Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some serious challenges

Lava Z25 first impressions.

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Lava Z25 has been announced today along with the Z10. These phones are priced at Rs. 16,990 and Rs. 9,990. The Z25 will be available from today.

 
Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Lava has announced the Z25 in Champagne Gold and Gray color options. The device is priced in the mid-range segment, making it more expensive than some of the bestsellers in the market.

 

There are a few impressive features in this phone, but we are skeptical when it comes to the success of it in the already obsessed smartphone market. Here is our first impressions of the Lava Z25. Check it out to know more.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Design

These days, most smartphones in the entry-level and mid-range market have a similar design language. The Lava phone has nothing new in terms of design. It reminds us of Xiaomi phones when it comes to its rear panel.

There is a fingerprint scanner at the rear positioned just like the one we have seen on Xiaomi phones.

The smartphone weighs in at 163 grams and measures 8.5mm in thickness. The device has a unibody metal design that means the battery is non-removable. With this kind of a design, we can say that the device has a decent build quality and premium looks for a mid-range Android phone.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Display

The Lava Z25 is fitted with a 5.5-inch IPS display with HD 1280 x 720 pixel resolution. This results in an average pixel density of 267 ppi, which is nowhere near the industry standard. The screen is quite responsive and smooth in our hands-on. Also, it is bright enough when used under direct sunlight.

We will give you more details about the display in our complete review of the phone in the coming weeks.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Hardware

The Lava phone is equipped with a 64-bit 1.5GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6750 processor paired with Mali-T860 GPU and 4GB RAM. With such a huge chunk of RAM, the Lava Z25 can handle multitasking in a decent way. Even the graphic performance will be impressive with the Mali-T860 graphics unit.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

The Lava Z25 is bundled with 32GB of default memory capacity. This storage can be expanded up to 128GB based on the requirement. We need to mention that there is support for Hybrid SIM card slot that doubles the second SIM slot into a micro SD card slot on need basis.

SEE ALSO: Lava Z25 and Z10 with 4G VoLTE launched in India, prices start from Rs. 9,990

During our hands-on, we found this device to be responsive and smooth without any lags. Needless to say, it is too early to give a feedback about the capabilities of this phone.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Software

The Lava phone has been launched with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which is over a year old. This platform is based on the Star OS 3.3. Lava's Star OS is quite similar to the skins seen in some Chinese smartphones.

It is somewhat similar to the MIUI as well. The device doesn't come with many pre-installed apps that occupy the precious internal storage capacity. Also, it supports up to 11 Indian languages.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Camera

On the imaging front, Lava Z25 makes use of a 13MP rear camera snapper with LED flash, Sony IMX258 Exmor RS sensor, PDAF, and f/2.0 aperture. This sensor supports FHD 1080p video recording as well.

Like many other phones in the mid-range market, this one too has features such as Night Pro, Continue Shot, Bokeh, Extreme Beauty, and Beauty-fi. Up front, there is an 8MP selfie camera with LED flash and f/2.0 aperture.

The camera is a decent performer. It may not be the best camera phone in its category, but not bad too. However, the low-light performance lags behind in the competition with other phones. We will come up with more details on the camera performance later in our review.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Battery and Connectivity

Lava Z25 comes with connectivity features such as 4G VoLTE, dual-SIM support, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, and 3.5mm audio jack. Though both the SIM cards support 4G, you can use 4G only on one SIM at a time.

There is a fingerprint sensor at the rear, below the main camera, on the Lava Z25. This fingerprint sensor can unlock the phone in 0.16 seconds. It is possible to register up to five fingerprints and it serves other purposes such as capturing selfies.

The smartphones get the power from a 3050mAh battery that comes with the power saver mode to minimize the power consumption and enhance the battery life.

Lava Z25 First Impressions: 'Flagship device' may face some challenges

Verdict

Lava Z25 is a good attempt, but we feel that the company should have attempted to bring some design changes. At a point in time when the competition is at its peak, the company has released a Rs. 16,990-priced phone that is definitely not the best one in the block.

There are phones such as Moto G5 Plus, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, etc. that render a better performance at a lesser price tag. Anyways, we will give a final verdict after the detailed review.

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