Lava Iris 501

Yesterday I purchased this phone at great price of Rs. 8600 (without memory card). Phone is very good. I am finding it a bit bulky. May be because i shifted from a phone with 3.6'' screen to 5''. Every thing is working fine. I found a bug in the very first day. The bug was with the installation of Google Play Services. Once u will try to install it u will receive an error that "Incompatible with other applications(s) using the same shared user ID." Without Play Service its not possible to log-in to YouTube account. There are also many trail version installed on the phone. Being system app its not possible to remove those apps. Lava is also not providing any device driver for any of its Android phone. Though its possible to transfer data to memory card but no ADB device driver is there. Hike app is installed but its not possible to update as its not supported by the device. Most of the apps on Play Store are compatible. But few are still missing (Cant install my college app), i don't know why? Another thing i noticed is that the keyboard installed does not give suggestions. No dictionary is present. Moreover there is no option in the phone from where we can update the device s/w. So its very clear that LAVA is not going to provide any update for this phone. It will stay like this for ever.nnBut i finally got rid of Play Services installation problem and few trail apps. I made ADB work using my DELL phone driver and pulled all apk and odex files using adb command. I replaced the buggy Google apps with Cyanogenmod 9 Gapps. And also replaced LatinIME with the one which have dictionary included. Then pushed those apps in system/app folder and removed all the trail apps. After doing all this i did a factory reset. And everything worked great. Now my phone have a dictionary, no trail apps and all included apps can be updated without any problem. Best part is that by removing unnecessary apps my phone got more responsive as there is more free RAM.nnFinally i am satisfied with the phone. All the games the running fine. With no lags. Did all the benchmark tests and found result to be slightly higher than what Gogi posted in his review. Though i miss LED notification (for new messages and missed calls) which was present in my last phone.

So after the android boom even I wanted to get hold of an android phone. With the limited budget I had, I only had a few bankable options. They were, Tipo, Micromax A 110, Lava Iris 501. Micromax has stopped production of A110 is Tipo is too small for my liking. So I took a chance and went ahead with Lava Iris 501. I bought this phone from Flipkart and it is a delight. The display is grand. nYes, the resolution might be a bit low for your liking, but I found it pretty decent. nThe 5.0 megapixel camera clicks good photos in sunlight. But the photos taken indoors might disappoint you at times though it offers decent performance for its price range.nThe dual core processor along with 512 mb ram manages to keep the phone working without any lags. Temple Run 2, Lane Splitter, Angry Birds, Asphalt 6 are the games I tried running (yes, Im not a very hardcore gamer) and they worked with no problems whatsoever.nThere has been an allegation that the ringtones cant be changed to anything other than the factory defaults. This is wrong. What you have to do is, open the mp3 file of your liking in the MP3 player and then touch the options touch button and simply select 'set as ringtone'.nThe touch response is just as good as you find on any.nThe screen is bright enough to ensure that it works good in bright daylight too.nThe preinstalled apps that come with the phone are good. Asphalt 6 which is otherwise a paid game. There is also an additional MP3 player named Fusion which has an attractive interface and is very handy. nThe hard back cover it comes with is a blessing.nThe phone's battery is quite good for a smartphone. It could last a day or more with moderate usage.nThe speakers are good.nThe capacitive keys (option, home, back) go out of light when not in use and this helps save a lot of batttery and makes the device look good.nAn led indicator is lacking, though.nThe earphones are fairly good.nThe phone takes longer than other phones to charge. But its not very frustrating either.nAll in all, its a classy looking phone with GREAT value for money. If you are still confused and drawn between options, forget about the others and go for IRIS 501.nPlus, the Flipkart delivery is top notch. So, no waiting either! Im sorry if I have left out any significant piece of information. Have a great day. :)