LAVA Agni 3 Review - One Month Later: Is AGNI the New COOL?

If Lava Agni 3 caught your eye, then it's probably because of one thing: the secondary mini display at its back. Right? Yes, the action button deserves a mention too, but frankly, as much useful as it is, it lacks the glam of the mini screen. But what if we told you that as much as we fancy the secondary small display at the back, it's not actually that useful. Or any useful at all, for real.

But does the mini screen really have to be very useful, eh?

That's the thing, you know. It doesn't have to be truly useful, it shall just catch the eye of the onlookers, make your presence felt, stand out and be noticeable, and that it does very well. Like they are looking at some 1.73 lakh rupee phone! And the professional design and feel the phone carries only helps that case. So, all cool for this Agni then, right? Well, we wish it was that simpler. Here is our Lava Agni 3 review!

What's in the box

• The Lava Agni 3 phone
• USB cable (Type C to Type C)
• Charger (except when bought without charger)
• A silicone back cover
• A SIM ejector tool
• A standard guide

The box itself features a magnetic flip and comes in bright orange color, and is a bit bigger than usual.

Design

• Colors: Pristine Glass and Heather Glass
• IP64 rated

The Agni 3 from Lava is looks pretty neat. It's a super-professional and completely non-fancy design that is never in your eye but always feels nice when you look at it. Lava offers the Agni 3 in two colors, purple and white, officially labeled Heather Glass and Pristine Glass respectively, and both are quite adorable!

The curvy display on the front is adorable! Though, we would be remiss if we didn't tell you that it does make the phone slippery like hell and thus more prone to breaking. Good thing then that Lava supplies a decent transparent case that is thin, but but a bit sturdy – enough to provide some confidence-giving protection to the Agni 3. Anyway, the curvy display remains a matter of personal choice – some may prefer a flat one by all means.

The camera section at the back is bold yet simple, and it houses the cameras and that so-satisfying-to-know-you-have-it secondary display pretty well without overdoing anything design-wise. That Lava managed to install a secondary display without making any fuss in the design is pretty impressive.

Truth be told, the finish and feel of the Lava Agni 3 doesn't make it feel like a budget phone (just 22K something, remember?) – as it feels solidly premium. It's pretty good to hold and look at, believe me. I have been a Pixel 7 Pro user for about a year (changed to 8 Pro in August 2024 only, a few months back that is) and I often feel like I am back on the 7 Pro when using the Agni 3 thanks to curvy AMOLED display (of about the same size) and stock Android 14 experience. Kudos to Lava for that!

I literally have no complains about Agni 3's design. If I were to nitpick though, the buttons on the sides could have been a bit better, but for a phone that costs just Rs 20K (without charger, but it seems that option is no longer available as of November 25, 2024) and gives you a ton of exclusive features, it would be wrong to complain about that.

That's all about the delightful design of the Agni 3. But I shall highlight a few issues with hardware here. Without taking anything from Agni 3's otherwise impressive hardware, the haptics Motor inside the Agni 3 fails to impress. It's bad. It's very noticeably bad. :( The tactile feedback from the phone strong, but not deep and solid, and a bit in-your-face, and feels utterly cheap.

It even makes a cringy sound every time while giving you the tactile feedback. You can't make it softer in settings either, AFAIK. I really wish the haptics motor was better as it kills the otherwise professional design and performance of the phone a bit. I can't live without tactile feedback so I could not turn it off for more than 5 minutes (I tried!) but yes, after a week, I somehow made my peace with it and it stopped bothering me actively.

The IP64 rating for the Agni 3 means that it's fully dustproof and safe from water splashes from any angle but is not water resistance! So, keep it out of water or strong jets!

The in-display fingerprint scanner on Agni 3 works great but is rather positioned low. It's too close to the bottom for my liking – and its icon's color is also not professional – and I think while the idea of making it easy to reach at bottom is nice, they did overkill it.

