Intex Elyt E-7: A fine smartphone for a price tag of Rs 7,999

The Elyt E-7 proves offers a better experience than peers in the same price segment

With a sleek metal body, long-lasting battery and a clean Android experience, the Intex Elyt E-7 is the perfect smartphone for you if you have a limited budget.
 
The latest offering of Delhi-based smartphone maker Intex in its Elyt series, the Elyt E-7 looks prepared to take on Chinese rivals like Xiaomi and Lenovo in the sub-Rs 10,000 price segment. At Rs 7,999 the device proves its worth and fares better than you expect.
 
Business Standard used the Intex Elyt E-7 to see how it fares against rivals on key performance metrics. Here are our observations: 
 
Design:
 
One of the highlights of this device is its beautiful design and sleek metal back. Although the phone comes in only one colour, Gold, the metal back body and curved edges get full marks for design. The flat back of the phone gives it a good grip, too.
 
The phone sports a 13 MP primary camera with a single LED flash and a fingerprint scanner. The fact that the fingerprint looks symmetrical with the square camera module due to its square shape is quite fascinating and a well-thought idea. In terms of performance, the sensor feels a little sluggish but was accurate on most occasions.
 
The sound of the phone, hoewever, disappoints. The single speaker outlet is also placed at the back, so its sound tends to get muffled when you keep the device on its back. The sound is nothing great even when kept on the loudest. The clarity ranges from average to below average, depending on the kind of genre one listens to.
 
The device might appear a little heavy, but it is not so when you hold it.

Android Nougat powered Intex Elyt E-7

Back view of Intex Elyt E-7

 
Display:
 
There is nothing great about the display of the Elyt E-7. The 5.2-inch display has a resolution of 1,280x720p. No doubt, the display is bigger than usual but it still comes with a slight dullness. It does have a dull-looking screen and that shows in photos, movies and games.
 
The minimum brightness fares well against bright sunlight while the maximum can be too harsh on your eyes even in daylight. The colours are too incisive -- the red is extra vibrant and orange is too orange.
 
Software:
 
The Elyt E-7 runs the Android Nougat 7.0, with very few customisations. The UI is pretty stock Android but there is a considerable amount of preinstalled bloatware. The phone comes with a series of preinstalled apps that might irritate you a bit due to unnecessary and relentless notifications. While most of it can be removed, you'll need to live with a few apps.
 
The phone comes with MediaTek’s MiraVision technology which lets you tweak the display output to suit your preferences. Powering the phone is a MediaTek MT6737 quad-core processor clocked at 1.25GHz along with 3GB of RAM. However, the processor used is this device is very common in such a price bracket, and it is nothing out of the box. But the 3 GB RAM gives the phone an edge over others making it a smooth running device for most of the day.
 
Moreover, the Elyt-e7 is a dual-SIM device with support for 4G and VoLTE but has a hybrid slot. There are two Nano-SIM slots, one of which can be used for a microSD card instead. You get 32GB of storage out of which close to 24GB is at your disposal. Storage can be expanded using a microSD card of up to 128GB.
 
Battery:
 
Another selling point of the phone is its great battery. A 4,020 mAh battery works like a powerhouse for the phone. The massive battery powers up the device with enough juice for it to last at least a day with heavy usage. Playing high-end games is a boon. Games like Asphalt 8, Sniper Ghost Warrior etc went on smoothly and the battery still survived almost a day.
 
 The smartphone gets fully charged in less than 2.5 hours and lasts almost for one full day. For a normal user who only takes or makes calls and does a little of social media surfing in a day, this phone can offer a battery life of up to 2 days easily on a single charge, which is pretty good.
 
Camera:
 
Camera is a huge disappoint in this otherwise great phone. A simple no-go for the camera enthusiasts. Elyt E-7 has a 13 MP rear camera with single LED flash which produces decent photos in the daylight but somehow gives way too much colour intensity just to make the shot sharp but this feature just destroys the whole photo.
 
The front camera is worse. The 5 MP selfie camera kills the art of taking selfie. The camera lacks focus and the photos appear either too sharp in sunlight or pixilated in indoor lighting.

Intex Elyt E-7 Camera samples

Intex Elyt E-7 camera samples

 
Verdict:
 
Intex Elyt E-7 is the manna for the budget phone buyers looking for a beautiful design and great functioning along with a long lasting battery. This device is highly recommended as not every phone of this price range comes with an attractive design. The only compromise they have to do is with its camera. Apart from a few misses here and there, E7 would suit every user who wishes to get more in lesser price. Compared to its counterparts like Redmi etc, the price range gives the users a kick as it provides you with good performance and great design at a lower price. This review has been changed to revise the price of the device