Lava launches Iris 502, 5.0-inch dual-SIM smartphone for Rs 8,499

Lava has silently launched the latest phone in its Iris lineup, the Iris 502. The phone runs on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and is available in black or white. The dual-SIM handset is powered by a 1GHz processor and the company claims the phone's 2000 mAh battery can provide talk time of up to nine hours with a standby time of 400 hours. The Lava Iris 502 is currently available online for Rs 8,499. The company has struck an exclusivity deal with Flipkart for the launch, and a representative of the company stated that it should be available on other websites next week. Curiously, the smartphone can also be bought off Infibeam for the same price as of today.

The Iris 502 is equipped with a 5-inch screen and a 1GHz processor

The company says that the 502, much like its predecessor, the 501, uses a UI called TouchWiz. This made our spidey-senses tingle, because Samsung owns the trademark for that name and uses the UI in almost every smartphone or tablet it makes. So we whipped out our review model of the 501 to check this out. Turns out, the only similarity Lava's "TouchWiz" UI has with that of Samsung's is the name. Lava's UI looks closer to the stock Android ICS interface, but with icons that look like they were pulled right out of Meego.

Lava's interpretation of TouchWiz

The previous phone in the series, the Iris 501, was launched back in January. Unlike the 502, the 501 was equipped with a dual-core processor and ran on Android 4.0.4, Ice Cream Sandwich.

Much like the Iris 501, the 502 also comes bundled with apps like Saavn Music Player, Fusion Music organiser and games like Asphalt HD, Cricket Fever, Saving Private Sheep, Shark Dash and Little Big City. It also comes with the Hike app, which lets you send 100 free text messages per month to users who don't have the app installed; it also supports group chat, file transfer and location sharing.

While the screen sizes on both the Iris 501 and 502 are the same, the designs of the two phones are very different. The 501 has smooth, curved corners, whereas the 502 opts for a more hard-edged design. Besides the processor and the operating system version, another differentiating factor is the battery. The 501 is equipped with a 2300 mAh battery, whereas the 502 is equipped with a 2000 mAh battery. This was presumably done because the 502 isn't as demanding as the 501, owing to its single-core processor. The Iris 502 is also slightly smaller than its predecessor and measures 145.5 x 78 x 10.2 mm. Apart from these differences, almost everything else, including the camera and connectivity options, seem to be the same.