Lenovo A319 - Smartphone from the category: it rings and ok

Mobile equipment manufacturer Lenovo introduced a new model of the Lenovo A319 smartphone, aimed at unpretentious consumers in technical terms. The gadget uses Dolby Digital Plus technology, which improves sound quality and this is good news for music lovers. In all other respects, the Lenovo A319 black smartphone considered in our review cannot boast of anything outstanding.

Appearance and ergonomics

In principle, budget mobile gadgets do not have a special design, but the appearance of the A319 can be considered attractive. The entire contents of the smartphone fit into a thin 10.5 mm case.

Below the display there are three standard functional buttons, and above it is the front-facing eyepiece and a decorative speaker grille.

On the right side of the smartphone there is a power button and a volume rocker. The left side edge is empty. At the top end of the device there is a micro-USB slot and a 3.5 mm audio output.

The rear panel houses the main camera and LED flash. Under the cover there is a battery, connectors for 2 SIM cards and micro-SD.

Despite the fact that the case is made of inexpensive plastic, the assembly is of high quality. The cover can be removed quite easily, without any serious effort.

Lenovo A319 Reviews and Feedback

After two weeks of use I got some impressions about the device. I took it as a working tool based on the following: a) two SIM cards; b) compact size; c) fresh OS; d) functionality of the built-in MS Excnange/ActiveSync client with user authorization using a certificate (Certificate Based Authentication - CBA).

The smartphone is built quite well. The screen is protected by glass, slightly recessed into the body of the device, which is why there is inevitably a gap between the glass and the body. In this case, the upper edge of the latter forms a side, giving the glass a chance to survive a fall. I liked the design of the back cover; It sits quite firmly and opens easily. The device is designed for regular-sized SIM cards; The sockets are recessed into the body, which makes it difficult to use microformat SIM cards with an adapter. The screen frames are wide these days, and there is no backlighting of the touch keys.

The hardware, in my opinion, is sufficient for normal use, although more RAM would not hurt. The resolution of both cameras (5 and 2 megapixels) meets modern requirements; Many classmates have only a 0.3 megapixel front camera, or even none at all. There is also a flash/backlight, a proximity sensor and a Dolby audio processor. The screen, despite the modest viewing angles, displays small text well, which suits me quite well. The peculiarities of the sensor's reaction to quick and fuzzy touches have already been noted here. The battery charge will last for one and a half to two days, if the device is not strained too much; In sleep mode the consumption is very small. Replacing the standard battery with a third-party one of higher capacity (we are waiting for a report on the experience of the respected Klaus-Helicopter) will make the smartphone even more convenient to use.

In general, comments on the hardware are minimal. The software deserves criticism.

The device is overloaded with built-in and pre-installed applications. Personally, I would prefer to get only the basic applications and Google Apps out of the box, installing the rest as needed, based on my own preferences. Fortunately, there is an option to disable built-in programs in the application settings, which is what I did with Security, SHAREit and SYNCit. Yandex applications, voice distortion software, etc. can be uninstalled as usual. If a manufacturer wants to offer useful software to users, I would advise doing so in a less intrusive manner, for example by using widgets that enable application installation after user confirmation.

The lack of a built-in SIP client is disappointing, but it was, for example, in its younger brother, Lenovo A316i. My request to technical support regarding this matter remained unanswered; There was not even an automatic confirmation of receipt of the letter.

A “cold” start of the email client, from the moment you click on the shortcut until the screen with messages appears, takes a long 15 (!) seconds, which, of course, is unacceptable. The Smart Push delivery mode works very poorly; “regular” Push is also not reliable, sporadically delaying the delivery of fresh messages for tens of minutes. Sent messages get stuck in the outbox folder, which forces you to check the outbox every time after sending a letter and, if necessary, force synchronization. To put it mildly, such work cannot be called comfortable, although, on the other hand, the MS Exchange/ActiveSync client of the Lenovo A316i simply crashed with a system message about stopping the application/service. In general, Lenovo's built-in email client (MS Exchange/ActiveSync in particular) looks weaker than its counterparts from LG and Samsung. The mediocre performance of the email client makes me look for a replacement for this smartphone from other manufacturers. It's a pity! Migration to a Lenovo device of a different series most likely will not solve the problem, since the implementation of the MS Exchange/ActiveSync client hardly differs from series to series within the same OS version.

