Lava entered the smartphone segment with the X900 in the Xolo series way
back in May 2012. This was the first smartphone in the world to come
with an 'Intel Inside' tag. However this device failed to set the market
on fire, partially because of its Rs. 22,000 price tag.
So, the
Indian handset maker has taken a U-turn and returned to familiar
territory of budget smartphones with the latest members of the Xolo
series - Lava Xolo A800 and Lava Xolo A700. Both these smartphones run
on Mediatek's dual-core MT6577 chipset.
Priced at Rs. 11,999 the
Xolo A800 comes with a 4.5-inch (960 x 540 pixels) screen, 512 MB RAM
and an 8-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash. Let's find out if
this device from Lava's Xolo series is a worthy contender in the
smartphone market.
Design/ Hardware
The White coloured Lava
Xolo A800 looks very similar to Samsung Galaxy S III. However, it comes
with a matte finish, which makes this smartphone look less plasticky
than the Galaxy S III.
The Xolo A800 has round corners with an
aesthetically done silver border. The front of the device is mostly
taken up by the 4.5-inch screen. There are three Android buttons - Menu,
Home and Back - embossed at the bottom of the screen and a VGA camera
on the top. The left panel houses the volume keys and Micro-USB/charging
port.
The back panel has an 8-megapixel camera and the loudspeaker. The 3.5mm jack and power/wake button find room on the top panel.
In
terms of hardware, the device is powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor
with 512MB RAM, has 4GB internal storage expandable up to 32GB with
microSD.
The Xolo A800 is a dual-SIM smartphone and supports GSM
SIM card in both the slots. On opening the back panel one notices a big
black rectangular patch attached perhaps to maintain space between the
battery and the back panel. This looks extremely out of place and we
would have appreciated if Lava would have paid a bit more attention to
detailing.
Display
The Lava Xolo A800 comes with a 4.5-inch
16M colour capacitive touch screen IPS display with 245 ppi. The
display and the viewing angles look good. The under-sun visibility on
the Lava Xolo A800 was decent. The screen used in this smartphone is
reflective.
CameraThe pictures captured through the 8-megapixel auto focus camera
on board are quite crisp and clear. The Lava Xolo A800 comes with a BSI
Sensor, which made sure that even the low-light pictures look decent.
The quality of videos captures through the back camera is good too.
There
is a VGA front camera, which takes average pictures, pretty much like
any other front camera. All in all, the camera experience on the
smartphone is good; wish it had a dedicated camera button to help click a
quick one.
Software/ Interface
The Lava Xolo A800 runs on
Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich). There are five customisable home
screens to fill with apps and widgets. The software runs quite smoothly
pretty much like any other stock Android smartphone.
There aren't
too many pre-loaded applications on Lava Xolo A800 except NoteBook and
Xolo care but one can always download them from Google Play Store.
With
the help of the Noteook app one can take quick notes. These notes can
be under various categories such as work, personal, family affair or
uncategorized. Saved notes can be easily accessed through this app.
Performance/ Battery
As
mentioned earlier, the Lava Xolo A800 comes with Mediatek's dual-core
MT6577 chipset rather than Intel's chipset that was seen on the earlier
Xolo A900. However, we found this smartphone to be quite smooth and
responsive. There were no real lags that we faced while using the
device.
Powered by a 1,600mAh battery, the Xolo A800 is easily able to last a day on single charge.
The audio quality is good both on the headphones and the loudspeaker.
Verdict
For about 12K, the Lava Xolo A800 is an interesting
smartphone. It has a good display and delivers a decent performance.
However, consumers looking for a large screen smartphone might be
tempted to bend towards, Micromax Canvas 2 A110, which has a 5-inch
screen and a bigger battery (2000mAh). Micromax Canvas 2 A110 is powered
by the same processor and runs on Android 4.0. Also, Micromax's device
is available at a best buy price of Rs. 10,000. Lava Xolo A800 scores
better than its Micromax only on the display front.
Pros
- Smooth performance
- Crisp display
Cons
- Android upgrade roadmap not clear
Price: Rs. 11,990
Ratings (Out of 5)
Design: 3.5
Display: 3.5
Performance: 3.5
Software: 3
Battery Life: 3.5
Value for Money: 3
Camera: 3.5