First impressions Lava Iris Fuel 60: Battery is the only USP of this device

Lava today launched a new smartphone, as part of its Iris Fuel series, the Lava Iris Fuel 60 which is priced at Rs 8,888. The smartphone’s USP is the battery life; the company says that Fuel 60’s 4000 mAh battery can easily last a day for heavy users (who are constantly on 3G and WiFi) and even up to two days for mid-level users. During the launch event, Lava’s Chairman and MD Hari Om Rai also revealed that the company plans to manufacture smartphones in India and will open a unit in Noida. Lava hopes to launch an India-made smartphone by March next year, said Rai. India-made smartphones aside, the Lava Iris Fuel 60 is clearly as budget-friendly smartphone that is hoping to give users in this price range something that is inevitably lacking in these smartphones: long lasting battery. And Lava is hoping that the battery will end up being the X factor that helps consumers choose in this phone’s favour. As far as other specs go, what we have is a pretty standard smartphone: 5-inch HD screen with IPS, 1 GB RAM, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 8 GB space with microSD slot and expandable to 32 GB, 10 megapixel camera and a 2 megapixel front camera. We got a chance to look at the smartphone during the launch and here’s our first impression of the smartphone: Design, Screen: We have to admit that this is a pretty bulky phone and the volume buttons and on/off button are on the left side of the phone. It has a familiar rectangular design, but it’s definitely on the thicker side. It’s certainly not the best looking device and feels a little heavy, but hey this is a budget smartphone. According to Lava, the Iris Fuel 60 is made with “solder-less” manufacturing technology, where each component is connected to the PCB via connectors, unlike conventional smartphones where manual soldering is used. The company says that this will make easier for service engineers to fix the smartphone in case of any fault. [caption id=“attachment_245872” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Lava Iris Fuel 60 runs Android 4.4.4 and doesn’t have too much visible bloatware. Tech2[/caption] The screen is a 5-inch HD with IPS, which is standard nowadays as far as size and resolution goes, though it was hard to read anything on the screen outside in the sun. The screen however has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, which is definitely a good plus point to keep the device protected. Processor, RAM, other specs: Lava Iris Fuel 60 has a Mediatek 1.3 GHz quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB ROM which can be expanded via microSD (32GB is the limit). For most budget users, the microSD slot is a must, though it is disappointing that Lava hasn’t boosted either the processor or the RAM in this phone, something that users might have expected. Essentially the processor and RAM make this seem like a remodelled version of Iris Fuel 50, except with bigger battery. [caption id=“attachment_245873” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Lava Iris Fuel 60: Details of specs in the phone’s settings. Tech2[/caption] Battery: Since this is the USP of the phone, let’s get to this. During the launch event, Lava had put up smartphones from several other companies next to their device to showcase battery usage. The devices either had a movie playing, or the camera was on, basically some heavy duty smartphone usage was going in both the rival company’s device and the Lava Iris Fuel 60. Lava’s aim was to showcase that the Iris Fuel would lose battery much slowly than the other device and sure it appeared that the phone was still at 90%, while others were getting drained fast. [caption id=“attachment_245874” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The battery usage on the Lava Iris Fuel 60. Tech2[/caption] The battery in this phone is 4000 mAh and according to the company can last up to 32 hours of talk time on 2G without a need to charge the phone. However during the launch event, Lava spoke about how the battery could last one day easily with heavy usage, which included continuous 3G. Of course, we’ll have to test the device to confirm this but if Lava delivers on these claims, it will be a massive plus point for the company. Lava also says Iris Fuel 60 is equipped with quick charge technology that restricts the charging time to 3 hours 15 minutes. OS, Camera and other features: The smartphone runs Android 4.4.4 and Lava has promised an Android L update to the device pretty soon, though it’s not clear by when this update will be rolled out. The rear camera is 10 megapixels and the front camera is 2 megapixels. While it didn’t seem too impressive based on some early shots, we’ll have to test this one more given the lighting in the launch room wasn’t too great. [caption id=“attachment_245878” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Lava Iris Fuel 60’s camera didn’t seem to impressive. Tech2[/caption] Lava has also introduced gesture-based actions in this smartphone. Users can just write W or C on the smartphone’s locked screen with their finger and it will take them directly to WhatsApp (W) or Camera (C). We tried this gesture and though it takes time for the app to open, it worked fairly accurately for us. Conclusion: This smartphone is all about the battery. Lava tried to showcase this by even including rival devices at the launch as a point of comparison. It’s also priced quite nicely for a smartphone that offers more than one-day battery. For budget users, the Iris Fuel 60 could be a good smartphone to consider.