Lenovo has had a blast of a 2015, all thanks to its gamechanging devices as well as its marketing push that brought its handsets to the pop...
Lenovo
has had a blast of a 2015, all thanks to its gamechanging devices as
well as its marketing push that brought its handsets to the populous.
Not gonna argue with that. The company has been bullish in the idea
of being the number one PC Plus maker, and it has been doing so with
great results. Now with that said, we're quite eager to test out
their smartphones, and we've had great receptions of their devices as
of late. To further that testament, we're going to look deeper into
one of their latest smartphones, the A6000 Plus and see how it fares.
Now
let's get this out of the way before anything else, just so we can
see Lenovo's growth spurt in the affordable line-up. Last year saw
the affordable A series, i.e. the A536, A680, A850 and the lot –
smartphones that were presented with very appealing price tags, yet
came with hardware spec sheets that had more to be desired of. When
the company did bring the A7000 in partnership with Lazada, that all
changed. The said smartphone made the company shine brighter in the
limelight, and now we're seeing a wave of bang-for-the-buck devices
as of late.
So,
on to the deets!
Key Specifications:
OS:
Android OS, v4.4.4 (KitKat), upgradable to v5.0.2 (Lollipop)
Chipset:
Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410
Display:
5.0-inch 5-point IPS capacitive touch screen (720*1280 pixels)
Display
Memory:
2GB RAM
Storage:
16GB ROM expandable via microSD card slot
Camera:
Primary: 8 MP, f/2.2, autofocus, LED flash / Secondary: 2MP
Battery:
2300mAH Li-Polymer rechargeable battery
Connectivity:
3G/2G; LTE; WiFi; GPS and Bluetooth
Price: Php6,999 at Lazada
Unboxing
and Inclusions
The
Lenovo A6000 Plus arrives in a familiar package – there's Lenovo's
signature boxing, complete with the specifications of the device as
well as an idea of what's inside and the company's warranty assurance
for services and such in case of mishaps.
Open
the box and you'll be met with once again the standard fare –
there's the A6000 Plus in the flesh encased in a platform (the same
with most of Lenovo's handsets). Take that out and you'll then be
greeted with a headset, a wall charger, and a microUSB cable. Also,
standard with other of the company's offerings come a case (this one's frosted) and a screen protector. Nice!
Build
Quality and Design
As far as the build quality foes, the A6000 Plus features a removable
black plastic back panel with matte texture that feels quite solid in
the hand. It takes some design cues from the Lenovo A7000, but that's
all there is to it. There's no layer of Gorilla Glass, however, so
the screen protector really comes in handy for this one.
We're also liking the form factor here, the A6000 Plus' straight
edges plus its rounded corners definitely feel good to the touch. The
company's branding is etched on both sides of the handset, and
there's the Dolby's logo at the bottom part of the back in between
the speaker grills. Moving forward, both the volume rocker and the
power button sit at the right. The microUSB port and the audio jack
are up top while the mic is down south. The front facing camera is
located beside the earpiece, and the primary snapper is at the upper
left side of the back above the flash. The only gripe you'll be
having with the design is that the capacitive keys aren't backlit,
you'll sometimes fumble in the dark whenever you're navigating
with them.
Display
The Lenovo A6000 Plus features a 720 x 1280 resolution –
ample for a 5.0-inch display. It comes with some sweet pixel density
and superb viewing angles to boot. Watching movies is easily a
pleasure, and paired with Dolby's Digital Plus certified
speakers thrown in the mix. Simply put, the A6000 Plus is a
multimedia-centric device designed for your on-the-go needs.
Software
and User-Interface
The Lenovo A6000 Plus still runs Android 4.4.4 Kitkat build
Kraft-A6000-s_S017_151016. There's an update to
A6000-s_S030_151030 amounting to 1124MB, which would probably be
the Android 5.0.2 Lollipop update, but we're not pushing
through with it yet to avoid bugs and whatnot. Moving forward,
there's the Vibe UI on top of the homescreen, emulating the feel of
iOS. There's no app drawer here – all your apps will be on the
homescreen itself, and your organization is left to folders. You can
switch to different launchers if you think it's not your cup of tea,
but there's no need to since Lenovo's approach is intuitive, unique
and unobtrusive.
