Lava to Launch ‘Made in India’ Smartphones on January 7: Here’s What We Know

Lava has sent out an invitation for a January 7 event that will witness the launch of new smartphones from the Indian vendor. The Indian company has been teasing the launch since last week and today it has officially revealed that the upcoming smartphones will have “evolved and dynamic engineering.” The company has already listed Lava BeU smartphone, designed with women buyers in mind, on its website. Lava previously confirmed to Gadgets 360 that it will launch a total of five phones, including Lava BeU in January.

Lava smartphones launch time, livestream details

As per the invite shared by Lava, and a tweet via the Lava official Twitter handle, the company will launch new smartphones on January 7 at 12pm (noon). The event will be livestreamed via the company's Facebook and YouTube handles. The tweet also mentions #AbDuniyaDekhegi and #ProudlyIndian hashtags that likely hint at ‘evolved and dynamic engineering' and ‘Made in India' smartphones, respectively.

“I invite you to witness something that has never happened in the smartphone industry before. Never before has smartphone engineering been so evolved and dynamic, thanks to our talented engineers. Tune in to the live webcast of history in the making. I promise what follows will make you feel proudly Indian,” Sunil Raina, President and Business Head, Lava India, said in the invite.

Lava BeU price in India

Lava first teased the launch of its BeU smartphone with a tweet on December 23. It came a day after it announced Lava BeU with dual rear cameras in India. The company has already revealed that the handset's price in India has been set at Rs. 6,888 for its single 2GB + 32GB storage variant. The phone is already listed on the official website. The phone, aimed specifically at women, can be purchased in Rose Pink colour.

Alongside Lava BeU, the company is planning to launch four new smartphones and a smart fitness band on January 7, the company confirmed to Gadgets 360. Furthermore, Lava also said that the new smartphones will be priced between Rs. 5,000 and 15,000 and will be available through both online and offline channels.

Lava BeU specifications

The dual-SIM (Nano) Lava BeU runs on Android 10 (Go edition) and features a 6.08-inch HD+ (720x1,560 pixels) display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The display is protected by a 2.5D curved glass and has a waterdrop-style notch. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by an octa-core SoC clocked at 1.6GHz, coupled with 2GB of DDR4 RAM. There is 32GB of onboard storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 256GB).

For photography, Lava BeU comes with a dual rear camera setup that features a 13-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.85 lens, along with a 2-megapixel secondary sensor. The phone also includes an 8-megapixel selfie snapper at the front, with an f/2.2 lens.

Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS/ A-GPS, Micro-USB, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Lava BeU packs a 4,060mAh lithium polymer battery. The phone also comes with a fingerprint sensor at the back. It measures 155.5x73.3x9.82mm and weighs 175.8 grams.

Which is the bestselling Vivo smartphone in India? Why has Vivo not been making premium phones? We interviewed Vivo's director of brand strategy Nipun Marya to find out, and to talk about the company's strategy in India going forward. We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.