Lenovo A820: the 4.5-inch quad-core dual-SIM phone with a 8MP camera
When Lenovo quietly slid the A820 onto shelves in early 2013, it joined a small but growing class of budget Android handsets that dared to pack quad-core silicon into a sub-A$300 body. The phone arrived as Lenovo was still a relatively unfamiliar name to mainstream Australian buyers, better known locally for its ThinkPad laptops than for anything sliding into a pocket. Yet the spec sheet promised a surprising amount of capability for the asking price, including a 4.5-inch display, a MediaTek MT6589 processor, and dual-SIM flexibility that suited travellers and small business owners alike.
The A820 belongs to that brief, interesting window of 2012 to 2014 when Chinese manufacturers began challenging the Korean duopoly in markets well beyond their home territory. For readers curious about how Android evolved during that era, the history of mobile platforms provides useful context. This piece walks through the hardware, the screen, the camera, the software experience, and the realistic standing of the A820 for anyone in Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth who came across one in 2013 or has since picked one up secondhand.
Hardware, build, and what sits inside
The A820 is built around MediaTek's MT6589 chipset, which paired four ARM Cortex-A7 cores running at 1.2 GHz with a PowerVR SGX544 graphics unit. At launch, that combination was unusual outside of more expensive HTC and Samsung models, and it gave the A820 a responsiveness that belied its budget positioning. Lenovo paired the SoC with 1 GB of RAM and 4 GB of internal storage, with a microSD slot accepting cards up to 32 GB for those who wanted to carry more music, photos, or offline maps for Australian road trips.
The chassis itself is unremarkable but practical. At 143 grams, the phone sits comfortably in a single hand, and the textured back panel offers enough grip to avoid the slippery feel of glass-backed flagships. A 3.5 mm headphone jack lives on the top edge, while the micro-USB charging port sits on the bottom, both placements matching the conventions of 2013-era Android devices. The removable back cover hides a 2000 mAh battery, which Lenovo rated for roughly 10 hours of talk time on 3G, a figure that translated to a full working day for typical Australian users juggling calls, messaging, and a bit of browsing on the train from Central to Hurstville.
A side-by-side look at how the A820 stacked up against its closest dual-SIM competitors from the same period reveals where Lenovo positioned its handset.
| Specification | Lenovo A820 | Samsung Galaxy S Duos | Sony Xperia tipo dual | HTC Desire 600 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | 4.5" IPS, 540 × 960 | 4.0" TFT, 480 × 800 | 3.2" TFT, 320 × 480 | 4.5" Super LCD2, 540 × 960 |
| Processor | MediaTek MT6589 quad-core 1.2 GHz | Qualcomm MSM7227A single-core 1.0 GHz | Qualcomm MSM7225A single-core 0.8 GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 quad-core 1.2 GHz |
| RAM | 1 GB | 768 MB | 512 MB | 1 GB |
| Rear camera | 8 MP | 5 MP | 3.2 MP | 8 MP |
| Battery | 2000 mAh removable | 1500 mAh removable | 1500 mAh removable | 1860 mAh removable |
| Dual-SIM | Yes (GSM + GSM) | Yes (GSM + GSM) | Yes (GSM + GSM) | Yes (GSM + GSM) |
| Launch price (AUD est.) | ~$249 | ~$329 | ~$199 | ~$399 |
The comparison makes the A820's value proposition obvious. For roughly the same money as Sony's much smaller Xperia tipo dual, buyers got a substantially larger display, twice the RAM, a better camera, and a quad-core processor that put the phone in the same performance bracket as HTC's considerably more expensive Desire 600.
Display, media, and daily use
The 4.5-inch IPS panel was one of the A820's quiet triumphs. With a resolution of 540 × 960 pixels, it delivered a pixel density close to 245 ppi, which kept text reasonably sharp for reading news, emails, and the occasional eBook on the commute. IPS technology meant viewing angles were wide enough for two people to share a YouTube video on a Brisbane café table without colour washout, a real-world benefit that cheap TFT panels of the era simply could not match.
Brightness peaked at around 380 nits in everyday use, which is adequate indoors but struggles a touch under the harsh midday Australian sun, particularly on a beach day at Bondi. Colours lean slightly cool out of the box, though Lenovo's Display app offers a basic warmth slider that helps. The capacitive touchscreen supports two-finger multitouch, sufficient for pinch-to-zoom in Google Maps when navigating Adelaide's bus grid, though it occasionally dropped inputs during fast-paced games.
