"Review: Lava Intel Xolo as fast as iPhone, but lacks in features"

The Xolo is blazing fast

The first Intel powered Android phone – the Lava Xolo 900, went on sale in April amid great fanfare. Priced at Rs 22,000 and featuring a 4.03-inch display with a resolution of 1024 x 600, an 8 megapixel camera and Android 2.3 Gingerbread, the phone was expected to compete with the Motorola Atrix 2 and the HTC Sensation. The device can be upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich.

The main question that tech and mobile enthusiasts were asking, was if the Xolo would turn out to be just another phone in the line of Androids that seem to be flooding the market or if it would actually stand out against competing phones from Samsung and HTC.

And now we have a verdict. The folks over at Tech2in.com who got their hands on the phone, have given the device a mixed review saying that while it is undeniable blazing fast, other features of the phone are not quite up to the mark. Key highlights of the review are listed below: (Read the whole review here)

Appearance:

In terms of appearance the Xolo eerily resembles the iPhone 4S with a “squared off” look and simple button system. The device is also quite lightweight. Tech2in.com is also happy with the The 4-inch TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen which it says, keeps images quite sharp and focused and provides good viewing angles, even in bright conditions.

However Tech2in.com says that the real estate up front could have been better utilized with either a larger screen or a reduction in the size of the handset. Nevertheless, as is, it doesn’t really hamper the design in any way. It also says that the LAVA does not seem to have included a notification LED, which would have been quite helpful.

Performance:

Intel’s Atom Processor (1.6GHz) is, simply put, blazing fast. The speed is evident even in the simplest of actions like swiping or switching screens. And complex actions like activating the camera, Opening high-res images in quick succession or accessing full HD videos is just as fast as on the One X or the iPhone 4. There’s no lag, no delay, nothing of that sort and that’s what makes the XOLO an exciting device to use.

However Tech2in says that one concern they had was that the test device they used had an unusual heating issue. When used outside of an AC environment for more than 7 minutes (average), the lower back portion of the handset where the battery or CPU is placed tended to heat up quite rapidly making it a little uncomfortable to hold.

Tech2in says, “We tested this multiple times in multiple scenarios and environments and it was quite consistent and more so when the Wi-Fi was active. The heating also caused the network disruption almost as soon as the device reached a certain temperature, even in areas with no reception issues and others with the same service were at full strength.”

Camera:

The 8 megapixel autofocus camera with its LED flash worked out to be a great asset for the handset. Intel’s new mobile processor has managed to integrate a slew of features into this device that give it high-end digicam-like settings. The XOLO packs in features like GDC (geometric distortion correction), XNR (extra noise reduction for low light) and ANR (another noise reduction routine). It’s as comprehensive as it gets in the mobile domain.

But in terms of quality of capture, the camera had a few issues with focus and didn’t prove to be as good with the touch focus setting as Sony’s or HTC’s offerings. Indoor images, even with the ‘Indoor’ settings activated were a tad dull and colours seemed a bit washed out. The same goes for outdoor pictures.