I liked the Vibe shell, with the exception of its “proprietary” feature, which, in my opinion, can cause serious irritation for users who have dealt with other devices on the Android OS. We are talking about the absence of an application menu, in which all program shortcuts are located on numerous desktops, as is implemented in iOS. In case of a reset, the save/restore shell settings function helps to restore order on your desktops; however, the lack of an application menu is a significant drawback for me personally with the Vibe.

I mainly use the standard functionality of the device and am not interested in installing third-party applications. Currently there are only two of them: CSipSimple - a SIP client - and Fitbit - an application for synchronizing with the tracker of the same name. I don't need root rights.

If we ignore the specifics of my smartphone use (corporate mail, SIP), then it can be considered balanced and has a good price/quality ratio;
so far, with the exception of the rather weak main camera and screen, all other shortcomings are either negligible or, to one degree or another, fixable. Edited January 3, 2015 by r2ant

Camera

The A319 model is equipped with a 5 MP main camera and a 2 MP front camera for photo and video shooting. The downside is the lack of autofocus.

The maximum image resolution of the main camera is 2560x1920, and it shoots video in HD format - the processor simply cannot handle a higher resolution. As for the front camera, it is very good for a budget smartphone - photos with a resolution of 1600x1200 pixels and video in 3GP format 640x480 pixels.

Lenovo A319

Lupan Arnold, 01/09/2017

Advantages: + the speed of opening applications and launching basic functions like telephone, SMS, etc. is satisfactory + Battery during light use (~10 minutes of talk, ~20 SMS, ~20 minutes of Internet, ~5 minutes in the to-do planner per day ) in 3 days it drops to 50% + GPS works well, Navitel and Yandex navigator are installed normally. + the sensor clearly responds to movement, I didn’t find any problems with flipping the desktop when trying to open an application

Disadvantages: - problems with the “floating” volume of the speaker at volume 1. In principle, it doesn’t bother me much, I just don’t use this volume level. — once the display automatically turned off when not in use, but the glitch disappeared when I rebooted. My girlfriend, who has the same phone number, also complained about similar behavior. — it’s a little difficult to open the back cover, although I haven’t opened them a lot before, maybe compared to the others, this is “paradise”)

Comment: Although the problem with the “floating” sound is not annoying, it is worth checking this shortcoming immediately when purchasing, because for some the sound “floats” at other volume ranges, for example from 3 to 5, and this is already a problem. It won’t be easy to check since most stores won’t let you insert a flash drive. Just open the settings for volume modes and melody selection, select some more stable melody, for example Lisa la la and listen at each volume, and try to switch to the volume being studied not “in one step” but “jump” from loudness. That is, if you check for 1, then try to turn on the maximum, and then sharply drop to 1. I’ve been using the phone itself for 5 days, but before I bought it, I read a bunch of reviews here and on w3bsit3-dns.com about it and about many other phones under 5,000 rubles. In addition, he “interrogated” his girlfriend, who has been with him for half a year, and checked the “testimony.” A pleasant discovery was that over these six months the battery did not sag by almost a milliamp per hour. (It’s worth noting here that, on my advice, she charges the phone whenever it drops to the 50% level and does not do any “battery training” with a full discharge). I concluded that in the required price range today there is no more reliable model to be found. Although I would like the price to be lower, BUT, everyone who cost 500 - 1,000 rubles less had a lot of shortcomings and risks (judging by the reviews). However, if a weak battery doesn’t bother you, you can take the Huawei Y5C instead, it is much more powerful, and the reviews are good.

Performance

The A319 model uses an inexpensive MediaTek MT6572 dual-core processor with a clock frequency of 1.2 GHz, graphics are provided by a Mali-400MP video accelerator, and only 512 MB of RAM are rather weak characteristics. Performance cannot be called a strong point of this model. The smartphone often slows down while watching video files in HD and Full HD formats. However, for making regular phone calls and sending SMS, the power of the smartphone is quite enough.

Lenovo A319 - Smartphone from the category: it rings and ok

Preface

My first acquaintance with Lenovo smartphones began back in 2013, when I tested the P770 smartphone. Then I didn’t like the design of the shell, and the smartphone itself, focused on long battery life, turned out to be not so long-lasting. And glitches with the battery raised doubts about the quality of this brand’s products. Although, I won’t speak for Lenovo’s flagship devices, I haven’t talked to them and I won’t scold them until I do.

