Lenovo S650 unboxing!

Today we’re unboxing another mid-range smartphone offering from Chinese company Lenovo. This time around, it’s their recently announced S650 smartphone. The S650 is a stylishly designed mid-range smartphone from the Chinese manufacturer that has a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and a 4.7-inch display. The S650 has the same design language of two of the company’s smartphones that we’ve already seen – namely the Vibe Z and the S930 – which is a definite improvement in our opinion.

Lenovo S650 specs

• 1.3GHz quad-core MT6582 processor
• Mali-400MP2
• 1GB of RAM
• 4.7-inch capacitive display, 540 x 960 resolution
• 8GB of storage, expandable up to 32GB
• 8-megapixel rear camera
• VGA front camera
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS
• Dual-SIM, dual standby
• 3G, HSDPA
• 2000mAh battery
• Android 4.2
• Php 9,999

Packaging and contents:

The S650 comes in a grey and red box, with the photo of the device display prominently on the front. Once you open the box, you’re treated to the device itself sealed in plastic, along with the included hard case.

Aside from the case, the S650 comes with most of the standard accessories that you’d come to expect from a smartphone – charger, a pair of headphones, USB cable and the user manual.

Initial impressions: fast and compact

Like we mentioned before, the S650 has shades of the Vibe Z in both its exterior and its software.

The S650 has the same faux metal textured plastic back design as the Vibe Z – down to the shiny faux metal trim on the side and the bottom. The S650 has a smaller, more manageable 4.7-inch display compared to its bigger brother, the S930, which makes the device easier to hold and carry.

The button layout is a bit of a departure from typical phones with the same screen size – the power button is smack dab in the middle of the top of the S650, while the volume rocker is on the right side of the device. The 3.5mm jack and USB port are where you’d expect them to be, namely on the top and bottom respectively.

As we noted earlier, the S650 comes with a protective hard case that has large cuts in the back and a flexible silicon strip in the middle.

The design is pretty ingenious actually – you just flip the strip (which has a metal core) which then roll up and acts like a stand when you position the S650 horizontally.

The case allows you to watch videos hands free when you lay it flat on a surface.

The 1.3GHz quad-core processor on the S650 is certainly pretty capable, managing to get 16907 points from AnTuTu. From our brief time with the S650, it seems like the processor is capable of handling day to day tasks without slowing down, as our (admittedly) brief time with the device was pretty smooth, with just a faint hint of lag with the custom UI. Speaking of UI, the S650 uses Lenovo’s custom UI much like the Vibe Z, forgoing the traditional app drawer. Instead it just lays out all of your apps on the homescreen. Lenovo also installed their DOit apps on the S650 much like the Vibe Z and the S930, which include the SECUREit, SYNCit, SHAREit and SNAPit.

That’s it for this unboxing. Watch out for the review of the S650 sometime next week.