Leave it to Lenovo to get into the lucrative Android smartphone market!

The manufacturer, known for its computers, recently got into the Philippine market with a line of smartphones that are inexpensive, yet fully-featured and then some. One of its first forays is the IdeaPhone A60+, an Android Gingerbread smartphone with the ability to hold two SIMs simultaneously and operate them together. Best of all, it retails for a hair under P5k – P4999!

DUAL-SIM, DUAL STANDBY

The A60+ runs off two SIM cards situated under the back panel, and it can operate over GSM or CDMA, which makes it a great phone for taking abroad. It has a 1GHz single-core MediaTek MT6575 processor, which is reasonably fast, if not exactly remarkable.

NICE SHAPE AND FEEL

It’s also got a 3.5″ full-color swipe-able HVGA display (480 x 320 pixels) with three capacitive buttons on the bottom of the screen, and it’s relatively slim, with a nice textured plastic back with its logo, speaker grill and 2-megapixel camera—no camera on the front though.

ANDROID GINGERBREAD

The front earpiece is by the top edge above the Lenovo logo. Right on the top edge is the power button on the left and the earphone jack on the right; there is a volume rocker on the right edge, and a micro-USB port on the bottom for recharging and connecting to your computer. The phone is slightly hobbled by the fact that you can only turn it on by the sometimes-hard-to-access top power button, but it’s all good. It runs off a slightly customized Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread system, not the latest and the greatest, but certainly serviceable and functional. It lags just a little, and auto-rotate unfortunately takes its sweet time. But the menu screens are sprightly and reasonably fast, and the capacitive buttons are quick to respond to the touch.

GREAT BATTERY LIFE

The internal memory is kinda small—144MB, but you can insert a microSD of up to 16GB of additional storage for your downloads and other media right in there. It has 3G and HSDPA connections, and it can also connect to WLAN, bluetooth and GPS. It’s got a built-in FM radio (as long as you keep the headphones on to act as the antenna), and even records broadcasts. The camera on the back, while decidedly low-powered, has face detection, panorama, video, smile shot, burst shot and color effects. The phone connects fine, and receives texts with no problem—from either SIM. The calls are clear and loud, and the battery—a 1500 mAh—lasts a good two or three days, depending on use. Of course, if you keep it connected to the net, it’s not going to last that long. But on the whole I was pretty happy with the battery life of the thing.

BOTTOM LINE

If you’re on the lookout for a reasonable dual-SIM smartphone that is also inexpensive at the same time, then get the Lenovo A60+. You can’t go wrong!

Lenovo A60+ Specifications:
Dual SIM, Dual Standby
1GHz MediaTek MT6575 processor
PowerVR SGX531 GPU
3.5″ HVGA (480×320) capacitive display
Android 2.3.6 (Gingerbread)
256MB RAM / 512MB ROM
144MB Internal Memory
microSD up to 32GB
3G / HSDPA Technology
HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps
HSUPA up to 5.76Mbps
WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity
Integrated Google Applications
Tethering and Portable WLAN Hotspot
GPS with AGPS support
2.0 Megapixel Camera with Panorama Mode
G-Sensor / Proximity / Light Sensor
Built-in FM Radio with Recording Function
Built-in Sound Recorder
116 x 60.8 x 11.9mm (dimension)
120g (weight)
1500mAh battery

LIKES:

• It’s got dual SIMs!
• It’s got a nice shape and feel
• It doesn’t cost a lot

DISLIKES

• It runs a modified Gingerbread only
• The camera in the back is only 2-megapixel

PRICE: P4995

Adel

Adel Gabot is a freelance journalist, writer, editor and award-winning fictionist. In his spare time he loves Macs, his iPad 3 and iPhone 4, old Sean Connery 007 movies, Stephen King books, Green Tea ice cream, his Kindle Paperwhite, his Nexus 7, his video games, Aeropressed coffee and a good Merlot. His favorite noodles: Ma Mon Luk mami.

email: agabot@gmail.comwebsite: http://blog.adelgabot.comtwitter: @adelgabot