Karbonn Aura 4G Plus: Battery the only highlight in this average smartphone

Good device for Rs 5,790 price tag, but has limited features and tends to heat up on heavy use

With its latest budget offering, the Karbonn Aura Power 4G Plus, home-grown smartphone manufacturer Karbonn seems to have brought very little new to the table. However, if you are looking to buy a budget smartphone for a good battery, this device gives you 4,000 mAh for a price of only Rs 5,790.

 
Business Standard used the Karbonn Auro Power 4G Plus device for a couple of days and here are our observations on the device’s performance on key parameters:
 
Design
 
The Aura 4G Plus, a bulky phone when compared with new offerings by other handset makers, comes in two colour variants – Grey and Champagne Gold. It terms of storage, you get 16 GB of internal memory, expandable to up to 32 GB using microSD, and 1 GB RAM. 
 
The phone looks similar to most others in the price range – there’s a plastic unibody with a metallic finish and a standard set of keys, and volume and power buttons on the right. There is no fingerprint scanner.
 
The speakers are placed on the back of the phone, and the sound does get muffled if you put the phone down on its back. However, you won’t miss a notification or a call, unless you are in another room.
 
Software
 
Powered by the latest Android 7.0 software, the phone comes with some specific stock Android features and looks. There are some pre-installed apps like Karbonn Fun Zone, Phone Pe and Xender in an otherwise decent UI.
 
The display, with a 720p resolution on a 5-inch screen, is not bad, and the touch response is also fairly good.
 
That, however, cannot be said for screen brightness in outdoor lights. The contents on the screen are barely visible outdoors, even if you choose a white background. While the phone does have adaptive brightness, the option is off by default, and you do not have toggle for that in the notification shade.
 
The Aura 4G contains Media Tektechnology with a 1.25GHz quad-core processor for video, image enhancements and other functions, but that does not bring any noticeable difference here. With a 1 GB RAM, the phone shows signs of lag quite often. Needless to say, this device is not for gaming.
 
Camera:
 
The phone’s 5MP primary and secondary cameras are nothing extraordinary. Certain features like beauty mode and front LED flash can be used, but the quality of images is below par. The photos come decent in broad daylight, but the quality significantly deteriorates in low-light conditions. The pictures are blurry and colour reception no good.
 
Battery:
 
One of the highlights of this handset is its 4,000 mAh battery. For a phone priced below Rs 6,000, the battery performance is good and somewhat makes up for other shortcomings. On normal usage, the phone might work for more than three days without a need to charge, but on heavy usage it tends to heat up quickly.
 
Other specifications:
 
The Karbonn Aura Power 4G Plus comes with a dual SIM (GSM and GSM). Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, USB OTG, 3G and 4G. Sensors on the phone include proximity sensor, accelerometer and ambient light sensor.
 
Verdict
 
The Karbonn Aura 4G Plus is an average phones, but you might like to go for it if you are out for a budget smartphone with good battery life. The phone in hand feels almost a year old because of its not-so-impressive layout and functions.