ET Review: Intex Aqua Octa

PRICE Rs 19,999

SPECIFICATIONS

1.7Ghz octa core, 2GB RAM, 16GB + micro SD (up to 32GB), 6-inch OGS LCD (1280 x 720), 13MP rear + 5MP front cam, WiFi, FM, Bluetooth, 2,300mAh, 180 grams

Positives

First ever true octa core, built in call recording, good camera with 1080p video.

Negatives

No USB host, no HDMI out (MHL), too much bloatware, only 720p screen, average battery life
NEW DELHI: In a country known for its voracious appetite for large screen phones, it’s hard to distinguish a me-too product. Intex is officially first to market with a ‘true’ octa core smartphone, beating others like Gionee who have only announced their offerings. It actually has eight, simultaneously operational processing cores, unlike some of the other octa cores which use ARM big.LITTLE processing . Arm big.LITTLE combines two quad cores (a low power and high power), but all eight cores are never operational at the same time.

There’s the argument that an octa core is only for those who are after better specs, not better performance. That it doesn’t deliver any real benefit apart from bragging rights. The company claims that the processor can allocate individual browser tabs to different CPU cores and provides a ‘tad’ better experience with music, multimedia, gaming and multitasking.

Real world usage, you can’t really tell that there’s an improvement but performance is snappy. A quick benchmark using Quadrant gave a score of 17,431, roughly the same as a Galaxy S4 (16,948) which uses Samsung’s Exynos octa core. A Note 3 with octa core delivers better results with Quadrant (roughly 21,000).

The phone itself is fairly large, thanks to the 6-inch screen, but doesn’t feel too heavy or cumbersome because it's only 7mm thick. It has a removable metal back panel that houses dual SIM slots (one regular + one micro SIM) and micro SD slot. The screen is fairly pleasing to the eye with nice colour and wide viewing angles — though it should have been 1080p considering the screen size. It’s also got pretty decent camera that records 1080p video.

Although it seems that the advantage of octa core is only on paper, keep in mind that the Aqua Octa offers blistering performance for quite an affordable price. Overall, it’s a pretty great package for someone who wants a large phone with excellent performance without spending too much.