Agni 3 design score: 9.5/10

Display

Specs:

• Size: 6.78 inches
• Type: AMOLED
• Resolution: 1200 x 2652 pixels (~429 PPI density)
• Brightness: 1200 nits (peak)
• Supports 120Hz and HDR10+
• Secondary display on the back: AMOLED, 1.74 inches (4.41cm), 336 x 480 pixels

The 6.78-inch AMOLED panel that graces the front of Agni 3 is bold and colorful – actually, a bit too punchy to my taste but many Indians will love it I guess. If you are like me (Pixel lovers!), you may find it overwhelming. Coming on the back of using Pixel 7 Pro and 8 Pro for over an year before the Agni 3, I found the colors to be too loud.

I know, I know, people like punchy colors, but I appreciate actual colors more. The same apps and webpages started looking different on Agni 3 because of extra saturation. Oh, did I tell you I felt all this on the phone's normal mode, not the even-livelier Vivid mode, that comes as default. It's something I couldn't stand for 5 minutes and I fount it so overbearing that changing this color setting is the first thing I did – I even checked the highlight feature in mini screen later. That's saying something considering the smaller display at the back is what you would expect anyone to check first of all on Agni 3.

Apart from the display's super bold color and temperature, I like everything about it. In fact, I love its brightness levels (1200 nits at peak) – I recently found that it's not as bright as Motorola Edge 50 Neo, but it works alright. On the opposite side, I totally adore how "extra dim" Agni 3 could get. Both my last two phones in Pixel 7 Pro and 8 Pro couldn't dim the brightness well even with extra dim enabled in settings, but Agni 3 does it perfect.

You won't feel any strain on your eyes once you enable 'extra dim' on Agni 3 even in the darkest room – it's godsend for someone like me who can't avoid watching or reading something in bed before sleeping. I can't overstate how good extra dim feature feels with Lava Agni 3 as the display becomes very dark, as I want it – so much that I had to increase brightness a couple of times and allow some light to the screen to be able to watch the darker screens in the "The Legend of Vox Machina" TV series (I still feel sad they killed Percy). Yes, I just finished the episodes 7 to 9 of S03 moments ago!).

Anyhoo, the display is great. If you love watching something in dark while in bed, believe me, you need your phone's display to have lower brightness level like Agni 3 to cause less strain on your eyes.

About that mini screen at the back...

The mini screen on the Lava Agni 3's back side, right beside the camera modules, is a fun novelty feature, something you lover exploring right away. But truth be told, once you have explored and shown to your family and close friends, the novelty wears off pretty quickly as it's not very practical.

While the mini screen can be used for various tasks like taking selfies, displaying photos, and controlling music, these features are not essential and you can forget to use mini screen for this really easily because AOD allows you to do almost everything it does.

Where I found it to be the worst is that the mini screen becomes very distracting when watching videos or movies in bed (under dark environment), as it can easily get activated accidentally and emit a bright light, causing great distraction.

Lava does need to make mini screen more useful. For example, make it do a shutter button animation when you click a photo, and even show a photo preview right away, so that audience knows the photo was just clicked.

Agni 3 display score: 9.5/10

Agni 3 mini screen score: Quality: 9/10 | Software: 5/10

Performance

Specs:

• Chipset: Mediatek Dimensity 7300X processor powered by 4 nm tech (a segment first)
  • CPU: Octa-core:
    • 4 cores: 2.5 GHz Cortex-A78
    • 4 cores: 2.0 GHz Cortex-A55
  • GPU: Mali-G615 MC2
• 8GB LPDDR5 RAM
• 128GB/256GB UFS 3.1 storage

Well, the Dimensity 7300X chipset that resides at the heart of Agni 3 is impressive. You should note that the only other devices that currently offer (as of November 25, 2024) is Motorola Razr 50 (2024) foldable phone that costs twice as much as Agni 3. The Dimensity 7300X processor set doesn't disappoint one bit. In everyday tasks, this phone never lagged or stopped at anything. Dare I say, the phone simply flies.

