Lenovo A536 - Unboxing, Overview, and Review (sort of) ft. Alcatel One Touch 5021E

[DigitalHermit]

So, I'm back with another review...

 

A little story first... I was in need of a new phone since my Alcatel One Touch 5021E (m'pop/soleil) couldn't keep up with my needs anymore...

Luckily, my contract was due for a renew and this phone was available (after a ~25USD cash out)...

 

LENOVO A536

 

Introduction

The Lenovo A536 is Lenovo's 5" phone at the 100-150USD price bracket. The phone features the ff. specs.: (more complete specs here)

• SoC: MediaTek MT6582M (Cortex A7, Quad Core, 1.3GHz)
• GPU: Mali 400MP2
• RAM: 1GB
• Storage: 8GB expandable
• Camera: 5MP (AF) LED Flash
• Battery: 2000mAh
• Dual sim, dual standby.
• Screen: 5", 480x854 (195.93ppi), two point capacitive touch screen
• OS: Android 4.2.2 KitKat

The phone has a glass front, and a gloss plastic back with chrome accents.

 

Unboxing

Unboxing this thing was not that pleasant... Box is pictured above... The sticker above is the seal of the carrier where I got it from, control numbers are censored.

 

 

The box contains the ff:

• unit
• wall charger
• micro USB cable
• screen protector
• jelly case
• headset
• battery
• Instruction manual
• warranty card
• NTC certification
• Quick Start Guide

Usually, when a screen protector comes enclosed, it implies that the screen is of a low quality, however, mine had a screen protector pre-attached, and an extra enclosed in the package. Lenovo also included a low-profile jelly case with a matte finish...

 

Benchmarks

To kick things off, I had it go under Antutu... Here are the results side by side with my previous phone, the Alcatel One Touch 5021E

Antutu v. 5.6					Lenovo A536		Alcatel 5021EOverall					19582			11244UX Multitask				3042			2335UX Runtime				1169			966CPU Integer				1663			709CPU Floating Point			1770			769CPU Single-threaded Integer		1185			1004CPU Single-threaded Floating Point	972			863RAM Operation				1435			693RAM Speed				2092			635GPU 2D					1267			541GPU 3D					[854x480] 3604	        [800x480] 1684Storage I/O				743			440Database I/O				640			605

Performance-wise, it's an upgrade, although the screen density is a bit lower...

 

Commentary

The build quality leaves something to be desired... The phone feels a bit too light and fragile, and the gloss back cover is a turn-off... Luckily, Lenovo included a matte-jelly case that does not ruin the experience of the phone... For a 7000PhP SRP phone, it's pretty nice... As for the included bloatware, it's only Lenovo's launcher and themes, the carrier's stuff, and Lenovo's security/optimizer app... which is small compared to what came with the Touchmate Rainbow 7.

 

The Lenovo Launcher was a bit distasteful for me as it attempts to imitate that of iOS, but with more features, so I went ahead and installed Smart Launcher 2 to give it a cleaner look that blends well with Material Design. The optimizer/security app is useful in this case, especially when Android decides to keep all the apps in cache. I don't need a third party optimizer in this case.

 

For a single night of use, I was able to get a general feel on how to operate this phone, and since I've got tiny hands, I'll have to operate this with 2 hands. The touch screen is accurate and responsive so typing on it is not a chore. The audio is also good for a phone.

 

Reception, both wifi and cellular, are fluctuating, but I can attribute that to my house.

 

Conclusion

The phone is very nice for its price. The build quality leaves much to be desired and the gloss back cover is just not my taste. Lenovo includes a jelly 'd case which is good since I won't have to look for one and spend more... I'd include more images but I don't have a good enough camera to capture the phone properly...

 

I'll update this thread/post after a month of daily use to give a more in-depth look so stay tuned.

 

-Hermit

[DigitalHermit]

The low resolution an ppi would really throw me off tbh. How is the display?

 

Not the best but good enough... It's not exactly an IPS for one (or it might be an early generation IPS), but the viewing angles are sufficient for a phone of this size...