Lenovo A6000 Plus Review: A Welcome Boost OverIts Predecessor(23,528)

Xiaomi has enjoyed considerable success in India as the pioneer of
the flash sale model. By pricing its products competitively, the
company is selling as many smartphones as it wants to and buyers
can't seem to get enough. Naturally, others are trying to mimic its
success. Notable attempts have come from Micromax-owned Yu, and
one of Xiaomi's biggest competitors in its native Chinese market,
Lenovo.

The Lenovo A6000 Plus isn't even the company's first attempt at a
flash sale. The A6000 ( Review | Pictures ) and A7000 ( Review |
Pictures ) have enjoyed considerable success, thanks also to their
aggressive pricing and strong specifications. Now, we have the Rs.
7,499(23500) Lenovo A6000 Plus, which is a slight upgrade over the A6000. It
carries forward the same appeal while tweaking just enough to keep
the product fresh and improve upon its weaknesses.
Look and Feel
There is absolutely nothing to visibly distinguish the Lenovo A6000
Plus from the A6000. The two phones are visually identical in every
respect, and side-by-side, we couldn't tell one from the other.
Needless to say, the A6000 Plus has the same comfortable
dimensions and weight of its predecessor. The matte finish on the
somewhat flimsy rear cover remains, and we are still happy with the
ergonomics of this phone.
Even as far as small details are concerned, nothing has changed. The
volume rocker and power button are on the right edge, the Micro-USB
port and 3.5mm socket are on the top, the front camera and earpiece
are above the screen, and the two speakers are on the bottom of the
rear. The screen is still a 294ppi 5-inch panel, with absolutely no
change since the A6000.
Specifications and Software
The 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC has been retained for the
Lenovo A6000 Plus. The key differences between the Lenovo A6000
and A6000 Plus are a boost in internal storage and RAM. The Plus
features a helpful 16GB of storage and 2GB RAM, up from 8GB and
1GB respectively in the A6000. The storage is expandable, with
microSD cards of up to 32GB capacity supported. This increase is sure
to appeal to value-conscious buyers, who can feel more assured of
the long-term prospects of the Lenovo A6000 Plus.
All other specifications remain the same. The phone features an 8-
megapixel rear camera, a 2-megapixel front camera, 4G connectivity,
Bluetooth 4.0, and a 2,300mAh Lithium-polymer battery.
Like its predecessor, the Lenovo A6000 Plus runs on Android KitKat
4.4.4 with the Vibe 2.0 user interface layered on top. It still has far too
much bloatware and an unreasonable number of preinstalled apps.
Some of these are useful, but others are simply occupying space that
can be put to use elsewhere. These can of course be uninstalled or
disabled, so it isn't a serious concern. The user interface lacks an app
drawer and still feels too cartoony and gaudy for our liking, but a
good launcher from the Google Play store can fix that.
Camera
The camera app retains its minimalistic feel, with all the settings
hidden within a single menu. Switching between still photo, video and
panorama modes is easy, and there are also convenient shortcuts for
the front camera, flash, and HDR mode. Autofocus is also fairly quick
and accurate.
Since the camera is the same as the one of the Lenovo A6000, we
won't go into too much detail. Essentially, overexposure in daylight
shots and poor outlining in low-light conditions are the key issues.
The camera is not bad by any means, but will not always take good
shots. Video remains limited to 720p as before, while the 2-megapixel
front camera does a satisfactory job for a budget smartphone like
this.
Performance
The boost in RAM ensures that performance is up to the mark for a
device in this price range. Apart from the phone's snappy
performance, it's now possible to keep more apps open, which is a big
advantage over the Lenovo A6000.
Benchmark numbers of the Lenovo A6000 Plus are a slight
improvement over those of the A6000. The phone scored 21,392 and
11,860 in AnTuTu and Quadrant. 3DMark and GFX Bench figures were
nearly identical to the A6000 at 5262 and 9.6fps respectively, which is
not surprising since both devices use the same processor with
integrated Adreno 306 graphics. The phone did struggle through some
of the more heavily encoded videos we used to test it with, and the
40Mbps sample stuttered a little. It worked fine with regular video
formats, and held its own with all files up to 720p. The Dolby-tuned
speakers are decent for a phone of this size, and add some value for
users who intend to watch a lot of movies.
The Lenovo A6000 Plus is 4G-ready, and will be a handy device once
4G networks roll out properly across India. At the moment though,
most users in India are limited to 3G service, and the A6000 Plus
doesn't offer any benefit over any other budget phone in this regard.
Battery life is excellent, once again. The Lenovo A6000 Plus lasted 10
hours, 34 minutes in our video loop test, which is a little higher than
the time we recorded for its predecessor.
Verdict
The Lenovo A6000 was an excellent smartphone in its own right, but
the Chinese company has managed to outdo its performance and
value with the A6000 Plus by improving upon the two specifications
that held the original device back. The increase in internal storage
space and RAM make this an even better value purchase than the
original was.
Unfortunately, the new device still has average cameras and no
protective glass on the screen. It would have been great if Lenovo had
addressed these problems as well, but the A6000 Plus is still an
excellent device for the price. Unfortunately, it is only available in
limited numbers through flash sales on Flipkart for now, so customers
might be driven towards options from Honor, Xiaomi, Motorola and
Asus. If you do manage to pick one up, rest assured that you've
spent your money well.