Review Lenovo S5000-F Tablet
For the original German review, see here.
About two months ago, we had the Lenovo IdeaTab A3000 over in our shop and were able to explore its capabilities to our satisfaction. The S5000-F also measures 7 inches, but it benefits from one or two enhancements. For example, the display has a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, and the front camera received an upgrade as well. The SoC is provided by MediaTek, and it cycles at 1.2 GHz per core. In theory, it should be left in the dust in competition against the Snapdragon S4 Pro in the Nexus 7 2013 or the Snapdragon 800 in the Kindle Fire HDX 7.
This new mid-range model comes on the market with a suggested retail price of 199 Euros (~$275); with a 3G-module version costing 50 Euros more (total ~$341).
Case
The chassis of our test model consists entirely of plastic. The back cover is set apart from the rest of the case, color-wise, and its polycarbonate is textured. This texturing has its advantages: the case is easy to grip and does not attract too many fingerprints. In general, the S5000-F is well made, though it does not approach the material quality of a Samsung Galaxy model. One reason for this critique: on the right and left sides of the device, the plastic creaks and slightly deforms when pressure is applied. At 191 x 116 x 7.9 mm (~7.5 x 4.6 x 0.3 inches), Lenovo has managed to reduce every dimension in comparison with the A3000. Likewise, the weight has gone down by about 100 grams to 246 grams (down ~3.5 ounces to 8.7 ounces), making it lighter by about 50 grams (~1.8 ounces) than either the Kindle Fire HDX 7 or the Nexus 7 2013.
Connectivity
The tablet is hardly different from any of the other machines in the IdeaTab product line as far as ports go.
There are no ports or buttons on the left side. The volume control and the power button are on the opposite edge. The micro USB port is built into the center of the lower side, and the 3.5-mm audio jack is found directly opposite on the upper side.
Our model has 16 GB of built-in storage, which unfortunately cannot be expanded via a micro SD slot, since the back cover is not removable.
Software
As its operating system, Lenovo uses Android, which in version 4.2.2 is already somewhat obsolete. The home screen reminds us very strongly of forerunner models. The operating system has been adapted by Lenovo so that the app drawer is deactivated (for "optimization" reasons). This leads to unholy chaos on the home screen, which presents all of the apps at once. Various pieces of bloatware also come preinstalled. From "Lenovo Energy" through to "Function Translation" and "UI Intro," there are numerous unnecessary applications on-board. At the moment, it is not clear whether and when an upgrade to Android 4.3 (or even KitKat) will be offered.
Communication & GPS
The built-in WLAN module offers the only opportunity for wireless Internet access. It transmits according to the usual standards: 802.11 b/g/n. Unfortunately, the tablet can only be used in 2.4-GHz mode. We have no complaints about the WLAN module's stability: over the course of testing, the connection was consistent and showed no unexpected interruptions. Bluetooth Version 3.0 is available in case the user wishes to connect to additional devices.
So that the tablet can be used as a navigation system, a GPS receiver is mandatory. The requisite component achieves a satellite fix in less than a minute, and GPS precision is good enough within closed rooms. We put the S5000-F up against the Garmin Edge 500. The S5000's results were not particularly encouraging on a stretch of road with several twists and turns; the hardware cannot deal with curved paths and gives confusing, inaccurate results. Things looked better in a wooded area: both devices had equally good results. Still, users should consider carefully whether the S500 should really be used as a measurement device for fitness-related activities. At 7 inches, it is still not particularly small, and its measurement of the distance traveled was off by about 300 meters (328 yards).
Cameras & Multimedia
The S5000-F has two cameras at its disposal. As usual, one of them is on the underside, and the other is on top of the display. The underside camera takes shots at up to 5 megapixels; the front camera manages 1.6 MP. The camera software is fairly spartan, and it does not score any points with elaborate presets, the likes of which some users may know from the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition.
Under poor light conditions, pictures from both cameras are poor and suffer from a noticeable blue tint. The fact that there is no LED camera flash available contributes to this result. Blurring is fairly high, and detail fidelity is not particularly good.
Accessories
The manufacturers provide a modular power cord. Apart from that, we also found various paper instructions. Since the tablet cannot be used to make phone calls, no headset is provided. We also discovered a "cardboard component" in the package, which we would have thrown straight into the trash had we not noticed the sticker on its underside. This rudimentary utensil serves as a stand for the tablet.
