for the past week, my primary phone is a HOT PINK Lenovo S720 that i won in a raffle and thought i would take it for a spin and write a review about it.
Lenovo S720 Specs
1GHz Dual-core MediaTek MT6577 CPU
512MB RAM
4GB Internal storage, expandable via microSD
4.5-inch IPS touchscreen with 960×540 resolution
8.0-megapixel rear-facing camera
1.0-megapixel front-facing camera with wide angle view
Dual SIM, dual standby
Dolby Digital Plus Technology
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
9.9mm thin
2,000mAh Battery
Php 9,999 (available at
gizmo.istorya.net)
Out of the box it comes with a glowy purple themed launcher. Clearly this is designed for the more feminine users. so i quickly changed the theme to a more classic android look
![Smiley](images/smilies/smiley.gif)
but i can honestly say, HOT PINK easily caught everyones eyes and became the talk of the town. a great ice breaker. it opened up conversations everywhere i went. it is simply ATTRACTIVE.
WHAT IS
Lovely display, bright and crisp with a decent ~245 ppi pixel density. good built quality, the finish is simply gorgeous. no cheap plastic here. I'm very impressed as it feels amazingly good in my hands. the tapered edge design and accent actually makes the phone seem slimmer. how i wish the P770 had this type of finish...in black of course
packed with ICS 4.0.4, comes with the usual android goodies. 1.79gb (516mb usable) internal memory and 1.83gb in-built usb storage and 4gb micro sd came with the box. after updating all apps preloaded including chrome browser, facebook, gmail, google play, google +, skype and youtube plus loading my essentials apps i had about 230mb free. this is without transferring any apps to sd or deleting some of the crapwares like UC browser and SugarSync. Kingsoft Office comes in handy as does Magic Mirror that take advantage of its higher quality front facing camera. Fishing Joy and Diamond Wonder all keep the phone fun to use out of the box.
It's front facing camera is fantastic with high contrast and excellent color reproduction. its brighter than most in this category as well.
I also noticed it has "smartsound" enabled during calls even though it doesnt have a second mic for noise cancellation like those found in the P770. i would presume Lenovo uses software enhancements to clean up the voice calls much like how apple iphone 3gs used to do it. in any case, my conversations over voice calls were very good. no complaints.
The special feature on this device is the addition of Dolby Mobile. however i can't seem to make use of it other than on the music app only. even in Play Music or Video Player, i couldn't find a way to enable it. in any case with the music app activating it does make the sound seem fuller and does the job admirably. but comparing it with similar priced smartphone without Dolby Digital Plus, i couldn't notice much difference or hear a clear advantage.
WHAT NOT
front facing camera was quite impressive but the back camera was average performer at best as color accuracy in many situations isn't to be desired. color tint is heavily visible but photos remained sharp and with good detail and contrast. high def video playback wasn't as smooth as i wanted but very much playable but DVDrips played perfectly though.
THEREFORE
over all, its above average for an ICS phone under 10k with nicely added bells and whistles that you won't find in other phones. however, the back camera's color tint (inaccurate colours) is its Achilles' heel but photo apps can easily fix the color tint. for photo enthusiasts like me, its a big disappointment. however, most people apply instagram filters anyways so it should be too much of an issue for most users.