Lava recently launched its Blaze Curve 5G in India at a starting price of Rs 17,999 and Poco followed through with its own handset, namely the Poco X6 Neo 5G, which has a starting price of Rs 15,999. For a Rs 2,000 premium, is the Lava Blaze Curve 5G worth it or should you opt for the X6 Neo 5G? Let’s compare the two devices.
Design & Display
While design is always subjective, we think both devices cater to different types of audiences in this area. While the Lava Blaze Curve 5G has a more minimal and cleaner look, the Poco X6 Neo 5G has a flashier design with colour choices to suit this design language. However, we feel the curved back glass panel of the Blaze Curve 5G would feel more premium in the hand than the X6 Neo 5G, according to our experience with the former in its full review.
The Lava Blaze Curve 5G sports a 6.67-inch FHD+ AMOLED screen with a 120 Hz Refresh Rate. The display has 1.07 billion colour depth and supports HDR, HDR 10, HDR 10+, and Widevine L1. It can reach up to 800 nits peak brightness and has 394 PPI.
The Poco X6 Neo sports a 6.67-inch full-HD+ AMOLED Display with 1080×2400 pixels resolution. Further, there is a 120Hz refresh rate, a peak brightness of 1,000 nits, instantaneous touch sampling rate of up to 2160Hz, 1920Hz PWM dimming, Gorilla Glass 5 protection and a hole-punch at the front.
While the display specs remain similar, it’s up to you whether you prefer a flat panel or a curved one. The latter does feel and look more premium, but the former is easier to protect with additional accessories such as tempered glass.
Power & Software
Lava’s handset is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 7050 SoC, coupled with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS 3.1 onboard storage. On the other hand, Poco’s phone packs a MediaTek Dimensity 6080 SoC under the hood. It is coupled with up to 12GB LPDDR4X RAM and 256GB UFS 2.2 internal storage.
This is where Lava takes the lead in raw power, as it gets you a faster Chipset and faster RAM and storage types. However, the RAM does fall short at 8GB compared to 12GB in the top model of Poco X6 Neo. As for software, MIUI in Poco’s device will offer you more features, but Lava has considerably improved its software as well, thanks to the switch to full-stock Android accounting for a decently polished experience.
Cameras
For optics, the Lava Blaze Curve 5G packs a triple rear camera unit. The primary lens is a 64-megapixel Sony IMX686, accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide angle sensor and a 2MP macro sensor. The front features a 32-megapixel sensor for selfies.
Poco’s X6 Neo 5G has a dual rear camera setup. The primary sensor is 108 megapixels, and the depth shooter is 2 megapixels. The front camera is a 16-megapixel selfie camera.
While Lava’s auxiliary cameras didn’t perform well in its review, its primary sensor did. Moreover, the ultra-wide-angle sensor is significantly better than the depth shooter on Poco’s smartphone, regardless of the quality. So, in this segment, we’d give the win to Lava’s device.
Battery
Both have a 5000mAh battery with 33W fast charging, so there’s no competition here. However, the battery’s performance depends on software optimization, and we cannot comment on who’s the winner based on that as we haven’t used the X6 Neo 5G yet.
Verdict
The Poco X6 Neo 5G costs Rs 15,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model and Rs 17,999 for the 12GB + 256GB model. On the other hand, Lava Blaze Curve 5G starts at Rs 17,999 for the 8GB + 128GB model while the 8GB + 256GB model costs Rs 18,999.
For a thousand bucks more than the top model of Poco X6 Neo 5G, you get the top-end model of Blaze Curve 5G, which is actually a better offering than Poco’s handset in most ways, including the display, software and performance, and cameras, making it a value-for-money product. However, if you are strict with your budget, Poco’s handset shouldn’t disappoint you either.
