The Lava A97 4G was launched in India towards the end of September 2016, and is right now sold only through the online retailer Only Mobiles and selected physical retailers.
Available in gold color at the moment, the smartphone allows 4G connectivity and is a dual micro SIM handset. The handset is likely to be available in gray and blue colors soon. Made by Indian manufacturers, the device is capable of offering support for 12 Indian languages. The smartphone has some standard features like smart gesture, flip to mute, five-point touch and auto call recording. All in all, the handset is a good choice for those who want to own a phone and cannot afford to pay a high price for outstanding specifications.
Body Material, Dimensions and Weight
Like handsets with the same price tag from this manufacturer and others, the A97 4G houses a plastic or polycarbonate body. This does not give it a premium look but it does not look all that cheap either. Unfortunately, this device is neither very sleek nor lightweight. With a massof 160g, the smartphone depicts a size of 145 x 72 x 9.2mm. The 9.2 mm thickness indicates that the handset is very likely to make your pocket look bulged and stand out in your hand.
Screen Display and Size, Pixel Density and Resolution
A point to be noted regarding the screen is that Lava has deviated from the traditional IPS or AMOLED screen and itsvariants. The A79has a very basic 5-inch FWVGA screen with TFT display technology. The pixel resolution and pixel density are also very average with corresponding values of 800 x 480 and 196ppi respectively. All these contributing to producing an output display with the bare minimum crispness and clarity. Also, the smartphone features no integrated screen protection. However, when you buy the handset, it comes along with a six-month warranty screen guard in the sales package.
Rear and Front Cameras
One thing that you will not fail to notice about the shutterbugs in the Lava A79 4G is that both the primary and secondary cameras have the same 5MP rating. Additionally the two shooters support LED flash. Equipped with a CMOS Sensor, the rear snapper can record MP4 and 720p HD videos at 30 fps. Some key highlights of this camera are grid, photo timer, auto flash, self-timer, scene mode, ISO setting, digital zoom, face beauty, time lapse and slow motion video. Although the primary shutterbug delivers quite ordinary results, the secondary camera does good justice to its job with its crystal clear selfies and video chats.
Hardware, Memory and Software
The A97 4G is pepped up with 1GB RAM for smooth operation and has 8GB ROM that you can increment to 32GB. Additionally, the handset is loaded with a quad core processor that clocks at 1.3GHz. Details of the graphics processor incorporated are not available at the moment.
The smartphone supports the standard Android user interface as the manufacturer does not have its own. Loaded with Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, there are talks about the possibility of an upgrade being possible.
Battery and Battery Life
Like all of its other features, the Lava A97 4G houses just the normal 2,350 mAh Li-ion battery. As can be expected, this battery is not user replaceable. Given the fact that the screen size and display attributes are just normal, this can help you use the device comfortably for a day on full charge. The power saver feature is quite helpful as it can help in saving battery consumption by turning off certain features that draw a lot of power.
Connectivity and Sensor Options
With the A97 4G, you have almost all the usual connectivity choices in place. These include the Wi-Fi (hotspot and 802.11b/g/n), GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth 4.0, USB 2.0 and 3.5mm audio jack or headset options. The smartphone also permits tethering to be carried out if needed.
As for the list of sensors present, the device misses out on the fingerprint sensor that is available on most smartphones these days. To compensate for this, there are many other sensors that are integrated into the smartphone. These are an accelerometer, a geomagnetic sensor, a light sensor, a compass, a gyro sensor and GPS/A-GPS.