By Vivek Singh Chauhan

New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS): Amid the super-tough competition from Chinese smartphone makers, domestic brand Lava International Limited is aiming to challenge them with its first 5G smartphone -- AGNI-- and woo Indian users.

Compared to other players, the domestic smartphone company is quite late to launch a 5G smartphone. However, it still doesn't make any difference as 5G services haven't begun yet for the users in India.

Priced at Rs 19,999, Lava AGNI is one of the most expensive smartphones the company has launched in India to date. The smartphone comes with a power-packed chipset and quad rear camera setup.

We reviewed AGNI for a while and here's how the smartphone performed on our parameters.

In terms of design, the smartphone offers a single colour option that is ferry blue, which has a shade of silver. And it makes the device look soothing. On the back panel, you will find the quad-camera setup placed on the top left and the company's branding on the bottom left.

The good thing is that the back panel does not attract smudges at all.

On the front, there is a punch-hole selfie camera placed in the top centre. The volume rockers are placed on the left edge, while the power key is on the right edge. On the bottom edge, you will find an audio jack, Type-C port and a speaker grille.

AGNI features a 6.78-inch Full HD+ IPS punch-hole display with a 90Hz refresh rate. The smartphone's screen has Corning Gorilla Glass protection for higher durability.

Even in the bright light condition, we found that the content on the screen was visible as sunlight or bright light did not hinder our viewing experience and the colour reproduction remained intact even when we viewed the screen from different angles.

The high refresh rate also gave a lag-free viewing experience during gaming or while watching videos. However, few smartphones in the same budget offer a 120Hz refresh rate, which makes it more convenient for gaming or watching videos but at the same time, it consumes more battery.

Talking about the camera department, AGNI features 64MP primary camera, along with a 5MP wide-angle camera, 2MP depth camera and a 2MP macro camera on the rear panel. And, there's a 16MP front camera for selfies and video calling.

The smartphone also comes with a few inbuilt camera modes like UltraHD, UltraWide, SuperNight, Pro Mode and AI Mode, etc.

The rear cameras offered crisp and clear under direct sunlight or bright light. However, pictures clicked under low light conditions were a little pixelated. The front camera delivered clear pictures under bright light conditions and can be a good option for your Zoom meetings.

The smartphone is powered by a Dimensity 810 processor that offers a comprehensive suite of connectivity features to ensure faster, more reliable connections on both 5G SIM slots. Also, the smartphone comes with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage.

We found that the smartphone was lag-free while multitasking and it also most mid-to-heavy games without much hassle.

The smartphone also comes equipped with the latest security features such as a side-mounted fingerprint unlock as well as face unlock options.

As far as the battery is concerned, the smartphone offers a massive 5000mAh battery with a 30W superfast charger that can help you charge your phone faster.

On our usage, we found that it did a good job as it lasted around a day on a single charge on normal usage that included messaging, calling, mails, clicking a few pictures, etc.

Conclusion: The smartphone is a good initiative by the brand as it offers a lot of features that are offered by other players in the same segment. However, notching up the design a little will surely make the device more interesting.

With a few similar features, Lava AGNI, which is said to be completely conceived and 'make in India' smartphone, gives a tough competition to several Chinese smartphones in its price range.