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Hi, we're Mobile Network Comparison and this is our review of the Lenovo A850.
We've got plenty more mobile phone reviews coming, so if you've got an idea for which
handset you'd like us to cover next please leave a comment voting for your choice.
We've really put this phone through its paces as we've been carrying it around with us as
our main handset for the last few months now to get a taste what it's like to use on a
daily basis. The A850 is the latest and greatest in Lenovo's
roster of mid-range Android smartphones. We've previously reviewed other A-series phones
including the A789 and, most recently, the A820.
Each new edition has offered incremental enhancements. So, for example, the A789 was all but identical
to the A780 that preceded it apart from a few factors, such as increasing the number
of cores, the addition of a front camera, and bumping up the Android version number.
The A820 came out in March last year and we were really impressed by it. It provided perhaps
the most substantial increase in technical specifications by jumping from dual core to
quad core as well as doubling the amount of RAM. It stuck with the 4.5" screen form factor
but nudged up the resolution giving it the highest pixel density in the entire A-series.
The only thing we didn't like about the A820 was that Lenovo got rid of the front camera
as well as the flash but it was still an amazing phone for the price.
Next in the a series was the A830 which was, just as you might predict, a slight improvement
upon the A820. It came out a few months later and had exactly the same chipset, but the
screen size was bumped up to 5" even though the resolution stayed the same. It also got
a slight increase in battery capacity to cope with the bigger screen and Android 4.2.1.
But here we are, with the A850 in our hands. How does this improve on the previous editions?
The way we see it, Lenovo are aiming at the model of consistent marginal improvement that
Apple have mastered. The A850 doesn't aim to be a radical Kuhnian
paradigm shift - it's basically just a clone of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and Lenovo are
simply slowly but surely nudging things forwards and upwards with each incremental release.
So you could say we aren't looking so much at the dissolution of the Ptolemaic system or new
relativistic way of explaining Newtonian physics - simply, Lenovo are pushing things forwards
persistently by replacing the 1.2 Ghz Cortex A7 quad core CPU with a 1.3 GHz processor.
And instead the screen size has been bumped up from 5" to 5.5" while the Android version
has gone up by the tiniest of notches from 4.2.1 to 4.2.2.
But let's forget about raw specs, how does this actually work as a phone? The form factor
is pretty standard for Lenovo -- it more or less looks like a scaled up version of the
A820 or A830. Don't be deceived though - the extra screen real estate on this 5.5" inch
model really does make a real difference in multifarious ways and we'll go into that a
bit later. While the phone still has the same smooth
glistening back and metallic edging, the extra half an inch makes all the difference. That's
what she said. No but seriously, this is a completely different phone from the A820 and
even the A830 and the display really is humongous. The hardware layout is pretty standard for
Lenovo. On the face we've got the usual microphone and speaker, proximity sensors and a VGA-resolution
front facing camera. At the bottom of the device are three softkeys including the now
familiar Lenovo clover pattern in place of the home key. It is a shame that the buttons
aren't backlit though. In terms of physical buttons, Lenovo have
stuck to having a single power button at the top of the phone and a volume rocker on the
right-hand side. This works well although we're more used to having a volume key on
the left-hand side and a power button on the side rather than the top. The edge is completed
with a 3.5 mm headphone jack at the top and the now ubiquitous micro-USB slot at the bottom
of the phone. The reserve side looks "professional" in that
it's stylish but with no real flair to speak of. There's a minimalist Lenovo logo as well
as the back camera and flash and a small speaker grille at the bottom of the phone.
Underneath that unassuming cover are the gory innards of the device. This being a Chinese
smartphone we have the standard dual SIM slots both of which take standards SIM cards in
this case and only one of which can handle 3G speeds. The battery is large although we
honestly would have preferred something bit bulkier as it only packs in 2550 mAh. It still
lasted easily one day or normal use in our experience though.
Of course there's also a micro SD card slot for expanding the internal memory capacity.
