Recently, Lava announced the Iris 505 and the Iris 506q, which are two additions to their very popular Iris series of budget smartphones. If you missed it, read the Iris 506q Quick Review. The devices seem a little overpriced for what they have to offer, and considering other manufacturers like Micromax and Karbonn’s aggressive pricing policies, the devices might not see a lot of light in the market. However, there might be a section of the audience to whom the Iris 505 might suit better than any other device.
Let us go ahead with the quick review.
Camera and Internal Storage
The phone features a standard camera set in a 5MP main unit at the rear of the device, and a VGA front. This is a little disappointing because other manufacturers like Celkon are offering 8MP main cameras, while some phones from different manufacturers come with 2-3.2MP front cameras.
You will probably not be able to replace your digital camera with this phone, but the device might do a fair job if this is going to be your first camera phone. Keeping low expectations is the key here, it will determine how much you like this phone from Lava.On the other hand, although the VGA pixel count does sound a little low, it might be good enough for most since we’d be using the front camera only for video calls, and pictures and video from this unit would be fairly limited.
As you would’ve guessed by now, the device being a budget smartphone from a domestic manufacturer, comes with just 4GB of ROM out of which about 2GB would be usable. The device features a microSD slot, which means storage is expandable by up to 32GB.
Processor and Battery
The device comes with a dual core processor. This means that the Iris 505 won’t be the most affordable dual core smartphone, being priced at 8,999 INR. Devices from Xolo, like the Q800 and the Q700, pack quad core processors for a little more amount, so you can rethink your decisions if you plan to go for a device in this range of price.
The dual core processor should suffice for the average user. Most games, videos, etc should work just fine if you’re not into high-end stuff. On the other hand, those coming from another dual core device might want to go for a quad core one instead of this. The device comes with 512MB RAM, which is probably ok if you change phones once in 6-8 months. But if you want to be future proof, getting a 1GB RAM would be a better idea.
The Iris 505 comes with a 2000 mAh battery like any other average budget device in the market today. This should be enough if you use your device for productivity and a little recreation. By enough, we mean that the device will probably take you through one day, nothing more than that. On the other hand, if you’re a heavy user, you might need to hit the charging socket in 6-8 hours of usage.
Display and Features
As we mentioned earlier, the Iris 505 packs a 5 inch display along with a resolution of 854×480 pixels, which is not very promising for a device of 2013, making it a bad choice for multimedia, gaming or otherwise. Most 4 inch devices come with that sort of resolution, and the same on a 5 inch screen is pretty disappointing.
However, the device will be usable as far as reading text goes. Reading and replying to emails, SMSes, IM, etc will be fairly average. On the other hand, the low resolution will mean that the processor will not have a lot of load. You can thus expect decent performance, even though it won’t be very enjoyable on the screen due to the low pixel density.
Looks and Connectivity
The device has a typical budget smartphone look. Nothing exceptional, but at the same time the device doesn’t look particularly bad.
On the connectivity front the phone features Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi, 3.5mm audio jack, etc.
Comparison
Other dual core devices like Celkon Campus A10 (which a very low cost dual core phone), Karbonn A8, etc. can be compared to the Lava Iris 505 in terms of specifications and price.
Key Specs
| Model | Lava Iris 505 |
| Display | 5 inches FWVGA |
| Processor | 1.2 GHz dual core |
| RAM, ROM | 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM, expandable by up to 32GB |
| OS | Android v4.2 |
| Cameras | 5MP rear, VGA front |
| Battery | 2000 mAh |
| Price | 8,999 INR |
Conclusion
As we mentioned earlier, both the recent launches from Lava did not impress us very much. The value for money factor expected in a budget smartphone seems to be missing. Lava made headlines with the Iris 504q which was their first gesture control enabled smartphone, and the company might have to rethink their strategies if they want to continue to be in the news (for good reasons).
We would have loved to see this device being priced somewhere close to 7,000 INR or even lower; that is the sort of price that would’ve made other manufacturers tighten their policies.
