Lava Blaze 5G recently debuted as India’s most affordable 5G phone. The device faces competition from the likes of the POCO M4 5G, iQOO Z6 Lite 5G, Redmi 11 Prime 5G, and Samsun Galaxy M13 5G, which also offer 5G capabilities at a lower price. If price is the only factor to consider when choosing a winner among these, the Blaze 5G is an easy winner since it launched at an introductory price of Rs 9,999 (~$123). It is currently available for Rs 10,999 (~$135). Let’s dive into the review to see whether its other features are good enough to beat its competitors.
Lava Blaze 5G – What’s in the box?
As can be seen above, the Lava Blaze 5G’s retail box includes the following items:
- Lava Blaze 5G handset
- Silicone case
- SIM ejector tool
- 12W charger with two USB ports
- USB to USB-C cable
- User manual
- Free Service at home card
Design and Display
| Dimensions | Display |
| Size – 165.3 x 76.4 x 8.9mm | 6.5-inch IPS display |
| Weight – 207 grams | 720 x 1600 pixels |
| 20:9 aspect ratio | |
| Color variants | Up to 90Hz refresh rate |
| Glass Green | 269ppi pixel density |
| Glass Blue | 450 nits brightness |
| Widevine L1 support |
I am impressed by the build of the Lava Blaze 5G. The glass back of the phone, which has a matte finish, gives it a premium look. The back panel feels smooth and does not attract fingerprint smudges. The inclusion of the glass and a big battery makes it weigh over 200 grams. The Blaze 5G has flat edges and rounded corners. Its edges are made of plastic, but the paintjob makes it look like metal. The top edge of the device is barren, while the bottom offers a 3.5mm audio jack, a microphone, a USB-C port, and a speaker grille. The device has a hybrid SIM slot and a volume rocker on the left side. The power button on the right edge is integrated with a fingerprint scanner.
The slightly raised camera module has a squarish black portion, which houses two cameras and an LED flash. Below is the “50MP AI Camera” text and the third camera. It would have been better if the cameras sported a symmetrical design.
The Lava Blaze 5G has a waterdrop notch display with a large bottom bezel. The screen is quite bright and offers good viewing angles. While it supports an HD+ resolution, the image clarity is such that it feels like it is a Full HD display. The contents of the screen are readable under sunlight only if it is set at the highest brightness setting. In Settings, users get access to display-related features like Adaptive Brightness, Night Light, Refresh Rate, among other settings. There is no word on what sort of display protection is available on the device.
Performance and Battery Life
- Dimensity 700
- 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM
- 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage
- 5,000mAh battery
- Support for 8 5G bands
The Dimensity 700-powered Blaze 5G offers snappy performance right out of the box. The D700 chip, which is MediaTek’s entry-level 5G-ready chip, can be seen on some of the costlier devices like the Samsung Galaxy M13, POCO M4 5G, and Redmi 11 Prime 5G. The Blaze 5G is only available in a single 4GB + 128GB configuration. Apart from the big internal storage, the device also offers support for a microSD card for more storage. The SIM tray of the phone features one slot for the primary SIM, and the second slot can either support a second SIM or a microSD card.
The Blaze 5G supports n1, n3, n5, n8, n28, n41, n77, and n78 5G bands. Since 5G is not available at my place, I couldn’t check the 5G connectivity.
For gamers, the Lava Blaze 5G comes with the Game Space app, which provides numerous features like game acceleration, a game sidebar, display optimization, performance enhancement, background call, palm rejection, and so on. On Geekbench, the device scored 505 and 1598 in the single-core and multi-core tests of Geekbench 5. On AnTuTu, the device scored 303,877. On BGMI, the device supports Smooth + Ultra with 40fps. Here are the screenshots of the performance benchmarks.
The company itself mentions in the official listing that it takes around 2:50 hours to fully charge the 5,000mAh battery of the Blaze 5G. While the phone supports up to 15W charging, Lava has bundled a 12W charger in its retail box. When other brands are considering removing chargers from the retail packages of their mid-range phones, Lava has gone ahead and provided a charger with two USB ports. As far as charging is concerned, it took around 3:02 hours for me to achieve a full charge. It can easily last up to two days after being charged.
