Lava, once a popular Indian smartphone brand, faded into the background over the past few years as industry giants like Samsung and cash-loaded Chinese brands like Realme and Redmi took over the mainstream smartphone landscape. However, Lava marked its resurgence in 2021 with the Lava Z series. Last year, the company also launched its first 5G smartphone in India called The lava fire 5g ,review, Now that the 5G rollout is done, Lava wants to attract buyers who want the 5G experience with the least amount of money. For such customers the company has launched lava blaze 5g,
Lava Blaze 5G currently holds the title of ‘Most Affordable 5G Smartphone’ in India. The smartphone comes with MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC, “glass-back design” and triple-camera setup. Should You Consider Buying the Lava Blaze 5G? Here’s our review to help you find out.
lava blaze 5g price in india
Lava Blaze 5G is available to buy in Single 4GB RAM + 128GB storage option. The device comes in two colors – Glass Blue and Glass Green. It was available at a starting price of Rs. 9,999 in India when it was launched, but it is currently listed for Rs. 10,999.
lava blaze 5g design
Despite being a budget smartphone, the back of the Lava Blaze 5G is made of glass, which is quite impressive. The device feels good to hold but at 207 grams it feels a bit heavy. The Glass Green color that Lava sent us has a matte finish as well. If you are someone who likes pastel shades, then you must go for this color. While the rear panel is made of glass, the flat frame around the phone uses a plastic material.
Lava Blaze 5G in its Glass Green color
The Lava Blaze 5G comes with a USB Type-C port sandwiched between the bottom-firing single speaker and the headphone jack. The right edge houses the power button which also serves as the fingerprint scanner. The volume buttons on the left edge give good feedback. The phone comes with a hybrid-SIM slot, with support for expandable storage of up to 1TB via microSD card.
The Lava Blaze 5G comes with a dual-tone rectangular camera module, which is not too protruding. The front of the Blaze 5G features a water-drop notch at the top of the display. While the side and top bezels are quite slim, the device gets the typical budget treatment with thick chin bezels.
Lava Blaze 5G has very thick bezels
Lava Blaze 5G flaunts a 6.5-inch IPS LCD with HD+ resolution (720×1600 pixels). The screen also supports 90Hz refresh rate for slightly smoother animations and scrolling experience. Viewing angles are surprisingly good. The screen is bright enough and legible outdoors in daylight, provided you push the brightness to its maximum setting. The Lava Blaze 5G comes with Widevine L1 certification, but Netflix on our unit received Widevine L3 certification.
lava blaze 5g specifications and software
The highlight feature of Lava Blaze 5G is in its name. With support for eight 5G bands, the device is currently the most affordable 5G smartphone in India, and comes with MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC. We have seen chipsets in other Budget Smartphones Under Rs. 15,000 in India, including the recently launched Redmi 11 Prime 5G ,review, The phone also has a 5000mAh battery. While it supports 15W fast charging, the Blaze 5G comes with a 12W dual-USB port charger in the box. In terms of connectivity, the phone supports Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 5.1, GPS etc.
Lava Blaze 5G runs on stock Android 12
The Lava Blaze 5G offers a clean, bloatware-free software experience with Android 12 on top. There was no lag and the overall feel was good enough for day-to-day tasks. The company has promised to roll out the Android 13 update but the timeline is unknown. Lava has also promised to provide quarterly security updates for two years. At the time of writing this, our review unit had the September 2022 Android security patch.
Lava Blaze 5G performance and battery life
The Lava Blaze 5G didn’t have any issues while performing basic, daily tasks. Be it scrolling through social media or switching between apps, the phone did a good job. RAM management wasn’t as aggressive, but some heavy apps running in the background reloaded when I switched them back on. This is despite the multitasking window showing that the phone has around 2GB of RAM available.
When it comes to benchmark tests, the Lava Blaze 5G scored 507 and 1588 in Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core tests. In comparison, the Redmi 11 Prime 5G, which comes with the same SoC, scored 521 and 1757. In AnTuTu, the Lava Blaze 5G scored 2,69,416 points which was much lower than the Redmi 11 Prime 5G’s score of 3,37,683 points.
I also played a few games on the Lava Blaze 5G. Call of Duty: Mobile, for unknown reasons, takes a little longer than usual to load. The game supported ‘Medium’ graphics and ‘High’ frame rate settings, resulting in an average framerate of around 40fps. Overall the gaming experience was good but there were some hiccups at times. For those who want a casual gaming experience, the Lava Blaze 5G can do a decent job.
The Lava Blaze 5G sports a USB Type-C port at the bottom.
The 5000mAh battery easily lasts more than a day, courtesy the less power-hungry SoC and HD+ display resolution. In our battery loop test, the Lava Blaze 5G lasted just 11 hours and 56 minutes, which was surprisingly below average. The bundled charger took over three hours to charge the phone from zero to 100 percent.
For biometrics, the Lava Blaze 5G features a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which is quick at authentication. It also supports AI Face Unlock, which though is faster to unlock the device, but less secure than a physical scanner.
lava blaze 5g cameras
Lava Blaze 5G sports a triple camera setup at the back. However, only one of them is really useful. There is a 50-megapixel main camera sensor along with a 2-megapixel macro camera and a VGA sensor. The phone has an 8 megapixel front camera for selfie.
Lava Blaze 5G sports a dual-tone camera module design
The main camera at the back does a decent job when it comes to taking pictures in daylight. While dynamic range is poor, the sensor manages to capture decent details. It does give a boost to the colors though. Another thing to note is that the highlights are usually blown out in order to get some detail in the shadows. In low light, the main camera gets decent pictures, provided there is some ambient light. However, the lack of any form of stabilization results in shaky images with some loss of detail.
I liked the front camera more, which was very accurate in capturing true skin tones. Although it smoothens the texture of the skin a bit. Portrait mode performance was also pretty decent for a phone priced under Rs. 10,999.
Lava Blaze 5G camera samples (tap to see full size)
Night mode camera sample shot on Lava Blaze 5G
Portrait mode camera sample shot on Lava Blaze 5G
The Lava Blaze 5G can record videos at up to 2K using the rear camera, while the front camera can capture 1080p videos. Overall, videos shot on the Lava Blaze 5G deliver slightly enhanced colors with decent details. Dynamic range is also pretty good, something I didn’t expect from the device.
Decision
When it comes to budget 5G smartphones, the Lava Blaze 5G proves itself right in many areas. While the camera performance is its weakest link, it scores points for its design and performance. Battery life, while decent with actual use, fared poorly in our video drain test. The device also offers eight 5G bands in India. The display experience is also above average for a smartphone in this price segment.
Lava’s target customer for the Blaze 5G is anyone who wants to try out 5G without spending a lot. There are a few drawbacks but when you look at the price it’s hard to complain too much.