Iris Pro 30 vs the competition: Lava's latest takes on Micromax Canvas Turbo and Moto G

After a long wait of five months, Lava’s Iris Pro series is finally here. The first in the series is the **Iris Pro 30** , featuring a 4.7-inch HD display and priced at Rs 15,999. With a price tag of Rs 15,999, Lava has stepped into the most competitive price bracket in the Indian mobile space. It will be competing with the popular **Micromax Canvas Turbo** along with the highly anticipated Moto G that is **expected to launch anytime** . Let’s take a quick look at the specs to know how the device fares against its competitors, at least on paper.

Lava Iris Pro 30 The newly launched Lava Iris Pro 30 falls a little short of the phablet category with its 4.7-nch HD display. To ward off attention from its 720p display, Lava has added in some improvements such an OGS technology and Content Adaptive Backlight Control (CABC) along with Gorilla Glass protection. Built of magnesium, the device is light at 114 grams and mere 7.5mm thick. On the camera front, we are a little disappointed with the 8MP BSI rear snapper. It also includes with dual LED flash and a 3MP front-facing camera.  Under the hood, it is powered by the ubiquitous 1.2GHz Mediatek MT6589 quad-core CPU and 1GB RAM, along with a PowerVR SGX544 GPU. The device comes with 4GB onboard storage that can be expanded further up to 32GB via microSD card slot, something we also find in sub-Rs 10,000 smartphones these days. The connectivity options include 3G, Bluetooth v4.0 and GPS.

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  [caption id=“attachment_216415” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Iris Pro 30 with a 720p OGS display[/caption] It runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and comes with OTA support for future software updates, but the company has not yet revealed which future versions of the OS will make it to the phone. The company claims that the 2000 mAh pack along with the Content Adaptive Backlight Control (CABC) should be capable of delivering longer usage times. Like most smartphone manufacturers these days, Lava has added a few seemingly fancy but largely useless features like flip to mute, lift to answer a call, voice and face unlocking and more.   Motorola Moto G The Moto G has received rave reviews for its built, performance and price, and is one of the highly anticipated budget smartphones in the Indian market. Expected to launch sometime this month, it currently runs on Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, and Google-owned Motorola has already started rolling out **4.4 KitKat update** for the device. [caption id=“attachment_216416” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Coming soon[/caption]   Just like the Iris Pro, the Moto G shuns the path of the phablet and sports a rather diminutive 4.5-inch TFT LCD panel with 720p resolution. It is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 400 CPU and an Adreno 305 CPU, which should be enough for most things Android. However, its biggest trade-off appears to be the 5MP camera. The connectivity options won’t disappoint and include Wi-Fi, GPS, GLONASS and Bluetooth. The younger sibling of the Moto X offers 8GB and 16GB onboard memory without microSD card support. Motorola packs in additional 50GB of free storage in Google Drive for two years. Its 2,070 mAh battery promises 24 hours of mixed usage.   Micromax Canvas Turbo A250 [caption id=“attachment_216417” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Micromax Canvas Turbo with 5-inch 1080p display[/caption] Micromax has tried to rectify several mistakes it made in the past with the Micromax A250. The company also indicated at going global with the Turbo, which it did, by roping in Wolverine start Hugh Jackman as its brand ambassador. The Turbo gets all the upgrades that we expected along with a very crucial sub-20K price point. The company has employed a large 5-inch display, and has ensured that users get a 1080p display panel. The dual SIM smartphone is powered by a 1.5GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6589T processor coupled with 2GB RAM. The device runs on Android 4.2, but a v4.4 KitKat update for the device has been rumoured. The phone comes with 13MP BSI sensor and a 5MP front-facing camera. Just like the Moto G and Iris Pro 30, the Canvas Turbo also comes equipped with 2,000mAh battery, which given its beefcake build may be slightly on the lower side. Before we arrive at a verdict here is a quick look at the specs comparison between the three smartphones:  Bottom line Lava has built an extremely sleek and lightweight device at 114 grams and mere 7.5mm thin, compared to the Moto G or Canvas Turbo, this is thanks to the One Glass Solution (OGS) employed on the phone. While that adds sass to the device Micromax ensures better viewing experience with its 5-inch 1080p display and pixel density that goes all the way up to 441 ppi. In terms of processing power, Moto G easily takes away the brownie points with its Snapdragon processor. This isn’t to say that the Mediatek chipsets in the other two are pushovers.   The Moto G comes from a tier 1 company that is owned by Google so one can easily expect future iterations of the OS for the device, which seems quite unlikely for the other two devices. Both Motorola and Lava seem to have compromised on the camera aspect, as we expect at least a 13MP camera for devices in that price range.   Finally, we come to one of the crucial deciding factors – price. The Moto G is Motorola’s comeback ticket to emerging markets like India and is operating at a profit margin of mere 5 per cent for each Moto G sold. The Iris Pro 30 gets 4GB onboard storage + up to 32GB microSD card, starting at Rs 15,999. On the other hand, the 16GB Turbo unit costs Rs 17,400. The 8GB Moto G is expected to be priced at even lower Rs 15,300, when and if it launches in the Indian market.   In a nutshell, the Micromax Canvas Turbo is a great pick if you are looking for a good specs sheet. However, the Google-owned Motorola Moto G is a better option if you are looking for a long term device, as it guarantees some nifty Android updates and has already received rave reviews for its performance. Talking about the Iris Pro, the device is a big deal for Lava as it’s the first premium handset built by the company. However, it comes across as just another Android smartphone when compared to the competition and there’s nothing out-of-the-box that will make us look away from the likes of Canvas Turbo or Moto G.