I didn't actually feel I am using a mid-range (or low-mid-range) device to be honest. This is a big statement as my phone prior to this was Pixel 8 Pro, which is a behemoth of a performant. Sure, while Agni 3 is nowhere near Google's 2023 flagship, but the fact that Agni 3 doesn't make me miss the 8 Pro says a lot about it. I really did not expect not missing 8 Pro's performance when I decided to switch away as I am a big fan of it.

Whatever we asked of Agni 3 in daily usage, it delivered pretty quickly. That said, insane speeds are not expected from a device of this range, nor are present. And even when delivering top-notch performance in daily use for casual tasks for longer time, the Agni 3 never got hot or even warm.

It is fair to say that the so-advertised 8GB LPDDR5 RAM coupled with extra 8GB virtual memory, UFS 3.1 storage, and VC cooling tech employed by Lava, all make it a great performer for even the heavy-usage daily life tasks.

Gaming on Agni 3

The Agni 3 does get a bit warmer when you play games for a longer duration, but that's expected form this price range anyway. We played BGMI on our Agni 3 and found that it can run the game with HDR graphics and at ultra frame rate. While, talking about COD Mobile, the device supports maximum frame rates and high graphics. If you ask us, that's satisfactory gaming performance.

Benchmarks

Geekbench 6 scores:

• CPU
  • Single-core: 1053
  • Multi-core: 3174
• GPU
  • OpenCL: 2554
  • Vulkan: 2633

Antutu 

• Overall score: 623632
• CPU: 177089
• GPU: 147109
• MEM: 136758
• UX: 162676

For a phone that cost only Rs 22.5, Agni 3 delivers extremely reliable performance and did not lag or stutter even with very heavy usage, including over 300 apps and games installed. It can't offer a snappy performance like a flagship device but it does offer such a dependable performance, I simply love the device for that.

Agni 3 performance score: 9/10

Software

Specs:

• Pre-installed: Android 14
• UI: Stock Android
• OS updates: Android 15, 16 and 17 [Promised]
• Security updates: 4 years [Expected]

Agni 3 sports stock Android UI and that's easily one of the best things about it. Powered by the goodness of Android 14, the Agni 3 relies on stock UI and doesn't lay down anything stupid in the form of custom UI. This creates an experience that is similar to a Pixel device.

The Lava Agni 3 is a pleasant device to use because of the stock UI, stock features and a lot more stock-ness scattered around everywhere. Things do change at some places where you have to deal with some non-stock apps, for example: Dialer, Clock, and Launcher. Speaking of which, the Launcher app is pretty slim and deserves praise for including some of the must-have features, including Google app page at the left of the main home screen. However, I can't resist mentioning how "crappy" the Dialer app is. Like, it's the worst app from 2010, design-wise. 

And Lava has integrated the stock Android well. It's nice to see Android as Google planned and designed it. The UI simply wins. So are all the features that Android 14 brings that god-knows-why some OEMs omit out.

The Settings app has a ton of cool and new features that Android brings. Which is great! Lava has included the customization options of their own under Settings app. This includes features like settings for Action button, Power button, Special function, Duraspeed (memory manager), and Smart touch (virtual circle button on the screen), all of which really, really, help with productivity and multi-tasking. I have been putting all these features to good use for managing the team and content on Nerd's Chalk and I can confirm I found them to be very useful for my job.

(You can find all the settings mentioned above under the heading "More Details for the enthusiasts" below, after the review part on this page. Yes, there is more than review, especially for the geeks and nerds who want to know more about the device.)

To tell you the truth, I spent a lot of time customizing the device for Action button, Smart touch and Special function, and I once I settled down customizing them, I truly love the experience the personalization I have got. Kindly check out the "Settings customization" section at the bottom to find the various features you get to personalize your experience make it easier to do daily task.

Action button software review

The features the action button on the Lava Agni 3 is gets you are pretty useful! They are the reason why I find the action button to be an awesome addition – something every phone on earth should have! The new (and unique) "Action" button offers customizable settings, allowing users to choose from three click types (single, double click, and long press) and assign actions like silent/ring, recording, flashlight, screenshot, SOS, or opening a specific app to each click type.

