads apps like Sketch (for sketching), Variety Theme (for themes), and My Notes (for jotting notes) with the phone, in addition to a file browser and flashlight app.
Camera
Lava Iris 504Q+ sports a 10MP rear camera with 1.4μm pixel size, BSI II sensors, f2.0 aperture, large 1/3.2" sensor, an LED flash, and a 2MP front camera. The rear camera takes good quality images in daylight, but grainy ones indoors in less light. Colour reproduction is decent. We faced difficulty in focusing while taking macro shots but the outcome was acceptable. It's capable of shooting full-HD videos and the quality was acceptable.
The front camera does't take good quality images. It is good for video chats though. Overall, we feel the camera could have been the high point of this phone, but that is not the case.
Performance
Iris 504Q+ is powered by a 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 processor, along with 1GB RAM. While using the phone, we did not encounter any hiccups while launching and switching between apps and there was no visible lag.
Casual games such as Temple Run 2 run smoothly. However, we encountered some frame drops while playing graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Riptide GP 2.
In terms of synthetic benchmarks, it scored 5,964 in Quadrant Standard, 16,963 in AnTuTu, 1117 in Geekbench 3(Multi-core) and 53.9 in NenaMark 2, lagging behind Moto G by a big margin in some tests. But we'd not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different, at times.
The phone sports a 2000mAh battery and lasts a full working day (14-15 hours) with moderate to heavy use.
Out of the 8GB storage, 5.48GB is available to the user. You can also expand the storage with a memory card of up to 32GB.
We were able to play most video and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. the dual-sim, dual-standby phone offers good call quality and signal reception. The phone was able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud sound output. Of course the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back.
Verdict
Lava Iris 504Q+ is a very well-built phone for its price. It exudes a premium feel and doesn't look like a budget phone. The display is another strong point of the phone. Having said that, the two headline features of the phone - its 10MP camera and gesture control, aren't really extraordinary and have their own flaws. It also does't come with the latest version of Android and lags marginally behind Moto G in terms of performance.
At a price of Rs 13,990, Lava Iris 504Q+ is a decent option if you're looking for a smartphone that looks good and comes with a bright, vivid display. But you should also take a look at Moto G, Nokia Lumia 630 and Xolo Q1100 if you're looking for better performance.
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