With a lot of users sharing photos on social media and instant messaging apps, the camera capabilities of smartphones are increasingly swaying purchase decisions. The good thing is, good cameras now aren’t to be found only in expensive phones. Indian phone maker, Lava, has come out with the Lava V5 (Rs.11,299) which packs in a 13-megapixel camera and goes up against the Lenovo K4 Note and LeEco 1S.
Design: good-looking and compact
Despite an all-plastic exterior, the Lava V5 doesn’t look cheap. It’s a well-built phone with a compact form factor. The back panel is made of good-quality plastic with a non-glossy finish, which enables a good grip and helps keep smudges at bay. The side panel has been wrapped up with a metal frame, which lends some solidity to it. It weighs 153g but still lighter by the standards that seem to define an affordable big-screen smartphone at present. The Lenovo K4 Note weighs 158g, while the LeEco 1S tips the scales at 169g.
Display: big and colourful
The Lava V5’s 5.5-inch display is big but only offers a screen resolution of 1,280x720p. It is a bit surprising as a number of smartphones, including the K4 Note and LeEco 1S, have better-looking Full HD (1,920x1,080p) displays at a less or same price. While the text looks fine, games and movies appear a bit dull. The bigger display makes reading and movie playbacks more comfortable for the eye. The display has a white tint that gives a natural look in terms of how the other colours are reproduced. The wide viewing angles are good and the screen works well in bright light environments, too.
Software: thank heavens for a clean UI
The phone runs Android 5.1 (Lollipop) with Lava’s own custom user interface (UI)—known as Star OS. This is different from the Hive interface used in Lava’s Xolo range of smartphones. It has an app drawer (common in default Android, but a lot of Chinese smartphone makers tend to remove it), a Google search bar on the home screen and the multitasking window appears in the form of cards. Despite the many similarities with stock Android, the UI still manages to look distinctive with a fair amount of customization options available, including gestures for opening and themes for changing the software’s look.
Performance: can handle mainstream tasks well
Powered by a 64-bit MediaTek MT6735 quad-core processor with 3 GB RAM, the phone handled most mainstream tasks without feeling sluggish. The HD movie playback, switching between apps and multitasking with up to 10 apps running worked very smoothly. It also handles some games, but struggles with the likes of Mortal Combat; some games, such as FIFA 16, weren’t compatible with the phone. There is 16 GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32 GB. The battery backup is not the most impressive, and even though it comes with a 3,000 mAh battery, it barely lasted a day on a single charge.
Camera: works best in daylight
The key highlight of the phone is its 13-megapixel camera, which delivers pretty good shots in daylight. The camera is fast and has some interesting photo modes, such as the multi-angle mode, sound in picture, and beauty mode. The picture quality is by and large good but the moment you zoom in, the noise and distortions begin to show. It captures colours and contrasts well. The depth-of-field capabilities are good, and the camera can enhance focus on the main subject while blurring out the background. Indoor and lowlight results looked a bit blurry and the colours sometimes looked washed out. Even in lowlight mode, the picture has good exposure levels, but there isn’t any major improvement in terms of picture clarity. The 8-megapixel front camera is good and wide enough for group selfies.
Verdict
The Lava V5 is a workable budget smartphone with a good daylight camera, a nice-looking UI and a very usable design. However, it doesn’t seem on a par with the likes of LeEco 1S (Rs.10,999; Flipkart.com), which offers a sharper 5.5-inch display, better camera, premium looks, and is much better with heavy apps and games. Alternatively, the Lenovo K4 Note (Rs.11,999; Amazon.in) offers a crisp 5.5-inch display, very powerful Dolby Atmos audio playback capabilities, a better camera, fingerprint sensor—and a free virtual reality headset.
