A6000 wrote a different success story for Lenovo, by becoming the most sold affordable 4G smartphone in India. To repeat similar success, the Chinese smartphone maker has launched a powerful successor of the affordable smartphone.
While retaining the similar 5-inch IPS 720p display, battery, and processor, the new smartphone flexes its muscle in storage and RAM category.
When launched, A6000 Plus was the only smartphone to offer 2GB RAM and 16GB storage at ₹ 7,499. Later the Micromax subsidiary Yu Televentures Ltd launched Yu Yuphoria in India with similar memory space for ₹500 less. Let's find out if A6000 Plus justifies its price tag:
Design & Built
Measured at 141.0 x 70.0 x 8.2mm and weighed at 128g, Lenovo A6000 Plus retains the same measurement and weight A6000 has. A6000 Plus also uses the same material for the body. The quality of polycarbonate used is pleasing to the eyes and also comes with a nice built quality.
The volume rocker and the power button has been laid on the right, while the micro USB charging and 3.5mm audio out port has been featured at the top of the device. The 8MP primary camera has shared the back space with the two speaker grills. Major portion of the front has been occupied by the 5-inch IPS LCD display. Below the screen, there are 3 capacitive buttons for accessing home, menu and undo functions.
A6000 Plus features two SIM card slots, one supports SIMs up to 4G network and the other restricts itself to 2G only.
Display
Lenovo A6000 Plus features almost identical display with similar specifications as A6000. With a screen-to-body ratio of 69.8 percent, A6000 Plus boasts a 5-inch IPS display with 720x1280 pixels resolution at 294ppi. We wish Lenovo could have installed a corning gorilla glass protection for protecting the display form unwanted scratches.
Though the display is quite reflective in nature, it prompts decent colour balance with accurate level of hues and contrast. The texts and icons appears crisp and sharp and remains quite readable under direct sunlight. The screen brightness is optimum and the ambient sensor works properly when the display is set to auto mode.
OS & UI
Lenovo A6000 Plus runs on Android 4.4 Kitkat overlaid with the Lenovo-made interface, Vibe UI. The interface lacks the app drawer and features all the apps and widgets on the home screen itself. Lenovo is working hard to make Vibe UI more intuitive. With the inclusion of new themes and wallpapers, the interface looks quite fresh yet handy in use.
We observed the interface feels better on Lollipop OS; and Lenovo has announced to release the Lollipop update for both A6000 and A6000 Plus in a couple of months.
Performance
Though A6000 Plus features the same Snapdragon 410 SoC (System on Chipset) visible in A6000, the latest smartphone doubles the RAM and the in-built storage. The Snapdragon 410 SoC is commonly found in the budget competitor smartphones like Moto E (2nd Generation), Xiaomi Redmi 2, Xiaomi Redmi Note 4G, Huawei Honor 4X, and the latest Yu Yuphoria.
We didn't find much difference between A6000 and A6000 Plus while testing it in synthetic benchmarking as well as real world mode.
In comparison to A6000's 20392 in AnTuTu score, A6000 Plus managed to achieve 21261. In GeekBench, A6000 Plus scored 481 single-core and 1440 multi-core. In Basemark OS II, the device scored an overall score of 611.
A6000 Plus offers some snappy performance while opening multiple apps and web pages. Plus works better while doubling the RAM amount, especially when using memory heavy games and apps. Generally, the system keeps 1.36GB free out of 2GB leaving optimum memory to keep the device remain stutter and chug free.
Camera
Lenovo A6000 Plus retains 8MP rear camera with Auto Focus and LED flash and also a 2MP camera on the front. The camera also produces similar quality images as of A6000.
The images clicked in decently-lit environment appear vibrant with ample colour presence and decently-focused subject. Find the sample images clicked on A6000 Plus posted at the bottom of this page.
Battery
Lenovo should also have increased the battery since increasing the hardware configuration eats up more battery.
In our Lenovo A6000 review, the device lasted around 16 hours in a mixed usage and under heavy usage it lasted for a day, while A6000 Plus lasted around couple of hours less in each segment.
Conclusion
However, you can't expect much by paying only ₹500 more than Lenovo A6000. Lenovo A6000 Plus offers snappy performance, good looks, decent camera and an impressive display. At ₹7,499, no smartphone except Yu Yuphoria offers 2GB RAM, 16GB inbuilt storage with expandability support up to 32GB.
