Lava Iris 504Q+ review: Great looks and good camera, but battery life is a concern

It’s tough for budget phones to stand out from the crowd given the frequency at which they are updated. However, the Lava Iris 504Q+ caught our attention a while back we had a chance to spend a good amount of time with their latest offering. What makes this special is that it packs in Sony’s 10MP Exmor RS sensor, which is pretty big considering the phone is priced under Rs 15,000. So, is this the best camera-centric phone in this segment? Let’s find out.   Design and Build The Lava Iris 504Q+ sports a no-nonsense design. It’s slim at 7.9mm and relatively lightweight at just 149g. The edges are a bit sharp but overall, the phone feels solidly built and well put together. The chrome strips on the sides are a bit of a worry as they will fade or chip away over time. [caption id=“attachment_224082” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Very good build and design[/caption]   The phone is well balanced and looks quite aesthetically pleasing. The capacitive buttons at the bottom work well with the home button doubling up as the notification LED, glowing red or green depending on the alert. [caption id=“attachment_224085” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] The metal back adds to the protection[/caption]   The matte-finished back is once again well-crafted and doesn’t feel cheap or tacky. The panel covering the battery is made of metal, which gives it added protection. Button placement is good and the tactile feedback is quite responsive. We also have the 10MP sensor here along with a LED flash. [caption id=“attachment_224084” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Slim and lightweight[/caption]   The phone is powered by a 200mAh battery and features dual-SIM and SD card support. Overall, the Iris 504Q+ is good looking handset that’s built well.   Features The 5-inch HD display is quite excellent in most conditions. Colours are vivid and punchy and viewing angles are very good. The panel is from Sharp and features their OGS production technique. There’s also an added layer of Asahi Dragontrail glass for scratch resistance. [caption id=“attachment_224076” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Display produces vivid and punchy colours[/caption]   The interface is mostly stock with the usual tweaks found in Lava phones. The Iris 504Q+ also boasts of Air Shuffle, which lets you navigate certain apps such as the camera, gallery, radio and media by waving your hands over the front camera/sensor. It’s more of an annoyance really and is best left turned off. [caption id=“attachment_224073” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Not to bad for the price[/caption]   You get Android 4.2.2, which is powered by Mediatek’s MT6582 quad-core chipset. The maximum speed for the cores is 1.3GHz. The one good feature in the new chipset is that unused cores can be turned off completely when not in use. The phone puts up a good show in the benchmarks and racks up points as much as a Galaxy S3. Gaming performance isn’t too bad either. The 1GB of RAM ensures smooth performance in apps and multi-tasking as well.   Media The music player gets a new skin, which we think looks pretty slick. You can even switch between skins as well. 1080p videos playback just fine without a glitch as well. Out of the 8GB internal storage, 5.3GB is usable by the user. You can expand this using a microSD card. [caption id=“attachment_224077” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] The new music player looks sic[/caption]   Audio quality is pretty good with a good pair of earphones.   Connectivity The Lava Iris 504Q+ supports quad-band 2G and single-band 3G. The two SIM slots are set up in a GSM + WCDMA configuration, with dual standby. You also get USB 2.0, GPS, Wi-Fi ‘n’, Bluetooth v3.0. Lava also throws in a bunch of apps like Power Saver, Sketch and Variety theme. [caption id=“attachment_224075” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Some extra apps bundled along[/caption]   Camera The 10MP Sony sensor has very good potential even though the camera implementation could have been better. Lava has gone with a very Samsung-esque design for the interface. There’s even a barcode scanner option within the UI, which is thoughtful. Focusing speed is not the quickest but it does a good job of focusing where you want it to. The quality of images are very good and in good lighting conditions, you can get some stunning close ups. [caption id=“attachment_224074” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] The UI is nice but could use with a bit more polish[/caption]   HDR mode didn’t seem to give us very good results however as the overall picture was a bit washed out. We feel the 504Q+ is capable of much more if only Lava spend some time tweaking the image processing software a bit more. [caption id=“attachment_224078” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Excellent detail in close-up shots[/caption]   [caption id=“attachment_224079” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] Indoor shots aren’t to shabby either[/caption]     [caption id=“attachment_224080” align=“alignnone” width=“691”] HDR shots aren’t that pretty[/caption]     Battery Life The 2000mAh battery is probably the biggest disappointment of the phone. We couldn’t finish our usual 8-hour battery test as the Iris stopped just shy of 7.5-hours. This means with heavy usage, you won’t make it through and entire day without charging.   Verdict and Price in India The Lava Iris 504Q+ can be found for Rs 13,000, which we feel is a good price considering the features it offers. This also happens to one of the better camera phones in this segment and with a little more tweaking from Lava, could very well be the best. Battery life is the only major concern here and if that’s a deal breaker for you then you always have options like the **Motorola Moto G** or the **Nokia Lumia 630**.