If you don’t want to get confused on which smartphone came in which week and in which month, then you probably need to stay updated with all the latest smartphone news. This is because, every vendor is going after the affordably priced section, and Lenovo is one of them.
In this ‘A’ series of Lenovo, where A stands for Affordable, there are already three new smartphones introduced last month. Among them, Lenovo A7000 is the one I’m sharing the review of.
Back in 2013, there wasn’t any Android smartphone below the price of 10k, which I can recommend anyone. The only better device offered at that time was Nokia Lumia 520, as it was offering good user experience for that affordable price tag.
But, now in 2015, we have a bunch of options to choose from, thus, creating a big confusion. If Lenovo A7000 was among your shortlisted smartphones, then go along this review and find whether it suits your requirements or not.
My initial impressions of the device were really good. The device is big, has required power, decent camera, and one-day battery life.
Design and Build
Our first interaction with the device starts with the design and build quality, and it should start with this section. While every Android manufacturer is making it tough for their smartphones to look different from any other, Lenovo A7000 is among the same crowd.
The build quality is pretty good, considering the price section, and the slightly curved edges are also the part of the device, to deliver a comfortable grip.
In this 10k price section, this is among those devices, which gives good experience while holding and using them. If we can forget those slight curves, then the device can easily be represented by a rectangle slim box. No curves are added on the back, as, in the case, it’s completely flat.
If you buy this device then you have to love its black appeal, as this is the only color it is available at the moment. The matte finish is the part of the rear cover, which further increases the build quality, but it doesn’t offer any friction, so you need to be extra careful. Just to update you, the rear cover is removable.
The rear part holds to camera unit, with LED flash, a speaker vent at a unique position, and a mic. The power button and volume rockers are placed on the right side. The top side got a microUSB port and 3.5mm audio jack. The bottom part holds just a mic.
The 8mm slim profile and 140gram weight, further completes the build part. One of the dual SIM cards you can insert within can support LTE cellular network while the second one is limited to 2G only. microSD card slot is also there under the hood.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4P-kDBSNAM]
Display
The display is the area which is equally good and so as the bad. The big 5.5inch display offers good color reproduction and decent viewing angles. I didn’t find anything to complain about in the display section.
But, the bad thing I was talking about, is that it lacks a dedicated protection. No Corning Gorilla Glass or any other Glass protection is part of the front. It clearly means that you need to be extra careful with the display and use the protection from day one. The retail box of the device does come with a screen guard protection.
Since, the panel used is IPS, so viewing angles are definitely going to be good, and I found the expected results while using it. While moving out under the direct sunlight, the device was still usable.
Overall, display section is pretty good but my only complaint is that it should have been provided with a protective glass. Even the 5k priced Micromax Canvas Spark is coming with that.
Performance
The octa-core CPU with a combination of 2GB RAM and 8GB internal storage allows users to play high-end games and watch HD video content. Watching videos, playing games, editing documents, and every other smartphone usage were doing good.
The only thing at which Lenovo A7000 isn’t that good is while playing high-end games like Asphalt 8 in high-quality graphics settings. While keeping the graphics settings to standard, I didn’t find any issues, but results were too bad whenever I moved up.
To be honest, I have never been a fan of Android skins which manufacturers are shipping their devices with. This love for stock Android experience isn’t new for me, and that’s the reason I personally didn’t like the Vibe UI.
For me, the only good feature this device holding in this section is the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS. But, if the UI skins don’t bother you much, then you will not find any issues whatsoever, as everything performs as it should be.
An in-built theme store is also there to quickly download and change the look and feel of the OS, but not many theme options are available at this moment. Lenovo did ship the device with lots of bloatwares (unwanted third-party apps) which is very common in smartphones of this affordable price range.
The notification center is heavily loaded with toggles and setting options.
Dialler and Messaging app looks good. Every app and game open almost instantly. Out of the total 8GB, around 3.5GB is available for the user, and 1.2GB of RAM was available during the initial boot. Installing apps on SD cards is also allowed along with native support for OTG USB drives.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7Y40cFl8No]
Features like gestures, private mode, battery saver mode, etc., are in there and they are all useful. Especially the private mode, which enhance the security standards. Ultimate saver mode is also a useful feature which enables only the basic functions of a phone, thus, saving a lot of extra juice.
One unique feature this device comes with is Dolby Atmos. The default headset arrived was no good to deliver the enhanced sound experience due to that feature, also it looked cheap. I tested the sound quality with my Sony headphones, and I did note a difference, which was impressive.
Overall, I never found any performance lags, except when I tried playing high games in high graphics standards. But, at the price tag this device is offered, it isn’t a big issue, as we are already getting many other goodies.
Camera
Comparing it with the other devices in competition, the picture quality offered is not that good. Still, I found a decent report card, which means that the camera is not that bad. 8MP and 5MP are the camera combination. Autofocus on the rear unit works good.
LED flash is part of the rear camera, but I will not recommend using the device to shoot pictures in low light. Every picture I snapped with the camera in low light, didn’t come good.
The interface of the camera app is simple enough to get familiar in a very short time. Different ISO modes are supported along with special effects, which can be selected before hitting the shutter button.
The front camera was able to deliver pictures as of any other 5MP unit. No doubt, it will complete your appetite for selfies.
Battery Life
Here comes my favourite part of any smartphone. Personally, I do take the battery life seriously and I hope the same at your end. During my two weeks of using Lenovo A7000, I can effectively say that this device can make out for a single day on a single full charge in morning. But, that’s going to be the case with average usage.
If you are in the mood for heavy gamings and hours of the photoshoot, then the battery life is going to move down (5-7 hours), which is understandable by every smartphone users.
Over to you
Looking at the pricing section, Lenovo A7000 is available, I can easily say that this device offers the best performance than any other in the competition.
If Lenovo was able to slightly enhance the camera performance and had added a protection glass on front, this device could have topped the chart.
If you are interested in buying it, then it is exclusively available at Flipkart in Black color at 8,999INR.