The Lenovo IdeaPhone S890 brings two unique features to the table - a nice cover which works like a smart cover, and a UI that is funky and may appeal to some. It is your run-of-the-mill Android smartphone in terms of other features. It won't run all the video formats but its multitasking capabilities are nice. You can consider this smartphone but there are better options available out there.
For starters, we have a whole bunch of toggle switches in the notification bar,. The homescreen widget gives you quick access to most used apps, you can easily close running apps to free up some RAM and all of this is presented in a very novice-friendly manner. We really liked the theme and the way the icons and menu are designed. The S890 is powered by a MediaTek MT6577T, which is a dual-core SoC running at 1.2GHz. The CPU is fairly powerful for handling media up to 720p as well as popular apps. The PowerVR SGX531 GPU is not too powerful, however, as it returned a low NenaMark 2 score of just 24fps. Despite this, games like Temple run 2 and Subway Surfers run just fine.
For a budget of Rs. 20,000, the consumer is spoilt for choices when it comes to smartphones running Android. You have the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Grand, which gives you TouchWiz, and some of the features and shenanigans that you’d get in a premium device. You also have the Xolo X1000, which is a well-built, beautiful smartphone giving you a vanilla Android experience. Apart from Android devices, you can also get the Lumia 720, which is one of the hottest selling Windows Phone 8 devices.
The S890 features a 5-inch screen just like the Grand, but it does better by offering a higher 540 x 960 resolution and an IPS panel in lieu of standard TFT. The colours are fairly punchy but not very vibrant or sharp. Sunlight legibility is not very good either. The screen tends to get washed out quite a bit, making it really difficult to use. The phone runs on a heavily skinned version of Jelly Bean 4.1.1. Despite this, the phone is very quick and snappy with no lag. You’ll notice minor slowdowns once in a while, but it’s nothing drastic. Just like the S880, the skin will take some getting used to, but once you do, it’s extremely functional and there are shortcuts for literally everything.
If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Following this policy, the Lenovo IdeaPhone S890 has a simple candy-bar form factor with curved edges found on a plethora of other Android-powered smartphones. Above the display you have the front-facing camera and the earpiece. Below the display you have the menu, home and the back capacitive buttons, which don’t eat into the displays real estate. Long pressing the home button brings up the multitasking menu. The bottom of the smartphone has the microUSB port. The right has the volume rocker and the top of the device has the headphones jack along with the power button.