It feels like a perfect time to discuss the three Indian consumer tech brands that I actually support:
- Stuffcool
- Lumio
- Lava
✅ I choose to support these brands for one major reason: for me the products & a proper vision come first, not some nationalistic sentiments or claims.
Furthermore, these brands also prove a point: Indian brands who focus on atleast-decent products (if not great from the start), with good service and with teams who have a proper vision for our country have seen a lot of success.
👍 This is despite not leaning too heavily into shady stuff like data privacy claims, data stealing claims, "Chinese not safe", and other forms of hypernationalistic marketing.
Yes, the reality is that an Indian brand can absolutely sell products without fear-mongering or surrogate marketing or court injunctions: the only thing is making that decision and working on it well in advance.
All of these brands do have atleast some part of their supply chains from China, and that's true indeed.
However, you'll not see any racism from them: they just accept this harsh reality, work on products, and also are gradually making our own supply chain better instead of covering it up.
What also stands is that these three brands are very receptive to our feedback, and they do try their best to work on them: you'll never see Raghu Reddy or Sunil Raina turn off replies while claiming "our doors are always open", for starters.
This is why I support them. And I'm fully open to supporting other Indian tech brands if they share the same ideology that I have.
The moment most Indians realise which local brands actually deserve our support: the ones that work in silence and improve themselves, instead of those who plaster themselves on cricket helmets and racist ads for full 5 minutes of noise & publicity: that is when we will actually start to heal in the long-run.
@saaaanjjjuuu Thanks for putting across the facts so lucidly and succinctly. Our pace has been slower than what we would ideally like and challenges higher, but such words doubly motivates to do more. Thank you 🙏🏻
India is the world’s 2nd largest smartphone market with 600M+ users, yet almost every phone in our pockets comes from companies headquartered outside India:
The obvious question is: Why don’t we have an Indian brand like Samsung, Xiaomi, or Apple?
Most people think the answer is simple: Indian companies can’t make good phones. Reality is far more complicated:
• The first challenge is manufacturing: While phones are assembled in India, the most important components still come from abroad. Processors, displays, camera sensors, battery cells, and many critical parts are imported. In many cases, India is assembling products rather than building the entire technology stack.
• The second challenge is R&D:
Companies spend billions on software optimization, camera algorithms, chipset tuning, battery management, AI features, and ecosystem integration. Many Indian brands that once dominated the market (like micromax etc) focused on affordability rather than long term innovation, while Chinese competitors invested heavily in research, supply chains, and scale.
• The third challenge is trust:
Consumer surveys show something very interesting: most people are actually willing to buy an Indian smartphone but only if it delivers competitive performance, cameras, battery life, software support, and after sales service.
In other words, patriotism can generate interest, but it cannot replace product quality by making fake promises.
• What’s even more interesting is how global smartphone brands operate?
Many smartphone companies don’t manufacture everything (including chinese brands) themselves either they use (ODM or JDM and that’s alright, instead they focus on their core strengths like design, software, branding, ecosystem development, and product strategy while outsourcing parts of production to specialized manufacturing partners.
This means India’s path to a successful smartphone brand may not start with building every component from scratch.
It may start with creating one exceptional product:
- A phone with excellent software.
- Reliable updates.
- Strong cameras.
- Great battery life.
- Strong after sales support.
- And a clear identity that consumers can trust.
• Countries don’t build technology ecosystems overnight:
- China didn’t.
- South Korea didn’t.
- Taiwan didn’t.
They built capabilities layer by layer over decades and now India is on the track.
India already has the market, talent pool, engineering workforce. What it lacks is a company that can combine innovation, execution, trust, and long term vision.
This is why LAVA has my respect for building this ecosystem day by day and working hard on the every possible way.
Smartphones you should get under 25k in 2026:
• OPPO K13 Turbo : Performance centric device with good software
• OnePlus Nord CE 5 : Good performance + software+ battery
• Nothing Phone 3a : Overall balanced phone with good cam setup
• Samsung M56 : Overall balanced & comfortable phone from samsung
• realme Narzo Power : Powerbank with a phone built in at this price
• POCO X7 Pro : Good performance & storage at this price
• LAVA AGNI 4 : Hardware packed device with premium build
• realme 14 Pro+ : Only device with IMX882 periscope with 7s gen 3
If you are planning to buy one get one asap, don’t wait for sales (the prices might increase or stock might go out)
@techswami_yt@devneet Hi Aman, we sincerely regret the inconvenience caused. We request you to DM us your mobile number, so that we can check and assist you further. Awaiting a response from your end. Thanks!
Very weird ! This is my Dad’s Lava Agni 4
He has enrolled his fingerprint & also of my mom !
But I am also able to unlock the phone 🤣 I have not enrolled any of my fingers @LavaMobile@devneet
7. Misc :
~ Speakers on this feels good, They are loud & clear + they do have a little thump to it.
Tho's the balance is 60-40
~ Fingerprint scanner is good mostly, Tho' it does miss the recognition or sometimes takes much longer to unlock + there's haptic as well. But I feel the animation of the FPS is very slow (As shown in the video)
~ Haptics on these does not feel good~springy. So,I turned it off but as it's a X-Axis linear if you keep it around 9-10ms in Gboard it will feel okay
LAVA Agni 4, Time for some serious convo💭
LAVA Agni 4 has been SAID TO BE THE SUPER SPEC phone for the price of 23,000 and I've been using this for a very long time now.
Here's what I feel about this phone & LAVA's future
Let's go ✨
3. Display ~
It's a 6.67 inches AMOLED panel that's 120hz & has 2400 peek brightness (As per LAVA)
In practical scenarios -
It's a very saturated & oversharpened display. Tho' we get an option to tune the colour and tint so it does become good after that.
It's very bright with HBM outdoors and this shows
120hz works good but some apps like YouTube, YouTube Music, Maps & run on 60hz even tho' I've set the refresh rate to 120hz locked.
Oh hell naaa....
Lava UI is probably the most unrefined and uncohesive UI among all the phone software available in 2025.
Having zero bloatware means nothing if the end product looks like something from 2015.
@MaazMz@TechWiser Lava has strong hardware, but software still holds it back.
A friend chose Redmi Note 14 SE over Lava Play Ultra purely because of the UI, despite better hardware on Lava’s side.
@LavaMobile@reachraina Sir, improving the software experience can make a big difference.
@MaazMz@TechWiser Every UI has flaws—but Lava is improving fast, listening to users, sacrificing margins for zero bloatware, and fixing AI basics, while some global giants with far bigger resources are actually slipping. Blind brand worship helps no one.
Lava Agni 4 is now on sale.
Purchase link: 👇
amzn.to/4puMp2
8GB+256GB 💰 ₹22,999 (including card off)
It features MediaTek’s Dimensity 8350 SoC, LPDDR5X RAM, UFS 4.0 storage, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, a metal frame, an X-axis linear motor for haptics, a 5000mAh battery, and 66W fast charging.
@SabinurH@reachraina Very well optimised though with up to 14 hours of non stop YouTube playback time and up to 10-11 hours of SOT as per Lava’s internal test conditions and results. Can easily last more than a day under moderate usage!
Introducing AGNI 4: Fire For More
Sale Starts 25th Nov | 12PM
Special Launch Price: ₹22,999*
Only on Amazon
✅ Stunning design with aluminium alloy frame & AG glass back
✅ MediaTek Dimensity 8350 Processor
✅ 3 OS upgrades + 4 years of security upgrades
*Incl. of bank offer