Domestic handset maker Intex, which has now become one among the largest selling smartphone manufacturers in the country, recently added the Intex Aqua GenX to its mid-range line-up, priced at Rs 13,299. The smartphone comes with features like 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920p) IPS display, a 13MP primary snapper along with 5MP selfie camera and microSD support of up to 128GB. We spent some time with the smartphone to see if it is only good on paper, or is it really worth a buy.
Design and Camera
We really liked the look and feel of the Intex Aqua GenX. The rectangular shaped smartphone came with rounded corners and was stylish to look at. While the front is dominated by the 5.5-inch FHD IPS touchscreen display, when flipped you see the non-removable back panel with a camera and LED flash. The Intex logo lies right below it.
Intex Aqua GenX has the power and volume rocker buttons placed on its right side and the camera button along with the hybrid SIM card slot on the left. The quality of these keys was a little disappointing and Intex could have completely done away with the camera key. The Intex Aqua GenX weighs around 175g and seemed like a well-balanced device.
Speaking of the display on the phone, it was bright and showed vibrant colours. The viewing angles were accurate and we found the display to be responsive. There was no pixilation that we took notice of, however we did find the Intex Aqua GenX display to be a little reflective, which dampened user experience under direct light. The display was outlined by thick bezels, something that we are not used to seeing too often now.
Coming to the camera of the phone, we were impressed. Intex Aqua GenX sports a 13MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera. The primary camera of the phone takes good images under normal indoor lights. However, the same cannot be said about the images taken in low light. The selfie camera also worked fine, and the quality of images went up when we turned on the beauty feature.
The camera also comes with various features like picture-in-picture, live photo mode, motion track mode and panorama mode. All of these worked perfectly well when we tried them.
Hardware and performance
Aqua GenX runs a slightly customized version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. The smartphone comes without a dedicated app drawer. However, we did find all the apps housed on the homescreen itself. This is no longer something new and we have already seen this feature in various phones from the likes of Coolpad and InFocus.
There were also a number of preloaded apps like Hotstar, Hike, Skype, Quikr and also a few apps from the company like Intex Play, Intex Service, and more onm the Intex Aqua GenX. All these app icons had a grey coloured outline around them, something that we found to be a spoiler. However, the good thing was that these apps could be uninstalled without any problem. We didn't find many of them to be useful, so an easy uninstall was definitely a plus.
One downside that we faced was the multiple notifications that the phone gets from AppsGallery. We couldn't get rid of them, and it couldn't even be turned off or simmered down, so we had no option but to live with it.
Intex Aqua GenX is powered by 1.3GHz MT6753 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM under the hood. It comes with 16GB of internal storage and users can expand the available storage by installing a microSD card of up to 128GB. The phone comes with 4G connectivity, a feature getting increasingly common in this price band now. Other connectivity features include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and USB.
In our experience, we did not face any lag while launching any app or while switching between them and the device also survived multiple tabs of Chrome. Intex Aqua GenX performed all basic tasks well, and even when we talk about the phone's call quality, we encountered no issue at all.
We tried playing Angry Birds 2 on the phone, which is the game that caused heating problem in Micromax Canvas Pulse 4G and InFocus M680. But, to our amazement Intex Aqua GenX lived to tell the tale of that too. The phone's back started warming up a bit after we had played the game for half an hour already. By this time other smartphones in the category would be burning.
Intex Aqua GenX packs a 2,800mAh battery, which lasted the entire day with moderate usage. This included phone calls, light gaming, web-surfing and listening to music.
Verdict
In Intex Aqua GenX, there are no major glitches in the phone that we can pin point. We were happy with the way it worked. Be it the design, the camera or the battery, the smartphone scores well in all aspects one considers before they buy a phone.
If you plan to spend Rs 13,299, you wouldn't be disappointed with the phone. Just learn to ignore bulky notifications bar and you can go on with a happy calling life with Intex Aqua GenX.