Lava Virat V1 Pro review: ups the stakes in key areas

Positioned above the Lava Virat V1 5G, the Virat V1 Pro targets users who want reliable performance and fast internet speeds at Rs 15,999. The Lava Virat V1 Pro also emphasises several budget-friendly AI features that support users’ daily workflows, along with a clean, bloatware-free experience. That said, with the Unisoc T8200 processor, 6,000mAh battery, and IP64 rating, is the Virat V1 Pro worth considering in a market with several available options? Find out in this review.

Quick verdict

The Lava Virat V1 Pro is well suited to users looking for a capable 5G smartphone on a low budget that can handle daily tasks reliably while offering bloatware-free software. The handset also features one of the highest RAM and storage combinations in its range, so users can store more media for viewing on the phone’s tall LCD display. The cameras and software design, however, still need some improvement.

Design: nothing extraordinary

Starting with the design, the Virat V1 Pro sports a typical reflective rear panel with a matte finish, unlike its younger sibling, Virat V1 5G (review). The only highlight is the squarish camera module, which includes a 50MP primary camera, an LED flashlight, and an auxiliary lens, all divided by two pill-shaped housings. While our review unit came in the blue Sikkim Midnight colourway, the Virat V1 Pro is also available in the silver Spiti Forest shade.

As for handling and comfort, it’s a considerably tall phone because of its thick chin, while its 207g weight and 8.68mm profile make it mostly manageable to hold for long periods once you get used to it.

Like most Lava phones released in the past, the Virat V1 Pro is IP64-certified for protection against water and dust exposure. Additional perks include a 3.5mm headphone jack at the bottom, which should make up for the lack of stereo output from the speakers. The SIM card slot also includes a dedicated microSD card slot for storage expansion of up to 1TB. Lava also bundles a transparent soft TPU back cover that gives the device extra grip.

Display: outputs sufficiently vivid tones

With a 6.75-inch IPS LCD display featuring a U-shaped cutout, HD+ resolution, and a 120Hz refresh rate, the Virat V1 Pro offers a visual experience nearly identical to that of the Virat V1 5G, given their identical specifications. The colours are sufficiently vibrant and don’t distort much when viewed from the side. As for details, casual viewers may find the 720p resolution decent enough for everyday use, while power users may find the clarity limiting.

Thanks to the 120Hz refresh rate, certain casual games like Clash Royale offer smooth interaction, while the system and apps also take advantage of the high refresh rate for seamless scrolling. Though I did notice the screen stutter when opening or closing apps, likely due to the restrictive hardware and unfinished software optimisation. On YouTube, the phone can make the most of a video’s bitrate by supporting up to 2160p (4K) resolution.

Performance and software: requires some refinements

Performance is an area where the Lava Virat V1 5G and Virat V1 Pro differ little, since both use the 6nm Unisoc T8200 processor with clock speeds of up to 2.3GHz and a Mali-G57 MC2 GPU. The Virat V1 Pro should fare better in the long run, since it packs 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, giving users more memory and storage capacity to load apps, while the Virat V1 5G comes in a single 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant.

The phone scores over 5 lakh on AnTuTu and 1,810 on Geekbench’s multi-core test, giving it a fair advantage over the similarly priced Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro 4G (review).

As stated in the display section, the phone may not always deliver a smooth scrolling experience, but that’s mostly limited to opening and closing apps. Other tasks, such as loading social media feeds, playing videos, browsing the web, and playing light games, are handled well without many hiccups.

As for the software experience, like the standard Virat V1 5G and Shark 2 5G, the Virat V1 Pro runs a custom skin based on Android 16 with no third-party apps by default. The phone builds on the aforementioned phones by adding a dedicated “AI Smart Services” section in Settings, featuring nifty functions like AI Translate, AI Text Assistant, AI Pets, and AI Agents, which we previously saw on Lava Agni 4.

While the features work as intended, the user interface looks bland and dull. Speaking of which, other prominent areas of the UI, such as the lockscreen, About phone page, and certain pop-up menus, carry an outdated interface.

On the other hand, I am happy to report that Virat V1 Pro includes one of the most essential AI features for Android users: Google’s Circle to Search, which allows you to easily look up content on the screen by circling the area. Then there’s the usual set of features, such as call recording without announcement, three-finger screenshot, a sidebar to open apps from the edge of the screen, Anti-Peeping that greys out specific parts of the display, and more.

As for updates, the Virat V1 Pro will be upgraded to Android 17 and receive two years of security patch updates, which is pretty standard for the segment.

Battery: offers great endurance

With a 6,000mAh cell, the Lava Virat V1 Pro doesn’t disappoint in the battery department, at least compared to its close competitors. In our in-house PCMark Battery Drain test, which emulates daily tasks such as watching videos, opening and reading documents, browsing webpages, rendering mp4 files, and more, the phone clocked over 14 hours of runtime from 100 to 20 percent.

