A Week with the Lenovo P780

By Akash

| Updated: Wednesday, November 20, 2013, 13:04 [IST]

The Indian smartphone market sees hundreds of phones being launched every few months. Consumers are left confused on which phone to choose, what features to go for and what brand to go settle down with.

Fans of older generation feature phones aren't happy with the fact that the new, powerful, big-screen Android phones offer terrible battery backups which don't even last for an entire day. After being used to a battery life that lasts for several days in a row, the idea of having to charge a phone multiple times leaves them frustrated, causing them to ridicule the smartphone experience offered by touchscreen phones.

The real need at the moment is a handset that can offer a solid smartphone experience coupled with good battery backup. A few months ago, Lenovo began promoting its P780 handset in India, boasting that the smartphone offered a good smartphone experience along with about two days of battery back up. Earlier this month, GizBot picked up the handset to check if Lenovo's claims were feasible.

Just to remind, Lenovo P780 comes at an affordable price tag of Rs 18,869 and touts a 5.0-inch IPS display with 1280 x 720 pixels of resolution along with 5-point capacitive touch screen (178 degrees viewing angle). The handset is powered by MTK 6589 1.2 GHz quad core processor along with PowerVR SGX544, 1GB RAM and it comes loaded with 4,000mAh Lithium Polymer battery, which can power the phone up to 25 hours on 3G and 43 hours on 2G talktime, the standby time is up to 35 days.

Meanwhile, Lenovo P780 runs on Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean and is equipped with an 8MP rear camera featuring auto-focus with LED flash. There is also 2MP front facing camera along with 4GB internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 32GB via MicroSD slot. On the connectivity front, the dual SIM Lenovo P780 offers 802.11 a/b/g/n with hotspot capability, Micro-USB v2.0 with USB-OTG, Bluetooth 3.0, GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/2100 MHz and FM. The phone has also got some sensor features including A-GPS, Gravitation, Ambient light, sensor and Proximity sensor.

Coming back to our project, the aim was to understand if a smartphone maker has for the first time come out with a device that can offer a fine mix of power and battery life. Go through the slider below to understand GizBot's "one week with the Lenovo P780" experience.

Click Here For New Lenovo P780 Smartphone Gallery

1#

The Lenovo P780 works smoothly out of the box. There are several useful apps that come preloaded, including a nice battery manager app. After charging the unit for an entire night, we begin using the phone to understand its battery efficiency. Our standard usage through the day involved about thirty minutes of YouTube over Wi-Fi, twenty minutes of calling, 3G through out the day for WhatsApp, Instagram and other social media apps.

Apart from this, about thirty minutes of Plants Vs Zombies. The result? We were left with about 48 percent of battery life. It is worth noting that we left Brightness settings on automatic, thereby allowing for some battery saving.

#2

The phone was put through an entire day of the same routine and we managed to keep it running till about seven in the evening, before it was drained of battery completely. Even though it only almost met Lenovo's claims, its battery's performance was amazing. We've never seen a phone with ample processing power and a HD screen deliver these kinds of results before.

#3

Keeping in mind that keeping data services on can drain a battery with ease, we turned off our 3G services and proceeded to use them sparingly. Instead, we relied on the Wi-Fi connection at the workplace for about 7 hours a day for the bulk of all our data-consumption. We started the day with a fresh battery backup and ended the day with about 68 percent of battery charge in the Lenovo P780 after putting the phone through a tough day of the aforementioned routine.

#4

This day went through rather smoothly, and we were left with about 28 percent of battery life at the end of the day. And yes, we put through the Lenovo P780 through the usual routine of gaming, online videos, texting calls and much more.

#5

The Lenovo P780 died right in the afternoon in the middle of our session of YouTube videos. However, it is worth noting that the handset survived close to forty minutes of Plants Vs Zombies.

#6

Today we turned off data services and used the handset like an old-school feature phone. Functions included phone calls, SMS text messages, pictures over the camera and about an hour of music over earphones. The result? We ended the day with about 79 percent battery life left to spare.

#7

This day was a repeat of day 6, so only old-school style feature phone usage. We ended the day with about 49 percent of battery left in the unit.

#8

Everything on, this includes data, and you'll get about 40 hours of solid smartphone usage.

Go light on the 3G and use more Wi-Fi and you'll get two and half days of battery life.

Stay stingy and turn off all kinds of data connectivity, and you'll be left with three full days of battery life.

All in all, the Lenovo P780 is one of the only phones in the market that can offer a rich smartphone experience along with great battery life. It seems that unlike other marketing campaigns, Lenovo's was genuine. The handset's 4,000 mAh battery does deliver.