The S5000-F's warranty lasts for 12 months. The non-removable battery is covered for just 6 months.
Input Devices & Service
The capacitive screen receives our inputs with excellent precision and speed. The same is true after turning the display by 90°. The display can be used with up to ten fingers at once and offers no grounds for criticism. In landscape mode, the virtual keyboard takes up about 50% of the screen - somewhat more space than in portrait orientation.
Display
The 7-inch model's display resolution is somewhat higher than that of the IdeaTab A3000 and has 1280x800 pixels at its disposal. Still, this does not even come close to the resolution offered by the Nexus 7 2013 (323 ppi) or the Kindle Fire HDX 7 (323 ppi). The S5000-F reaches a pixel density of just 215.6 ppi. Across nine measurement areas, we found an average display brightness of 464.7 cd/m² and the illumination has an excellent homogeneity of 93%. The Kindle Fire HDX 7's panel delivers a slightly weaker result, with 426.5 cd/m² in the middle and an illumination score of 91%. The Nexus 7 2013, though, is even brighter (513.4 cd/m²) but fails to achieve comparable homogeneity scores. One final point of pride for our test model: its contrast. At 1082:1, the Lenovo tablet is far ahead of both of these competitors. The high contrast is thanks to the good black value of 0.44 cd/m². The display of the IdeaTab A3000 can hardly be compared to our test product - every aspect has been improved.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 93 %
Center on Battery: 476 cd/m²
Contrast: 1082:1 (Black: 0.44 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.12 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 8.33 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.54
We took a closer look at the display with the CalMAN 5 software. We noticed here that color fidelity is not so good. Reds are shown as too pale, and with blues, we would have to say that the color is completely distorted. In the middle, the DeltaE-2000 rating is at 6.12 - a far cry from the reference value of 2.3. Here, and also with color temperature (6264K), the Nexus 7 2013 does a much better job, surging past the S5000-F. In the final analysis, it is also worth mentioning that the bright grayscale was overlaid by a metallic visual effect.
High display brightness, homogenous illumination, and excellent contrast make this tablet well suited for outside use. At this time of year, the device can be used outside under virtually all conditions. Since the tablet uses a glossy display, outside use in summer might suffer from too many reflections - but this is a problem that affects every tablet and smartphone.
The in-plane switching technology also gives the S5000-F impressive viewing angle stability. In this area, we have no further grounds for criticism, so we will leave this assessment short and sweet.
System Performance
The S5000-F uses an SoC from MediaTek, which goes by the name of MT8125/8389.
The Cortex A7, with the ARMv7 instruction set, cycles at 1.2 GHz (for each of the four cores) and has 1 GB of RAM at its disposal. The graphics system is the well-known SGX544 version from PowerVR.
In comparison with the Snapdragon S4 Pro in the Nexus 7 or even the Snapdragon 800, the S5000-F will be hard put to keep up, since it has "only" 1 GB of RAM available. We reached this hypothesis because the IdeaTab A3000-H also found it difficult to match its comparison models' performance. Still, we conducted our tests as objectively as possible and let the benchmarks prove or disprove this assumption.
In the synthetic benchmarks, the result is more than obvious. Although the competitors from Google and Amazon's factories are just slightly more expensive, their SoCs achieve far higher ratings. Our test product never really had a chance in any of the runtime tests. The product only bested its forerunner model (IdeaTab A3000-H).
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| 3DMark | |
| 1280x720 offscreen Ice Storm Unlimited Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| 1920x1080 Ice Storm Extreme Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| 1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| Epic Citadel - High Quality (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
Looking back at the browser-based benchmarks, the results come a little closer together, but it is still easy to recognize the tendency. Apple's iPad Mini Retina, the Amazon counterpart, and the Google tablet distance themselves from our test device and look down on it from the victors' platform.
| Browsermark - --- (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 inch | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.0 - Total (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 inch | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| Octane V1 - Total Score (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 inch | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
| Peacekeeper - --- (sort by value) | |
| Lenovo S5000-F | |
| Google Nexus 7 2013 | |
| Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 inch | |
| Apple iPad mini Retina | |
| Lenovo IdeaTab A3000-H | |
* ... smaller is better
Results in flash drive speed qualify this impression a bit. Surprisingly, our test product defeated the Google Nexus 7 2013 in three of the four scenarios. Still, the Kindle Fire HDX 7 outperforms it by up to 171%.