Speaking of which, you only get a miserly 2GB of free space which really isn't enough
in this day and age so you'll need to use third-party tools to move apps and games to
the SD card to make room. In terms of performance, the A850 doesn't
disappoint. We've ready posted the full benchmark video and even compared it to the Galaxy S2
which it completely obliterated. The 1.3 Ghz quad core processor really makes a difference
as does the Mali GPU and it has to be said that the hardware inside this phone is pretty
outstanding. With Antutu scores of over 16,000 it's hard
to fault the performance of the A850 and it can handle most demanding 3D games.
But, despite the power under the hood, our major complaint is that the screen is a massive
disappointment. And we really can't emphasise that enough.
We're not talking Godfather III type letdowns in that it didn't really quite live up to
the previous editions or even talking the level of disappointment when you find out
that Santa Claus is really your parents sneaking around. We're talking serious, underwhelming,
capital-T trauma. Even worse than when you're hungover and all you want is a nice cup of
tea but your freshly brewed cup it ruined by off milk and there's no way you're going
to be able to get dressed and schlep down to the shops.
It's poor resolution simply looks crap and dated and the more we use this phone, the
more it got to us. Especially after getting to play around with some of the 1080p full-HD
beasts that are doing the rounds these days, it's a wasted opportunity. We've never been
particularly quick to complain about being able to see individual pixels on screens and
weren't massively blown away by retina displays, but the poor resolution of the huge screen
on the A850 is so bad it is just simply distracting and that's no good at all.
In terms of software, we're still as impressed as ever about Android Jelly Bean so won't
go into too much detail about all the benefits and features it offers. Unfortunately, Lenovo
haven't been kind enough to provide a purely stock experience and have added plenty of
their own apps and tweaks to the phone. Some of these, such as Lenovo Power, are genuinely
useful and enhance the experience while others are not so well received.
Lenovo seem to have skinned every aspect of the core Android experience including the
Play Store, the File Browser and the weird way that they've laid out all the different
Settings options. Somehow, they've even managed to change the loading animation that applies
to every single app. A nice touch that we appreciated was the way
that the notifications have their own separate drop-down arrows that allow you to tweak them
individually. And the launcher that Lenovo have included has some nice if basic ways
of customising themes, icons, animations, etc. in the launcher. But we would really
have liked to see a proper quick settings interface which is sadly non-existent on the
A850 out of the box. All the apps we tried worked pretty seamlessly
including the camera which has some nice on-screen display overlays providing you with extra
information. It also has a brilliant burst mode feature that allows you to take up to
ninety nine shots in quick succession. Having said that, the quality of the camera
itself is pretty mediocre with only a five megapixel sensor on the back camera but it's
pretty standard compared to other Lenovo phones with slightly smudged out images when fully
zoomed in and the lowlight performance that leaves a lot to be desired. Although there
doesn't seem to be any image stabilisation, we were impressed by the incredible lack of
shutter lag and the f2.8 aperture is pretty sharp in sunlight. Having said that, the video
performance is also poor with 1080p videos seemingly just scaled up from 960*540 resolution.
The front camera - it does do the job for video chats and selfies but the quality is
the bare minimum and you left wanting just a bit more.
We were also disappointed that there's no magnetic compass sensor even though not everyone
has a use for it and another thing is that the phone doesn't currently seem to support
USB on the go. Overall though, there's no denying that the
phone offers incredible value for money. Until every phone has a dual SIM slot we won't stop
raving about how incredibly useful this feature is. It really does make such a massive difference
and especially due to the physical size of this phone, it's a fantastically handy feature.
Once again we're also loving the scheduled power feature in the settings menu that lets
you automatically turn your phone on and off at specific times.
And there's nothing else to say other than this is a great phone and a worthy successor
to the A820. Despite all the little flaws and niggles, there's no denying that it blows
away most of the competition in terms of value for money and sheer performance.
If you think you can deal with low resolution screen and won't be using it as your main
camera then you be more than satisfied with purchasing the A850. And especially if you
think you'll find the dual SIM capability useful or can't afford to splash out half
a grand a for top end iPhone or Samsung, you might be surprised how much value for money
you get by buying from Lenovo. In summary, it might not be the absolute best Chinese
smartphone ever but it's certainly one of the best 5.5" inch models and deserves to
be the flagship of Lenovo's A-series. Thanks for watching this revirw - we really
hope this helps you make your mind up about whether you should buy them an A850 or not.
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