A budget 4G LTE smartphone!
Lenovo has launched its A6000 Tab which is supposed to be the country’s cheapest 4G LTE capable device at this point in time. The phone has such features which will competition to the Xiaomi Redmi 1S and the Asus Zenfone 4.
Build and Design:
There is nothing new with the design on this device; Lenovo has played safe at this area. The phone has a regular candy bar shape with rounded corners that is a staple feature of Android smartphones now. The back panels are available separately. The phone is pleasantly lightweight which makes it easy to lug around.
The front of the phone has a 5-inch HD screen. The capacitive touch navigation buttons are pretty responsive and are placed right below the display. However, the only drawback is they are not backlit.
The front camera with 2MP is placed at the top next to the earpiece. The volume rocker key can be found at the right edge with the power button as well. The top edge contains the 3.5mm jack and the micro USB port for charging rest both the edges are barren.
If we talk about the battery, it is 2300mAh (removable). The back cover hides the micro SIM slots and a micro SD card slot. The back panel has a matte finish and offers a good grip also, at the back panel the 8MP can be found at the top.
The box contains the earphones, charger and the screen guard.
Display:
As discussed earlier, the phone has a 5-inch HD display with the resolution of 720×1920 pixels which offers good viewing angles and vibrant colors. The screen however, does not have the gorilla glass protection hence you would need to use the screen guard. As far as the touch is concerned, the touch was highly responsive.
Hardware and Software:
The device is packed with the latest 64-bit snapdragon 410 SoC inside with 1.2GHz quad core processor with Adreno 306 GPU integrated. The device comes with the heavily customized version of Android 4.4 KitKat also, deploys its own UI skin to offer enhanced features and customization options. The phone comes with 1GB of Ram and 8GB default internal storage which can be expanded to 32GB using a SD card.
Unlike other dual SIM the dual SIM setup works in dual-standby mode. Other options like Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth v4.0 are also available. Lenovo is using Vibe UI on top of android KitKat which makes the phone UI look like iOS, all the icons are lined up on the home screen. Vibe UI has rather colorful icons a treat to the eyes.
Notification bar has a number of quick settings available for easy access. Lenovo bundles a Dolby app which allows users to play around with the sound settings according to their preference. All in all everything seems good just one drawback as the stock Android apps are not included and everything including the Gallery, Calculator, Calendar and Email apps are built by Lenovo’s software team.
Camera:
A single button does it all is what we can say about the camera app. The app has number of settings which are available are pretty good and overwhelming. The camera app also allows us to click in between of the video. So you can take a screenshot of any frame at any point while the video is playing.
The back camera clicks okay images however; you may find a reddish hue to them while in day time you may experience an over exposure. Compared to other smartphones in this budget the camera quality is not up to what one can expect. The camera can only shoot videos at up to 720p. If we talk about the front camera, the 2MP has good picture quality and can take amazing selfies.
Performance:
The Lenovo A6000 does a pretty job and works smoothly for multiple apps with Vibe UI. It works better and gives hard competition to Motorola Moto E and the Xiaomi Redmi 1S.
The Anututu and Quadrant benchmark scores 20189 and 11,757 respectively. The smartphone struggles a bit for hard core gaming like Asphalt 8. The speakers provide loud sound but don’t give full. The Dolby effect does a decent job in sound output. The earphones are average and not so good for long usage.
The call quality of the smartphone is great and yes 4G call quality has not been checked as Delhi doesn’t have 4G networks.
The Battery life of Lenovo A6000 lasted around 10 hours and 30 mins which is awesome. It may last for a day and half if moderate usage is done. Charging the smartphone took long time to charge the phone.
Gizmo Verdict:
Lenovo has done an incredible job in making such a smartphone which fits in budget range, Dolby speakers, 64-bit SoC and 4G LTE support. The display can be little better and cameras could be little better.
