Lenovo has launched another budget friendly smartphone the Lenovo A7000. This is a dual SIM handset with 4G support and powered by 64 bit MediaTek Octa Core processor. The A7000 is available for Rs. 8,999 competing directly with the Yu Yureka.
Box Pack
Inside the box you will find the A7000, screen guard, data cable, travel charger, standard earphone, user guide, warranty information and battery of 2900 mAh capacity. The SAR values as mentioned on the box : 1.466 W/kg @1g head and 1.114 W/kg @ 1g body (The regulatory info on the phone says SAR -Head 1.260 W/kg and Body 0.999 W/kg).
Design, Display and OS
The Lenovo A7000 is big handset with almost rectangular shape, had it not been for the 4 curved sides. It has got a flat body on the front as well on the back. If you place the handset on a flat surface it is going to block the speaker out vent on the rear.
Build quality is very good, handset looks premium. It is easy to hold but it’s slippery – you need to be extra careful with it. Back panel is with matte finish and covers almost 80% of the handset. Weight with battery is 142 grams and dimensions are 76.46 x 152.50 x 7.87mm.
Volume rocker and power button are placed on the right side and on the top you will find a 3.5mm audio jack and micro USB port. There are dual mics for noise cancellation one at the bottom and other on the rear side.
This is a dual SIM handset – there are dual micro SIM slots. SIM slot 1 supports 4G/3G/2G and SIM 2 supports only the 2G networks (check video review).
A7000 sports a 5.5 inch screen with 1280 x 720 pixels resolution. Colour reproduction, touch response and viewing angles are pretty good. There is no protection on the screen and you also get a free screen guard in the box, use it.
The handset is running Android Lollipop 5.0 with Vibe UI. I got an OTA update after unboxing and another update after 2 days.
There is LED notification and following sensors – accelerometer, light, proximity, GYRO and magnetic.
Memory and Storage
This handset comes packed with 8GB ROM and 2GB RAM along with micro SD support of 32GB. Of the 2GB RAM you will get around 1.1GB free and of the 8GB storage about 3.1GB free to 3.4GB free.
Apps can be installed on the external storage. OTG is also supported – you can connect external pen drive using OTG cable or using an OTG supported drive.
Performance
Lenovo A7000 is using the MediaTek MT6752 Cortex A53 64 bit octa core processor clocked at 1.5GHz with Mali T-760 GPU. Overall performance is very smooth, lag free. Even the benchmark scores are pretty impressive.
Benchmark
| App | Result |
| Quadrant | 14315 |
| Antutu (64-bit) | 42487 |
| Vellamo | Metal (1105) Multi core (1831) Browser (2848) |
| Nenamark 2 | 63.1 fps |
| GFXBench 3.0.32 | Manhattan 10fps, 1080p Manhattan OffScreen 5.1fps, T-Rex 22fps and 1080p T-Rex Offscreen 13fps |
| Multi Touch | 5 point |
Camera
A7000 is loaded with 8MP AF camera on the rear with dual LED flash and a 5MP fixed focus camera on the front. You can shoot full HD videos. The handset can play 4K videos – I tested it with MX player in S/W mode, it worked.
Camera quality is average, it could have been better. You can check sample images/ video at the end of this review.
Gaming
You will find some pre-installed games, well you will still need to download the data files. I installed the Asphalt 8 on external storage. The game played very well, was buttery smooth and handset also did not heat up much.
Others
The key highlight about the Lenovo A7000 is that it is the world’s first handset to come packed with Dolby ATMOS feature. If you want to enjoy the ATMOS experience you will need to use a premium quality wired earphone / headphone. You will easily notice the difference with ATMOS enabled and when disabled.
ATMOS Sound output was amazing – I tested it with Samsung premium quality earphone (the one that you get with Note series). I also tried using the Jabra Move Bluetooth headset. But sound quality using Bluetooth was the same with ATMOS enabled and disabled.
I played some movies via premium earphone with ATMOS mode enabled, it was great on some movies, not all.
Sound is loud and clear. The incall sound is also very good.
Battery
There is 2900 mAh removable battery with very good backup time. After 24 hours of moderate mixed usage I still had 24% battery juice left. You can expect about 4 to 6 hours of continuous moderate to heavy usage on a single charge.
| Task | Time | Battery drop (%) (max temp) |
| Running Benchmark apps | 19minutes | 5% (35) |
| FHD video playback with Wi-Fi on + full brightness | 27 minutes | 7% (35) |
| Asphalt 8 Game Play | 20 minutes | 8% (40) |
| Full Wall Charge | 2 hours 30 minutes | 11% to 100% |
After 24 hours of mixed usage there was still 25% battery juice left.
Verdict
Lenovo A7000 is a budget friendly big (with 5.5. inch screen) phone running Lollipop with excellent hardware performance and very good battery backup. Handset does not heat up much. ATMOS is exciting however the camera quality is just about average.
Still a very good buy for Rs. 8,999 – available exclusively on flipkart.
Yureka or Lenovo A7000?
Now both the handsets are great, both will continue getting updates and both are priced the same. Yureka is using qualcomm and A7000 is using MediaTek chipset. From benchmark it is clear that A7000 is more powerful. But when it comes to camera quality the Yureka is better. The touchscreen experience is more smoother on Yureka.
Lenovo A7000 Gallery
Rear Camera Sample
Front Camera Sample
Video review (please hit the like button, if you like the video)