Lenovo S720 - Another low cost 4.5-inch qHD Droid enters the fray

The Lenovo S720, just announced at CES 2013 has landed on Philippine shores. The Lenovo S720 has a 4.5-inch aHD display. This size is quickly becoming the battle ground for low end smartphones in the Philippines with Cherry Mobile, MyPhone and Starmobile all offering qHD 4.5-inch smartphones.

Does Lenovo bring anything new to the fray? Actually yes. The phone comes in two colors, white and hot pink. A hot pink smartphone might appeal to some buyers. In terms of substance, it does come with a 2000 mAh battery which is larger than the 1700 mAh and 1800 mAh units found in its direct competition.

Other than that it does not stand out from the crowd with dual SIM capability, a dual core 1 GHz processor on a Mediatek Chipset, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage with a MicroSD card slot,  8 MP primary front camera, 1.3 MP secondary camera, and 720 p video capture. Despite being a new model, it still runs with Android 4.0.4, Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.

The Lenovo S720 has a suggested retail price of Php9,999. This makes two to three thousand more expensive than the Cherry Mobile Flame, MyPhone A888 Duo and Starmobile Crystal. Is it worth the money. It should give about 10-15% longer battery life than its competition for the additional money. That is its main selling point. Other than that, it depends on how much you like the Lenovo name or how fond you are of hot pink.

It may sound like a am coming down a bit hard on this new offering from Lenovo. But at its Php9,999 retail price, add a few hundred and you can buy both a Cherry Mobile Flamce and a Cherry Mobile Flare. Nice offering, but Lenovo needs to drop the price, or up the specifications (1 GB or RAM or Jellty Bean?) a bit.