The Lava Agni 2 5G has been launched as the company’s next offering in the upper-budget segment. The smartphone is a successor to the previously introduced Agni 5G and sits in the sub-Rs 25,000 price range. The Agni 2 offers a slew of upgrades over the outgoing model, with a curved display, a quad-camera setup, a design synonymous with the current crop of smartphones, and more.
Lava Agni 2 5G
Rs 21,999
What Is Good?
- Well-priced
- Gorgeous design, beautiful display
- Good performance
- Neat stock Android experience
- Reliable battery, fast charging
- Decent primary camera
What Is Bad?
- Can be heavy and slippery
- Below-average low light and HDR performance
- A bunch of bugs at launch
- Mono-speaker setup
But, after having been on a hiatus for a long time, can Lava make a spot for itself amongst Realme’s, Poco’s, and Xiaomi’s? Also, with all that is on offer, should you consider buying the Lava Agni 2, or should you go with alternatives that have already gained a massive margin in the market? We’ve used the Agni 2 for over a week, and here’s our detailed review to answer all your questions.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Pricing details and availability in India
The Lava Agni 2 5G is available in a single configuration with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, priced at Rs 21,999. As an introductory offer, you can avail Rs 2,000 discount using all major credit & debit cards.
This brings the effective price of the Agni 2 5G down to Rs 19,999. As of writing this review, the Agni 2 5G has already gone out of stock on Amazon, but more sales are aligned for early June.
Lava has also introduced a free replacement at-home scheme wherein the phone will be replaced in any scenario of hardware issues. It’s an excellent step towards gaining the loyalty of customers.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Design and build quality
- The phone weighs 210 grams
- It has support for two nano-SIMs but no slot for a memory card
Lava takes an entirely different tangent when it comes to the design approach of the Agni 2. The device is absolutely gorgeous and well-built for a smartphone in this price range. Currently, the Agni 2 is only available in a single colour option, the Viridian, which looks much like Emerald Green.
The uniform approach is curved, seen on the front and back. Speaking of which, the back panel is made out of glass and feels premium to the touch. The slight curvature at the back makes it easy to hold the device. Additionally, the frosted glass finish does not attract a lot of smudges — but can be pretty slippery when kept on a table or couch. It’s recommended to use a case with the device. Luckily, one is provided in the box.
The rear materials seep into the frame, which has a glossy finish. Most of the back panel is dominated by a huge circular camera island, and this approach reminds us of the Vivo X90 Pro. However, despite such a massive module, the phone does not wobble when kept on a flat surface.
The right side of the device features a volume rocker and power button, both with good tactile feedback. The top portion of the phone has a secondary microphone, while the left side lacks any ports. The bottom part comes with a SIM tray, a primary microphone, a USB Type-C port, and a speaker grille.
The Agni 2 does not have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but the company provides an adapter. The phone weighs 210 grams, which is on the heavier side.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Display and audio
- The display refreshes at 120Hz
- It supports the Widevine L1 certificate
The Agni 2 sports a 6.78-inch curved AMOLED display at the front, which is probably its most significant selling point. Also, this makes the Agni 2 the most affordable option with a curved panel, taking the crown previously held by the Realme 10 Pro+ (Review). It has minimal bezels on all sides with a screen-to-body ratio of 93.65 per cent.
The panel refreshes at 120Hz, with an option to go down to 60Hz for better battery life.
While the display produces crisp details with good touch response in most scenarios, we noticed a bug in the camera app that sometimes didn’t allow us to click the shutter button. A common trait with curved displays is mistouch — Lava hasn’t integrated any software methods for this — unlike its competition.
The display produces vibrant and saturated colours while consuming content. If you’re not a fan, this can be toned down by switching to the natural colour preset in the settings. The Agni 2 supports Widevine L1, so watching movies on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video at the highest resolution is also possible.
It also supports HDR, HDR 10 and HDR10+. The phone does not have a pre-applied screen protector, but it offers Schott Xensation glass for added protection. The display peaks at 675 nits of brightness, so using the phone outdoors under direct sunlight was not an issue. The Agni 2 also has an in-display fingerprint sensor, which works flawlessly.
One department where Lava had to compromise to keep the prices in check is audio. The Agni 2 comes with a mono-speaker setup. While the speaker is more than competent, we would’ve preferred a stereo-speaker setup to elevate the entire video consumption experience.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Performance and software
- It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 processor
- The phone comes in a single 8GB RAM and 256GB storage
The Agni 2 is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7050 processor based on the 6nm fabrication process. It uses the same CPU clusters as the Dimensity 1080 processor found on the Realme 10 Pro+ with the same clock speeds. The Agni 2 is the first device in the Indian market with this processor, and the upcoming Realme 11 Pro+ will be the second. The Agni 2 has support for carrier aggregation and 13 5G bands. Additionally, it also has support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.
The Agni 2 has absolutely no problems dealing with everyday tasks. The phone did not face any stutters or lags while scrolling through multiple feeds on Instagram or tweeting daily updates on Twitter. It also has no trouble when switching between demanding apps, which is good. Infinite spam messages on WhatsApp also did not cause the notification bar to lag.
