Lenovo S920

Afternoons after I have had my lunch (read CNN, chapo na ndengu), is the time I zone out, therefore to avoid sleeping in the office I will turn on the fan, take loads of water and start doing mentally easy tasks. Linkedin Pulse, read the newspaper, watch a youtube video, view bookmarks, which new album or movie to download, has my favourite DJs uploaded anything on mixcrate…. Etc GSMArena is where I stumbled that day and I started reading review about phones. I knew I wanted affordable but with decent specs, that is where I found Lenovo and a love affair began. I tried to see if I could get it locally, but even the Lenovo guys in South Africa only deal with the computers and tablets (you must have seen the yoga tablets on a billboard somewhere ey?). My friend Ogesh told me he could probably get one shipped if I wanted, but then the cost would make it less affordable than I was prepared for. This is what led me to India, I started off at flipkart and ended up on snapdeal, well thanks to Mercy, she is the one who gave those recommendations. She was doing her MBA there and during one of our conversations she told me how electronics were really cheap in India, who would pass off such a deal?

Apparently the SnapDeal do not accept money via PayPal, that left me with MoneyGram which apparently is cheaper than western union, again thank you Mercy :-). Okay let me not bore you with the nitty-gritties of getting the phone let’s get to business, I will  not go to technical stuff, you can find those on GSMArena or phone Arena, I am telling of my lay experience.

Performance

The phone is pretty good and launches applications fairly fast. Note, I said fairly fast. It is an affordable phone, so do not expect high end execution.

Display

Lenovo s920 has this huge 5.3 screen, which is HD yup, watching Nicki’s anaconda is pure delight on this phone 😀 do not judge me. If you are a bit careless like I am you might need to buy a screen protector, to avoid damage to the screen.

Dimensions

This phone is skinny, like skinny skinny Samsung can’t get near… It’s true don’t give me that look, this phone is lean no cellulite anywhere!

Material

The phone cover is plastic, which means if you drop it a few times you may be left with junk. The USB/charging port cover is also very flimsy. Mine got spoiled and the port is all commando naked! Lenovo, the hell was that, someone in R&D should answer for that.

Camera

Now this phones camera gives me pleasure for the three months I have had it I have taken 1200 pictures (I think I shoot at anything and everything), check my Instagram on the side for some. The video quality is pretty good too Savvy told me it was a bad idea to make a home videos so you may also never get to see the quality of its videos :-D.

Android System

The phone comes with Jelly Bean upgradeable to KitKat. For your peace of mind, do not, no, let me be clear DO NOT upgrade to KitKat! It sure looks good, feels good, you get more space, the camera gets digital zoom but for data hogs like me, the phone will stop being stable on 3G networks so you are forced to remain on 2G only.  I went to all the Lenovo forums but it seems the only saviour right now will be either a downgrade to jelly bean or to wait for an update to patch the mess from Lenovo. I am still waiting for the latter, which means I cannot enjoy Safaricom’s free YouTube offer or Skype/ Google hangout video with my friends to brag when crossing off a bucket list (selfies are not sufficient for bragging you need to see the expression on their faces, mostly it’s a you are crazy kind of expression), or those days you miss someone and a call is not enough you need a face to the voice… Okay I think I have hammered it in how the instability of the 3G signal sucks. So if you get a Lenovo, stick to JellyBean until kitkat has been tested and tried. They should have warned us KitKat was beta or something (see how I talk about beta like am a techie? Lol).

Verdict

I like stuff that can stay with me for a long while, so durability is normally a decision changing factor when purchasing things. Would I buy Lenovo s920 again? Yes I would, even better the 8 gigs version. Would I feel all adventurous and upgrade? Hell no! Will I keep it? Yes I will keep it, one flaw will not reduce my love. I will wait to see if they improve on it and as far as I am concerned I think I am now officially a Lenovo fan, Chinese or not (Did I just see Tecno guys smile? Yup, this is an affirmation there can be legit products from China).

Hopefully after testing their products in India, I understand manufacturers target India and China because of their wide demographics to test their products, I hope Africa will be their next big stop. I will be their number one fan, because if they work on their flaws which are always posted in the Lenovo forums, they might as well takeover the mid range market…

 

Happy Anniversary to us all!

I got this notification and then it hit me, it has been four years already since I started this dairy. Though I think most of the gang seems to just come read and leave quietly unlike before… but it all good. This is our anniversary cheers for the four years, cheers to the future, an interesting one I hope :-). Maybe to break the randomness in my writing, what would you love to see more from the mundane experiences I go through, please leave a comment, yes even you, my veiled readers, lose the mask today, it is our anniversary 🙂

 

Shopping online part two

Sometimes this year I had some bad experience with dx.com where I bought a replacement battery for my iPod but never got to see it. After numerous complaints and automated responses I finally gave up. I was bummed, but I was willing still to try out other sites and see how it would go. I am not a gambler, but I think my archetype would be that of a connector. If I discover something good I am that one person who will refer their friends, I am not mean with information. So sometimes this leads me to try risky stuff at times, the things you start by saying “I’ll try this one time and one time only”. Case in point would be last week when I went to my barber and I was convinced to exfoliate, the experience was more of someone sandpapering my face, no way I’m recommending that hehe. Okay let me stop digressing. I recently tried shopping online again, I found myself on eBay since all the other stores do not ship to Kenya.

Enter eBay

I got myself an affordable phone and I wanted a screen protector for it. Those are cheap phone problems, you have to find a way to protect your screen from scratches. After many trips around town looking for the right fit I could not find any shop which had screen protectors for Lenovo. This made me go online to look for a solution.  I found this tempered glass I really loved, tempered glass is better than the plastic film screen protectors they sell, plus the price was basically the same. First I went to my good old amazon.com, I add it to my cart but on checking out I find that it cannot be shipped. That sends me to square one again. I go to eBay and find several merchants in China selling the tempered glass I wanted. I look for the one with the most stars for delivering and order my screen protector glass. They said it would take two to three weeks I would pass by the post office to check if my consignment has arrived. Finally after four weeks I found it tucked in my box. I was so excited I nearly jumped… I guess not all the merchants in China are shady after all 🙂

Ps. Did I mention that even the phone was bought online? Maybe I am a gambler after all, a tiny weeny little bit. Which means I have warranty from India not Kenya, but that comes with risk ey?

My colleague bought a phone on Jumia and got it delivered in a day! Maybe that is my next stop… watch this space.