This device is oriented as a music device, as it supports Dolby Digital Plus. “What does this support give? - an ordinary ordinary user will ask. — Why is this incomprehensible but resonant phrase written on the back cover of the smartphone? What is he talking about? Whom? For what?" In a nutshell, this is the answer: Dolby Mobile technology is designed for easy, flexible implementation and allows device manufacturers to support a variety of audio content options, including high-fidelity 5.1 audio. Dolby Mobile is designed to give consumers vibrant, rich sound. Dolby Mobile will add rich and rich sound when watching a movie or video clip on your mobile device! How does it sound, huh? Effective? But how this is implemented in practice remains to be seen. But first things first…

How the devices were selected

Yes, yes, you heard right, exactly them, two moderately cute smartphones, identical in appearance, but with different colors. To begin with, I’ll say that two people, good friends of mine, needed smartphones that would provide convenient communication, would have two SIM cards, Internet access, a diagonal of no more than four inches (of course, people who used antediluvian clamshells with tiny screens, smartphones with a diagonal of more than four inches will already seem like shovels!). My friends will use them to go online to check their mail, and call, of course. Therefore, they are not interested in expensive fancy devices. So, I offered them a choice of several smartphones. But these were the ones I liked, and we will talk about them. Subsequently, I will say that, knowing everything in advance, I would never have taken these smartphones.

So, the purchase was made, but before leaving the store, I decided to check these devices with the sellers for the most necessary things, namely, for communication. And it turned out that for some reason the red copy had a problem with the speaker, that is, when you call from this smart phone, you can hear the caller, but you cannot. And I immediately informed the seller about this. He exchanged glances with another seller, uttering the following phrase:

— Maybe the person you called has a problem with his smartphone?

- Let's check both smartphones right here, on the spot? - I suggested. - After all, I didn’t leave the store, so if there are any defects in them, they should be replaced.

Sighing, both sales assistants got down to business. Yes, just as stores don’t like to admit that their goods are defective, they strive to send them to a service center, babbling something about a guarantee of forty-five working days...

After a thorough check of both newly purchased absolutely identical smartphones (well, except for the color scheme), it was announced that the red copy actually had a defect in the form of a poorly functioning speaker, while the second one was fine. True, a defect can also be revealed during operation, as happened with me with a Nokia 301 (whose speaker began to rattle after a couple of days, and after replacing the device - after a couple of months. And no repair could save the situation, unfortunately).

After an oral conclusion was made about the performance of both devices, the red defective smartphone was replaced on the spot with the same red, non-defective device. And he, too, was thoroughly tested for his most important function - making calls. Everything turned out to be more welcoming with it than with the previous device.

“Here we come!”

And now the smartphones have arrived home. Next is a very thorough testing of both devices, so that they move to their owners already configured, tested by time and my overly playful hands ☺.

So. Appearance. There were no surprises. The board has rounded corners, making the smartphone comfortable to hold in your hand.

But when you start checking for crunching, play and other unpleasant moments, you realize: here it is, the Achilles heel of this smartphone. Because when you slightly squeeze the device, it makes a plaintive crunch, as if its backbone begins to break, quickly and irrevocably! But in the store I didn’t bother to check the build quality. And this is how it turns out.

But removing the lid is a pain. While you are using your nails to pry at the place where your legs grow, that is, where the smartphone is disassembled, you will break off all your nails.

When the lid is opened and thrown to the side, everything that we, sniffling and sweating, were striving for during these few tense minutes appears to our eyes, namely, SIM card slots. Installing SIM cards does not cause any difficulties, although I was lucky in this regard.

But then the luck inexorably runs out, since when the device was turned on, for some reason it detected only one SIM card, although I’m sure they were both functional and were recognized correctly on the previous device. What the hell? Rebooting didn't help. And only when I pulled out and inserted the SIM card back, it was finally detected the next time I started the smartphone. Phew, I haven’t done anything on this device yet, but you’re already starting to wipe the sweat from your forehead (well, this is more due to the heat in the room, it’s summer, after all).

This all applies to the white copy. With red, the same thing happened painlessly and without problems. I wonder what other surprises the two natives of Lenovo will present?

It turned out that the surprises were not over yet, unfortunately. Because it turned out that on the white copy the volume buttons react to pressing with a delay, somewhere with an interval of one second. Not all the time, but from time to time. What is this, a button malfunction, or a software glitch? There is no such thing on red. Hmmm, what kind of “wonderful” devices did I buy?

