Lava Blaze Pro design
The Blaze Pro may look a little early in its day (chambered edges and dewy notch), but its superior rear design and overall appearance make it one of the best-looking sub-12K smartphones on the market. The frosted glass back and glossy frame give the phone the look and feel of an expensive handset. Add to that the eye-catching rear camera setup, which is easily the most premium-looking camera module we’ve seen on a low-cost device.
The choice of materials, as well as the overall fit and finish, are top notch. We’ve been experimenting with the green color variant, and this pastel shade looks great. You can also get the phone in Orange, Blue and Gold colors. In terms of design, the Blaze Pro is easily superior to most sub-12K phones from Chinese OEMs, Samsung and Nokia.
How practical is the design of the Lava Blaze Pro?
Due to the massive 5,000mAh battery cell, the Blaze Pro is a bit heavy; However, a good grip makes it easier to maneuver with one hand. I didn’t find the phone slippery in everyday use, and the frosted back panel remains completely smudge-free. Next, the fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button is fast and accurate, and the phone also sports a 3.5mm audio jack. A Type-C charging port, an SD card slot for storage expansion and a dual SIM card slot are also included.
Lava Blaze Pro demo
The Blaze Pro has a 6.5-inch HD IPS LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It’s a good-looking screen with some drawbacks, which is very acceptable at this price point. The colors look vibrant, and the brightness is more than enough for indoor use; But outdoor visibility can be an issue when using the handset in direct sunlight. The Blaze Pro is not the best smartphone in its class for video playback. The screen can only transmit SD content on the OTT platform, and the 720p resolution affects the image quality.
Buttery smooth UI (90Hz refresh rate)
The screen excels in touch response though. The Blaze Pro gets a 90Hz refresh rate that ensures smooth UI browsing and fluid scrolling experience. If you’ve been using a 60Hz refresh rate all this time, switching to a 90Hz screen will be smoother and more enjoyable. Overall, you have to compromise a bit on display clarity and maximum brightness on the Blaze Pro.
Lava Blaze Pro Camera- Good for daylight photography
I was surprised by the performance of the Lava Blaze camera. It’s a great camera for casual photography, and you can get some great shots in good light. The 50MP primary sensor that captures sharp images in low-light conditions deserves most of the credit. The camera captures images with good details and natural colors, which is hard to find in this price range. Daylight images are well exposed and visually appealing. The main sensor also supports 6x digital zoom, but pixelation is noticeable.
Lava Blaze Pro captures good portraits
Additionally, there is a 2MP depth sensor and a macro sensor. While the macro sensor isn’t impressive, the 2MP depth sensor can produce some interesting images. For a device costing less than 12,000, the bokeh effect is quite impressive. If you have plenty of natural light, this inexpensive camera can produce some stunning portraits. Before taking a shot, you can adjust the intensity of the bokeh effect in the camera app.
Blaze Pro includes night mode, beauty mode, slow motion, time lapse, UHD mode (50MP mode), scanner mode, GIF mode and even a pro mode. This is another well-thought-out camera app for a budget-friendly handset.
Lava Blaze Pro performance
MediaTek Helio G37 SoC powers the Blaze Pro backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded up to 256GB via a dedicated microSD card. There is 3GB of virtual RAM to aid performance. In terms of software, the Blaze Pro runs Android 12 pre-installed without any bloatware. The software on this low-cost device is surprisingly good, and has similarities to Google’s Pixel devices.
Slow multitasking performance
However, the same cannot be said for hardware performance. The Blaze Pro is mostly useful for basic tasks like making calls, using the camera, and browsing the web. When you try to push the handset, it starts to lose power. This device can feel sluggish when multitasking or playing casual games, something we’ve noticed on similarly priced phones from Motorola and Nokia. If you want better overall performance, look for a slightly more expensive Poco or Redmi handset.
Lava Blaze Pro battery life
The Love Blaze Pro is powered by a 5,000mAh battery that can easily last a day of heavy use. You can stream videos, listen to music, make calls, take hundreds of pictures and surf the web all day and the phone will still have some juice left at the end of the day. With moderate use, the budget tool can easily last for two days, and in some cases it can last longer. However, the 10W charging support might test your patience. The handset takes at least 2.5 hours to fully charge, which is quite slow even for a 2022 budget handset.
Lava Blaze Pro audio output
The budget handset has a single bottom-firing speaker. It sounds good, but don’t expect it to produce high-quality audio. The sound is one direction and has no substance. I recommend using a good pair of 3.5mm headphones to enjoy music and videos on this budget handset. The haptic feedback on the Blaze Pro is subpar and could have been better. We tested similarly priced handsets with slightly better haptics.
The verdict
The Blaze Pro is easily the most visually appealing phone in its class, and it performs admirably in terms of photography as well. Other notable features that make the Blaze Pro a decent sub-12K include a 90Hz refresh rate display and a long-lasting battery. The phone works well every day; However, the phone’s weak MediaTek SoC limits its potential as a good budget device for multitasking and gaming. Lava could have provided a slightly better processor to solve the performance issues.
However, if you’re on a tight budget and want a good overall handset, the Blaze Pro is a good buy. It’s also worth noting that Lava is throwing in two additional freebies for buyers – a free 100-day screen replacement (T&C Involved) and free in-home Blaze Pro service. The @Home service is also applicable on Lava’s Yuva and Storm series of handsets. Lava mentions that if there are major hardware/software issues that cannot be fixed at home, the phone will be taken to a service center.
