Lyf Flame 8 is the new addition to the series of Flame mobiles phones from Reliance. This phone is priced at just Rs. 4100. At this price, it comes with good hardware specifications. I tested this phone as a primary phone for my daily usage. I was using an entry-level phone after a long time, but I was impressed with this phone. Read the full review to know about it.
Design
In terms of design, this phone is beautiful. The earpiece speaker is at the top-most side of the front panel and adds to its look. Below the display, it has three capacitive touch buttons. On the left edge, it has a power button with texture lines and a volume rocker. At the top line, it has a 3.5 mm audio port and a micro USB port.
The back panel is shining black with the LYF logo at the top center. At the top-right corner, it has a rear camera with LED flash. The speaker is on the base of the back panel.
The back panel is removable and the battery is removable as well. After removing the back panel, you see slots for a battery, a sim and a microSD card.
In terms of design, this phone is solid and looks good. It has considerable weight and does not look like a budget phone. The design is a plus point of this phone. At this price, you wouldn’t expect better than this
Display
The Lyf Flame 8 smart-phone comes with a 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display with a screen resolution of 854 x 480 pixels- an amazing offer for the price you get it for! The display actually performs the same as it claims. The viewing angles are also fine. The outdoor visibility is also fine.
Considering the price of the phone, LYF Flame 8 is offering a better display than one can expect.
Software
There is no considerable change in the UI. It has almost stock Android-like experience. It comes with Android 5.1 with few custom changes and pre-installed apps. As the UI has not been modified, it offers a smooth experience. While many phones of this price range show UI related lags, I don’t see this kind of a lag in the Flame 8 smart-phone.
If I talk about pre-installed apps, LYF has included a few JIO branded apps. Surprisingly, these apps consume very less space in your phone. If you see usability, these apps make your phone a pure entertainment device. It comes with Jio Chat, Jio Beats, Jio Money, Jio On-demand, Jio Play, Jio Xpress News and LYF Care.
There are few other apps including NetVeLocity to test your internet speed and My Jio to download more JIo branded apps.
Jio Chat: Jio Chat app is an instant messaging app with features like voice calls, video calls, conferencing, instant video, stickers, and emoticons. I am not sure if you are going to use it as WhatsApp is already popular enough. But other Jio apps will surely attract you.
Jio Money: Jio Money is the money transfer app and allows you to instantly pay another person using the Jio Money service. It also comes with several exclusive discounts for its users.
Jio Beats: Jio beats is a music app which offers HD songs in over 2o different languages. With Jio’s 4G network, you can enjoy music on the go. So, you do not need to download and buy the subscription to other third-party music streaming apps. If you own LYF smartphone, you have music packed in your phone.
Jio On-demand: Jio On-demand is a video streaming service. It offers movies, TV shows, music videos and trailers. This app turns your phone into an entertainment device. It claims to have 1 lakh+ hours of HD content. I checked and found that most of the HD movies are already available. If you have Jio network, you also do not need to think about mobile data before opening this app. This kind of services charge a lot from users, but you have access to it for free initially.
Jio Play: Jio Play brings live TV channels on your mobile phone. It offers 300+ TV channels yo enjoy on your phone. From these 300+ channels, 30 channels are available in HD.
Best thing is that you can pause the live TV program and start from the point you left. You also watch missed episodes of prime shows, aired in the past 7 days.
Jio Xpress News: Jio Xpress News is a new app which keeps you updated. This app is exclusive for Jio SIM users and offers 100+ news sourced at once place. You have many categories including entertainment, politics, technology and more. Select any categories and check the latest news. Stories are available in different regional languages. Well, this is similar to Google News or UC News app. So, you do not need to download any other app now.
I tried this app and found relevant stories. This app uses an algorithm to bring relevant and trending stories. As a tech blogger, I want to access such tech stories. This app kept me updated all the time.
LYF Care: LYF Care is an important app for LYF smart-phone users. It connects users to LYF care center near them. So, after same support is now just few finger tips away. LYF smart-phone buyers also get 2 years extended warranty. This app shows the commitment of the company towards its customers. While many people spend hours searching for customer care centres, LYF wants you to have a direct connection with LYF customer support. I like this approach.
Beats, On-Demand and Play are the most important app for consumers. Entertainment on the go is the need of our fast life and with Jio 4G and the LYF Flame 8 smart-phone, you have access to fast Internet and hence entertainment on the go.
Performance
In terms of performance, this phone surprises. Lyf Flame 8 is powered by 1.1 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (MSM8909) processor with Adreno 304 GPU and 1GB RAM. Yes, Snapdragon chipset with 1 GB RAM in a phone of this price. And this phone’s performance is awesome. An entry level phone with this kind of performance is very rare. LYF has aggressively priced this phone.
If I talk about graphics, it also looks fine. We cannot expect very good gaming experience on an entry-level phone, but this phone is capable of running games like temple run, subway surfers and other similar light games.
It comes with 8 GB of Internal storage which is also expandable up to 128GB. Well, storage is not an issue in this phone. Not sure if you are going to save movies or songs in this because you already have free music and movies with the Jio apps.
Camera
It has the 8-megapixels rear camera with LED flash and 5 megapixels front camera. Yes, this area disappoints as the cameras are not performing as per available specifications . Considering the price, the camera is still performing better than other phones of this price range.
The Phone’s camera app also has beauty mode and many camera effects. So, you have pretty good options to enjoy photography. Considering the price, you will be satisfied with the camera performance.
Check these camera samples.
Connectivity
This is a dual SIM phone from which one SIM supports 4G LTE while other SIM only offers 2G connectivity. SIM 1 not only supports 4G but also offers VoLTE which is very rare in this price segment. Not just this price segment, many phones of high price range also do not offer VoLTE. LYF wants you to enjoy its Jio network in full pace and hence, it has included 4G support with VoLTE.
Other connectivity options are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, micro-USB, and GPS. I tested all these options and found no issues while working in different kind of places.
Jio 4G
If you are using an LYF smartphone, the company is offering you the early access to Jio 4G. Although the service has not been officially launched, you can enjoy its fast 4G network in many cities with LYF phones. Check the internet speed I was getting on this phone.
Battery
It is packed with 2000 mAh battery which is impressive. For FWVGA display, this phone’s battery is enough to give you a full day usage. While I was using it on its JIO network all the time consuming 4G data, battery was draining quickly. Still, the battery was fine considering the usage. But at the end, usage matters. If you are using it with 4G connected all the time or as hotspot for your laptop, you will surely have to buy a power bank. If you have light usage, you will enjoy a better battery life.
Final Words
For just Rs. 4100, LYF Flame 8 is a value for money offering. This phone is for first-time smartphone buyers, and still, is packed with 4G with VoLTE. So, buyers will not have to compromise and they are ready to experience latest generation Internet speed on Jio’s 4G network. It is a value for money phone and I recommend this phone in the budget of Rs. 5000.The smartphone is already available exclusively on Flipkart.
