Okay, here’s a very interesting data about Indian smartphone market. People are buying expensive smartphones, but at the same time, demand for budget 5G phones are all time high. This makes sense because 5G launched last year, and the 5G coverage in India has been way, way better than anywhere in the world. But the problem was, if you wanted a good 5G phone, it would cost you somewhere around Rs20,000. But 2023 is different. We are seeing good budget 5G phones. Like this is the Lava Blaze 2 5G It costs under Rs10,000. And on paper, you get the latest Android 13 clean, ad free Android OS, eight 5G bands. And what’s this? You also get a ring light plus call recording without announcement. So seems too good to be true. So the question that has to be asked is, how is Lava managing to do all of this under 10,000? Well, we shall find that out together. Stick around till the end of the article Let’s go.
Everything included in the box
All right, so you get this big box. Now it is written Free service at home. There’s a pamphlet that tells you how to avail the free home service. We can’t test that at the moment. You get the phone, you get some paperwork, TPU case, type A to type C cable, 18 watt charger, and a budget SIM ejector tool. Good to see that you get almost everything included in the box, especially at this price point, so you don’t have to spend anything extra. It’s funny that you spend less money, you get more stuff in the box.
5G Connectivity
Now, I would say there are four really interesting things with this phone, starting with the obvious one, 5G. Now, they say it supports all Indian 5G bands. And if I count here, N1, N3, N5, you have a total of eight 5G bands. Now, let’s put that to the test. So, I’ll insert this GeoSim in the phone and see how the download speeds are.
So, first time, I’m getting around 600-620 Mbps. Let’s do like best of three. And now we are getting somewhere around 500 Mbps. A bit low. So, again, it is closer to that, 600, 620 Mbps. So in our location, it is getting around 600 Mbps, 5G speeds. And this is a very important point, because people buying a 5G phone for 10,000 probably won’t have access to WiFi all the time. For them, getting good 5G speeds really does matter, especially when 5G is free and unlimited in India.
Extra features
Another interesting thing about this phone is the extra features here, which you generally won’t get with other phones, at least in this price range.
Ring light
Like, firstly, you get this notification ring light.
You just have to pull down the notification drawer and turn it on. And now see if you keep your phone on charge, the light shows up or even if you get a call or notification, the ring light blinks. Now yes, it is a small feature, like kind of like a notification Led, but useful if you get used to it.
Lava app for call recording
Besides this, you can also do call recording without announcement. Now, by default it comes with Google dialer, so you’ll have to go to the settings. You can set the Lava phone app as default. And now when you make a call, see there’s call recording. Now, I know a lot of you will have different opinions on this call recording feature, but as per the Indian law, call recording is legal and admissible as evidence in code. So for people who need it, call recording is a good thing in my opinion.
Performance
Besides this, the phone also has good performance for the price. Like you’re getting a Dimensity 6020 processor. Now we ran and antutu benchmark, which gives an overall score to the phone. It helps you understand the performance of the phone. Now, it scored somewhere around four lakh. You can expect the performance to be similar to Snapdragon 695.
Ram& storage
And the variant that we have comes with 6GB LPDDR4X RAM along with 128 GB of UFS2.2 storage. The base variant, however, starts from 4GB Ram and 64GB storage. You also get the option to have two SIM card plus dedicated Micro SD cards. So if you need more storage, you are fully covered on regular normal usage. Like if you’re browsing the web, watching videos and all of that, the phone is smooth.I didn’t find any lag or anything and I even tried few games like Asphalt and all of that. They ran pretty well. So for Rs10,000, the performance for day to day use and overall is fine.
Software experience
Another really good thing about this phone is the software experience. Now, at this price point, generally you will see ads or bloatwares on the phone, but here you get a clean Android 13, no bloats, no ads. Plus you get some really cool software features with this phone. Like if you have flip to silence. So if I get a call but I just don’t want to pick it up, I can just put the phone down like this and the ringing stop, but the ring light keeps blinking so you end up still noticing the call. Also, you get an assured update to Android 14 down the line and two years of security patches. That being said, I did notice two things with the software.
First
A few animations are missing. If you scroll through the entire OS, like suppose I take a screenshot, there is no blinking, nothing directly, the screenshot is just taken.
Second
And second is the display refresh rate. Like you do get a higher 90 Hz refresh rate, but on most of the apps it is only at 60 Hz, like see on YouTube, 60 hz. Even on Chrome it is only 60 Hz. So maybe Lava can fix this with a software update. Which brings me to the thing which I won’t say are bad because at this price point I won’t complain.
Display
But things that I should definitely mention, like the display for instance. So you get a 6.56 inch 90 Hz HD Plus IPS display which has good viewing angle. See if I watch any video and even if I tilt it, the screen, the colors are fine. But this is a HD Plus display, meaning it is 720p. Also, as of now, it doesn’t have widevine L1. It comes with widevine L3. So Amazon and Netflix won’t work on 1080p.
Again, this is not a big deal at this price and it won’t bother you that much. But what could bother you is this bottom chin. Like the chin is pretty big. Also, you get single speakers, which is loud, which is definitely loud for a single speaker.
Camera
Now, even with the camera, for the price, it is decent. Like you get a 50 megapixel primary camera. And here are some photos that we took outdoor. Like overall, the photos are sharp. It’s good if you zoom in. But currently the Delhi weather is so high that you won’t be able to see anything in the background. Also, we took photos in the portrait mode. The edge detection is good, but it just cuts you out and blurs the entire background. There’s no gradual blur, but for the price of Rs10,000 the photos are fine. And on the video side of things, you can record maximum 2K 30 FPS.
And on the front you get an eight megapixel selfie camera which takes decent selfies. Like usually in the price bracket of 10,000, you don’t expect camera phones and this year is also decent.
In hand feel
Other than this, the phone does look and feel nice. In the hands, you get a polycarbonate frame, which is what you get in this price range. But the back is made from glass which gives the phone a premium feel. However, I would not recommend you touching the back often because it is a fingerprint magnet. It catches smudges so easily. So maybe you should use the included case that you get in the box. Also, you get a 5000 mah battery which should easily last you one day on normal to medium usage. So yeah, that was our first impression of the all new Lava Blaze 2 5G.
Now, to answer the question how is Lava giving all of this at 10,000?
Well, I would say Lava has made a smart decision when it comes to places they have cut back on. Someone who wants to buy a phone for Rs10,000 obviously would need best in class display, nor they need a very good camera. Instead, you put that money in giving a 5G phone at budget clean, ad free software experience which personally if I have to give a phone to my parents or the younger ones. I would prefer that. Let us know if you agree or disagree with me, and I’ll see you in the next one. Till then, follow Tech wibes for more reviews.
