You can’t go wrong with the Lenovo P770

The Lenovo P770 captured the hearts of a lot of techies worldwide when it was revealed that not only did it pack a dual-core processor, 1GB RAM, and Android Jelly Bean out of the box, but it also had a whopping 3,500mAh battery. That’s at least double the battery you see with most smartphones these days and even 400mAh more than the Galaxy Note 2. It’s also priced very competitively at just Php11,990 which makes it a solid mid-range offering. We’ve been playing around with a unit for over 2 weeks now and we’d like to give our full report to you guys today.

Lenovo P770 Spec Sheet

• 1.2GHz Dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU
• PowerVR SGX531 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB Internal Storage, expandable via microSD
• 4.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 960×540 pixels, 245 pixels per inch
• 5.0-megapixel rear-facing camera with autofocus, LED flash
• VGA front-facing camera
• Dual SIM, Dual Standby
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, WiFi Hotspot, 3G Connectivity
• 3,500mAh Battery (Whut)
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• Price: Php11,999

Hardware: Dressed to Impress

Gone are the days when Lenovo smartphones looked generic and bland.

Lenovo has made giant strides when it comes to the design of their devices. They’ve actually been churning out a bunch of them in different aesthetics but the Lenovo P770 is definitely one of the snazziest and sleekest among the latest batch. The back plate is primarily plastic but the design is very similar to the Pebble Blue of the Galaxy series. At the front you’ll find the 4.5-inch IPS screen and underneath that is a notable design element — a strip with a different color (makes for better design) with the text “Smart Sound”. In short, gone are the days when Lenovo smartphones looked generic and bland.

Now you’re probably thinking… “Hey this thing has a 3,500mAh battery? It’s probably HUGE!” To some extent you can call it thick but it’s definitely nowhere near the size of the Cloudfone Thrill 430x. It’s not thin but it’s not too fat. In human terms we can probably say that it’s just “slightly overweight”, hehe.

Our only concern with the design track of Lenovo is that they seem to have a shotgun approach. They come up with varied designs across their different handsets. Hopefully they’re able to nail down a unique look that they can call their own and then run with that for their future devices.

Display Quality: Above Average

The Lenovo P770 has a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 960×540 (qHD) which comes out to 245 pixels per inch. It’s standard mid-range fare for smartphones at this price range. If your eyes are used to Retina Display quality then you’ll definitely notice the difference. However if you’re coming from within the same range then you’ll probably won’t mind. One good addition is IPS which results to better viewing angles.

Software: Smooth for the Most Part, Occasional Lags

Now we get to the soul of the device, the software. The Lenovo P770 runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Yes, it has Project Butter and this optimization combined with the dual-core processor and 1GB RAM obviously translates to a smoother Android experience especially if you’re coming from Ice Cream Sandwich or heaven forbid, Gingerbread. Animations and transitions are, for the most part, smooth and seamless. However we did notice occasional lags when playing graphics intensive applications.

Speaking of gaming, we did the usual Antutu Benchmark Score test for the P770 and it came out to a little over 6,600. This is at par with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (the 2nd generation, not the first Nexus) and higher than the Amazon Kindle Fire.

When it comes to the look and feel of the UI, Lenovo has their own skin which is… circular, lol. I say that because all of the icons are turned into spheres, hehe. If you’re into that kind of thing then well and good. By the way, we loved the typography of the skin. The cool thing with this is that it’s Android so if you don’t like it just get a custom launcher from the Google Play Store (we usually get Nova Launcher).

Another key feature worth mentioning is Lenovo’s implementation of dual-SIM, dual standby. They’ve practically perfected this already as it is one of the more customizable and intuitive implementations.

Battery Life: Crazy

Now we get to the real reason why the P770 is an attractive buy — battery life. We used and abused this baby for the last few weeks and here are the results in bullets:

• Light-moderate use (with 3G, Sync): Over 35 hours
• Moderate use (with 3G, Sync, Calls, Texts, Social, E-mail, Browsing, some Gaming): 20-25 hours
• Heavy use (everything with a lot of gaming): 9-12 hours

As you can see these numbers are extremely positive. When it comes to going to extra mile you can count on the Lenovo P770.

Camera: Standard Fare, Nothing Notable

The Lenovo P770 packs a 5-megapixel shooter at the back. It’s your usual snapper though but it does seem to take really good macro shots, hehe.

Sample photos:

Not that bad. However I personally would have preferred they cram better optics especially since we’re shelling out Php11,990 for this bad boy.

Verdict: Solid Offering from Lenovo

So what’s our final verdict for the Lenovo P770? It’s a stylish workhorse that will get the job done… and then some. The main selling point really is the high powered battery combined with the optimal spec set-up. Congratulations Lenovo on shipping a fantastic product.