We ran our usual stress test with Google Maps running on PiP mode and music playing in the background using YouTube Premium. The device did not face a lot of stutters, and scrolling through our Twitter feed was possible. Furthermore, it only heated up a little during the process. So, overall, we were impressed with the day-to-day usage experience on the Agni 2.
The benchmark figures resonate with our experience, with the Agni 2 managing a score of 449,040 in AnTuTu v9 tests, which is slightly lower than the Realme 10 Pro+. Geekbench 6 tests returned a score of 965 and 1758 single-core and multi-core scores, respectively.
As for benchmarks run on 3DMark, the Mali G68-MC4 GPU managed a best loop score of 643 in the Wild Life Extreme Stress test, with a stability score of 99.5 per cent. Sling Shot Extreme tests returned a score of 4287.
Alongside these tests, we played a bunch of games on the Agni 2. The device has support for 90fps mode in New State Mobile and ran without any hiccups throughout the end. Call of Duty: Mobile also performed exceptionally well with constant 60fps, with the graphics set to Low and framerates set to Max.
The Dimensity 7050 has been optimised well in the Agni 2 for casual gaming. However, we noticed the rear panel slowly warming up after a 20-minute gaming session, but not to an alarming level.
As for the software, this is probably our favourite part of the Agni 2. The device comes with Android 13 out-of-the-box. As of writing this review, our unit was running on the March security update. Surprisingly, the Agni 2 comes with clean software and no bloatware. The entirety of the UI is smooth, with animations wherever required.
Lava promises two years of Android upgrades and quarterly security updates for three years. In addition, it has the usual array of customisation options that come with Android 13. The available set of wallpapers is also quite vibrant and punchy.
While on the outside, it looks like stock Android, Lava has tweaked some portions for extra features. For example, DuraSpeed boosts the foreground app by restricting background ones. There are also a bunch of other settings in the Special Function tab, which helps improve the user experience.
One interesting feature that caught our eye was “Background Stream”, accessed from the notification panel. It lets you listen to YouTube in the background even if you are not signed up for YouTube Premium. Unfortunately, it does not play in PiP, but the audio continues to play, which is neat.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Cameras
- The Agni 2 features a 50-megapixel primary camera
- It can record videos up to 4K 30fps
The Agni 2, as mentioned before, sports a quad-camera setup inside the humongous module at the back. It has a 50-megapixel primary camera, an 8-megapixel ultrawide angle camera, a 2-megapixel depth camera, and a 2-megapixel macro camera. The Agni 2 features a 16-megapixel camera on the front for selfies.
The camera app is straightforward and comes with a bunch of interesting features, such as Gifs, film filters, a dedicated beauty mode, and more. The lens switching feature in the Agni 2 is a bit tedious as you have to slide from 1x to 0.6x, which is essentially switching from the primary camera to the ultra-wide angle. Ideally, three single buttons would’ve been more intuitive.
The cameras on the Agni 2 are decent. The primary camera takes fairly good photos, provided the scene has good lighting. The pixel-binned images consisted of sharp details, but it tends to boost the colours, especially yellows and greens. The white balance of the entire image leans a bit towards the warmer side. There’s room for improvement with the dynamic range as photos had blown out highlights and dark shadows.
Coming to human subjects, it manages to capture close to natural skin tones. Portrait mode photos had a good amount of blur, and you can set the level before capturing a shot. Edge detection also worked well.
The colour science consistency goes for a toss when switching to the ultra-wide angle camera, but that is something which is quite common in this price range.
Photos had a wider field of view, but the drop in detail was very clearly visible. Despite sufficient lighting, the edges of most images were teeming with noise. The lower resolution macro camera was not much of use, as it clicks overly-processed pictures.
Images captured during the night were below average, with blotchy details despite night mode kicking in. As for the selfie camera, the images were decent, but the dynamic range is disappointing here as well. The Agni 2 can record videos up to 4K 30fps.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Battery life and charging
- It packs a 4700mAh battery
- The phone includes a 66W charger in the box.
The Agni 2 packs in a 4700mAh battery and easily last an entire day with moderate usage. Despite not coming with a 5,000mAh battery — which seems to be the norm nowadays, the Agni 2 had reliable battery life.
We got around six hours of screen time, which mainly included social media and Netflix usage, along with some camera work. Overall, the battery life was quite good, and we were content with the output.
As for charging, the company bundles a 66W fast charger in the box. Surprisingly, it’s a USB Type-C to Type-C port. As a result, the phone hardly takes an hour to charge fully from the dead, which is good.
Lava Agni 2 5G Review: Verdict
The Agni 2 is a value-for-money phone that ticks off most necessary boxes. The phone has a gorgeous and, more importantly, modern design which sits well in this market. The curved display approach was well-executed, with good colours and touch response.
The Dimensity 7050 is also a great addition to the overall package. The primary camera is quite competent in most scenarios, but the HDR and ultra-wide angle camera could’ve been better. We have no hopes for the 2-megapixel duo.
Thankfully, Lava has optimised the device well enough to serve an entire day’s battery and that too with good charging speeds.
And, the best part — a bloatware-free software experience with future promises, makes the Agni 2 a good deal. However, a few bugs plague the Agni 2 at launch; hopefully, future updates will address them.
At a starting price of Rs 21,999, the Lava Agni 2 is a perfect option for people looking for a phone that can handle daily tasks and a bit of gaming while also lasting them an entire day.
