UPDATE: BOOM! CES 2013. We have the lowdown on 3 new Android phones announced with pricing!
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Greetings from Xiamen, China! I’m here for an overnight trip with the Lenovo and Open Communications team. We had a chance to tour the Lenovo factory where their smartphones and tablets are made. More on this in another post. Last night was Lenovo’s debut for their Q3 lineup of phones in time for the holidays. These are the Lenovo K860, P700i and S560.
UPDATE: BOOM! CES 2013. We have the lowdown on 3 new Android phones announced with pricing! Check them out!
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The dual SIM Lenovo S880 looks amazing in white.
Lenovo is becoming more and more agressive with their phone launches. The other day, Lenovo Global paid a visit to the Philippines to introduce two new phones — the A60+ and the S800. In summary, the A60+ is the spiritual successor to two phones they launched in the last few months — the Lenovo A60 and the Lenovo A65. To those of you who bought an A65, you **might** experience some buyer’s regret as the new A60+ comes with more or less the same specs, with a slightly different form factor. It is also more affordable at only PHP 4,999.00
EDIT II: Lenovo has officially announced the P700i which will also sell for PHP 10,999.00
EDIT: If you want a 5″ Lenovo phablet that competes with the Samsung Galaxy Note, the new Lenovo S880 sells for PHP14,999 only. It’s also dual SIM!
Lenovo is on a roll. First, they upped the bar of the PHP 5,000 thereabouts smartphone by introducing the dual SIM A65 Android device. Today, they are selling a powerful Android device that comes with a big 4″ screen and a long-lasting 2500mAh battery. This is by far the most impressive package we’ve seen for a mid-ranged Android device with all the latest updates that’s only a little over PHP 10,000. Plus, it’s dual SIM.
We have a unit with us so expect a more in-depth review. This phone is being sold in stalls starting today.
Key Features:
â— Dual SIM, Dual Standby
â— Android OS 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
â— 4.0 inches IPS-LCD Capacitive Multi-Touchscreen
â— WVGA 800×480 pixels, 16M colour display
â— 3G / HSPA Technology
â— 1GHz CPU Speed, MT6575 Processor
â— 512MB RAM, 4GB ROM
â— 755MB Internal Memory memory up to 32GB via microSD card
â— 5.0 Megapixel with Auto Focus + VGA Camera
â— 2500 mAh Battery Capacity
â— USB and Bluetooth Tethering
â— Portable WLAN Hotspot
â— GPS with AGPS support
â— Wireless FM Radio, FM Transmitter
â— Gravity Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor
â— Voice Call Recorder
The P700 comes with a free 2GB microSD card and 3.5mm headset.
EDIT: If you’re after a more powerful device in the PHP 10,xxx range, check out the Lenovo P700 that runs on Ice Cream Sandwich, has a bigger 4″ screen and a larger battery life. It’s also dual SIM.
Met up with John Rojo, the new Business Unit Head of Lenovo Mobile (Open COmmunications) and he showed me a bunch of new tech they have coming. One of these was the new Lenovo A65 which is their exciting follow up to the A60 released in October of last year.
Well guess what? I forgot to take photos. Because I was took busy making chika. You know. So instead, here’s a photo of the A60, because the A65 looks very similar and the differences are really in the internals.
For one, the new A65 comes with the latest firmware update that is a MUST. If you were an early adopter, the old issues had a recurring problem with SMS getting disabled. Fortunately Lenovo addressed this with a firmware update that fixed this one and only issue.
The new A65 is near-perfect given its price point of below PHP 6,000. It levels up the competition with the Samsung Galaxy Y and the Alcatel Blaze / Alcatel Glory because it sports a bigger 3.5″ screen and a faster 800Mhz processor (the A60 had a 650mhz processor).
So, really. Reasonably fast user interface, Android 2.3 OS (you don’t need ICS for this), dual SIM, huge 3.5″ screen. Then factor in a price point of only PHP 5,499.00 and it’s really a steal. A bigger steal than its precursor which retailed for above PHP 7,xxx.xx
Verdict: Highly recommended. I wouldn’t call it a budget phone because ‘budget’ connotes sacrificing functionality. But it doesn’t. I’m still wow-ed by the impressive price-point.