Games & Videos
All current 3D and 2D games can be played on the S5000-F without any problems. We did not notice any stutters or overly long load times on the start of these apps.
Likewise, playback of Videos in Full HD quality functions without problems. Not so for playback of QFHD trailers. Here the SoC reaches its performance threshold and fails to display the image; only the audio track plays.
Emissions
Temperature
On average, the device warms up to 30.7 °C (87.26 °F) on the front side under full load; the underside reaches 28.2 °C (82.76 °F). This is a better temperature gradient than the A3000-H could boast (32.1 °C – 33 °C; 89.78 – 91.4 °F) and a striking result in comparison with the Kindle Fire HDX 7 (37.9 °C – 39.1 °C; 100.22 – 102.38 °F) and the Nexus 7 2013 (40.4 °C – 37.9 °C; 104.72 – 100.22 °F). If the SoC has few to no processor-intensive tasks to perform, the temperature declines - but only by about 2 °C (~3.6 °F). In this scenario, the Nexus 7 2013 and the IdeaTab A3000 are similarly warm. The power cord hits a maximum temperature of 45.4 °C (113.72 °F) and sits at 33.2 °C (91.76 °F) without load. All in all, a solid result for Lenovo's newest tablet.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 34.6 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 33.7 °C / 93 F, ranging from 20.7 to 53.2 °C for the class Tablet.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 29.6 °C / 85 F, compared to the average of 33.2 °C / 92 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 28 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 30 °C / 86 F.
Speakers
The mono speaker is situated on the upper front side and cannot be covered if the tablet is lying on a flat surface. Up to about 30% of the maximum volume, the sound is relatively quiet, and we found the playback to be relatively pleasant, even if the deeper register is absent. Up to 80% of maximum, the sound is as stable as can be expected and free of distortion. For everyday music enjoyment, these speakers will definitely be enough. Hooking up an external device with Bluetooth or the 3.5 mm jack is also perfectly convenient and quick.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
During use of processor-intensive apps or video playback, the SoC requires up to 2.6 W. With the S5000-F, Lenovo managed to cut the maximum power usage (in comparison with the IdeaTab A3000) by more than half. This makes us optimistic about battery life - but more on that later.
If the device is idling, we measure wattages between 0.9 and 2.3 W with the Voltcraft VC 940. The manufacturer has managed to decrease power draw requirements here as well; the A3000 requires between 1.8 and 4.3 W in this situation. If the tablet is completely shut off, we measured no power consumption at all, and in standby mode, it reached only 0.1 W.
| Off / Standby |   0 / 0.1 Watt |
| Idle |  0.9 / 2.3 / 2.3 Watt |
| Load |
2.5 / 2.6 Watt |
    
| |
Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Voltcraft VC 940 | |
Battery Life
The battery has a capacity of 3,450 mAh and uses lithium-polymer technology. As long as all wireless modules are deactivated and display brightness is at minimum, the tablet can last for a respectable 17 hours, 15 minutes. We know by now that the Kindle Fire HDX 7 and the Nexus 7 2013 beat out our tablet in most scenarios, and we no longer need to be surprised that this is also the case here.
We created the converse battery scenario with the "Stability Test" app. We put the hardware under maximum load and the display on maximum brightness. After 4 hours, 15 minutes the lights went out. A middle-ground scenario: if a script is accessed every 40 seconds and the display brightness is at 150 cd/m², the device manages 11:19 hours.
Verdict
The S5000-F is one of the current mid-range models from a major corporation. With a suggested retail price of 199 Euros (~$275) and a similar street price, it ranks alongside the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 7 and the Nexus 7 2013 in terms of value. True, Google's 7-inch device currently costs 229 Euros (~$315) and Amazon's tablet 214 (~$330), but both of these devices have sharper displays and boast substantially faster hardware. On the other hand, the S5000-F can offer a good battery life and a bright, contrast-rich display. As with the other devices, the storage cannot be upgraded, and the battery is not removable.
In general, the tablet's performance is entirely satisfactory, but the decision to buy should not be forced or rushed into. Both the Amazon counterpart and the Google tablet possess hardware more likely to stand the test of time, and they are only slightly more expensive. It is definitely not an easy decision, but we lean slightly toward the Google Nexus 7 2013 or the Kindle Fire HDX 7.
