Lava Shark 5G review: a capable budget offering

• By Ashish Kumar
Published On: 20 Jun, 2025 Last Updated On: 12 Aug, 2025

Lately, Lava has been actively targeting the budget segment with a flurry of smartphone launches. The OEM recently introduced the Bold N1 series, Lava Shark 5G, and Storm Play series. In this review, we’ll focus on the Lava Shark 5G, which stands out as one of the most affordable 5G-enabled smartphones out there. Read on to see if this Shark is ready to rule the waters or just another small fish in the crowded budget smartphone ocean.

Familiar looks, decent display

The Lava Shark 5G appears to have drawn design inspiration from its rival, the itel A80 (review). The handset features a squircle camera module on the back, housing two vertically aligned camera rings that protrude slightly. Compared to the itel smartphone, the module is noticeably smaller and sports a standard LED flash instead of a ring flash. However, it is worth noting that the LED flash on the Shark 5G is placed within a subtle glittery ring, which might irk some users due to its off-centre alignment.

The handset sports a plastic unibody that feels reassuringly solid in hand and carries an IP54 rating, offering protection against minor water splashes. The flat-edge design ensures a comfortable grip, but the glossy back panel is a magnet for fingerprints and smudges. To mitigate this, Lava includes a transparent TPU case in the box, which not only helps keep the back clean but also adds an extra layer of durability. The phone features a side-mounted fingerprint scanner for security, which is highly accurate. In terms of I/O, it sports a USB Type-C port for charging and data transfer, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack on the bottom edge. There is a bottom-firing speaker that can get decently loud, but crackles at maximum volume.

The Lava Shark 5G features a 6.67-inch display with a U-shape notch, HD+ (720 x 1600 pixels) resolution, 600 nits peak brightness, and 90Hz refresh rate. The IPS LCD panel delivers vibrant colours, though the colour accuracy diminishes slightly when viewed from certain angles, which is a minor compromise. Outdoor legibility is decent for general content consumption, but visibility takes a hit under direct sunlight. The display truly shines indoors, offering an enjoyable experience for watching multimedia content. That said, it would have been better if the smartphone supported HD playback on streaming platforms.

The Lava Shark 5G is only Widevine L3 certified, offering a maximum SD (480p) playback resolution. While the default colour profile looks appealing, users have the option to customise it further according to their personal preferences.

Optics are acceptable for the price

Coming to the cameras, the Lava Shark 5G boasts a dual camera setup with a 13MP primary sensor and a basic auxiliary lens. The front camera is a 5MP shooter for selfies and video calling. The camera app is fairly easy to use and comes with a variety of modes, including Night, Pro, Portrait, Panorama, and Slow motion. The maximum video support on the smartphone is 4K at 30 fps. While these specs may sound impressive on paper, it’s important to keep expectations realistic. As a budget device, the cameras offer simple point-and-shoot functionality, delivering acceptable results for the price.

The details are decent, but contrast, colours, and dynamic range are average at best. The handset tends to overexpose shots, resulting in a hazy effect that crushes finer details and distorts colours, making them appear less true to life. The Shark 5G also struggles with contrast balance and often fails to preserve details in shadowy areas. Due to its small sensor size, you will also find a lot of noise in the images, even those captured in well-lit conditions, when zoomed in. The front camera outputs relatively better images.

Here’s a quick analysis of Lava Shark 5G images with the itel A80 in different scenarios:

Daylight

To begin with, the Lava Shark 5G consistently offers faster shutter speeds and quicker processing than the itel A80. In terms of results, the itel takes a contrast-heavy approach, boosting colours for better dynamic range and a more eye-catching look compared to the Lava Shark 5G. While neither smartphone accurately reproduces the scene, the Lava’s brighter output tends to deliver relatively sharper and more detailed images.

Lava Shark 5G

itel A80

Portrait

For portraits, too, the smartphones follow the same colour science as their respective primary cameras. The Lava Shark 5G tends to overexpose images, making them slightly washed out and lacking in detail, while the itel A80’s cooler tones make its portraits more appealing. The Lava smartphone also struggles with consistency in its bokeh effect, whereas the itel A80 performs slightly better in this area. That said, subject separation from the background is inaccurate on both smartphones.

Lava Shark 5G

itel A80

Selfie

The front-facing camera on the Lava Shark 5G offers superior detailing, skin tones, and colours to the itel A80. The itel smartphone adds a sepia shade to its selfies, deviating from the natural skin tones. That said, while the Lava smartphone delivers underwhelming background details, its dynamic range is better than its counterpart.

Lava Shark 5G

itel A80

Low light (night mode)

Low-light images from both smartphones are fairly unremarkable. But the Lava Shark 5G and itel A80 provide dedicated night mode, which extends the shutter duration to capture more light, resulting in improved detail in dimly lit conditions. The mode has to be enabled manually on both smartphones, and it is the Lava Shark 5G that comes out on top. The handset produces images with sharper details, less noise, and slightly boosted yet more vibrant colours. The itel A80 snaps look paler in comparison.

