Review: Intex Aqua vr 5.5 Disappoints; Feels Bulky and Gimmicky

Intex Aqua VR 5.5 is a 4G VoLTE phone available under Rs 5,000. Should you still buy it?

Intex Aqua VR 5.5 is a budget phone, but does it come across as value for money? (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

Intex has definitely taken the market by storm with its affordable, mass-oriented smartphones. The brand has strategically released a smartphone at almost every usual price point – from budget to mid-range.

Intex VR 5.5, retailing at Rs 5,099, is the domestic technology company’s latest bet to target the steadily-growing virtual reality market. Even after being on a budget, does it make sense to experience the next-gen technology on this device?

Intex Aqua VR 5.5 (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

Pros:

• The front camera has a selfie flash
• Has a notification silence toggle
• The packaging recycles into a VR box

Cons:

• The phone is quite thick and heavy
• Camera is very average
• Laggy performance
• VR is limited to being a gimmick

What’s Good?

The 4G VoLTE smartphone offers a 5-inch HD screen with a 1.2GHz Quad-Core 64-bit Processor. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The features are pretty basic, but it comes with a free plastic back-cover and a screen guard too.

The Intex Aqua VR 5.5 has a plastic back, and comes with a free plastic case in the box. (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

The phone has a quick toggle to silence notifications, as also seen on OnePlus range of devices.

The notification toggle switch on the phone (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

In the camera department, there’s little to rave about, except for a nifty addition of selfie flash on the front. The photo quality, though, leaves a lot to be desired.

The front camera with selfie flash on Intex Aqua VR 5.5 (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

The Intex Aqua VR 5.5 comes packaged in a box which could be folded and made into a VR headset. Quite clever indeed.

What’s Bad?

Where to start?

The phone is quite thick and feels heavy. The form factor, coupled with the size of the screen is quite cumbersome.

The phone is quite heavy and the form factor is not quite handy (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

The touch experience in our review unit was not quite smooth, and lagged often. It’s something like you dealt with, in smartphones of 2012. Talking of refinement, the menu has typos, which aggravated its ‘rushed job’ appeal.

The phone seems like a rushed job. For example, in the ‘Touch Panel Gesture Mode’ menu, ‘gesture’ is misspelt. (Screenshot from the review unit)

The 5 megapixel front, and a similar resolution camera at the back need very good light and a very firm hand to shoot decent pictures.

Day shot photo sample on Intex Aqua VR 5.5 (Photo: Aaqib Raza Khan/The Quint)

Night photo sample on Intex Aqua VR 5.5 (Photo: Aaqib Raza Khan/The Quint)

Indoor photo sample on Intex Aqua VR 5.5 (Photo: Aaqib Raza Khan/The Quint)

The Virtual Reality on the smartphone is quite dizzying. The phone suffers from low resolution – 269 pixels per inch. Decent products in the market push the pixel density over 350 for a ‘good enough’ VR experience. This is good, only for the beginners.

Intex Aqua VR 5.5 fails to make a mark (Photo: Shiv Kumar Maurya/The Quint)

Why Buy It?

If you’re an Intex fan, and want a product for Rs 5,099. If not, why not check out Xiaomi Redmi 3S, or the new Moto E?