Lava Pixel V1 review: Is stock Android really the best?

Lava Pixel V1

After entry-level Android One smartphones, Lava Pixel V1 is the mid-range offering. First Google tied up with a few names, including Micromax , Spice and Karbonn , to launch entry-level Android smartphones for making the stock Android experience popular. And now, with Lava Pixel V1, the Android One experience comes to the mid-range smartphone. Design: Lava Pixel V1 is a decent-looking phablet in white and silver. It features a 5.5-inch HD IPS display at the front with on-screen navigation touch buttons. It has curved edges and a metallic ring running around the plastic corners. The power and volume buttons are on the right, and the Micro-USB port and the 3.5mm audio socket are on top. The removable silver panel at the rear hides the battery, a SIM slot, a micro-SIM slot and a memory card slot. Performance: Today, the sub-Rs 10,000 market is competitive. And this one comes with a 1.3GHz MediaTek quad-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Out of 32GB onboard storage, 25.47 is user-accessible. This phone isn't meant for heavy usage and can handle basic tasks with ease -browsing the web, switching between apps, basic gaming and watching videos on YouTube. The sound output was loud but not clear at high volume. The phone comes with the Android Lollipop (v5.1) operating system and doesn't have any custom user interface. At times, the notification bar froze, forcing us to either leave it aside for a minute or restart the phone. Camera: Having a 13MP camera need not give you the best images. While this one packs in a 13MP rear camera (a software-enhanced 8MP camera), the images are grainy and look washed out. It took time to lock the focus. Image capturing and processing was also slow. By default, the images are captured at the 4:3 format, which can be changed by compromising the resolution. There are basic settings such as flash control, HDR mode and timer. Even images captured during low-light conditions were not impressive and had a lot of visible noise. It failed to perform under street light or averagely-lit room. The front camera is 8MP on paper but is a software-enhanced 5MP camera. Battery: This one packs in a big 2,560mAh battery, which is a strong point for this smartphone. It lasted a day with heavy usage. Bag it or junk it: Faces competition from Micromax, Yureka and Lenovo smartphones Price: Rs 9,990 Plus: Android OS, Battery Minus: Camera, Performance