On a slightly different front, the Agni 3 supports Widevine L1, just in case you were wondering.

Agni 3 Android OS updates promise:

Lava says the Agni 3 will get Android 15, Android 16 and Android 17 OS updates. That's pretty good, to be fair, even if that's the standard nowadays.

Some tiny issues with software:

1. Calling

As satisfying as the Agni 3 is overall, we found some issues with calling with the device. I found some disturbance in calls on the very first day and have experienced a call or two daily where because of some disturbing noise, I had to end the call and place it again to have clean conversation. I never suffered this issue with my last two devices in Pixel 7 Pro and 8 Pro, so I do believe something is wrong in Agni 3's modems. 

November 25, 2024: I switched to Motorola Edge 50 Neo after the Agni 3 and these issues were gone. So, I am pretty sure something is a bit off with Lava 3's modem that was causing calling issues – even if they only a few times a day.

2. Lower brightness in adaptive brightness setting

The system sets the auto-brightness on a lower side than I need it to be. I had to increase the brightness level manually 5-6 times a day to be able to use the phone easily without straining my eyes a bit to see the content on the screen. I am sure Lava tweaked the auto-brightness level on lower side intentionally – maybe it saves some battery, but it does cause some inconvenience and certainly made using the device uncomfortable at times.

3. Poor font management

Talking about font, the text remains unreasonably thin on Agni 3, which looks very tasteless in its natural setting. After and if you apply bold setting to it, then it gets very space consuming. I never had both of these issues with my previous two devices in Pixel 7 Pro and 8 Pro, nor with the next device I took for review, the Motorola Edge 50 Neo.

4. Nothing much for the mini screen

Besides AOD and a pet, the mini screen on Agni 3 didn't get much help from Lava's software team. We hope they improve in this part.

5. AOD doesn't dim, why? Really, why?

The AOD screen on the Agni 3 always remains bright, even in the darkest environment. It is the only phone I have used that cannot dim the AOD in less light. I believe it's a bit broken can be and needs to be fixed via an OTA update. ASAP.

That's all about nitpicking issues with Lava Agni 3's software.

So, the software in Lava Agni offers great choices for customization, helps you be very productive, makes and keeps the phone running very fast, and while it may have some issues of its own like poor font size or style and low auto-brightness settings, we like the software very much.

Agni 3 software score: 9/10

Camera

Specs:

• Rear camera:
  • 50MP Primary camera with Sony sensor with OIS and EIS, supports 4K@30 FPS video recording
  • Telephoto camera with 3X optical zoom with EIS
  • 8MP ultrawide camera
• Front Camera: 16MP Samsung sensor and EIS with 2X portrait zoom

The camera on Agni 3 is not one of its great features to be honest. It can look look capable at time but it really isn't, sadly. We are certain we can't count it among the best at all even under its range by any measure. Lava has already rolled out an update that specifically targets camera's poor performance and successfully fixes some of the issues (redness, focus, sharpness, and more), it's still underwhelming. Find more details about the updates below under the section for OTA updates.

White not a deal breaker, let's say camera is not where Agni 3 shines. You can still take satisfying pics and videos, but if you are looking for an excellent experience in this range, that's not here.

I must mention here that while I am okay with (not satisfied really) the main 50 MP camera, it's the telephoto lens that has me upset the most. It struggles to focus many a times, so much that I had to switch the main camera and forget about it.

The low light photography is not the best and if the subject is moving, you can't capture their pics without some blur.

Remember, we would still not call the camera a deal breaker, though.

Update: November 25, 2024: I take my word back. The camera does feel kind of a deal-breaker now because the focus issues have grown a bit for me, more so after the second update, so much that you have to jump between camera modes and hope focus gets fixed.

The rear camera is simply unable to focus at time, both in 1x and 3x modes. I couldn't find a direct tweak either to fix the focus. Original review continues below.

You will have a lot of fun customizing the camera, though, as Lava has packed in all the necessary and fun features people of all kinds might need. The level of software customization in the camera app is incredible, though you can find this in many phones these days.

