Lenovo A5s, A Low-budget Phone with Android PIE, Launched in Nepal

How many of you all know that Lenovo makes smartphones? Well if you didn’t know that fact, you’d be surprised to hear that Lenovo is one of the 10 largest smartphone makers in the world. So, don’t write off smartphones from Lenovo instantly when you hear about them.

The last two phones that Lenovo launched in Nepal were Lenovo K5 Play and Lenovo S5. These phones were launched in the beginning of November. Now, after 3 months, Lenovo is back with another budget phone called Lenovo A5s. The Lenovo A5s price in Nepa is set Rs. 12,499.

Specifications outline

Lenovo A5s has a 5.45 inch 18:9 HD+ IPS LCD display. This is an amazing display for a phone that costs just Rs. 12500. Inside, the phone is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6761 processor that is similar to the Helio A22 processor from MediaTek. So, it is a pretty standard processor for a budget smartphone. In terms of Graphics, the phone has a PowerVR GE83000 (660MHz) graphics.

The CPU and GPU are helped by 2GB RAM. The internal storage is 16GB. You can expand this storage using micro SD card too. At the back, there is a dual camera setup of 13MP + 2MP shooters. There is no fingerprints sensor to be seen anywhere around this phone. We are yet to obtain the battery and the front camera specifications.

Impressions

Lenovo A5s looks like a direct competitor to the yet to be launched Samsung Galaxy M10. It is priced so low, it does not have a fingerprint sensor, yet it looks stylish. The HD+ LCD screen, if it is any good, is a boon to see at this price. The processor is more than capable of handling normal day-do-day apps like Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, YouTube etc. Though 2GB RAM is not that expansive, it is a good size at this price. I just wish that Lenovo had gone with an Android Go OS based on Android Pie.

Speaking of Android Pie, Android Pie is one of the best features of this phone. When all the budget phones come preinstalled with Android Oreo out of the box, Lenovo shipped this phone with the latest and the greatest from Google. This means sleeker animations, smoother performance, and better app support. It also indicates that this handset is likely to have a longer life span (in terms of software updates) than its counterparts.

The other great feature that of this device are the cameras. While higher MP count doesn’t always mean great photos, we are glad to see that Lenovo didn’t ship this phone with an 8MP or 5MP snapper. I can comment on the quality of the photos this camera produces once I get to use this phone in my hands. But looking at the hardware, the camera prowess of this device looks promising.

So, that’s about it for the Lenovo A5s. A lot of information about this product is still shrouded in mystery. Not many international sites have written about it. It looks like it hasn’t launched in many parts of the world just yet. It would be interesting to see how the people in Nepal would respond to this product.