Clean Android OS Experience with Little Customization
- Near stock Android 12 OS
- YouTube with background play
- YouTube Music with background play
- FM radio
- Up to 3GB RAM expansion
The Lava Blaze 5G runs on a near-stock version of the Android 12 OS. One of the screenshots shared here showcases all the apps available on the device. You do not see any bloatware, right? Additional apps from Lava include FM radio (not wireless), Game Space, and the Lava Guide app (user manual).
The #ProudlyIndian brand boasts that the Blaze 5G offers an industry-first feature wherein YouTube works in the background. As it is known, background play is only available with a YouTube Premium subscription. Yes, the YouTube and YouTube Music apps work in the background. However, both apps do not skip ads. Also, it allows users to play up to 2K videos on YouTube. The call recording function does not let the other person know that the call is being recorded.
The device also has other nifty features, such as App Lock, Android Auto, and multiple user profiles. The slightly customised Settings app has the Intelligence Assistance section, where users can find additional settings as shown in the screenshots above. The RAM expansion features allow users to convert up to 3 GB of storage space into virtual RAM. Lastly, there is Dura Speed in the Settings app, which helps boost the foreground app by restricting background apps.
Lava has not said anything about how many Android OS upgrades will be available for Blaze 5G users. It seems that the device may receive at least the Android 13 OS update in 2023.
Photography and Other Features
| Rear Camera | Other Features |
| 50MP + 2MP + VGA triple camera unit | Single speaker |
| 2K video recording | Face unlock |
| EIS Support | Side-facing fingerprint scanner |
| 5G connectivity, 4G LTE | |
| Front Camera | Dual-band Wi-Fi |
| 8MP Camera | Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Full HD recording |
The camera app offers photography features, such as photo, video, portrait mode, beauty mode, GIF, UHD, Pro mode, panorama, slow motion, timelapse, macro, and intelligent scanning, which can be used for scanning barcodes and QR codes. The phone impresses the photography department in both bright and low-light scenarios. It manages to shoot decent photos with sufficient lighting indoors. When compared to the regular mode, the night mode is able to take pictures with more detail. It captures mediocre-quality macro shots.
I could not really understand the requirement for the VGA camera (third camera) on the device.
When shooting a video with the rear camera, the phone focuses on the subject while blurring the background. I noticed some lag while shooting 2K videos. EIS does a good job of capturing stabilized videos. In low-light conditions, the phone captures shaky FHD and 2K videos even with EIS enabled. However, even in dim light, the phone tries to capture videos with some amount of detail. It can record 720p slow-motion videos at 15 frames per second.
The 8-megapixel front camera is good enough for selfies and video calls. It can shoot 30fps Full HD videos. Features like AI and HDR are not available while using the front camera. Users do get a couple of filters to enhance the selfie experience. It can also capture selfies with a good amount of background blur. However, sometimes edge detection does not work well. Overall, Lava Blaze 5G users will love using it for shooting photos and videos.
Lava Blaze 5G has a single speaker, which produces a decent sound output. I did not face any issues accessing features like face unlock, fingerprint scanner, voice calling, and Wi-Fi / LTE connectivity. Lava tries to stand out from competitors in the customer service department. It offers Service@Home doorstep services, which offer software and minor repairs to all customers of the Blaze, Yuva, and Storm series of smartphones. It promises service within 24 hours.
Verdict
To summarize, the Lava Blaze 5G is an impressive phone for Rs 10,999 (~$139). Even though it costs Rs 1,000 more, the device outperforms its rival in some areas. Lava is the only Indian smartphone brand to launch 5G phones in the Indian market. Because of this, many Indians who don’t want to buy Chinese smartphones will be drawn to this one. The Blaze 5G can easily become one of the bestselling phones in its price segment. I would definitely recommend it to someone who wants to buy a 5G phone for the first time. Many of the customers will purchase it as their first 5G phone, and I believe they won’t be disappointed.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this Lava Blaze 5G review are solely mine based on my experience, and there has been no editorial input from Lava.
