Lenovo S90 Sisley review: Under cover

Unboxing

The Lenovo S90 Sisley comes in a pretty simple rectangular white box but what's inside is more interesting. The compact container is offering more than the basic set of accessories.

The Lenovo S90 Sisley has a rich retail package

The device comes bundled with an A/C adapter and a microUSB cable, along with a set of headphones with a microphone. The extra items are a transparent back cover and a screen protector. Tucked away underneath the manual there is a SIM ejector as well.

Design and build quality

The goal of the S90 Sisley was to get noticed and Lenovo wasn't particularly subtle about the ways to achieve it. From a distance, you'll be hard-pressed to distinguish it from an iPhone 6, especially looking at it from the sides. The look and feel are incredibly similar, which is quite a compliment actually.

Lenovo S90 360-degree spin

We can't help but notice how the 13MP camera is sitting flush on the back and not protruding in any way, a notable difference from Apple's design. The Lenovo Sisley measures 146 x 71.7 x 6.9mm and weighs 129g - resulting in a surprisingly light and comfortable feel in hand.

The Lenovo S90 Sisley next to the iPhone 6 Plus

Corners on the Sisley are nicely rounded and the phone is a pleasure to handle. Against the pure white front, only the LED flash breaks away from the color palette. Speaking of, the Lenovo comes in gray, gold and platinum (the latter our review unit), all matching paint jobs for an aluminum exterior, which go nicely with the white front panel.

The Lenovo S90 Sisley has a distinct Apple vibe

Sadly, the fluent elegance is abruptly broken at the top of the device. The Sisley has a large chunk of plastic covering most of the top side. This would've been nearly bearable if it wasn't for the glaring mismatch in the shades of white between the plastic strip and the front glass. It almost seems like a flimsy patch that's completely out of place in an otherwise handsome device.

The S90 is available in a few colors: in gray, gold and platinum and a few more colorful ones

The S90 Sisley feels quite good in the hand and we appreciate the nice contrast between the sturdy case and the lightweight feel. The build quality raises no questions but the execution of some details is far from perfect - let's say, not up to the standards of the one it's trying to emulate.

It's just a little rough around the corners and when we literally mean it. Sliding a finger along the edge of the screen you can feel the coarse surface. Not a major issue but, like we said, not an outstanding attention to detail either.

The Lenovo S90 Sisley in the hand

Controls

The Lenovo S90 boasts a 5" 16M-color display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. Although it's not impressively sharp, the Super AMOLED technology offers vivid colors and deep blacks. Right underneath it we find three capacitive keys, Menu, Home and Back, which is the standard layout for Lenovo.

Above the screen, the earpiece is flanked by the proximity and ambient light sensors, and the front-facing camera setup, which includes an LED flash.

The capacitive keys • 8MP camera with flash sits right above the display

Going round the device we find the left side mostly empty. It only features the SIM card compartment. Inside we find two microSIM card slots. There's no microSD card slot for storage expansion.

The left side of the S90 houses the SIM card tray

The right side is where the volume rocker and Power/Lock button are.

The right side is home to the volume rocker and Power/Lock button

The 3.5mm headphone jack is placed on the top of the device near the left corner along with the second noise-canceling mic positioned right in the middle.

The top hosts the 3.5mm headphone jack and noise-canceling mic

The bottom of the phone houses a microUSB port, two screws and what appear to be two speaker grilles. Only the left grille actually contains a speaker, while the right one houses the mouthpiece.

The bottom is equipped with a MicroUSB port and two speaker grill only one holds a speaker

Going round the back, we find the 13MP camera in the top left corner with a single LED flash right next to it.

The back is very stylish with plastic accent like the one on the iPhone

A plastic strip going all the way from side to side near the bottom brings the whole thing together and it comes as no surprise that when we flip an iPhone 6 over we find one exactly like it.