These numbers are significantly higher than those of the HMD Vibe 2 (review), which also has a 6,000mAh battery, and the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro. Standby drain is low, with the phone lasting over four days on a single charge while also handling tasks like playing Clash Royale and CODM, scrolling through Instagram, capturing and viewing photos, and more.

In our tests, the Lava Virat V1 Pro took just over two hours to charge from 20 to 100 percent, which is much faster than the HMD Vibe 2. Overall, the Virat V1 Pro’s battery should suit most use cases, lasting at least a day with light gaming and 5G usage.

Camera: usable results, but may need work

The Lava Virat V1 Pro has a 50MP primary camera on the rear, while the front features an 8MP unit in the display’s notch cutout for selfies and video calls. Key camera modes include Night Mode, Beauty, Document Correction, Dual-View Video, GIF, Pro Mode, Motion Photo, Panorama, Slow Motion, Time Lapse, and multiple filters.

In real-world use, the Virat V1 Pro delivers usable results, with colours kept on the natural side to the point that some may find them dull. Nevertheless, a bit of editing and touch-ups can bring out the vibrancy in images. What editing can’t change, though, is the level of detail, which, as expected, is on the lower end due to the small camera sensor size. Even though the phone does a decent job keeping the sky and background colours natural in daylight, challenging scenes where the sun takes up most of the frame still blow out highlights and the sky’s blue.

In selfies, even with ample sunlight on the face, the Lava Virat V1 Pro adds blue-greenish hues, making the image appear artificial and unappealing. At night, the images turned out soft and noisy, while the colours aren’t accurately represented.

To further assess the cameras of the Lava Virat V1 Pro, we pitted it against the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro:

Daylight

In daylight, while the Lava Virat V1 Pro captures more detail, the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro delivers accurate colours and retains the sky’s colour instead of blowing out the highlights. Furthermore, the Lava handset leans more towards the contrasty side, which some may prefer over the Tecno’s almost flat look. 

Portraits

Portraits are where the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro impresses. It captures more accurate skin tones and colours, resulting in a natural-looking image. The handset also delivers better detail and clarity compared to the Lava Virat V1 Pro. Edge detection is more evenly matched, with the Tecno handling hair better, while the Lava does a slightly better job around the clothes. The bokeh effect is similar on both phones, with little to separate them.

In portraits, both smartphones look evenly matched at first glance, but on closer inspection, the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro edges out the Virat V1 Pro in detail and colour retention, while the edge detection and bokeh are identical on both.

Selfies

The Lava Virat V1 Pro adds strong cool tones to the overall image, including the face despite the scene having strong sunlight. In this regard, the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro does a much better job of depicting the actual scene while also retaining slightly more detail.

Low-light (night mode)

With night mode enabled on both smartphones, the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro does a better job of controlling the light sources, resulting in fewer flares, while the Lava Virat V1 Pro retains slightly more clarity.

Final verdict

The Lava Virat V1 Pro is another 5G offering from Lava, with many similarities to the standard Virat V1 5G, including the 6.75-inch HD+ LCD display, Unisoc T8200 processor, 6,000mAh battery, and familiar clean software experience. Priced Rs 1,500 more than the Virat V1 5G’s 4GB + 128GB variant, the Virat V1 Pro adds 6GB of RAM and a high-resolution primary camera, while also bundling several software perks, such as a full-fledged AI suite and Circle to Search.

So, if you prioritise AI features in your daily use, spending the extra on the Virat V1 Pro could be worthwhile. Additionally, the 6GB of RAM should help the device handle added workloads down the line. On the other hand, the Tecno Spark Go 3 Pro 4G, priced at Rs 15,999 for 4GB + 128GB of storage, delivers more polished software and capable cameras but lacks 5G. Alternatively, the HMD Vibe 2 5G is equally capable, but it doesn’t offer as much battery life as the Virat V1 Pro.

Ultimately, if you can overlook minor software inconsistencies and sub-par cameras, the Lava Virat V1 Pro, at Rs 15,999, is worth considering for casual users or those upgrading from feature phones or 4G devices.

Editor’s rating: 8/10

Reasons to buy

• The large LCD display delivers enough vibrancy for everyday content viewing.
• The software is devoid of bloatware, resulting in a fairly clean interface out of the box.
• The 6,000mAh battery easily delivers a working day’s worth of backup on a full charge
• It offers one of the highest RAM and storage capacities in its price range.

Reasons to skip

• The cameras lack details and vibrant colours.
• Several parts of the UI features an outdated design and inconsistencies.