The LAVA A55 was launched with its cousin the A50. It is a low budget android phone aimed at the first-time buyers in India’s rapidly expanding smartphone user base. Specificationwise the new phone presents a decent mix of hardware and software at its price point. With the phone’s price set under the Rs. 5000/- threshold, there are a few limitations to be expected.

The LAVA A55 features a capacitive LCD display that measures 4.0” diagonally. The display comes with a widescreen resolution of 480 x 800 pixels and supports multi-touch functionality. Given the target segment of the handset, the display performs well, the maximum brightness is quite good and outdoor readability is acceptable. The resolution is also quite adequate given the smaller form factor of the device.

Under the hood the LAVA A55 features a 1.2 GHz Quad-Core Cortex A7 Processor and the Mali 400 MP2 GPU. The phone provides smooth operation for general user with its 1 GB of included RAM, and should satisfy most budget buyers.The phone can handle casual gaming and multitasking without a hitch. The LAVA A55 also has 8 GB of internal storage for Apps, Photos and Videos, although some of the storage is taken up by the Android Operating System onboard. However, the memory capacity of the phone can be increased up to 32 Gigabytes by installing an external microSD card.

On the software front, Android Marshmallow, although not the latest in terms of Google’s mobile operating system, is still a relatively new and secure iteration. The software brings several performance updates for smaller chipsets and improves the overall lifecycle of the phone.

In the connectivity and sensors department the LAVA mobile is well stocked. The phone comes with a dual SIM setup in GSM + WCDMA mode. Again, for the first-time smartphone buyers in India the inclusion of 2G and 3G networks is more than adequate. The phone makes use of micro SIM slots. There is also support for common Wi-Fi bands and Bluetooth 2.1 is inbuilt as well. In the sensors array the LAVA A55 comes with an accelerometer and GPS support including A-GPS with Google Maps.

The camera sensors on the phone include a primary 5-megapixel camera and a VGA front shooter. The camera offers several nifty features such as HDR mode for better blacks and whites in images, Geo-tagging and a CMOS sensor. The inbuilt software auto focus, touch to focus and digital zoom are welcome additions for an entry level smartphone. You can tweak the white balance and ISO settings in the camera app to suit your needs. The camera takes natural shots and the images come out looking good under all normal circumstances. Face detection is also supported by the LAVA A55 camera. The camera also supports digital image stabilization for the picture and video modes and does a decent job of taking images while you are in motion.

The LAVA A55 has a robust multimedia support and can play all common video formats. You can also use the Google Play Store to download third party apps with a wider range of codec support. The music app in the phone can play a wide set of audio files and the phone also features an FM Radio to extend its entertainment package. The speaker on the device is loud and produces enough sound for watching YouTube videos and listening to some casual music.

Look wise the LAVA phone is distinctive than other smartphones in its category and carries the design ethos LAVA Mobiles are known for. At 9.65mm the phone is quite sleek and comes in two variants, black and white. The silver plastic strip running along the sides of the phone adds a welcome touch of freshness and style to the overall design of the LAVA A55.

The new LAVA phone is powered by a 1550 mAh lithium ion battery that can easily last a day of moderate use. The company claims a talk time of over 9 hours and a standby time of almost 400 hours, which is quite impressive.

About Company:

LAVA International is an Indian manufacturer of smartphones and tablets. The bold design ethos followed by the company first propelled them to success and these days LAVA is one of the most popular budget handset brands in India. Today, the company offers a serious competition to the plethora of Chinese companies entering the lucrative Indian phone market. Since 2015, LAVA International has actively joined the Government of India's "Make in India" initiative.