This continues the review of the feature-packed Lenovo IdeaPhone K900, where we touch on the camera, software, performance, battery life and of course the final verdict.
Camera: The sharp shooter
If there’s one thing that I’ve been principally impressed with aside from design and build quality is the K900’s 13MP camera. Utilising a similar Exmor R stacked CMOS sensor as the Xperia Z – with effective 12.6MP, the camera impresses with outstandingly sharp images and low-light performance. The Exmor R sensor has a RGBW coding that can capture sharp, clear images even in low light conditions. It also has a HDR movie function. Learn a little more about Sony’s new Exmor RS sensor.
The f/1.8 focal length lens is a good all-purpose lens. As good for close-up food shots or selfies as it is for scenery. For sheer quality of images, especially when it good light, is as good as any top end cameras found in smartphones today.
In low light, while it can take good shots, the shutter tends to be a little slow as it tries to autofocus. Takes a little practice to get right, and some super steady hands.
The front-facing camera is 2.1MP and takes very decent selfies, but as with most front cameras, prone to noise.
Lenovo’s SuperCamera app is full-featured with plenty of options including HDR, Panorama, Burst Shot, Lens Effects and more, as well as manual controls.
Beats Android’s stock camera app any day. Here are some unedited sample images. I’ve reduced image capture to 8MP to lower files sizes in general.
I’ll elaborate more on the camera in a separate post, with more detail and photos.
Software
Lenovo’s custom UI runs atop Android 4.2.1. Lenovo hasn’t done too much with the UI aside from hit-and-miss rounded icons, so that’s a good thing. The App view is in snazzy 3D, fluid and fast. A few things it has done well is the neat Settings menu, the intuitive and feature-rich SuperCamera and they’ve also executed the SuperGallery rather well.
Lenovo Power, the built-in power management app is also feature-rich and user-friendly. The app has Smart Endurance to intelligently analyse and adjust power consumption. It’s also able to switch modes based on power level, power source or time of day. My personal settings have the K900 switch to alarm mode from 12am to 8.30am, where it moves into Airplane Mode. Uninterrupted sleep is important, you see. Tsk Tsk.
