Lava Blaze Pro review: One of the best-looking budget phones with some caveats

Last month, Indian smartphone manufacturer Lava added another device to its Blaze series. Named Blaze Pro, the budget phone has a premium look thanks to the frosted glass back finish and a plastic frame that feels like metal.
Powered the MediaTek Helio G37 chipset and featuring a 50MP camera, the phone feels premium and looks good on paper. At a starting price of Rs 10,499, it is also affordable. But can it compete with Poco M5, Samsung M32, Oppo A15s and other similarly priced phones? Let us find out.
Lava Blaze Pro specs: 6.52-inch IPS LCD | MediaTek Helio G37 | 4GB RAM + 64GB storage | 50MP + 2MP + VGA | 5,000mAh battery + 10W charging | Android 12
Lava Blaze Pro review: What’s new?
While the Blaze Pro looks like the earlier Blaze, the new Pro variant comes with a frosted glass back. It also sports a 90Hz display, runs a faster processor, and features an upgraded triple camera setup. Lava has moved the fingerprint scanner from the back of the phone and integrated it with the power button.
The Lava Blaze Pro has a frosted glass back. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
What’s good?
The Lava Blaze Pro sports a frosted glass back that looks and feels premium. Not once did I think I was holding a budget phone. With a shiny plastic frame, the device has a firm grip. I did not feel like the phone would slip from my hand. The back has a smooth finish, it is not a fingerprint magnet. This is one of the few phones I felt confident using without a cover.
The phone runs on a slightly modified version of stock Android 12. Interestingly, the phone has no bloatware, which is rare in budget phones. The default launcher is lightweight, and the animations are smooth whether you open the app drawer or transition from one screen to another. The phone also uses Android 12’s theming engine, with quick tiles changing colour according to the wallpaper set.
The phone is good for everyday tasks like calling and browsing. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
Lava has included some useful features, like one-handed mode and lift to wake. It also comes with an ‘Antifake touch mode’, which uses the proximity sensor to detect if your phone is in the pocket and blocks false touch commands.
The Lava Blaze Pro comes with a 5,000mAh battery, which will last a day or two depending on usage. For someone like me who often checks for messages, streams music via YouTube, and makes a few phone calls, the battery easily lasted more than a day. One thing to note here is that Lava ships the Blaze Pro with a 10W charger, which takes a long time (more than three hours) to fully charge the phone.
The MediaTek Helio G37 can run games like Candy Crush and Subway Surfer. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
The Lava Blaze Pro sports a triple camera setup, comprising a 50MP camera, accompanied a 2MP lens and a VGA camera. The 50MP takes good shots in daylight, and the colours are more on the natural side. The images are passable if you want to use them for social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.
The phone also has a night mode for photos, but it isn’t worth it. Taking photos in night mode adds lots of noise, and the image loses almost all details, so it is best to avoid it. Check out some sample shots below.
Indoor photos are good provided the lighting is good. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
 
 
The phone manages to capture most of the details. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
 
The 2MP macro lens takes decent shots as well. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
 
The Night Mode causes the photos to become grainy and lose out all details. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
What’s not so good?
Performance was an issue on the Lava Blaze Pro. Whether it was when I swiped down on the notification panel or tried to open the Google Play Store, the Lava Blaze Pro would freeze and lag ever so often. If you want to open multiple apps or play lots of games, the Lava Blaze Pro will definitely struggle.
The Lava Blaze Pro has a 720p display, which is not enough, given other phones in the same price range now have full HD displays. Sunlight visibility is another area where the phone disappoints, as text is barely legible in bright sunlight.
The phone is really comfortable to hold using one hand. (Image Credit: Anurag Chawake/Indian Express)
The Lava Blaze Pro has a single bottom-firing speaker, which is loud, but if you crank up the volume to the max, it crackles. I don’t know if this problem lies with my unit, but I haven’t faced this problem on other phones before.
Verdict: Is the Lava Blaze Pro worth your money?
If you want a phone for everyday basic tasks like messaging, light browsing and calling, the Lava Blaze Pro fits that bill. If you want a phone from an Indian brand, then Lava is perhaps one of the few options left. But other options, like the recently launched Poco M5 and Samsung M32, definitely have an edge over the Lava phone, especially in the performance department.