14 DAY TRIAL // We reported more than a month ago about the Lava IRIS 3G 412 which popped up on the company’s website, and we assumed the affordable smartphone will go on sale in India sooner rather than later.
Sadly, the smartphone only hit shelves today, even though it was listed on Lava Mobile’s official website for more than a month now. The same seems to have happened with the slightly cheaper Lava IRIS 402e which went on sale in India around the same day as the IRIS 3G 412.
Aimed at first time smartphone users and those who can’t afford a more expensive device, the IRIS 3G 412 is now available for purchase in India through major retailer Flipkart for only Rs 4,399 ($75 / €55) outright.
The smartphone doesn’t offer much in terms of specs, but it’s perfect for those who want to get into the smartphone stuff switching from a feature phone.
Lava IRIS 3G 412 is in no way meant for Android veterans who are looking for an upgrade for their much older device. First of all, the smartphone ships with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, which is rather old by today’s standards.
Since Google announced it would launch cheap smartphones in India that will be powered by Android L for under $100 (€75), there’s little chance for Jelly Bean handsets that will be launched this fall to sell that well.
Nevertheless, the IRIS 3G 412 is aimed at a much larger audience, mobile phone users who are now stuck on feature phones. This is also one of the reasons the smartphone has been priced so low.
Just like any other mobile phone that gets launched in India, the IRIS 3G 412 offers dual-SIM capability, so users will be able to fit in two SIM cards instead of just one. Additionally, it comes packed with FM Radio and microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB).
As the name suggests, the smartphone fully supports 3G connectivity for faster Internet browsing. It also sports a 4-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports 480 x 800 pixels resolution.
On the inside, Lava Iris 3G 412 is equipped with a 1GHz dual-core processor, 512MB of RAM and 512MB of internal memory. There’s also a sub-par 2-megapixel photo snapper on the back with fixed focus, LED flash and video recording, while in the front there’s a secondary VGA camera for video calls.