Review of using the camera from mini screen

Camera, when operated from the mini screen suffers more issues than not because of the lesser distance, weird angle and light conditions it has to face than usual. But we must mention that the first update to the device fixed these issues aplenty. Anyway, you won't operate camera from the mini screen much – probably, not at all, unless when someone asks you to showcase it to them. And I guess people won't mind if the images are not perfect because it's mostly for fun only.

I love using the mini screen with camera! That is, from the front screen, not the mini screen itself. My favorite thing with the mini screen is to show my 3-year-old the cute animal animations that come with it. It's a fun way to get him excited and gaze towards the camera and click his pictures and videos easily – avoiding the revolt that comes otherwise. Kids can be a bit camera shy, but this makes it so much easier and more enjoyable, let alone possible.

Agni 3 camera score: 6/10 (Revised on Nov 25, 2024: 5/10)

Battery

Specs:

• 5,000 mAh, Li-Po type
• Charging speed; 66W wired
• Advertised speed: 50% in 19 min
• Wireless charging (and reverse charging): Not available

Lava Agni 3's battery backup is not bad at all. It left me impressed, actually. The Agni 3 is lasting me nearly the same as my last device in Pixel 8 Pro did, which is impressive. But as it charges a bit faster with the 66W charger that accompanies it in the box (not available in the 20K variant), it gives me a lot more confidence than even the Pixel 8 Pro.

When low on battery, quickly charging the adapter for 15 minutes gives the phone a good enough boost to stop worrying about the battery getting dead.

I am a heavy user, with a ton of apps and games installed, a ton of Google chat messages and emails shared, heavy multitasking, some media always playing on the phone, and lastly, the phone remaining connected to smart watch, too, for what it's worth, and phone served me well with all that. So, I believe it will last throughout the day pretty easily for an average user. But yes, at the end, it depends on your usage.

One hour's charge is nearly enough to charge it fully. With such a fast charging, battery should not be a problem to anyone, we believe. Agni 3 also offers you overcharge protection to preserve the battery's health well.

Agni 3 battery score: 9/10

Sound

Agni 3's speaker are decent, too. Coming from Pixel 8 Pro which features probably the best speakers on Android phones, at first, I felt the Agni 3's sound to be very underwhelming. But it did not turn out to be an issue as I was able to make my peace with the speaker easily after comparing it with other phones in the same price range. Let me say they are good. They do sound nice but lack the thumping bass, which is probably not possible at this price.

I found them to be a bit low on performance compared to Motorola Edge 50 Neo but the difference, although noticeable, is not huge.

Agni 3 sound score: 7/10

Verdict

The Agni 3 is a great device that offers stellar performance with no lags and stutters, impressive design, great curvy display (remember, color are punchy, for good or not), provides nice battery backup, features cool stuff like an Action button, an eye-catching mini screen, and a ton of software customization that makes using the device even easier. Both the colors of the Agni 3 are quite cool. 

Sure, camera is a bit disappointing, but we are not complaining about it given the whole package.

What I love the most about the Agni 3 is its no non-sense steady and solid performance, and the experience created by the mix of great customization provided by the software that is so neat and clean thanks to stock Android 14 and exciting additions like Action button and Mini screen.

The segment-first Dimensity 7300X processor helps Agni 3 a lot in performing well, but so does stock Android OS that Lava has tweaked only to add its own set of very useful features. The only reason to think twice about this device is its average camera – other considerations like heavy weight (215 grams) and bigger screen are individual preferences. Fans of small screen and lightweight phone with a decent camera may want to take a look at Motorola Edge 50 Neo (review coming soon).

Agni 3 overall score (value for money): 9/10

More Details for the enthusiasts

If you want to learn more about Agni 3, the details below are for you.

1. A word on Lava apps and features

This is a software review add-on, where we are discussing the good and bad about various apps and software found in the Agni 3 (as of November 25, 2024).

