Full Review: Lenovo A850

The “A” series of Lenovo is composed of their affordable and budget-friendly offerings. The newest addition to this line-up is the Lenovo A850, a full pledged phablet measuring in at 5.5-inches. It has competitive specifications as it has a 1.3GHz MTK6582M quad-core processor paired with 1GB RAM and 4GB internal storage that’s expandable via microSD card. It’s currently priced at Php9,999 which may put it at a disadvantage to local brands (since they usually offer higher specs at the same price) but you do get the peace of mind with the quality of the product as well as the reliable after-sales support service of Lenovo.

Let’s take a look again at the over-all specifications.

Lenovo A850 Spec Sheet

• 1.3GHz MTK6582M Quad-core Processor
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB Internal Storage, Expandable up to 32GB via microSD card
• 5.5-inches IPS Capacitive Touch Screen, qHD Resolution
• 5.0-megapixels primary camera with LED Flash and Auto Focus
• VGA secondary camera
• Dual SIM, Dual Standby
• 3G, HSPA+, WiFi, WiFi Hotspot, Bluetooth, GPS/aGPS
• Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2
• 2,250mAh Battery
• SRP: Php9,999

Not bad right? Our only gripe is that the internal storage is just 4GB. We really think that the minimum already should be at least 8GB. Anyway, let’s move on to the full review!

Hardware: Phablet Size but surprisingly easy to grip

“Phablets” are usually labelled as huge devices that always needs two hands to properly operate. This is generally true but there are some phablets that are sleek, slim, and very manageable. One of them is the Lenovo A850. The body is fully plastic with a chrome finish along the sides. There are no sharp edges which helps a lot with the comfort levels when held in one hand. The width of the device is minimized as much as possible thanks to the narrow bezels. For added style and personality, Lenovo put it some sort of glitter finish at the back cover.

Button orientation needs a bit of learning curve. The usual volume rockers are at the right upper side while the power / lock button is located dead center at the top, which is quite unusual to press with your fingers considering the big size of the phone.

The 5.5” IPS display delivers good viewing angles but we do find the color reproduction a little bit washed out. Nevertheless the images were sharp and clear despite it just having a resolution of 960 x 540. The qHD resolution will definitely turn off some people but generally it’s actually good enough for most people. It’s sufficient for everyday visuals like browsing, image and movie playbacks. Perhaps our biggest gripe would be that the brightness isn’t that good especially in the outdoors with direct sunlight beating down on the screen.

Speakers are loud and good and the music reproduction is good as well. We found the range of sound is complete and not overpowering. This phone can definitely also act as your reliable mp3 player for your daily routines.

Performance: Great performance for the price

Thanks to one of the latest MediaTek processors, the MT6582M, the A850 was able to deliver a very impressive score on Antutu Benchmark. The qHD resolution also played a role in boosting the score since the processor was more than sufficient to power all the pixels despite whatever activity. That said, playing games on the A850 won’t be a problem as it can handled the current popular demanding games in the Google Play store during our tests. Multi-tasking was also okay as we were able to run more than 10 apps before encountering a reset which indicated that the 1GB RAM was being stretched.

Internal storage is 4GB ROM (2GB for Internal Applications and 2GB Media Storage), which we find a bit small especially since this is a Phablet and most people will use it as a multimedia player. The microSD can definitely compensate but we still feel that given the Php9,999 price tag it should have at the very least 8GB internal.

Camera: Everyday 5mp Shooter

The primary camera on the A850 is a 5mp rear shooter with LED Flash and Auto Focus. In terms of shot quality, we noticed that the colors sometimes came out a little dull and that it was hard to focus. Having said that, the over-all quality still surpasses a lot of the “8MP” shooters of a lot of local brands.

Here are some sample shots we took for your reference:

Battery Life: A day of heavy consumption

In my trip to San Pablo Laguna the A850 lasted me the whole day which is around 14-16 hours of continuous 3G data, social media, occasional picture taking, and web browsing. This was very surprising since the device only had a 2,250mAh battery. It felt like we had much, much more (maybe around 2,500-3,000mAh).

So yeah, two thumbs up for the battery life of the A850!

Vedict: Definitely a Phablet to consider

The Lenovo A850 is a great daily driver phablet. It delivers a good Android user experience in a thin and lightweight form factor. It’s sturdy, easy to operate, has a good 5.5-inch screen, and the battery life surpassed our expectations. It’s already out in the market with a price tag of Php9,999. Of course if you compare this to offerings of local brands, their devices would have better specifications. However what Lenovo really brings to the table is peace of mind that what you’re getting went through rigorous quality assurance and if ever you do have problems with your phone, they have a lot of service centers that can fix it.

Congratulations Lenovo for bringing the A850 to the PH! Definitely offers good value for money in our opinon. Cheers!