Beebom
Rating8
Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G strikes a hit in the under Rs 20,000 segment with a clean software experience, capable everyday performance and a battery that lasts the longest on the pitch. The 720p LCD display and single rear camera are trade-offs that you need to keep in mind. But in a struggling market where every run counts, the Lava Virat V1 Pro easily proves itself as an overall well-rounded phone.
Pros
- Clean, matte design
- IP64 dust and water resistance
- Smooth OS experience
- Reliable battery life
- Decent performance for the price
Cons
- LCD screen with HD+ resolution
- Average cameras
Lava played its innings well with the first Virat V1 5G smartphone, and now they are back again with the new Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G, featuring some upgrades over the previous model along with an increased price tag. I have been running around with this phone for a week now, and let me answer whether it deserves to be the man of the match or gets caught out in this Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G review.
Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G Unboxing
Lava covers all bases with its box accessories, and here's everything you will get with the Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G phone:
- Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G smartphone
- Transparent silicone case
- Pre-applied screen protector
- USB Type A to C cable
- 18W charging adapter
- SIM ejector tool
- Paperwork
Before jumping into the detailed review, let us take a moment to go through its key specifications.
Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G Key Details
Note: Our testing, opinion, and rating for this review are based on the phone's launch price. We recommend checking the current price before making a purchase decision.
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Design and Build
- 8.68 mm thickness, 207 grams weight
- Plastic frame and body, IP 64 rating
- 3.5mm audio jack, fingerprint scanner on the Power button
Lava has changed the pitch for the design of the Virat V1 Pro 5G, going with a more traditional look this time. It has a soft matte texture that prevents the phone from showing my fingerprints, with a camera deco that looks clearly inspired by the Pixel 10 Pro Fold.
I have been using the Sikkim Midnight colour variant of the V1 Pro for the review, and it's a low-profile colour scheme, but the camera module shows a spectrum of rainbow colours when the light bounces off it at certain angles. I tried my best to capture it on the camera, and here's how it looks.
This is a slightly chunky device, and the flat sides don't help with the hands-on experience, but it is manageable to carry around in my hands without the phone digging into my palms.
The build quality is solid, as nothing squeaks or cracks, and the weight is evenly distributed. It comes with an IP64 rating for protection against dust and water splashes, and while I have not dunked the device in a pool, it has been drenched in rain and has survived without any issues.
The only issues with the build quality are the buttons. The volume buttons feel mushy when pressed, and the power button, which also doubles as the fingerprint scanner, sits flush with the sides of the phone. This is an issue I raised in my Lava Virat V1 review as well, and the same continues here.
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Display and Audio Quality
- 6.75-inch (720 x 1600) HD+ LCD Display
- Panda Glass protection, 120 Hz refresh rate
- 550 nits of high brightness (as claimed by the brand)
The screen is basically the same one seen on the Virat V1 5G, with a 720p LCD panel, a teardrop notch and a 120 Hz refresh rate. The display is good enough for general use, like messaging on WhatsApp, browsing Facebook or Instagram or playing some casual games from time to time.
Throughout my Virat V1 Pro 5G review period, I put the phone through my typical use and watched a bunch of YouTube videos and a couple of episodes of The Office from time to time. The experience was as enjoyable as expected from budget phones these days.
The colours looked washed out, as is the case with most LCD phones, and the quality wasn't as crisp as expected because of the HD+ resolution. And 550 nits is a middling brightness, especially for outdoor visibility whenever I used the phone or tried to use it in harsh daylight.
There's also a single bottom-firing speaker which gets adequately loud and does the job. And thankfully, there's a headphone jack here too, which you can use with wired headphones if you want a bit more clarity in the sound.
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Performance Tested
- Unisoc T8200 processor
- 6 GB LPDDR4X RAM, 128 GB EMMC storage
The Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G comes with the Unisoc T8200 processor, the same one seen on the Virat V1 and HMD Vibe 2. I was unsure about this chipset, but after using it in other devices, I feel it is quite capable for its price, and here's how it fares in benchmark scores.
In everyday use, the Virat V1 Pro 5G holds up well with things like messaging, taking calls, and jumping between a handful of apps like Google Maps, Slack, YouTube and Instagram.