Dialer

It's the worst. Sorry, but I can't hide my resentment for it. For what it's worth, it allows you to record calls, with an option under settings to allow recording of all calls by default, which can be set to Contact only, too. I quickly switched to Google's Phone app and as it too allows you to record calls too (automatic is for unknown callers only, though), I never went back to Lava's Dialer app.

Clock

It's nice. But it lacks features. So, if you want a better app, you can opt for Google Clock app that is free, has no ads, and packs a punch too.

Launcher

Called QuickStep, the launcher is small and nice. It features Google app as the left-most home screen and packs in the small bunch of features you need the most in a launcher. No complaints here. But if you were looking for something more, then that's not it. For me, Nova launcher was, is and will be the best launcher, so I replace the default one with Nova on Agni 3 right away like I do on every other phone.

Free Replacement @ Home

Lava also offers a "Free Replacement @ Home" offer for one year which allows you to claim a replacement unit from the comfort of your home if a manufacturing defect is found on the device. 

2. Let's talk more about the mini screen!

Supposed to be a sidekick screen, it is probably the reason why you bought this phone – it's too bad then that it quickly becomes the screen you completely forget about. Yes, it's like when you buy the Galaxy S Ultra (or a Galaxy Note earlier) for its S-Pen but happen to use it only once every 2-3 months – worse, that also happens only when someone at a party reminds you of it by asking you how good is it or even acknowledging their secret want for it. You try to act all pro about the S-Pen, then, right? But wait, you can't even act pro with the mini screen, because there is nothing to do with it. Sorry, that was a little bit more blunt than I wanted it to be, but yeah, there is nothing of use to it.

The mini screen is an attention catcher, no doubt, but its productivity remains a question.

You can do many things with it, indeed. Like, use back camera, even apply filters in it, record sound, control music (but can't start playing from the mini screen itself unless it is lying paused), track steps, and use timer, stopwatch and view your next alarm. Setting timer feels satisfying, and using stopwatch too, but you can only see last lap in the mini screen, not previous laps. No big worries, yes.

So, even though you can do many things with the mini screen as mentioned above, you really don't need to, and wouldn't want to, as mostly because you can do the most useful things it does with the lock screen itself, and also because the novelty wears off darn quickly – let's say within 2-3 days! In my opinion, everything productive that mini screen does, your lock screen already does, and you don't need to put your phone front-down in order to use the lock screen naturally.

It's not even much fun taking selfie-photos with the back camera using mini screen, either. But yeah, getting a pet on the mini screen and showing it to a child near you is some fun, even helping when you want to catch their photo by easily catching their attention via the secondary display at the back.

The mini screen does help here as the child will forget his hostile tendency of stopping you at all costs from clicking his photo and is actually smiling looking at the pet, something you could only do with the Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold (is the name correct?) with its Made You Look feature. FYI, it costs almost the eight times as Agni 3!

Even more satisfying is people trying get a peek at the mini screen, like it's an iPhone in 2007. Before every wannabe phone starts sporting a mini display on their back, I would say Agni 3 users will have their time with it.

Let me explain, when watching something in landscape mode, you rest your fingers on back of the phone from its side(s). That makes you touch the mini screen and cause it to light up. This is a distraction and can move your focus from what you are watching on the bigger screen to the light emitted by the smaller screen at the back – and make you fix the bright light coming from it first. A double tap would turn it off but once your resting finger(s) touch it, it will start throwing a bright light again in the otherwise dark room and that's repeatedly disturbing. The only quick fix is to completely lower down the brightness of the mini screen so that even if gets turned on, it won't cause distraction. Yes, we can vouch for it.

But there is more mini screen can do – and Lava needs to know it. For instance, Agni 3' mini screen can solve one problem with smartphones ever since they were invented. It can tell people that the photo was clicked without any sound, like a DSLR camera's flash does, by doing an animation of the shutter button itself or display a flash icon or anything like that. I really think it would be super cool if mini screen does a flash animation like the physical flash on a DSLR does.

