Intex ELYT Dual review: Designed for selfie fanatics for Rs 6,999

ELYT Dual focusses on providing latest camera features to quench the thirst of selfie lovers looking for a budget phone

For the absolute selfie fanatics, Domestic smartphone maker Intex recently launched its new Intex ELYT Dual smartphone with dual selfie camera. The phone is priced at Rs 6,999, keeping in mind its target of providing a range of features in a budget phone. The device, available in two colours, Champagne and Black, is deemed to be the best dual-camera smartphone in the sub Rs 7,000 category for the Indian consumers, as claimed by the company. 

Intex is directly competing with the likes of Redmi 4A, Nokia 2, Moto C, Xolo Era 2V and the recently launched Redmi 5A.

Apart from its inexpensive price tag, the smartphone clearly emphasises on providing latest camera features to quench the thirst of selfie lovers looking for a budget phone. 

Business Standard reviewed the ELYT Dual device to test its features, besides the overall smartphone performance. Here are our observations:

Design

The Elyt Dual features a polycarbonate body with a removable back cover. Weighing  149 grams with battery, Intex has tried to add a premium touch to the phone. In addition to this, the phone has curved edges and can be easily operated with one hand. 
 

However, the phone does not come with a fingerprint sensor that makes it a bit of a disappointment as almost every phone around the same price tag comes with the feature. 

The device comes with a single speaker at the back and that is another minus point as the sound significantly gets muffled up when kept on its back. It also lacks a Type-C charging point but that hardly counts as a problem for ones looking for a budget phone with a decent battery and comparatively sustainable charger.
 

A 3.5mm headphone jack sits next to the charging port at the bottom. The power button is placed on the right panel with the volume rocker above it. 

Display

The Elyt Dual comes with a 5-inch IPS HD display with 2.5D curved glass coating on the top. 

With a resolution of 720x1280 pixels, the display is decent. The colours are sharp and makes for a vibrant display even in bright light. The plus point of this display is that it is easily readable in bright sunlight also. 

Camera

Intex ELYT Dual is meant for the selfie lovers. The camera features justify the company’s huge emphasis on focussing on the selfie lovers looking for a smartphone in this budget. 

The camera of the device sports a myriad of features.There are some key camera features that come with the phone such as ‘Bokeh Effect’, ‘Background Change Effect’, “3D noise reduction (3D NR)”, Audio Pics that allow a user to add audio up to — 10 seconds post a click — among several other filters. The device is also equipped with “Spy Cam” that allows users to take pictures discreetly and saving the picture directly in the gallery without anyone’s knowledge.

Another feature “Dermabrasion” enables the user to remove uneven lines scars and even acne from the skin.

Despite of good camera sensors, the support from the performance department has some flaws. There were occasional lags and slowdowns in the camera app for both front and rear cameras. The shutter speed is slow, camera interface lags and the results are also not up to the mark.

Performance and Battery

Running on Android 7.0 OS , this 4G-Volte smartphone is powered by 1.3 GHz quad-core processor and 32-bit Quad Core Spreadtrum 9,850 chipset and coupled with 2 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM that is expandable up to 128GB.

The performance felt smooth initially but seemed to retract from its smooth working once loaded with heavy apps. Camera-centric apps like Snapchat amongst others seemed to hang several times.

With a 2 GB RAM, you cannot expect it to run high end games or do multitasking flawlessly, but you it can get you through basic tasks like surfing and consuming media without a hitch.

Apart from that, the device comes with 2,400mAh battery, which is comparatively less than the battery backup other smartphone companies are providing at more or less the same price. The battery therefore seems to push its limit only for a day. The charging speed is average and takes a little more than two hours to charge completely, just like the not-so-older times when phones lacked the dash-charging facility. But one cannot expect to get everything in a sub 7k budget smartphone. 

Verdict

For Rs 6,999, Intex ELYT Dual seems to compete with smartphones with better features in the same price tag. In a competitive market where phones like Redmi 5A are available at just Rs. 4,999 with better set of specifications and features, it will be tough for Intex Elyt Dual to beat the competition.