Intex Elyt e7 review: Android 7.0 for budget users

Price: Rs 7,999

Specifications: 5.2-inch IPS (1280 x 720 pixels), Mediatek MT6737 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, hybrid dual SIM, expandable storage, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera, 4G, VoLTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, fingerprint sensor, Android 7.0, 4,000mAh

Pros: Stylish design, excellent display, great battery life, good day-today performance, Android 7.0

Cons: Average camera, no fast charging, won’t work too well for gaming

Android 7.0 is slowly catching up across different price segments. As for the sub Rs 10,000 segment, Intex is among the first to launch a smartphone with Android 7.0.

Intex has kept the user interface on the Elyt e7 close to stock Android. You get all the Android 7.0 features including split screen, doze mode, revamped notifications, suggestions in settings and so on. In addition, you also get a feature called DuraSpeed — it lets you control which apps are allowed to run in the background. If you remove an app from the DuraSpeed list, the app is automatically closed when you tap the back or home button. Typically, an Android app will keep running in the background and consume system resources. This is a clever way to keep a phone with modest specs running smoothly.

If you only keep your most-used apps (contacts, messages, dialer) in DuraSpeed, the phone will offer better performance. Other added features include smart gestures, builtin SOS feature and a multi-function fingerprint scanner (it can also be a camera shutter, used to accept incoming calls or to switch music tracks).


You get a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera on the Intex Elyt e7. (Image: intex.in)

Specifications include a 1.2Ghz quad core MT6737 processor, 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. For basic tasks like browsing the web, social media, videos, music and camera, the phone does a good job. Even with more than 15 apps running (including 2 games), we had close to 1GB RAM available, which is impressive. However, it struggles massively with gaming. Even basic games like Subway Surfers and Scrat — Ventures, we could see regular frame drops.

The battery life is one of the strengths of the Elyt e7 — it has a 4,000mAh battery that will give most users between 1.5 to 2 days. Even with heavy usage, you won’t run out in a day. The issue is that there’s no fast charge support so you will need to plug-in for 4 to 5 hours or overnight to get a full charge.

In our opinion, Intex has got things right with the looks. The unibody design, curved edges on the rear, machine drilled speaker holes, metal ring around camera and fingerprint scanner and 2.5D curved glass on front makes the phone very premium. Since it has a large battery, it is heavy compared to other 5.2-inch screen smartphones. Talking about the display, the 5.2-inch display is 1280 x 720 pixels which keeps things crisp on screen. The screen has wide viewing angles, slim bezels and rich colours. It has hardware buttons for home, back and recent apps but these are not backlit.

You get a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front camera on the Intex Elyt e7. However, performance from both cameras is disappointing. The rear camera has HDR support but no manual controls of any kind. Image quality is good as long as you are shooting in the sunlight — on a cloudy day or indoors, there is visible noise in the images. Moreover, while the shutter speed is fast, the focus takes time up to 2 seconds to lock-on the selected area. The front 5MP camera also suffers the same issues with image quality. Overall, both cameras feel inadequate compared to what we have seen from competing devices (most notably, Redmi 4 and InFocus Turbo 5).

In our opinion, the Intex offering is good for users who want a stylish phone with the latest OS and great battery life. Like we mentioned, Infocus Turbo 5 has similar specifications and features but comes with a massive 5,000mAh battery. For just a bit more, you can get variants of Redmi 4, Yureka Black and Lenovo K6 Power — all of them deliver better performance and camera results with good battery life and stylish design.