I began to closely examine both screens for the presence of defective pixels. And, to great regret, I found one black dot on the red specimen, barely visible, but it is there, and this is a fact. Of course, those people who will use this smartphone will not notice what I saw, but it’s still unpleasant. Because you pay money for a new product that looks good, but what you get...

Having examined the screens for the presence of glare, I did not see any particular problems. Yes, this is inevitable on TFT screens, but there are no critical flares, and this will not interfere with everyday work.

Tested the power/lock buttons. At least there seem to be no problems with them. They press clearly on both copies, there is no lag. They don’t hang out in their “nests”.

I checked the headphone jacks. Everything here is ordinary, except that the headset seems to fit tightly in the red smartphone, and for some reason the sound starts to disappear when you touch the wire. I moved these headphones (by the way, quite good “ears” from Sony that fit on the head) to a white copy, everything is fine there. I put other headphones in the red smartphone, and again the sound disappeared (I had a similar problem on the Nokia C6-01).

Micro USB. Having connected both smartphones to the computer, I discovered that in the white version the USB cable for some reason wobbles quite a lot from side to side. Although, it doesn’t seem to pop up, and the connection doesn’t disappear. But this fact is a little annoying. On a red smartphone, the cable fits much tighter in the connector. Okay, if there are no problems with the connection, then we won’t write it down as a minus for now! Again, I had a similar problem on the S4 Mini, only there the cable did not immediately fit into the connector, but this smartphone is almost two years old, and there are no problems with charging.

Display

So, now let's move on to the face of the smartphone, this is the display. As usual, if the device is budget, then you shouldn’t expect a high-quality display. It also happens that the quality of the display can be crammed into a smartphone and below average. But this is not the case. Yes, the resolution here is the usual 480x800, which, with a diagonal of four inches, fits well into the overall concept. Another thing is the screen matrix itself. There is a regular TFT display here, but the quality is quite good. The viewing angles are surprisingly good, of course, not up to IPS, but better than many other budget TFTs. When tilted, the picture changes very slightly. The color rendition is adequate, the display is pleasant to look at, this cannot be taken away. The maximum brightness is also easy to read.

It is either glass or plastic that protects the display. If in the Lumia 430 it was immediately clear that the screen was plastic (although some argue that it was glass), then here it’s not immediately clear. Most likely, Lenovo 319 has protection called fiberglass, a kind of hybrid of glass and plastic. No scratches or abrasions appeared on it after several days of testing.

Now, regarding the screen sensitivity. Lenovo is fine with this. The screen responds to touches instantly, there are no delays or hesitations when performing these simple manipulations with the smartphone. The finger glides pleasantly across the glossy surface, although, of course, not as well as on the Galaxy S4 or S4 mini. Still, Samsung devices have glass, not fiberglass. But for its price category, using this smartphone is quite comfortable. But there is no oleophobic coating here, don’t even dream about it. It covers with fingerprints as quickly as lightning. And they rub off with reluctance. But nothing can be done about it.

operating system

Android 4.4 KitKat. And that's it. Although, no, not everything. The interface has been slightly changed, and it seems to me, not for the better. Well, I don’t like such gray colors in the design! And here they are exactly like that. Or, if you take into account the settings menu, where the predominant colors are green, white, and black. Still, I like the color scheme of Tachwiz better.

As for changing the design of the icons, at least they tried, they look quite wow against the backdrop of the “gray mass” of design in general.

I complained about this about the P770 too. Nothing has changed here. There are also topics here. Why they are here is unclear. After all, only the background image changes, that’s all. What an innovation, what a breakthrough in the mobile industry! You can change the topic! Bravo! I've always dreamed about this!

The speed of the interface does not cause any complaints, which is very pleasing, despite the numerous glitches of this smartphone.

Sound

Despite the proud name Dolby Digital Plus, it doesn’t give anything significant other than the phrase. Even with good headphones, the device does not pretend to be a music device. And there are so many words in this loud phrase... In fact, the sound is no different from other smartphones in this price category. Just a good sound, that's all. At my level, which does not have such an inscription. The rear speaker doesn't sound great either. Loud, yes. Quality, no, I won’t say that. At maximum volume you can hear wheezing and there is not enough bass, at least a little. At medium volume everything is more or less tolerable. So, despite such a fashionable phrase, like, the sound will be awesome, there are no differences from other devices. Even when connecting speakers, nothing changes. But if the user is not a music lover, and he is not particularly picky in this regard, then he will not be disappointed. It’s good that at least there is no such annoying glitch as stuttering during playback or automatically changing the volume for a split second, as happens in Chinese smartphones. There are no problems with this, and both devices, red and white, are good with this.

