Lava Yuva 2 Pro review: a design-focused entry-level smartphone

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro is a relatively new smartphone which is priced below Rs. 10,000 in India. This is a rare launch in a once crowded segment as many companies have focused on higher price points. The Lava Yuva 2 Pro is for anyone considering buying their first smartphone or upgrading to a smartphone from a feature phone. It also tries to look like an iPhone from the back. Like the Lava Blaze 5G (Review), the Lava Yuva 2 Pro also has a glass back panel. However, it is often said that you should not judge a book by its cover, and in this case, a phone by its looks.

If you want to buy a new smartphone for less than Rs. 10,000 in India, is the Lava Yuva 2 Pro for you? Here’s our full review to help you decide.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro Price in India

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro was launched in a single configuration in India. The phone has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, and is priced at Rs. 7,999. The device is available in three colors: Glass White, Glass Green and Glass Lavender.

Design and display of Lava Yuva 2 Pro

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro features a premium glass back panel, which is quite impressive considering its price. Its overall feel in hand is similar to that of the more expensive Lava Blaze 5G – premium but slightly heavy at 204g. The plastic frame is flat, following the trend seen in most smartphones these days. The power and volume buttons are on the right and are fairly easy to reach. The 3.5mm headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and speaker grille are on the bottom. While the top is empty, the left has a dual Nano-SIM tray.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro has quite a thick chin

The design could be a selling point for the Lava Yuva 2 Pro. The camera module layout seems to have been inspired by the new iPhone 14 Pro (Review) and its recent predecessors. In the case of Lava however, there is hardly any protrusion. The rear panel does attract a few fingerprints and smudges, but they weren’t very noticeable on the white colored unit I have with me.

The teardrop notch at the top of the screen, along with the thick chin, give the Lava Yuva 2 Pro a budget phone look. It has a 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen with HD+ resolution, which is quite common in this price range. Whether it’s the exterior brightness or the sharpness of the display, it’s a fairly average display. The single bottom-firing speaker is loud enough to fill a room, though.

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro screen is not bright enough for outdoor use.

The screen refreshes at a standard rate of 60Hz, and people buying the Lava Yuva 2 Pro are unlikely to care much about it or find it lacking.

Specifications and software Lava Yuva 2 Pro

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro is equipped with the new MediaTek Hello G37 octa-core SoC, which has a maximum clock speed of 2.3 GHz. It packs a 5000mAh battery and comes with a 10W charger in the box. The phone supports 4G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 5.1 and GPS. It has a side fingerprint reader and support for facial recognition. You can expand the memory up to 256 GB using a microSD card.

In terms of software, the Lava Yuva 2 Pro comes with Android 12 from last year. Even at that price, Lava should have offered the current Android 13 experience to its customers. On the plus side, this phone doesn’t come with a lot of third-party apps pre-installed. The app drawer shows some Lava apps such as Lava Care and Lava Guide, as well as a third-party app called Doubtnut.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro offers a clean software experience

Other than that, you get a standard Android experience. I didn’t notice any spam from the pre-installed apps. The phone also has the Android privacy dashboard feature, as well as indicators in the status bar whenever an app is using the camera, location, or microphone.

Although it is relatively clean, the user experience is not very good. I noticed stutters on the User Interface (UI) when switching between apps and even just opening the app drawer. Apps take a while to load, and even switching between different camera modes takes a second or two. That’s what you’d expect from an entry-level smartphone.

Lava has not confirmed if the Yuva 2 Pro will receive the new Android 13 update, let alone the upcoming Android 14. At the time of writing this review, my review unit was running the December security patch. 2022.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro performance and battery life

The MediaTek Helio G37 is an entry-level SoC good enough for basic and routine tasks. I wouldn’t recommend playing heavy games like Call of Duty: Mobile or Asphalt 9 Legends on this phone. I tried them and the first one loaded with low graphics settings and medium frame rate. You can increase them, but there were frequent frame drops and stutters during playback. Something lighter like Subway Surfer was much more manageable.

I ran some benchmark tests on the Lava Yuva 2 Pro to see the potential of the SoC. In AnTuTu, he scored 1,25,832 points. In Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core tests, the Lava Yuva 2 Pro scored 204 and 891 points, respectively. The similarly priced Moto E13 (Review), which features a Unisoc T606 SoC, scored 1,82,498 points in AnTuTu and 376 and 1,354 points in Geekbench 6 respectively.

There is a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, which is very responsive and quick to unlock the phone. Alternatively, you can use AI-based facial recognition for biometric authentication.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro has a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB Type-C port.

Since the hardware on offer isn’t very resource-intensive, you can expect the Yuva 2 Pro to deliver up to two days of battery life on a single charge. In our HD video battery loop test, this phone lasted 15 hours and 4 minutes before needing a charge. It comes with a 10W adapter in the box which takes about two hours to fully charge the phone.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro Cameras

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro has a 13-megapixel primary rear camera along with what the company describes as two “VGA sensors” that seem to serve no purpose. For selfies, the front camera has a 5-megapixel sensor.

The rear camera layout is similar to the iPhone 14 Pro series

Daylight performance is decent when it comes to color and detail. The dynamic range is also quite acceptable at this price point. However, the camera does not expose shadows well enough on some shots. In low light, it is best to avoid using the camera. Unless the scene is well lit, you will see poor exposure and lots of noise in the darker areas of the photos. The two VGA sensors add no value and are just there to make the phone look premium. Therefore, while the phone is marketed as having a triple camera setup on the back, it actually only has one usable sensor.

The front camera is surprisingly good for the price when there’s good lighting. It manages to get the right skin tone. Portrait mode images, in most cases, offer good blur and edge detection.

Lava Yuva 2 Pro camera samples (from top to bottom: rear camera, rear camera, rear camera night mode, front camera). Tap to see full size

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro records video up to 1080p 30fps. You get average quality shaky images with mediocre dynamic range and sharpness.

Verdict

The Lava Yuva 2 Pro is one of the most affordable smartphones in India. For its price, it offers a premium design, decent daylight camera performance, and good battery life. If these parameters check your needs, the Lava Yuva 2 Pro could be considered for Rs. 7,999.

However, performance is where this phone struggles, and where its rival, the Moto E13 (Review), has an edge. The Motorola option includes the better optimized Unisoc T606 SoC and newer Android 13 software.