Audio is handled by a single rear-firing speaker that sits in the lower-left corner. Volume is sufficient for hands-free calls in a quiet office, but anything beyond that sees distortion creep in. Plugging in a pair of earphones through the 3.5 mm jack unlocks a cleaner experience, and the built-in FM radio is a small but welcome bonus for anyone who enjoys the cricket commentary on ABC Radio while driving between regional towns in Western Australia.
Camera performance in everyday conditions
The 8-megapixel rear camera was a headline feature for the price, and in good lighting it produced shots that held their own against more expensive rivals. Daylight photos of Sydney Harbour or the laneway graffiti of Melbourne's Hosier Lane showed decent dynamic range, with the auto-exposure handling high-contrast scenes competently. Colours leaned toward natural rather than oversaturated, which gave the resulting images a pleasant, slightly understated character.
Low-light performance, as one might expect from a budget 2013 sensor, was the obvious weak point. The single-LED flash helped illuminate close subjects but tended to blow out skin tones in portraits, and noise became apparent in any scene lit only by street lamps or restaurant mood lighting. There is no HDR mode, no optical image stabilisation, and video recording tops out at 720p, which is a step behind what flagship Android phones of the same year offered.
The front camera is a basic VGA unit, suitable only for the occasional Skype call or low-resolution selfie. For those who prioritise photography, comparing this handset against contemporary iOS options shows how far Apple's imaging pipeline had progressed in the same period, even at the entry level. Still, for capturing receipts, documents, and the odd sunset, the A820's rear camera proved capable enough for a budget workhorse.
Software, dual-SIM behaviour, and connectivity
The A820 shipped with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, layered with Lenovo's own light-skinned launcher. The customisation is restrained: a different lock screen, a slightly altered settings menu, and a handful of pre-installed apps, including Lenovo's own file manager and a basic notes tool. There is no commitment to later Android versions, which is typical of the budget segment of that era and something to consider if long-term software support matters.
Dual-SIM functionality is the headline software feature. Both SIM slots accept regular-sized cards on GSM networks, with one slot additionally supporting 3G data. In practice, Australian users pairing the phone with a Telstra postpaid SIM for calls and a cheaper Optus or Vodafone data-only SIM for mobile broadband at home could keep both active simultaneously, with a quick toggle in the notification shade to choose which line handled data. The interface labels each contact with its assigned line, which removes the everyday friction that plagues many dual-SIM phones.
Connectivity covers Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, GPS with A-GPS, and 3G on the 900 and 2100 MHz bands. There is no 4G LTE support, no NFC, and no infrared blaster, omissions that were common at the price point. Call quality on the Telstra network in suburban Sydney was clear and stable, with the earpiece producing enough volume to hear conversations on a busy George Street footpath. GPS lock times averaged around 15 seconds outdoors, which was acceptable for turn-by-turn navigation across regional New South Wales.
Where the A820 fits in the Australian market
In 2013, the A820 landed in Australia primarily through grey-market importers and a handful of online retailers rather than through major carrier partnerships. Prices hovered around A$249 to A$279 unlocked, which put it well below the cheapest Samsung Galaxy S III Mini sold through Telstra or Optus at the time. Buyers typically found the phone listed on eBay Australia, Mobicity, or directly from Hong Kong-based sellers on sites such as AliExpress, with delivery times stretching from a few days to a couple of weeks depending on the warehouse location.
For the right buyer, the value was real. Small business owners in suburban Melbourne who needed a second handset for fieldwork, students at the University of Queensland looking for a cheap Android to run study apps, or frequent travellers hopping between Singapore and Sydney who wanted a dedicated travel phone all found genuine utility in the A820. The dual-SIM capability, removable battery, and microSD expansion suited these use cases far better than the sealed, single-SIM flagships of the same year.
Anyone shopping today for a budget 5G phone will find the A820's specifications laughably modest, but its design philosophy still echoes through the modern Lenovo smartphone range. It is worth remembering that handsets like this one helped establish Lenovo as a serious player outside the laptop aisle, paving the way for the Motorola acquisition and the brand's eventual return to Australian retail through JB Hi-Fi. If you spot a clean, lightly used A820 on a marketplace listing for under A$60, it remains a serviceable backup phone, a kid's first device, or a tinkering platform for anyone who enjoys flashing custom ROMs onto a piece of phone history.
The A820 is, in many ways, a relic of a specific and short-lived moment in mobile technology, the period when quad-core power, dual-SIM flexibility, and an 8MP camera became accessible to anyone willing to forgo a carrier subsidy. Head over to New Mobile Arrivals to compare current listings for the A820 and read our related coverage of dual-SIM Android devices from the same generation to see how the entry-level segment has shifted in the years since.