Two days with a Lenovo A850

Original post done by Daniel.J
 --
Let me just begin with saying; Jesus, Mary and Joseph! This thing is massive!

Coming from a 4 inch Motorola Atrix 4G, the Lenovo A850 is unbelievably large. That said, I’m getting used to it. The phone (phablet really) feels very solid and sturdy, plastics are of good quality, a far cry from your usual china phones you can buy on ebay. This is a really good device. My only complaint is the glossy finish. The A850 is a true fingerprint magnet.

Its 5.5 inch IPS screen is very clear, despite its low resolution (qHD 960×540), the colour reproduction and the viewing angles are excellent. I’m not bothered by the low resolution at all. And I read and write on my phone a lot. Though what I’d like to see in the next model is a one glass display with a higher resolution. Maybe that’ll bump the phone out of the budget segment, but that’s my opinion.

There are two things that work against this device, obviously the low resolution display, a 720p or 1080p display would greatly improve the user experience. And the utter and complete lack of third party support. Though, it’s not fair to place the blame at Lenovo’s feet when it’s MediaTek who are refusing to release appropriate sources. That clearly puts a damper on third party development.

That said, there are stock rom derivatives that work very well. However if you think the stock android experience is the only proper android experience, you’re better off looking somewhere else. Lenovo is known for putting their brand on everything. Sometimes they do a good job, the power management of this device is absolutely amazing for instance, but other times, they would be better off not fixing something that isn’t broken. (Lenovo Browser, I’m looking at you.)

How is the performance, you ask? Well, let me put it this way, Antutu places it just ahead of the Nexus 4. I pulled mine out of the box, fired it up and it scored 17081 straight out of the box. Turns out that the Quad Core 1.3GHz MediaTek MT6582 cpu does an amazing job of keeping this phablet on par with mainstream high performance devices. 1GB ram and the Mali-400MP, sometimes falsely advertised as Mali-400MP2, also keeps this device up to date with new games. My all-time favourite game, GTA III runs perfectly with no lag or any kind of slowdowns whatsoever. The massive screen helps a lot too.

One of the most important features of this phone, at least for me, is the dual sim option. I can use my private and work sim cars in the same device, therefore avoiding lugginga round two phones.

You might wonder why a bloke from Sweden would by a Chinese phone when there are so many perfectly capable European models I could buy. Well, admittedly, the imported Chinese phones we have here in Sweden/Europe, that we commonly refer to as “CDM phones” (Chinese Domestic Market) aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. So I was understandingly a bit critical. But I like to tinker and Lenovo is a reputable international corporation. Clearly, my trust was not misplaced. I will however admit that my Lenovo Thinkpad fanboyism, might’ve, slightly, just a tiny bit, influenced my purchase.

The A850 is an amazing buy for $175 US Dollars (shipped). As an example, I could buy a ZTE Blade 3 or a Samsung Galaxy Ace for the same amount. And, with all due respect to their engineers, both of those phones are so far behind the A850 that it’s not even a contest. In fact, was going to do a side by side Antutu benchmark video with a ZTE Blade 3 and when I powered up the Lenovo A850, the Blade 3 simply shut down. I still haven’t been able to get it past the initial boot logo. I think I scared it.

Conclusion

Personally, I’m very fond of this device and recommend it if you’re looking for a 5+ inch phone/phablet. Admittedly, the size doesn’t appeal to everyone. The A850 is just barely larger than the Note 3, so if that seems too large you should opt for something smaller, or prepare yourself for two hand operation. Reaching the top of the screen, even with my fairly large hands, can sometimes be troublesome. A good anti-skid type case will most likely help. I’ve ordered a few that will be reviewed later.

But let’s be frank about this, for the money you’re paying, you get a lot of phone for you money. And I’m not talking physical size. The A850 greatly outclasses everything in its European price range.

CPU-Z screenshots follow.

This is Daniel J, Sweden, signing off. 2013-11-18