I wanted the iBall Andi 4.3j but instead got the iBall Andi 4.3a. There is no difference between the two models except that the 4.3j version comes with dual battery 1630mAh + 900 mAh, a total of 2530 mAh.

The 4.3j also come with slight modification like it has 4 touch sensitive buttons as compared with 3 on the 4.3a. Plus the camera on the 4.3j has been shifted to the left side and LED flash options have been removed.

The iBall Andi 4.3a design
The Micromax and the iBall phones looks more professional when compared with Karbonn and Spice brands. The Andi 4.3a has got this red (cherry red) coloured back cover which looks quite attractive and blends well with the black front. The rear side look stunningly beautiful.

The top part is slimmer as compared to the bottom part. There are 3 touch sensitive buttons on the front side with sensors on top along with in call speaker. On the right side you will find the volume rockers and on the top there is the power/lock button, 3.5mm jack and micro USB port.

Inside the Hood
The iBall Andi 4.3a handset is powered by 1GHz processor (MSM7627A) QUALCOMM scorpion S1 processor with Adreno 200 GPU this is the same CPU + GPU found on HTC Desire VC T328d, Huawei Ascend C8812 and Hisense E910 models.

The RAM is 512MB of which 250MB is free and 98MB used. The internal storage is of a very good capacity of around 1.2GB. There is further internal storage for user of about 1.7GB. The handset sadly runs on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread), it would have been better if it were running the ICS or Android 4.0 OS. Three point multitouch is supported.

4.3 inch IPS screen on iBall Andi

The performance is smooth; touch is sensitive / responsive and did not find any lags. The text rendering in the stock browser was also pretty fast. This handset supports dual SIM. There are two SIM slots and the second SIM slot support only a mico SIM.

The max SAR recorded on this device is below 10g 0.016 W/kg.

Benchmark
The quadrant Benchmark tool for some reason was showing some incorrect info for example it showed the Andi 4.3a as a dual core processor, but the other benchmark apps showed it as a single core which in fact is correct.

Quadrant Score : 1203
Antutu Socre : 3133

iBall Andi 4.3a rear view

Display
The screen is a good 4.3 inches with IPS display. The viewing angle is pretty good. The resolution is 800×480 pixels, I believe with 256K colours.

Camera
It houses a 5MP camera (Auto focus) with dual LED flash. The quality is not so good and the auto focus goes mostly out of focus. You can check the sample images by visiting the link mentioned below. Video recording is really no good. The front camera can be used for video calling; however native video calling is not supported.

Sample images taken from the 4.3a camera : http://www.flickr.com/photos/gogirana/sets/72157631756635456/

Others
There is 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi with hotspot, Bluetooth, micro USB with tethering and GPS. The GPS worked flawlessly and the 3G does supported HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps. Net speed is good.

Battery
The battery is of 1630 mAh capacity that gives a usage time of over a day on a full charge.

iBall Andi 4.3a review
The handset has got that premium look with average features. The camera is disappointing and so is the operating system. For this reason I feel the price is too high. Now dual core handsets from Karbonn namely the Karbonn A21, Karbonn A9+ etc are easily available for under Rs. 10K. Andi came in too late.

iBall Andi 4.3a Key features and Specifications

  • 1GHz single core processor with Adreno 200 GPU.
  • Dual SIM with Dual Standby (GSM+GSM (micro SIM)).
  • Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) OS.
  • 4.3 inch IPS capacitive touchscreen with 800×480 pixels resolution.
  • 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, micro USB and 3.5mm jack.
  • 5MP rear auto focus camera and a front VGA camera.
  • Sensors : Proximity and Gsensors.
  • 1630 mAh battery with about a week of standby time and 4 to 5 hours talktime.

Andi 4.3a image gallery

iBall Andi 4.3a unboxing and review video

By Rajeev Rana

Founder and Chief Editor - gogi.in