Lava unveiled the Blaze today – a phone under 10,000 euros that doesn’t feel cheap. It has a glass back, a first for the segment, the company said. And the “free home service” feels downright premium.
Lava Blaze
The Lava Blaze runs stock Android 12 on a Helio A22 chipset. While not particularly powerful, this 12nm chip has 8x Cortex-A53 CPU cores and a PowerVR GE8300 GPU, just enough resources to run full-blooded Android (some phones in this segment use Go Edition).
MediaTek Helio A22 chipset, 3GB RAM and 64GB storage (+ microSD card slot)
The chipset is paired with 3 GB of RAM (plus 3 GB of virtual RAM) and 64 GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded with a microSD card. Lava promises 2 years of security patches, but makes no mention of OS updates.
The Blaze has a 6.5-inch screen with a resolution of 720 x 1600 pixels. On the plus side, Lava chose an IPS LCD rather than the cheapest panel it could find. An 8 MP selfie camera is notched into the screen. It can do face unlock, though slowly (1.08 seconds to activate). The rear-mounted fingerprint reader is much faster (0.35s).
On the back is a 13 MP main camera with LED flash. Okay, there are three cameras, but since the functionality of the other two isn’t listed, we’re going to assume they’re macro and depth sensor modules.
The phone is powered by a relatively large 5,000 mAh battery that promises more than 8 hours of YouTube streaming or 40 hours of talk time. Charging is via USB-C at 10W. The other wired connection is the 3.5mm headphone jack and there’s even an FM radio receiver (we don’t see that much).
This is a dual SIM phone with 4G connectivity and a triple card slot (meaning you don’t have to choose between SIM2 and a microSD). Anyway, local connectivity also includes Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and Bluetooth 5.0.
If you crack the Blaze’s screen in the first 100 days of ownership, Lava will replace it for free. And if the phone needs to be repaired, Lava will send a technician to your home at no extra cost – you only pay for the repair. That’s the “free home service” we mentioned at the beginning, it saves you the drive to the service center.
The Lava Blaze goes into pre-order today on the company’s website official site as well as on flip card† The price tag is ₹8700 and the open sale starts next week on July 14.
The Lava Blaze has a glass back and is available in three colors: red, green, black and blue
ps. the first 500 customers who pre-order a Lava Blaze are eligible to receive a free pair of Lava Probuds 21 (AV apply).