Lenovo’s steady stream of mid-range smartphone launches in India continue unabated. The Chinese consumer electronics multinational has now launched the Lenovo Phab in the country. The device, as its name suggests, is a phablet with a massive 6.98-inch display panel, making it more of a small voice-calling tablet rather than a mainstream smartphone. While display panels on smartphones have been getting bigger every year, the current sweet spot seems to be between the 5.2-inch and 5.7-inch marks, which is where most mainstream devices tend to be these days, and that has been the case over the past year or so. However, small tablets with voice-calling facilities continue to remain an important niche in some markets around the world, and Lenovo may just be testing the waters in India with this particular device.
Coming to the tech specs, the Lenovo Phab features a 6.98-inch, 720p display panel and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 SoC. The device comes with 2 GB of RAM and 16 GB of expandable storage. There’s a 13-megapixel primary camera while the front-facing shooter comes with a 5-megapixel sensor. The device draws power from a 4,250 mAh battery, while on the software side of things, Android 5.1 Lollipop runs the show with a Vibe UI overlay. Connectivity includes 4G LTE, 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. For a device this size, one hand operations may not exactly be high on the list of priorities for those buying the gadget, but Lenovo nonetheless offers software features that apparently allow users to operate the device one-handed.
One important thing to note here is that the Phab is not the first massive smartphone the company has launched in India. The Lenovo Phab Plus, which is a premium iteration of the same concept, was launched in the country by the Chinese tech giant late last year. While there’s no word on how well that particular device might have fared in the country, seeing as Lenovo is confident enough to explore the market even further with what is expected to be an all-round niche offering, may be the company managed to move a fairly decent number of units of the premium phablet, all things considered. Meanwhile, the Lenovo Phab has been priced at Rs. 11,999 ($185) and will be exclusively available from online retailer Flipkart from April 21st through the ‘Flash Sale’ model.