Lava Shark 5G Review: The New Budget King in India

Making the right smartphone is always a challenge, especially when trying to meet the ever-evolving demands of users on a tight budget. In today’s world of feature-packed devices, offering the most value for the least money has become something of a lost art, as smartphone prices continue to rise. But Lava has bucked that trend with a new offering – the Shark 5G – priced at just Rs 7,999. And while that price might make you assume the basics have been compromised, that’s far from the case

The biggest surprise is the inclusion of 5G connectivity, a feature rarely seen in this price segment. Even more impressive is the phone’s 6.75-inch display with a 90Hz refresh rate, which offers a smoother user experience than many of its budget peers. Powering the device is a 5,000mAh battery that easily delivered a full day of usage during our testing.

In the box, you get a 10W charger, a USB Type-C cable, and a clear protective case – a nice touch at this price. The phone itself supports up to 18W fast charging, which, while not blazing fast, is respectable for the category.

The Shark is powered by the UNISOC T765 chipset, paired with 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM. Interestingly, Lava has also included a RAM expansion feature that adds an additional 4GB of virtual memory, bringing the total up to 8GB for smoother multitasking. On the storage front, you get 64GB of internal storage, which can be expanded up to 512GB via microSD card.

What stood out most to me was the clean, bloatware-free UI. As someone who appreciates the stock Android experience, it’s refreshing to see it make its way to a phone in this price range, untouched and functional. This, coupled with the high refresh rate screen that I mentioned earlier, come together to give an impressive user experience. There’s no bloatware to slow things to down and as a result, you get to have stutter-free animations – something that you can experience and appreciate in all its glory thanks to the screen refresh rate being high. The result of this combination of features goes beyond the spec sheet and you really have to use the phone to understand what I am on about. Another standout feature is Lava’s home service support – a rare and thoughtful inclusion at this price point.

Design-wise, the phone is sleek and well-built, and while the rear camera module might remind you of more premium devices, the overall look feels polished. You get a 13MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. To be direct, the camera performance is decent at best, but it meets expectations for this price category. There’s a Pro Mode and other camera features that are worth exploring if you want to experiment and get more out of your shots. Between photography and videography, it is the former that manages to stand out more thanks to good image processing done by the phone. The images don’t need to be retouched after clicking as they are good enough from the get go.

And yes, for those who still value wired audio, the 3.5mm headphone jack is present –though headphones are not included in the box. Still, at this price, that’s hardly a complaint.

Now, all of this comes at a price of just under Rs 8,000, and at that price point, it’s hard to ask for more. It even has the IP54 dust and water resistance rating for crying out loud! A clean stock Android experience, thoughtful design, 5G connectivity, and a 90Hz display all come together to offer an experience that goes beyond its price tag.

To sum it up, Lava has done the unthinkable by delivering exceptional value without cutting corners where it matters most. Without a doubt, the Shark 5G is the new budget king in town.