The Lava Iris 352e, a dual SIM, dual core handset is priced at under Rs. 3,800. This handset runs on Android 4.2, comes with 2MP rear camera and sports a 3.5 inch HVGA screen. Is it worth the price? Find out.
Box pack
Inside the box you will find the 352e handset, 1450 mAh battery, screen guard, a free silicon back cover for added protection, power adapter, data cable, earphone and user manual.
Design, display and OS
The handset weight is just 108 grams with battery, it is not at all slim (12.3mm thick), breadth is 62.63 and length is 118.05. The black and silver color combination gives an elegant look.
The front side and the rear are black color. The rear side is matte finish and feels like rubber. The sides have got a silver line (matte finish) that runs all the way around, surrounding the micro usb port. The top side looks bulky cause of the ports and the bottom side gets narrower following a curve.
The volume rockers are placed on the left side and power button / micro USB port and 3.5mm audio jack are placed on the top side. There is 2MP FF camera on the rear along with speaker out vent.
The TFT screen is 3.5 inches supporting 480×320 pixels resolution (262K colors). The viewing angles are not at all good (for the price you cannot expect something better), though the touch is smooth and responsive.
There is only one sensor the accelerometer and the screen supports 2 point multi touch. Lava Iris 352e sails on Android 4.2.2 OS.
Memory and storage
This is a low budget handset and hence comes with minimal RAM of 256MB. Of the 256MB RAM, on the first boot you will get around 129MB free. There is 512MB internal storage (ROM), of which 147MB is assigned for apps – the free space is 100MB and there is a Phone storage of 12.15MB of which 11.18MB is available. External SD card of up to 32GB is supported and you can move / install apps on external storage. OTG is not supported.
Performance
Though the Lava Iris 352e is powered by the known MT6572 chipset it is clocked at 1GHz with Mali 400 GPU does not performance like the 1.3GHz MT6572 dual core, probably because of low RAM (256MB). The performance is okay but at times it does lag.
Benchmark scores
- Quadrant Standard – 2684.
- AnTuTu – 9176.
- Vellamo – did not run cause of Low free memory.
- Nenamark 2 – 47.4 fps
- Multi touch : 2 points.
Gaming, Camera and entertainment
The Gaming experience is not at all good. But cannot really complain because of the price tag. This handset is not for gaming users. I could install the Asphalt 8 on the external card, however when playing the game it got stuck on the menu screen (check video review).
The hardware is capable but the main issue is low RAM. I tried installing the Temple run 2 but it failed (it was trying to install on the app/ internal storage). I guess very few games will work or low end games that can directly install on external storage.
There is 2MP fixed focus camera on the rear without flash and VGA camera on the front. In video mode there is 720p option however the videos got recorded in 864×480 pixels resolution. The still camera /video recording quality are not at all good.
As far as entertainment is concerned you can watch 720p videos in MX player with ease using both H/W and S/W modes.
Others
Sound is loud and clear. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth worked well. This handset does not support 3G, but does support the 2G networks (GPRS / EDGE). There is no built in GPS receiver.
Battery
The 1450 mAh battery seems decent enough. When running the benchmark apps for approx 17 minutes the battery level dropped by 6 percent. You can expect a 3 to 5 hours of battery life with continuous usage (both cores used).
Verdict
It is a low cost handset for Rs. 3,692 and for the price it is a good handset, do note there is no 3G support. Do not buy it for gaming and for its camera. Apart from this if your usage is limited to phone calls, social networks, surfing etc and in case will not be using heavy apps, then this is a good, cheaper option.
Image Gallery
Sample Images
Lava Iris 352e unboxing and review (includes gaming review)
Sample video shot using Iris 352e
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