Intex Aqua Ace: Light and good mid-range performer (Gadget Review)

Intex has been slowly creeping up in ranks in the Indian smartphone space and currently has a nearly 12 percent market share. The company has captured the budget segment of smartphones and now aims to capture the mid-range segment with better specifications at aggressive price points. We got our hands on the Intex Aqua Ace - another mid-range option from the brand priced at Rs.12,999. Here is our analysis:

What is good?

The phone is amazingly light (121 grams) in spite of packing so much hardware. The design is pleasing to the eye with a golden metal rim. The phone is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back.

The 5-inch screen comes with a Super AMOLED HD display and hence watching movies or gaming is a good experience. The 13-megapixel rear camera comes with a 5P Largon lens and f/2.2 aperture that can take good pictures in most light conditions.

Keeping the price in mind, Intex has managed to push in a 3GB RAM along with a quad-core MediaTek processor that can successfully perform most actions. The casual gaming experience was decent. Heavy games like NOVA 3 lagged at times but generally ran smooth, with the device not getting heated up too soon.

The increased RAM allows the device to perform most actions quicker and faster than any phone that comes with a 2GB RAM system-on-a-chip (SoC).

Also, Intex has given the option of dual-SIM 4G LTE support and expandable storage of 128 GB. The phone comes with band support for VoLTE and 16 GB of internal memory.

Another cool feature is the voice wakeup with which the phone can be activated. Other features of the phone, which runs on Android Lollipop, include gesture capture mode for camera, voice capture, A-GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cast screen, USB on-the-go (OTG) and smart motion features. The USB OTG feature allows users to plug-in flash storage devices like pen drives and hard disks for data transfer.

The phone also comes with no bloatware (pre-installed apps).

What doesn't work for the phone?

The rear camera's quality takes a hit in low-light conditions but several other modes, like motion tracking and live mode, somehow make up for a better shot. One of the bigger disappointments is the absence of a pro-mode. The front camera is very mediocre.

The phone's 2,300 mAH battery is an average performer, giving out on very high usage.

Verdict: The Aqua Ace is an improvement over most rival phones in the same price-range. If you like it light and trendy, Aqua Ace is your pick in the price sensitive segment.

Full specifications: 5-inch HD Super AMOLED display | MediaTek 6735 64-bit 1.3GHz quad-core processor | 3GB RAM | 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera | 4G LTE | 16GB internal storage expandable to 128GB | 2,300 mAH battery | Wi-Fi | Bluetooth 4.1 | A-GPS | Cast Screen | USB-OTG

(Anirban can be contacted at anirban.g@ians.in)