In the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market, it’s easy for homegrown brands to get lost in the noise of their Chinese counterparts. Yet, Lava has been consistently carving a niche for itself, focusing on a clean software experience with a sprinkle of Made in India narrative. With the new Lava Blaze Dragon 5G, the company is trying to diversify their lineup. The “Dragon” moniker here signals the entry of the Snapdragon chipset onto Lava phones. Here is my experience with the device, after spending the last week with it.
What I Liked
Performance That Punches Above Its Weight
The heart of this phone is its namesake, and it delivers. Powered by the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 chipset, built on a 4nm process, the Blaze Dragon 5G is surprisingly fast for its segment, which can be attributed further to the LPDDR4X memory and UFS3.1 storage combo. Daily tasks are a breeze, but the real test is gaming. Titles like BGMI and Call of Duty: Mobile ran at consistent frame rates with graphics set to medium.
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A Clean Software Experience
This continues to be Lava’s trump card. The Blaze Dragon 5G runs a near-stock version of Android 15. There is no bloatware, no third-party app stores, and absolutely no ads cluttering the UI. It’s clean, responsive, and a breath of fresh air. Lava is also promising timely OS updates and three years of security patches, which is in-line with the competition.
Solid In-Hand Feel
Pulling the Blaze Dragon 5G out of the box, I was immediately impressed by its build. Lava has used a matte-finish on the back, which not only looks elegant and resists fingerprints but also feels a bit more premium than the regular glossy plastic backs common at this price point. The flat-edge design is modern and provides a confident grip.
A Battery That Refuses to Quit
The phone packs a beefy 5,000mAh battery, and the efficiency of the new chipset really shines here. On a typical day of mixed usage—scrolling social media, a couple of hours of gaming, watching YouTube, and making calls—I consistently ended the day with about 30% charge left. This is a reliable two-day phone for light to moderate users.
The Little Things That Count
Lava hasn’t forgotten the essentials. The inclusion of a 3.5mm headphone jack is a welcome sight for many. The stereo speakers are loud and reasonably clear, making media consumption more immersive. Furthermore, the 5G connectivity was solid, holding onto signals well across operators.
What Could’ve Been Better
The Display is Good, but Not AMOLED
To channel all that performance, the Blaze Dragon 5G uses a large 6.74-inch HD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s smooth and perfectly functional, but it’s an LCD panel and that too with a dew-drop notch. In a market where vibrant AMOLED screens with their deep blacks and punchy colours are becoming the norm even in this segment, the LCD feels like a necessary cost-cutting measure. It’s good, but not great.
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Inconsistent Cameras
The main 50MP camera can take some surprisingly detailed and vibrant shots in good daylight. However, the performance is very weak in the low light department. The same can be said about the 8MP selfie camera. Cameras are definitely the weakest link of the Blaze Dragon 5G.
Charging Speeds Feel Very Dated
While the battery life is excellent, refueling it is a bit of a waiting game. The phone supports just 18W fast charging, which takes well over an hour to go from 0 to 100%. When competitors are routinely offering 33W or even faster charging that can top up a device in under 50 minutes, 18W feels a tad slow for late 2025.
Final Thoughts
The Lava Blaze Dragon 5G knows exactly what it wants to be: a performance-first device for users on a budget who prioritize speed and a clean software experience above all else. In that mission, it succeeds brilliantly. The performance is undeniable, the battery life is stellar, and the ad-free Android experience is a massive selling point.
However, its laser focus on performance means compromises were made elsewhere. The display, while fast, lacks the ‘wow’ factor of an AMOLED panel, and the camera system is a one-trick pony. For the starting price of just Rs 9,999, the Lava Blaze Dragon 5G.
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