Those who have been using a Lenovo smartphone will feel right at home
with the A6000 Plus. Come standard with the company's devices is the
suite of DoIT apps so you don't have to look elsewhere for utility
programs. There's ShareIt (which is also available from the
Google Play Store for other devices for blazingly fast transfer
speeds), Security for your good ol' antivirus software
and data manager, SyncIT for your backup and import needs,
Guvera Music, and the standard social media and messaging apps
such as Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and Skype. There's also the Dolby Digital App as your well-rounded EQ.
You can also switch wallpapers on the fly by swiping from the top
left or the top right of the homescreen. There are also desktop
gesture settings such as scrolling up, scrolling down, and double
tapping, with each customizable depending on your needs.
Performance
As far as the specifications sheet goes, the A6000 Plus is equipped
with a Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 with four cores of
Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 1.2GHz a piece and Adreno 306 GPU paired
with 2GB of RAM. Such a setup places it in the mid-ranged category,
and it's designed for multitaskers on the go who also need fast lane
LTE connectivity.
We managed to push the A6000 Plus to the limit by trying out graphic
intensive games such as Need for Speed No Limits, Mortal Kombat X,
Dark Meadow and Tomb Raider: Relic Run. There are occasional lags and
stutters, but they are all playable should you wish to download them
from the Play Store. However, some graphic elements in Dark Meadow
appear glitchy, it's only limited to that, but we'll try it out with
other games to check.
For the benchmark results, see below:
Camera
The A6000 Plus features a primary 8MP snapper with a single LED flash
setup. It's capable of producing great shots under good lighting
conditions, but eliminate that in the process and the results leave
much to be desired. We've seen similar results from the A7000, but
that came with a much beefier camera software as well as a dual-LED
flash setup to yield better results in lowlight. Thankfully, you can
work with HDR to achieve acceptable photos in low lighting
conditions. It's not the worst in the spectrum, don't be mistaken.
But we've really seen better in the range to put it into perspective.
Check out the shots:
 |
| With flash |
 |
| Good lighting conditions |
 |
| With HDR |
 |
| Selfie camera |
Battery
Life
If there's one legacy that Lenovo doesn't fail to keep featuring in
their devices, it has got to be the battery life. At 2,300mAh, the
A6000 Plus managed to get me over a day and a half on mixed to
regular usage – that includes more on browsing and streaming on
YouTube, and throw in gaming apps on the side. Geekbench coughed up
about a 6:50 battery runtime on its acid test, so of course,
results may vary depending on your usage.
Verdict
Pros:
Dolby Digital Plus delivers more boom to the speakers
Excellent design and form factor
VibeUI is still clean and unobtrusive
Impressive battery life
Selfie camera is a performer
Cons:
The capacitive keys aren't backlit
Lazada-exclusives, good luck on stocks and timing
The primary camera leaves much to be desired
Although the update is there, having Lollipop out of the box would
have been better
Where does the A6000 Plus fit in when Lenovo already dished out a
stellar bang-for-the-buck smartphone in the form of the A7000, or the
A7000 Plus for that matter? First, the A6000 Plus comes at the most
appealing price tag at Php6,999. Second, it comes with a bigger
storage at 16GB so you don't have to feel so limited with what the
bigger A7000 and A7000 Plus offers.
The Lenovo A6000 has the makings of a well-rounded smartphone. Its
decent internals can make it last a while, and its classy form factor
definitely gives it an edge against the burgeoning smartphones in the
already crowded Android space. What's more, it has hit a sweet spot
for price and performance that it's difficult not to lunge at the
deal, you'll even get more savings with Lazada's coupons should you
have any qualifying ones. Overall, the Lenovo A600 Plus is an easy
recommend for those that are looking for a daily driver that can
bring them and their media library to the distance without putting a
huge dent on their bank accounts.
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