Check In: Lenovo A820C+ Smartphone

Remember this thing? Aah, it was so shiny and new before. I reviewed it in a previous post (where I mistakenly labeled it as a A850C+). As stated then, I bought mine from Alibaba.

Let's say that I have a long, long history with this phone for the short time that I've had it. I was so, so excited to buy it and to finally have it. I can acknowledge that I have a chronic problem with buying my technology aesthetically. After doing all of the research, I will harshly evaluate whether or not it will fit into my desired look. I know. It's a pain. It really worked against me this time.


Before my original critique of the phone was its horrible volume control. To be fair, that's still a terrible issue it has. It goes from 0 to 11 in three clicks. It's incredibly annoying and even a bit startling. As you can guess, that has changed greatly. But let's do some pros and cons.

Pros
Sleek in design	Physically Customisable[1]
Initially responsive	UI Customisable[2]
A+ Coverage[3]	Amazing Wi-Fi reception

Pro #1: The phone comes with two different backings. One is the smooth back with the logo on it, and the other comes with its own cover for the phone. I've been using the cover since day one, so it's incredibly worn. Plus! The cover acts as a little stand for the phone, another reason I use it so much. You can actually see the plain back in the previous review (or just click here).

Pro #2: The customising the UI was incredibly fun. It works well with LINE, my mini icon app, and later on my APUS launcher. Some things didn't work as well with the type of phone I had, but since I have an Android, I found a tonne of work-arounds.

Pro #3: I had T-Mobile for a short while (RIP, my financial stability). The A820 worked really well. I never had a problem with crackling, dropped calls, or anything like that. The only problem was, again, sound, but that'll be talked about soon.

Cons (After Long Use)
Lags	OS wigs out
Nonexistent Help	Sound
Viruses	Poor camera
Deadly Factory Reset	Flimsy Battery Life

I actually have a dozen and one critiques for this phone. It does not age well, unfortunately. I'm very professional with my phone. I always use it to text, look up something, or make notes. I try not to make calls for very long. And it would make sense why that would drain my phone.

But that's not what was draining my phone.

For a while, this phone had a spectacular battery. Even with T-Mobile, LINE, and twitter, it was doing pretty well. I tried not to overload my phone, because I hate the way battery heat patches. But anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's go in order.

We're hitting all the fine points.

Con #1: Oh boy. After a while, the phone would start to lag. It took a couple of times for it to respond to my tapping, mainly in accessing all of my apps. I'm not download heavy when it comes to my apps. I even deleted some of the heavier ones after I lost my money T-Mobile. The lagging happened early in 2015. It was very sudden and no amount of cleaning could fix it. (Probably also red flag number one.)

Con #2: On top of the phone lagging, the OS would not work properly. Sometimes it would go back to the home screen in the middle of me using an app. It would freak out when I'm viewing my most recently used apps. Apps would have trouble opening. You get the picture. Also red flag number two.

Con #3: When I was looking up problems related to my phone online, there was practically nothing. I found a lot of Android related questions, but nothing specific to my phone. That's my fault, yup. I fell in love with the Lenovo. I am so sorry, past me.

/!\ When you're looking up a phone, pretend you need to do some troubleshooting online. Google "troubleshoot [phone make and model]" and other problems related to your specific phone model. This will give you an idea of how easy it will be to fix problems on your own, how badly you'll need paid tech support, or if it's worth getting at all. /!\

Con #4: You know my issues with the volume control, but that's just the general volume control. When having a phone call, sometimes it would be really frustrating. It wasn't a problem I often had, but if someone had a naturally low or soft voice, I could tell. I've almost hung up many phone calls out of frustration. It's not y'all; it's my damn Lenovo.

Con #5: The viruses are hella sneaky. I've gotta give them that. The warning flags set me up for something pretty bad. The viruses set in a factory preset apps, so they were hard to remove. Even after installing a root uninstaller and jumping through hoops, there's one that is still there. I'd be happier with my phone being bricked. To be honest.

Con #6: Compared to #5, this is nothing, but the camera quality is extremely lacking. It's on par with my iPad (and that's a gen. two). It's a harsh sort of bad. Unless I switch out the camera, there's no give. There's no app I've found that can compensate. Y'all, even in good lighting, it's bad. Just. Just go sit down, Lenovo. You're tired.

Con #7: As I was saying, the battery life was amazing starting off. So much so that I almost put it as a pro. But as time went on, the battery life was suddenly horrible and unpredictable. Sometimes, it would be fine and other times not. Even after deleting my battery-draining apps, it would still fall short. If I left it alone, it would turn off on its own. Sometimes, I would turn on my phone after that, and it would still have 20% battery life. Understandable, sometimes phones do that to save power, but there have been times when I've plugged it in and get 60-65% batter life. Or it would drop to that 10-20 minutes later. So I. It just. Augh. You understand my frustration, yes?

Con #8: Saving the best for last. I've had to reset my phone a number of times between September 2015 and January — a ridiculous amount — and it's actually because of the first two problems. When the virus set in, I finally had to do the unthinkable: factory reset. By this time, I didn't care. I had moved all of my photos around. I wasn't using my phone for anything important anymore at this stage. It could barely handle looking through the photo gallery. At this point: the phone was just as done as I was. No. Kidding. It went back to the way that it was, but now. I can't even describe the pain.

• Viruses are still there.
• APUS and base launcher are overlapping.
• The UI freak out is worse to the point of being self-destructive.
• Apps are downloading on their own, so I've activated airplane mode almost permanently.

This is a drop in an ocean of absolute bullshit. Fun times for me. I have a main phone that I use, but the smart phone was a step in a better direction. It was appropriate at the time, which is why I don't regret the purchase itself. However, from a technological stand point, it cannot stand its own. It's absolutely worthless. Now I'm left with the very thing I bought it for: the aesthetics.

Honestly, it's funny to me in a way, so I can hardly be mad. You know, objectively. When I'm not wanting to throw the damned thing. I wouldn't waste my time with this. And if you do, be careful with the seller.

You can also go to my imgur album for the Lenovo A820C+ unboxing.