LAVA XOLO X900 Review

Connectivity

With Internet connectivity options that include 3G support, Wi-Fi with Hot Spot creation and EDGE/GPRS, you're pretty much covered in this department. The XOLO also comes with an NFC antenna for accessing NFC-based tags and other connectivity feeds for this tech. Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP and USB 2.0 are also on the cards. The handset does lack Wi-Fi direct, but it’s not something you’d miss seeing, as other devices in this price range don’t have it either. The HTML5 supported native browser works just great. 

Not too much in terms of extras

We were required to download Social Networking apps, like FB and Twitter, but hopefully box packed devices will at least come with Facebook preloaded. Google + and its corresponding messenger are on board. We were unable to find Instagram on the Play store via the handset, but installed it via the APK downloaded off the online store via the browser. Easy availability of apps for the x86 architecture, through the Google Play store could be an issue for now. You'll have to use workarounds for the time being. Google’s standard Android suite of apps that include Google Maps, Navigation Places, Latitude and YouTube have of course been provided. There’s nothing more that can be said in terms of connectivity. 

Misc. Features

There are no frills thrown in with regards to additional apps to help with the overall user experience. It’s rather unusual to see a company like LAVA that started off in the feature phone /Java-based segment and offered quite a few extras in their first Android offering i.e. the S12, keep things so very basic in this flagship model. The only extras that came with the XOLO out of the box, were QuickOffice, Google Translate and XOLO Care for connecting to a customized care center for the device. Apps like Voice search, Voice Dialer and a sound recorder are also thrown in. 

BURSTMODE!

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. From standard issue mobile phone settings that include White Balance and colour options to exposure and ISO control, the XOLO goes a few steps further. It packs in features like GDC (geometric distortion correction), XNR (extra noise reduction for low light) and ANR (another noise reduction routine), options for shooting RAW formats (YUV, Bayer), Backlighting correction, Geotagging, indoor and outdoor modes, options to select Shutter or Aperture Priority and so much more. It’s as comprehensive as it gets in the mobile domain. 

Colors could have been a little better

But let’s talk quality of capture. While just as fast as the Xperia S or One X, in terms of accessing the camera and taking an image (2.3 seconds average), we did find that the camera had a few issues with focus and didn’t prove to be as good with the touchfocus 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. While remaining clear enough with a reasonably acceptable amount of grain and artifact for CMOS mobile camera, we were not happy with the colour reproduction. On the whole, image quality was not bad, but just a little dull in terms of colour depth. 

Macro mode... little dull but quite sharp

Macro images looked great, once you get the focus right and the level of detail retained is quite high. 

Does well even in low light outdoors