The smartphone world is relatively saturated. You have a wealth of choices whether you’re looking for a budget, midrange, or flagship phone. I don’t think it needs to be argued that the latter has the least variety of the bunch, and I’d posit that the midrange segment is probably the most cramped.
That means that manufacturers making midrange devices have to figure out a way to stick out amongst the competition. Lava Mobiles decided that the key to making its Agni 3 smartphone an exceptional player was to add a display to the back. It’s sure been a while since we’ve seen that.
A Secondary Display On The Back Isn’t New, But The Lava Agni 3 Does It Pretty Well
You might not have heard about Lava Mobiles before, but that’s because the company hawks its wares pretty intensely in India, and does a good job with sales in that part of the world.
The company has just unveiled its Lava Agni 3 and if you normally would not have heard about it, the AMOLED touchscreen on the back certainly brings it to the fore. It’s not the first time screens on the back are being done as Cubot, Ulefone, Meizu, and even Nubia have been there before, but this implementation seems particularly polished.
The Lava Agni 3 has a 1.74-inch AMOLED touchscreen on the back, sharing the same elevated panel as the cameras. It’s sort of like the cover screen on one of those clamshell foldables. That means you can check notifications, pick up calls, control your music, use it as a viewfinder, and operate some of Lava’s custom-built apps to check the weather, set times, and track your steps. It can even house a cute animated pet.
The Action Key Gives You The Potential For A Lot More Customization
Another thing that Lava Mobiles doesn’t want you to miss when it comes to the Agni 3 is the Action Key. Sure, Apple has something like that now, but Lava has clearly been working on it for some time too.
Using the Action Key, you can map quite a few different abilities to single, double, and long presses of the button. For instance, you can use it to open any app on your smartphone, turn on the flashlight, change the ringing profile (sort of like an alert slider), or use it to take pictures.
The Lava Agni 3 Is A Midrange Device And The Specs And Pricing Agree About That
The Lava Agni 3 is not trying to be some kind of flagship killer. It’s an unapologetic midrange device and you get good specs in that tier.
For instance, a MediaTek Dimensity 7300X runs the show along with 8GB of RAM. You can choose between 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage. It runs on Android 14, but you’re going to get 3 years of OS updates and 4 years of security updates. Not bad. Plus, the battery is an average-sized 5,000 mAh unit with 66W wired charging.
The screen on the front is a 6.78-inch AMOLED with 120Hz refresh, 1.5K resolution, and curved edges to the left and right. There’s a 16MP selfie camera on the front. Flip the phone over and you’ll find a 50MP main unit with a Sony sensor and OIS, paired with an 8MP 3x telephoto and an 8MP ultrawide.
At the moment, the device is only available in India in the Pristine Glass and Heather Glass colorways. However, it is very affordable as it’ll start at INR 20,999, which is just about $250.
