Build:
The metallic look of the phone looks good and solid, but the bezel on the phone makes it look longish. However the metallic back did get scratches even from car plastics when kept at the edge. Didnt like that on a new phone. Ordering a flip case for that because the phone is slippery too. The buttons feel pretty solid, lot better than the nexus one and Note i have previously owned. The phone looks ok/good but i wouldnt say it matches or competes with HTC one/Blackberry latest say (though they are smaller and not comparable). Quality of accessories supplied is also way better than the ones that came with Samsung Note IMHO.
Display:
I was having doubts about display quality before purchasing and after switching from Note 1. But this one is an awesome display. Bright, crisp and responsive. IMHO this one did a better job in outside sunlight visibility than the Note 1. Also compared it with amoled display of Toshiba excite tablet (which i believe was very good) and K900 was way brighter. Regarding crispness and resolution, this one looks great althought i never could find issues with lower resolution phones too. 5 stars for the display. Fonts for some of the things like The H at the top in the notification bar could have been handled better.
Power:
Am not much into gaming. But the phone in general is very responsive in browsing, maps, general dialling etc. Reason for me selling the Note 1 was partly attributed to the very long time it used to take for opening the contacts. This one feels way more responsive in those tasks. Although the stock launcher i felt was a bit sluggish in some of the effects like cube rotate, it was good and responsive in others and so am using one of those. I tried Nova Launcher and that worked just great. However i switched back to the stock launcher because of some of the nice effects in the app tray etc. Other applications like email, Flipboard etc that i use more often work just great. Refreshes and Flipboard stories were opening faster than on my Note. The phone does get warm however after heavier long duration usage, but that happened on Note 1 too.
Camera:
This one is a good camera with plenty of settings. The pictures i took in room in day light were pretty clear. Liked the panaroma mode in the camera. Havent used the camera very extensively as of now but after some usage i am positive about the companies claims about the camera. The front camera also gives a wider angle compared to my tablet as claimed. Lenovo has also customized the Gallery software which was to my liking.
Voice quality:
Call quality is ok and audible, but not on the louder side i would say. I havent faced problems till now, but i liked the one on Note better. The ringtone loudness however is louder/better than Note.
Software:
The phone comes with most of the required software along with Playstore (you dont need to root in the Indian model) and a few good widgets. Contrary to what i have read on a lot of reviews, I liked lot of customizations that Lenovo has done. App tray, launcher, time widget, icon customizations, Messaging customizations all felt good. Dialer was good, but look and feel of the dialer needs improvement. The ability to record conversations as you are talking and dialing is great. The launcher looks good after i changed the wallpaper and put a Galaxy S4 optimized wallpaper from playstore. But the Novo launcher definitely is much faster than the Lenovo default and was also much more responsive than the Samsung touchwiz in Note. I didnt like the icons and color scheme of the dialer and settings screen and also missed the swipe to call gesture of Note in the dialer. Chrome which comes installed by default along with Android browser worked great and i believe i would be using it as the default.
Note: Rooted this phone. It was so damn easy Just download the ROM to sdfuse folder in the phone and sdupdate. Installed the font to read Punjabi.
Battery life:
Battery life in the 4 days of my usage felt good. They have done lot of optimizations i believe to enhance battery. This is no scientific statement, but based on observations of pending battery at various times of the day, i believe it would have outlasted the Note 1. Battery app is very good. Liked the usage representation by hardware and software.
Note: After 3 weeks of usage, i am pretty happy. On certain days with my avg usage this is lasting a full day night and then next day till 6 pm.
At the end, its the price which makes it a very attractive buy. I did not consider Note 2 because i didnt like its display over Note 1 that i was owning. Also in my small check at the store, i felt a perceivable delay in opening contacts like the Note 1. Samsung goodies like stylus and associated software along with tweaks like multiple windows in the same frame are things i never used in Note 1, so didnt think i would ever need them too.
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