Lenovo announces PH release of A7000, world’s first smartphone with Dolby Atmos

Do you remember the surround sound Dolby trailers before the start of a movie? The ones that were meant to show how advanced the surround sound technology in the cinema is? That one got me looking over my shoulder… well, not really. It definitely was surround sound, but it didn’t push past the fact that it just a sound system. If you’ve heard the new Dolby Atmos, however, sound may just have you looking behind your shoulder, above your head, and on your feet.

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This new system creates the illusion of depth. It does this using two additional speakers installed on top of the screen. In numerical terms, Dolby Atmos is 5.1.2 surround sound, meaning it has the usual five speakers and one subwoofer from surround sound, but with the added kick of two mini speakers to give depth to sound. Simply speaking, if a bird flew across your screen, you won’t just be hearing the sound from left to right, but also from overhead. It’s technology that has to be seen (or heard) to be believed.

Unfortunately, an Atmos home system costs a mighty pretty penny. Finding Atmos-compatible movies is also a chore since the technology just started. Full Atmos adoption may take a while. Fortunately, however, Lenovo just packed all that Dolby Atmos into a phone and packaged it into a competitively-priced entertainment system on the go. The Lenovo A7000 is the world’s first smartphone to incorporate Dolby Atmos into its sound system. It will be launched very soon in the Philippines online. I got a sneak peek of this phone and it is what it says it is.

First of all, the Dolby Atmos capabilities do work. The system works only with a pair of headphones, however. But given that it is supposed to be on-the-go entertainment, that should be no issue. The phones comes with a preinstalled Dolby Atmos app which manages the different settings that Atmos can use, such as presets dedicated to movies and to music. Atmos-compatible files are the best to play on the phone, but since that’s a lacking resource for now, the Atmos system in the phone can enhance the Atmos effect of any file even simple 320kbps music files albeit to a limited capacity.

For display, the Lenovo A7000 uses a 5.5-inch HD screen with 1,280 x 720 resolution. A big screen with an HD display and 720p resolution makes it a solid choice for watching movies.

Focus on the multimedia specifications may make one think that the phone is all bark and no bite. But it has the hardware to match its Atmos specifications. The Lenovo A7000 is powered by a MediaTek MT6752m 1.5GHz True8Core processor. It has 2GB worth of RAM and 8GB worth of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via microSD. The phone comes preinstalled with Android 5.0 Lollipop VIBE UI. The phone also has a 2,900mAh battery guaranteed to get you through the day without wanting for more battery. For connectivity, the phone is 4G LTE-capable enabling endless video streaming from just mobile data. The camera is only an adequate 8MP rear and 5MP front with auto-beautification capabilities and Vivid FullHD recording, but with Atmos capabilities, I reckon you’ll be watching more than shooting.

And for specs like this, you’d expect a price tag upwards of P10,000, but Lenovo has promised a very competitive price. They’re not wrong. The A7000’s price tag is nothing short of surprising. This phone with the latest Dolby Atmos technology will put you back by only P7,390. It comes with a free back cover and screen protector.

Adapting an online-to-offline business model, the Lenovo A7000 is available online through an exclusive partnership with Lazada. It will be available starting 12nn of May 21. There are no plans to sell it in offline stores yet. Online buyers will be covered by Lenovo’s one-year warranty and supported by thirty Lenovo Mobile service centers nationwide.

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UPDATE (7/28/2015): The Lenovo A7000 is now available offline through Lenovo outlets nationwide for only P7,999, bundled with a free back cover and a screen protector.