Lenovo is slowly, but surely making its way into the hearts and minds of many Filipinos. What evidence do we have to prove this? Well, apart from popping up in more and more malls through kiosks and coming up with more budget-friendly models, the company has also been trying to perfect the same, tried and tested formula of a well-performing, user-friendly smartphone.
That smartphone in its latest iteration is called the Lenovo A6000 Plus. It’s a 5-inch HD Android phone with superb audio chops and a reasonable retail price tag. After a couple of weeks with the A6000 Plus, we’re here to give you a better look at it as an option for the modern Android smartphone user.
Design and build quality
The Lenovo A6000 Plus looks a lot like the smartphone from Lenovo that came before it. Like we said earlier, it’s based on the same tried and tested formula that has brought Lenovo success before. And we can’t fault them for not fixing what isn’t broken.
In terms of design, the A6000 Plus is simple. It doesn’t try to flash any fancy decorations to fool you into thinking it’s something that it isn’t. In its simple black colored state, it’s able to communicate subtleness, simplicity, and above all, user-friendliness.
Not without hardware buttons, the A6000 Plus has the usual mix of power switch and volume rocker located on its sides. Up front, there’s a large color screen and capacitive touch menu keys, while the back holds the main camera, speakers, and Lenovo branding.
Although the phone uses mostly plastic in its construction, there aren’t any major signs of low build quality. It feels alright in the hand, and surprisingly lighter than the average Android smartphone. Most other phones nowadays come with various metallic parts and some form of scratch-resistant glass where possible. The A6000 Plus is basic but fortunately isn’t lacking in terms of hardware features.
Display and cameras
The 5-inch display on the Lenovo A6000 Plus comes with a 1280×720 resolution HD touchscreen. The can be set to adjust its own brightness automatically, and it offers good viewing angles and color reproduction.
In terms of responsiveness, the display worked flawlessly. We’re happy to report that we encountered no dead pixels or any such problems with it while we used it for testing.
And as for the cameras, you’ll get a satisfactory performance out of both of them. The rear camera comes with an 8-megapixel autofocus sensor while the front camera comes with a 2-megapixel sensor. They both work best in broad daylight or anywhere with lots of ambient lighting, but the rear camera can function well even indoors thanks to an LED flash.
Audio and connectivity
One of the A6000 Plus highlight features is the high-quality audio available through both the headphone jack and the speakers. We’re glad to tell you that the actual performance is acceptable for the amount of marketing hype that the phone has received from Lenovo. It’s a good phone for sound trips especially if you have access to some high fidelity music.
The best part is that you can extend the phone’s audio capabilities even if you use wireless headphones or wireless speakers. Like any modern Android phone, the A6000 Plus comes with built-im Bluetooth connectivity. So thanks to that, you can enjoy your favorite music without even having to plug in headphones or speakers at all.
Speaking of plugging things in, the A6000 Plus uses micro USB 2.0 for connectivity. Its built-in micro USB port can be used for both charging and data transfer, and not only is it easy to locate, but it’s also straightforward to use.
Software and performance
One of the main reasons why the Lenovo A6000 Plus is so user-friendly is the fact that it comes with a skinned version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. What that means is that is default OS is Android 5.1, but that it has a custom UI running on top which, all things considered, makes the overall user experience a bit easier and more rewarding.
The custom Lenovo UI removes the familiar Android app drawer and replaces it with a side-scrolling app-filled home screen. Using it can be a bit confusing at first, especially if you’re coming from other Android phones because you might first look for the app drawer. But after a while, you’ll get used to it and might even prefer it over vanilla Android UI.~
Some things from stock Android haven’t been changed, however. The standard set of Android apps and software featuLenovo A6000 Plus reviewres are available on the A6000 Plus, and that includes the many messaging and communications apps, the multimedia apps, and even some of the productivity apps. The A6000 Plus is indeed a smartphone, after all. So this shouldn’t be surprising.
With the phone’s vibrant screen, it can be used as a handy media playback device on the go. As an Android phone, it definitely supports all of the latest apps that can be downloaded from the Google Play store. As long as you can connect to the Internet, the A6000 Plus can be modified and customized in the many ways that you want.
And of course, if you’re going to download apps from the Play Store at all, you might as well download games. And it’s fortunate that the A6000 Plus can run most, if not all of them.
Every single one of the top apps that we tested ran without any problems on it, and we didn’t even run out of space on the default storage location. The phone comes with 16GB storage (coupled with 2GB RAM on the processor), and you can add even more to it via a microSD card.
Battery life
But what about the phone’s battery life? On a continuous gaming session, the Lenovo A6000 Plus managed to last a little over 5 and a half hours before giving us the low battery signal. For normal smartphone use, it easily lasts about a day of use. If you’re a heavy smartphone user, you may need to bring a power bank if you plan to stay out of the house for more than 12 hours.
Verdict
A phone like the Lenovo A6000 Plus might seem like it’s a dime a dozen these days, but actually, it isn’t. And that’s what makes it a beauty, in our opinion. You would think that more companies would come up with a phone like this that looks simple, is easy to use, works as expected, and doesn’t command an unreasonable price. But they’re frankly few and far between. So the A6000 Plus gets two thumbs up.