Lava Shark 5G

itel A80

Solid performance for basic tasks

The Lava Shark 5G is powered by the Unisoc T765 SoC, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage, which can be expanded by up to 512GB via a microSD card. The RAM can also be expanded virtually (up to 4GB) using a portion of the phone’s storage to run more apps simultaneously. Despite being a budget chipset, the Unisoc T765 brings 5G connectivity to the table, supporting sub-6GHz bands compatible with networks like Airtel, Vi, and Jio. The smartphone also comes with dual-band Wi-Fi support, which isn’t the case with every device within the segment.

Starting with the synthetic performance, the Lava Shark 5G outperforms the itel A80 by a margin on global benchmarking apps such as AnTuTu and Geekbench. It may not be the best-in-class, but the handset comes close to beating some of the more expensive smartphones within the segment, such as the itel A95 (review) and Redmi 14C (review), which are priced at Rs 9,599 and Rs 9,999, respectively.

That said, the Lava Shark 5G may throttle under intense load. This was evident in our Burnout test where the smartphone’s performance dropped to 48.4 percent. Be that as it may, the handset isn’t meant for heavy usage. It should at best be used to carry out regular activities, such as browsing, streaming, social media scrolling, navigation, and more. Notably, the Lava Shark 5G delivered a smoother experience than the itel A80 during our testing, with bare minimum lags or hiccups.

Additionally, the handset can handle graphically demanding games like BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3, albeit at low graphics settings and frame rates. Its thermal performance was respectable too, with temperatures rising by an average of just 5.6 degrees Celsius after 90 minutes of gameplay. That said, we did encounter occasional crashes and inconsistent frame rates, making the experience less enjoyable. If you’re a hardcore gamer, this may not be the right fit. The Lava Shark 5G is better suited for light, casual games like Ludo, Spider Solitaire, and similar titles.

Software-wise, the Lava Shark 5G runs Android 15 out of the box. While it features Lava’s custom skin, the customisations are minimal, offering a near-stock Android experience with clean app icons and no bloatware or ads. The handset comes with just 30 pre-installed apps, most of which are Google apps, along with a few proprietary ones like Lava Care, FM Radio, and Camera.

Even at its budget-friendly price point, Lava ensures users get the complete Android 15 experience, not a stripped-down Go edition. Moreover, the device is secured with quarterly security updates for the next two years and offers basic AI features, such as Google Gemini, Object Eraser, and more. That said, there is no word on the major software updates,

Reliable backup

The Lava Shark 5G packs a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging speeds, which is justifiable for the price. A compatible charger is provided in the box that takes more than two and a half hours to juice up the device from 20 to 100 percent. This is on par with the competitors. Be that as it may, you may not need to recharge the smartphone to get you through the day with basic activities.

The Lava Shark 5G is capable of providing ample juice to get you through browsing, scrolling, and casual streaming throughout the day. This was evident in the smartphone’s PCMark battery test, which simulates real-world activities, scoring 10 hours and 51 minutes. As for video streaming, the handset consumed 5 percent battery after 30 minutes.

Heavy users might have to recharge the device at least once to get through the day. This was evident in our gaming test, where the smartphone consumed a total of 23 percent after playing BGMI, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Real Racing 3 for 30 minutes each. This is on par with the competition. So, if you rely on your smartphone for navigation or other power-hungry tasks throughout the day, don’t forget to carry a charger or a power bank.

Verdict

The Lava Shark 5G is priced at Rs 7,999 and comes in a single RAM and storage variant, which may be limiting for some users as 64GB of storage can fill up quickly in today’s app-heavy environment. While the inclusion of a dedicated microSD card slot helps expand storage, it does come at an additional cost.

If you’re willing to make that investment, the Lava Shark 5G presents a compelling proposition. Its key strengths lie in its affordability, 5G connectivity, dual-band Wi-Fi support, smooth 90Hz refresh rate screen, and near-stock Android 15 experience with minimal bloatware. The handset performs reliably for everyday tasks such as browsing, streaming, social media, and light gaming.

Of course, like most budget smartphones, the Shark 5G isn’t without compromises. Its cameras struggle with colour accuracy and dynamic range, performance can throttle under heavy workloads, and charging speeds are modest. Nevertheless, it manages to outshine many of its competitors by offering solid value for money in the entry-level 5G space.

Editor’s rating: 7.6 / 10

Reasons to buy:

• 5G connectivity on a budget.
• Reliable performance for daily tasks such as browsing, streaming, social media, and light gaming.
• Near-stock Android 15 experience with minimal bloatware.

• Battery life is good enough to last an entire day of usage on regular use.

Reasons not to buy:

• Cameras struggle with dynamic range, contrast, and noise.
• Limited to a single 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant.
• Modest 10W charging speeds take over 2.5 hours for a full charge.