INTEX AQUA i5. Review on Intex Aqua i5

While Intex has been making feature phones for a long time, it was only recently that it forayed into the smartphones segment. The company is currently offering 12 mid-segment smartphones under its Aqua range and has drawn out plans to launch 20 more smartphones in the coming quarter. The company is also gearing up to promote its smartphones with a new marketing campaign that suggests that it's serious about selling them.

The Intex Aqua i-5 is yet another budget Android smartphone, with which the company promises to deliver a feature rich package at an economy price. Does it have what it takes to stand tall in a segment dominated by the likes of Micromax, Karbonn, Xolo and Spice? We try to find out in our review.

The Intex Aqua i-5 comes with a customised Camera app and allows you to capture photos in HDR, Face beauty mode, Panorama modes, Auto scene detection, and best shot modes in addition to an EV bracket mode for taking multiple exposure photos. The app also comes with the usual controls including settings for Exposure, Colour effect, White balance, Scene Modes and ISO, among others. The phone's camera also supports continuous shots taking up to 16 shots in that mode, smile detection and face detection. Some of the options in the camera app's interface are not self-descriptive which makes it a little unintuitive for new smartphone users.

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Intex Aqua i-5 review

Anupam Saxena, 2 July 2013

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Intex Aqua i-5 review

While Intex has been making feature phones for a long time, it was only recently that it forayed into the smartphones segment. The company is currently offering 12 mid-segment smartphones under its Aqua range and has drawn out plans to launch 20 more smartphones in the coming quarter. The company is also gearing up to promote its smartphones with a new marketing campaign that suggests that it's serious about selling them.

The Intex Aqua i-5 is yet another budget Android smartphone, with which the company promises to deliver a feature rich package at an economy price. Does it have what it takes to stand tall in a segment dominated by the likes of Micromax, Karbonn, Xolo and Spice? We try to find out in our review.

Design/ Build

Over the last couple of months, we've seen a deluge of large screen(5-inch and onwards) phones from Indian handset makers and a number of them look identical bearing the same form factor, design elements and even materials. The Intex Aqua i-5 is not really much different except that it's slimmer compared to other budget smartphones in the market.

Intex-Aqua-i5-2.jpgThe phone is 8.8mm thin and weighs 155 grams but doesn't feel very bulky. The phone comes in Black and White colour variants and we got a Black one as our review unit.

The front of the phone features a 5-inch display with the three capacitive touch buttons, namely Back, Home and Menu located just below it. Strangely, the Menu button is marked like the'Task switcher' button that we see in stock Android and HTC's recent Android phones. Also, the markings of these navigation buttons are not visible when the phone's backlight is off.

The earpiece, a 2-megapixel front camera lens and the sensor array are all placed above the display, along with some Intex branding. A chrome frame separates the back cover and the front panel.

The power/ screen lock button is located at the right hand side of the phone towards the top, which is a little inconvenient. We feel it could've been positioned a little bit lower. The button appears to be made of chrome plated plastic and does't offer good tactile feedback. The volume rocker key is located on the left-hand side at almost the same position.

Intex-Aqua-i5-3.jpg There are no ports at the bottom while the Micro-USB port and the 3.5mm headset jack sit at the top of the phone.

The back features a removable cover that sports a glossy finish and is susceptible to smudges. The 12-megapixel rear camera lens is located towards the upper side of the back and protrudes out a bit. A small round LED flash is located just next to it. There's some more branding and a speaker outlet towards the bottom.

Opening the cover reveals a battery compartment, above which are slots for a conventional SIM card, a micro-SIM card and a microSD card. You'll need to remove the battery to swap SIM cards.

Display

The Intex Aqua i-5 comes with a 5-inch qHD IPS screen that has a resolution of 540x960 pixels and pixel density of 221ppi, which is decent, and graphics and text appear sharp, although a 720p screen could have taken it to the next level. The viewing angles looked good. However, it's difficult to read or take pictures in sunlight, as the screen is extremely reflective. Videos and pictures looked good and colours appeared natural.

intex-aqua-front.jpg User Interface/ Software

The Intex Aqua i-5 runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, the latest iteration of the OS at the time of penning this review. Intex has skinned some UI elements of the OS and also offers a second theme that offers a different icon set. Even the default theme that offers stock icons has undergone some changes with Intex choosing a White colour for the status bar and the notifications tray and the Settings menu.

You also get lock-screen widgets, an Android 4.2 feature. You can choose from the Clock, Camera, Gmail, Google Now and Messaging widgets in addition to widgets offered by third-party apps installed on your phone. These widgets offer glanceable information from the apps and allow users to perform certain app actions even when the phone is locked.

There are seven customisable home screens that can be filled with app shortcuts and widgets. The notification tray also features a settings shortcut and a clear all notifications button, along with expandable notifications(expanded with the two-finger pull gesture). It features the same setting toggles shortcut that's found in stock Android and adds some of its own as well, for quick access to Airplane Mode, Battery status, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Data connection, Data usage, Audio Profiles, Brightness, Screen backlight timeout and Auto rotation.

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