Lenovo P700 in the flesh, dual-SIM ICS for Php11k

There have been quite a number of dual-SIM Android phones in the market. One handset that caught a lot of attention lately is the Lenovo P700, not just for its affordable price but for its battery capacity as well.

Lenovo Mobile is fairly new in the Philippine market but it has already made a lot of buzz for its relatively unique offerings.

Most of the handsets released in the Philippines are dual-SIM handsets running Android OS (we also have the Lenovo A65 to review).

The Lenovo P700 is its flagship smartphone, although the specs actually is more positioned as a mid-range handset. Nevertheless, in the dual-SIM category, the P700 is already a high-end unit.

So far, here is the most complete hardware specifications we got from the unit.

Lenovo P700 specs:
4.0″ IPS LCD @ 800×480 pixels, 240ppi
MediaTek MT6575 1.0GHz (1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU)
PowerVR SGX531 graphics
512MB RAM
4GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD
3G/HSPA (dual-SIM)
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1
5MP autofocus rear camera
720p video recording
VGA front-facing camera
GPS w/ aGPS support
FM Radio tuner
2500mAh Li-Ion battery
Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich

While it is a tri-band dual-SIM handset, only one SIM is supported for 3G while the other one is just 2G.

Also notice the high-capacity battery included in the handset. At 2,500mAh, it’s by far the highest we’ve seen in any Android phone, a title it shares with the Galaxy Note.

Four things that makes the Lenovo P700 very attractive, given that the suggested retail price is Php10,999USD 187INR 15,889EUR 179CNY 1,365.

• Most entry-level to mid-range Android handsets aren’t on ICS right out of the box so the P700 gets a point for having ICS pre-installed.
• Pretty decent specs for a dual-SIM device. Most dual-SIM devices are in the entry-level category. The P700’s closest competitor is the recently launched HTC Desire V but that’s a wide Php6,000USD 102INR 8,668EUR 97CNY 745 price difference between the two.
• IPS LCD makes the P700 more appealing to a lot of customers who are particular with display quality. And you’re getting a 4-inch screen too.
• High-capacity battery. At 2,500mAh, we’re hoping that it will compensate for the additional active SIM card it has to power.

We’ve also been tweaking around and found that Lenovo has made great efforts to customize and add native apps for the P700. The UI reminds us of the one in the K1 tablet, the icons are completely spherical, and extra apps and built-in features like the Power On/Off Scheduler makes you appreciate the extra work (it’s a pretty neat feature, actually, as it saves on battery).

Lenovo does not have a name to that custom UI they have here but that “Lotus” widget which appears by default on the homescreen makes us want to call it the Lenovo Lotus UI.

We also ran a couple of benchmarks to see if that MediaTek chip is comparable to other single-core 1GHz processors out there.

So far, the scores of 1,990 for Quadrant and 3,529 for Antutu Benchmark are quite decent. Same goes with the 22.4fps score gained from NenaMark2.

So far, based on our initial impressions, the Lenovo P700 seems like a pretty interesting handset. It does have an appeal to those looking for a more powerful dual-SIM smartphone.

We’ll put the handset to its paces and let you know once we’re done with our full review.