First impressions of the Lenovo A7000 – an affordable 5.5-inch phablet with impressive software capabilities

LaptopMedia.com Highlights First impressions of the Lenovo A7000 – an affordable 5.5-inch phablet with impressive software capabilities

From: Hristiyan Tsutsev 19 August 2015 / 09:26 | 0

A couple of months ago we introduced you to the detailed reviews of Lenovo A5000 and A6000, and now there is a new model on the stage – A7000. Naturally, we’re ready to test it. As per tradition, we’re first going to share our first impressions of the device.

Unlike its lower-numbered in the series, A7000 features a 5.5-inch display with 720p HD resolution. The IPS panel provides wide visibility angles and bright colors, both of which are easily notable as soon as the screen lights up.

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The design language sticks to elements established in the lineup. The profile is impressive at only 8mm thick, which is one of the reasons behind the low weight of 140 grams – not much for a phablet. The body is made of plastic. The area around the camera is interesting, as besides the camera itself, there is an LED flash, the built-in speaker, the secondary built-in microphone and a “Lenovo” inscription. The rear panel is removable, and the same goes for the battery, which must be removed in order to access the two SIM slots. The microSD slot is right next to them. Simply put, design decisions placing the device squarely into the middle price range.

Software-wise things aren’t much different from other Lenovo models – more than good. The device has many pre-installed apps and games, and most of them are even sorted it folders. Once again, there is no internal menu, so all of the available applications can be seen on the home screen. The settings menu has a lot of options to offer. The icons there are colored in a differently, so it will take some time to get used to them, but we don’t think this will be a problem. The “Functions” submenu is also there and it includes some interesting modes and functionality options such as gestures control.

Lenovo A7000 has a 2900 mAh battery, but we can’t say whether it will be enough to satisfy the needs of the big 5.5-inch display and the octa-core processor. According to the manufacturer, the device can provide 39 hours of phone calls, but that almost seems like a typo, so we better wait for the test results before we can make any comments on that.

We’re also curious to see the capabilities of the Dolby Atmos sound technology and the rear 8MP camera with LED flash. The latter can film Full HD video and offers many manual settings like white balance, ISO, effects, etc. Very soon you can expect a post with some sample photos taken with A7000, as well as an in-depth analysis of the camera in the upcoming review.

Specs sheet

OS	Android 5.0 (Lollipop)
CPU	MediaTek MT6752 (8-core, 1.50GHz, Cortex-A53)
RAM	2GB
Internal memory	8GB
GPU	Mali-T760MP2
Display	5.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive multi touch display with resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels
Connectivity	Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, A-GPS
Cameras	8MP with autofocus and LED flash (rear), 5-MP (front)
Additional features	dual SIM (Micro-SIM, dual stand-by) microSD memory card slot (up to 32GB) microUSB v2.0 port built-in speaker 3.5 audio jack with Dolby Atmos FM radio geo-tagging camera with touch focus and face detection accelerometer proximity sensor
Battery	2900 mAh
Dimensions	76.2 x 152.6 x 8 mm
Weight	140 grams