Lenovo A7000 First Look: Lollipop And 4G On A Budget

Phablets are officially in trend these days, and like a new high-tech gear, they typically come at a premium, with phablets costing more than an average priced handset. Well, that's not the case with the Lenovo A7000, though.

This is an extra larger sized handset with a 5.5-inch HD display, a 64-bit processor, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter, Android 5.0 Lollipop, 4G LTE, a 2,900mAh battery and more for Rs. 8,999.

Lenovo's A7000 offers sharp display, practical design and LTE connectivity at an unmatched value, but it is enough to keep users' attention away from the Honor 4X?

PROS

• Great Screen Size
• Fast Processor
• 4G LTE
• Affordable Price

CONS

• Not So Great Design
• Vibe UI

We have had witnessed the Lenovo A7000 - the successor to the Lenovo A6000 - at the recently held event in Delhi. Here are our first impressions.

Lenovo A7000 First Look: Form Factor, Design, Display and Operating System

Made entirely out of plastic, the Lenovo A7000 appears to be a large version of its predecessor - the Lenovo A6000. The newly launched phone comes in black color, with rectangular flat edges along the sides. Surely, it doesn't have a mind blowing design, but we actually like the phone's simplicity.

The Lenovo A7000 is definitely a two-handed device, as we struggled a lot to get our thumb to the opposite side of the screen when holding the handset with one hand. However, the device felt light, and we don't think you would face any issues while using the phone for extended periods.

The Lenovo A7000's 5.5-inch HD display doesn't offer the full HD screen, which is perfectly okay for a handset that's going to cost less than Rs. 10,000. Most importantly, it is the display quality that matters most to a user, instead of a screen resolution.

We found the Lenovo A7000's display pretty much suitable for watching movies on the go. We hardly noticed any pixilation on the handset's screen. Colors and app icons also look vivid on the Lenovo A7000.

We were quite confident that Lenovo would have improved its Vibe UI on the Lenovo A7000, but it didn't happen. The UI still remains very jittery and clumsy, though the Vibe UI (now based on the Android 5.0 Lollipop) is much responsive, to be precise.

Lenovo A7000 First Look: Processor, Connectivity and Audio

Lenovo's A7000 uses 1.5GHz octa-core Mediatek chip and 2GB RAM. That means the device has enough horse power to keep us entertained for a longer duration. We were able to hop among YouTube without any slowdown.

Connectivity options on the Lenovo A7000 include 4G/ LTE (FDD Band 1, 3, 7, 20; TDD Band 40), Wi-Fi, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth, and Micro-USB, just like the A6000. The Honor 4X, in comparison, offers dual 4G LTE, which is a feature that's missing from the Lenovo A7000.

The Lenovo A7000 already aims to be the top-notch handset in the audio department. The Lenovo A7000 is the world's first smartphone to feature the Dolby Atmos technology. The audio worked well for us with the Sennheisser headphones that were present at the demo station.

Lenovo A7000 First Look: Camera and Video

While Lenovo may not have made a huge leap with the A7000's display, the phone's camera is another story.

While the Lenovo A7000's 8-MP rear camera takes nice shots in particular settings, you're mostly getting what you pay for from the budget handset. The 1080p videos we took in the same settings were harp. The 5MP front-facing camera seemed to perform well, though we need to more time to come up with our final verdict.

Lenovo A7000 First Look: Battery and Early Verdict

The Lenovo A7000 not just comes with a 5.5-inch screen size; it's battery life (2,900mAh) will last you a full workday with 4G LTE connectivity.

If you've been waiting to get a decent Android-powered handset but are on a tight budget: the Lenovo A7000 is a solid buy at a price of Rs. 8,999.