Gaming is where the extra 2 GB of RAM makes a difference. I played BGMI and CoD: Mobile during my Virat V1 Pro 5G review, and both titles support 60 FPS on the lowest graphics settings. The good thing is that the gameplay experience has been quite stable, even during long sessions.
CoD: Mobile averaged around 55 FPS with minor dips in frame rate here and there, and even after playing for an hour, the device did not throttle performance or get warm to the touch. BGMI was a little finicky, as it would dip to 40 FPS when hot dropping, but it was still quite playable. So, if a budget gaming phone is in your mind, the Virat V1 Pro wouldn't be a bad option.
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Software and Updates
- Running on Android 16
- 1 year of updates, 2 years of security patches
Software continues to be where Lava plays its best innings, as it ships with a surprisingly clean experience. Most phones I have reviewed at this price, and even much, much higher, often ship with a bucket full of pre-installed games, duplicate first-party apps and other bloatware.
It's almost a stock Android experience for the most part, with Lava only including the essentials. As a result, the software experience remained smooth throughout my Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G review period.
It comes with Android 16 out of the box and will receive only one update to Android 17, along with 2 years of security patches, which is a bummer. I would have liked to see at least 2 major software updates, but I guess that is the trade-off; the company decided to go in favour of an overall bloatware-free UI.
Cameras Reviewed
- 50 MP Main, f/1.8, video recording up to 2K @ 30 FPS
- 8 MP Selfie, f/2.0, video up to 1080p @ 30 FPS
In terms of cameras, the Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G upgrades the main camera to a 50 MP sensor and the selfie shooter to an 8 MP lens. So does the improved hardware deliver better images? Let's find out.
Main Camera
The 50 MP main camera takes serviceable photos in daylight. Some shots, like the Mario Kart photo and the pegboard, which were taken in controlled lighting, turned out really well and look almost like they were shot with a more capable camera setup.
The colours are not oversaturated, as they stick to mostly flat tones. That said, the details are not as sharp as I hoped they would be in the regular mode. They actually looked way more overblown than they normally should have been.
And zooming into the shot introduces noise, even during the day. Using the 50 MP mode fixes some of those issues with better detail handling. But I would not suggest this camera for anything more than a casual photo or scanning a document.
Nighttime images are above average, as they retain the general look of the shot, and the noise does not creep in unless I was shooting almost in the dark. But the exposure handling is off, and the shadows lack any detail.
Front Camera
The 8MP selfie camera is fine for what it is: decent skin tones in good light, nothing that'll wow you, and predictably softer results once the lighting gets tricky.
Video Quality
The video quality seems to be a downgrade, as it can only shoot in 2K @ 30 FPS, while the regular Virat V1 was capable of 4K recording at 30 FPS. Neither phone would deliver cinema-quality footage, but I would have still liked to see higher resolution, at least in the Pro model.
Battery Life and Charging
- 6,000mAh battery capacity
- 18W wired charging supported
- 1–100% in 2 hours and 15 minutes
When it comes to battery, the Virat V1 Pro 5G manages to last the longest on the pitch. I consistently got around 8 hours of screen-on time during my Virat V1 Pro 5G review period, which included messaging, social media, some video, and the occasional gaming session.
I started my day with 100% charge and always returned home with 30% charge left in the device. I would leave it to charge at night with its 18W adapter. But the charging took longer than usual, taking around 2 hours and 15 minutes to charge from 1–100%, and I tested it multiple times to make sure it wasn't a bug.
I don't have a clear explanation for why it was so slow. It could be a software optimisation issue which might get fixed with an update.
Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G Review Verdict: Should You Buy It?
After a week of use for this Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G review, my experience turned out to be decent for the most part. The design and display are more functional than flashy, and the 6 GB RAM paired with the Unisoc T8200 chipset ensures that the device does not run out of memory during important tasks.
The camera is certainly the low point of the phone, but that is an acceptable trade-off for a phone under Rs 20,000 these days, with the ongoing RAM and memory shortage hiking smartphone prices every other day. Plus, the clean software experience is a major win in my books.
So, the Lava Virat V1 Pro 5G is a good device to consider at its current price. But if you want a phone with a better display, then you can consider the Samsung Galaxy M17 or the Oppo A6c.