Not only that, Lava shall consider adding a preview of the photo just captured, too. This would also tell people a photo was clicked, and also get a small glance at the photo, even though it won't be good enough to make much sense. For what it's worth, you can zoom in and out on the mini screen too, in case you were wondering. Guess you can suggest more use cases for mini screen, we would like to hear them in the comments section below. Also, feel free to ask any questions you may have for the mini screen.

So, is mini screen useful?

Well, I guess I have ready answered the first part above. It's not very productive, but yes, it helps you if you want people to notice your phone. For that, you might want to keep the mini screen on as much as possible and that means sacrificing battery life a bit for it. Sure, AOD is available for mini screen, and that helps. You can keep the mini screen lighted up for a minute (highest duration allowed) when used so that it's visible for longer time.

3. Settings customization

Here's what my customization looks like:

Action button

• Single-click: Screenshot
• Double-click: Chrome
• Long press: Flashlight

Update, November 25, 2024: I later changed the settings to:

• Single-click: None (avoids unwanted screengrabs)
• Double-click: Flashlight (avoids turning on flashlight unwantingly)
• Long press: Screenshot

Power button

• Single-click: Lockscreen on/off
• Double-click: Camera
• Long press: Google Assistant (didn't switch to Gemini, and won't do ever probably!)

Smart touch (circle button on the screen)

• Camera
• Messages (quick access to OTPs, thus)
• Gmail (work)
• Google Chat (work)
• Lockscreen (when I don't want to press a button to turn off the screen)
• Alternatively, you can set it on Gesture mode to get these done (customizable):
  • Go back to the previous page
  • Recent taskbar
  • Screenshot

Special function

• I am using:
  • Antifake touch mode (to avoid ghost dialing in pocket)
  • Swipe down on lock screen to access notification drawer
  • Wake screen when notification is received 
  • Side application bar (maximum 15 apps allowed)
  • Anti-theft alarm for mobile
  • RAM expansion
• I planed to enable and set up but did not:
  • App lock
  • Anti-Peeping
  • App clone (lovely, even though common!)
• I am not using:
  • Smart answer (answer the call automatically when you pick up the phone)
  • Flip to silent

Duraspeed

• It is a nice feature too to allow some apps bypass battery restrictions and keep running in background and also use RAM as much as needed.

4. Action button settings

The new "Action" button on the Lava Agni 3 that has everyone drooling out get a special section in settings of its own, where you can choose for three click type:

1. Single click
2. Double click
3. Long press (click and hold)

For each of the three click types above, you have 7 options to choose from:

• None (to disable the given click type)
• Silent/Ring
• Start recording
• Open flashlight
• Screenshot
• Open SOS, and lastly
• Open application (select any installed app)

5. Agni 3 OTA updates

Update #1 (October 15, 2024): Lava has already released a major update for the Agni 3, one that focuses on improving the camera performance. Dubbed LAVA_LXX518_SW_U_V11_HW_V1.0__20241009, the update fixes a lot of issues with camera, including reddish tones, a bit of focus issues too (but they exist, more on that later), adds a 3X Zoom button and improves performance too. Lava has promised 3 OS updates, which means it is "assured" to get Android 15, 16 and 17. We don't expect Lava to release the updates super quickly but given they house stock UI, this should only help them in delivering updates earlier than later.

Update #2 (November 20, 2024): Lava has released another update for the Agni 3 recently. Sized 71.72 MB and dubbed as version LAVA_LXX518_SW_U_V12_HW_V1.0_20241106, this is a v12 update, still based on Android 14, and brings in October security patch and a couple of more things:

• Improved facial tone for photos clicked with front camera.
• Enhanced rear camera performance by optimizing focus speed and accuracy.

November 28, 2024: Third update is out for Agni 3 . Lava says it fixes minor bugs and installs November 2024 security updates. Coming in as software version LAVA_LXX518_SW_U_V13_HW_V1.0_20241119, the update is about 46 MB.

That's all, buddies!

If you ask me how happy I am to be using the Lava Agni 3, then given the cost-performance benefit, I must say I feel as happy as the kid in the pic below after unboxing the very device.