Iron

The power of the smartphone is provided by the already boring, outdated and morally and physically Chinese processor Mediatek 6572, which has only two Cortex-A7 cores and a Mali-400MP video processor. A couple of years ago it was a completely wow processor that firmly occupied the niche of budget smartphones. But progress does not stand still; processors with a large number of cores and a powerful graphics system are appearing. Now what was considered a normal budget phone is turning into a simple dialer, with the ability to install non-resource-intensive applications, such as music players or simple games, such as “angry birds”. But the most important thing - why I buy this smartphone is so that it performs, I repeat, one of its main functions - to make calls. But more on that later.

So, the old processor runs simple applications regularly, does not slow down, does not lag. But as soon as you start a toy, like GTA 3, even for fun, terrible brakes begin. So, game lovers, move on.

RAM. Memory card. Inner memory

There is not enough RAM here, considering that some state employees are already equipped with 1 GB of memory. Here it is only 512 MB. With a small download, some 200 MB remains free. So, you can’t really launch many applications. Memory cards are supported in this device up to 32 GB. But even here, not very pleasant “surprises” awaited me. On the red copy, the 32 GB memory card is correctly recognized. Even completely filled. But on a white smartphone, the same card is stupidly not detected by the device. We insert it again into red - everything in a bunch. Then we insert a 16 GB memory card into the white smartphone. Everything is lovely. And for some reason the 32 GB card is not seen by the device. What kind of glitch is this nasty?

Internal memory 4 GB. There is nothing more to say, because there is nothing interesting in this. Everything is expected.

Communication with the outside world

When buying a smartphone, there are always concerns about the quality of the speakers. Especially conversational. Having had the sad experience of purchasing and subsequent disappointment with the Nokia 301, in which even the second model had problems with the speaker, I feared the same thing. But despite numerous glitches and unpleasant surprises with the two “sloths” red and white, after two weeks of using both smartphones I did not find any problems with communication. The earpiece speakers are crisp and clear, and there is no rattling that always unsettles me, much to my relief. True, there is no volume reserve here, and it would really come in handy here. Especially on the street, in noisy places. Because sometimes you have to ask your interlocutor again. On the budget phone Lumiya 430, which I reviewed once, there is a reserve in volume. In Lenovo, the situation is a little worse.

The dual SIM mode is no different from other similar Android smartphones. There are no glitches with SIM cards, thank God. This was also part of my concerns, given that in one instance there was a problem with reading a 32 GB memory card...

The Internet is like the Internet. Only 3G, LTE did not come here. But 3G is quite enough for access to the Internet, contacts, classmates, and so on. The page loading speed is not satisfactory. But for some reason, scaling with a standard browser is a little jerky. All this is solved by the third-party browser Google Chrome, which does not have problems with scaling.

But what still causes concern is heating when browsing the Internet. And the heating is still significant, not critical, but somehow strange. What's there to heat up there? With a low-power processor, a small screen and the same resolution?..

Battery. Operating time per charge

1500 mAh. This is very little for a smartphone on a green robot. And if all this is not optimized, then only when talking and checking email, one charge is enough for a day, well, ten percent will still be left in the evening, and then run with the charger to the outlet. It charges quite quickly, about an hour and a half. But he also sits down quickly. So, the device is not for long trips.

Camera

Only five megapixels. With flash, but no autofocus. Photos are of mediocre quality. But, damn it, there is a flash! It's a flashlight, not a flash, so it doesn't do anything for photographic purposes. By the way, like a flashlight, this “flash” is rather dull. The video is recorded in HD resolution, but such that it would be better not to have it.

Results

This smartphone has a right to exist if you accept its glitches and shortcomings. But who would want that?..

Pros:

• good quality display;
• quite fast (for its price);
• good sound in headphones.
  Minuses:
• numerous glitches and unpleasant surprises described above.
  The rating for this gadget is 5/10. And that’s because maybe not everyone has the same problems with these Lenovo A319s as I do.

  PS Let me get ahead of myself and say that after several days of going to the store and service center to check the quality of both copies, I finally got a refund for both smartphones.

  Thank you everyone for reading my review.