Lenovo is a chinese company that is known for it's purchase of IBM's personal computer business back in 2005 and over the years have built a name for themselves. Several years later, Lenovo saw the potential of mobile devices and decided to get into the fray.
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| Screen is big, bright and sharp! |
In Late 2014, everyone was surprised with the monster they unleashed: Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro that carried a price tag of PHP 29,999.00.
Unboxing & Inside the box
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| The Packaging is complete with the phone, USB cord, Power Plug, Documentation and ear phones! |
At first glance, you cannot help but notice how huge this thing is yet it is very comfortable to hold in one hand. In fact, I have small 'girly' hands.
Build Quality
Build Quality
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| The bright screen has wonderful color reproductions! |
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| Aluminum from the frame to the back gives it a sturdy feel in your hand |
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| Aluminium tends to scratch more, but hey they add character! |
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| Slim and Slender! Easy to hold one handed! |
Lenovo did not skimp with this beast. Aluminium from the frame to the back with tiny screws and coloured metal accents. The bezels are thin but firm giving you that confidence that even if you sit on it, it probably won't bend.
Display Quality
Display Quality
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| Super sharp and super bright! |
This is built with a bright high pixel density (of 490 ppi) screen coupled with wonderful color reproduction and consistent viewing angles makes this lenovo's best display on a phone yet!
Battery Life
I consider my self a moderate phone user. Daily moderate use is composed of making and receiving calls and several hundred text messages for the whole day with an average of three hours of wi-fi internet usage which is mainly Facebook messenger, Youtube and GMAIL. I barely play games on mobile devices.
Battery Life
I consider my self a moderate phone user. Daily moderate use is composed of making and receiving calls and several hundred text messages for the whole day with an average of three hours of wi-fi internet usage which is mainly Facebook messenger, Youtube and GMAIL. I barely play games on mobile devices.
Unfortunately the battery dies on me at around 8PM with the said use daily for the whole two week the phone was with me. I usually charge my phone when I wake up at 4AM and it is usually done charging after breakfast at 6.30AM. The consolation prize is that charging this thing doesn't take you forever. It takes two hours to have it back to 100%; however, it does become really hot. It could be the fault of the Snapdragon Processor and the Aluminium build.
Audio
The speaker at the bottom isn't ear drum smashingly loud and it isn't too quiet either. It is decent. The 3.5mm jack ear phones that come with it is also one of the most decent headphones bundled with a phone around.
Camera
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| Stock Camera Settings (Left) and HDR mode (Right) |
As you can see from the shots above that the stock camera settings does a barely decent job yet when you turn on HDR, it shines.
I also had a problem with using photography apps that weren't the stock Lenovo one. When I would use panorama or lens blur from Google's stock camera app, it would always freeze and close on me. It is probably caused by Lenovo's software side because I have always used the Stock Google Camera App to and this is the only time I have experienced this. I hope Lenovo remedies this.
I also had a problem with using photography apps that weren't the stock Lenovo one. When I would use panorama or lens blur from Google's stock camera app, it would always freeze and close on me. It is probably caused by Lenovo's software side because I have always used the Stock Google Camera App to and this is the only time I have experienced this. I hope Lenovo remedies this.
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| Stock Low Light Shot (Left), Shot with Room Illumination (Middle) and Low Light Shot with Built-in Flash (Right) |
The camera gets really grainy in low light but in a charming way, where as in other cameras the shots would be unusable. You could use this for some artistic effect however don't expect this phone to give you a glamour selfie during the late hours of the night, The flash does its job but it tends to over expose which could have been remedied by exposure compensation. Seeing as most flagship phones now have a sort of 'Manual mode.'
Lenovo Vibe Z2 Specs
- Display: 6-inch QHD IPS at 2,560 x 1,440 resolution (490 ppi)
- Processor: 2.5 GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
- GPU: Adreno 330
- RAM: 3 GB
- ROM: 32 GB non expandable
- Rear Camera: 16 MP AF OIS BSI w/ dual LED flash
- Front Camera: 5 MP
- Battery: 4000 mAh
- OS: Android 4.4 Kitkat
- Connectivity: WiFi / LTE / Bluetooth / NFC, GPS, A-GPS
- Price: PHP 29,999.00
Performance
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| Lenovo's UI skin functionally is KitKat which isn't a bad thing but icon designs feel dated |
Lenovo's UI skin functionally is KitKat which isn't a bad thing but icon designs feel dated!At its core, Lenovo's skin on Android 4.4 Kitkat is almost the same except for the art design and some added features like the top right screenshot. Performance is snappy. I opened most applications without hiccups.
This is a great phone for general use such as basic communications like messaging and calling but it gets really hot on intensive apps like watching HQ videos or playing intensive games. It gets so hot that at times I thought I was holding a sizzling plate fresh from the oven whenever I play games for a long time.
Most of them are gimmicks which I tried but never found any better than the stock experience except for the Micro Screen which essentially resizes your over all work space to a preset resolution but can be resized to your liking. It helped a lot when I wanted to use the phone one handed. Although this helps for one handed use, the weight of the phone gets to you over time.
This is a great phone for general use such as basic communications like messaging and calling but it gets really hot on intensive apps like watching HQ videos or playing intensive games. It gets so hot that at times I thought I was holding a sizzling plate fresh from the oven whenever I play games for a long time.
Most of them are gimmicks which I tried but never found any better than the stock experience except for the Micro Screen which essentially resizes your over all work space to a preset resolution but can be resized to your liking. It helped a lot when I wanted to use the phone one handed. Although this helps for one handed use, the weight of the phone gets to you over time.
Benchmarks
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| The benchmarks |
As you can see from the six benchmarking tools that the Vibe Z2 is truly a power house considering that it has a huge screen yet it can nearly match the Samsung Galaxy S5 and beat the the contemporary competition.
Pro's
- Powerful Performance
- Phone is huge but can feels wonderful when held one-handed
- Camera's autofocus is spot on most of the time
- Fast Charging is a life saver
Con's
- Heating becomes a problem when using resource intensive apps and while charging
- Battery life is disappointing considering that it has 4000 mAh
- Lenovo's android skin tries to add features but falls flat
- Camera hardware is incompatible with some other camera app modes
Verdict
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 is a worthy powerhouse flagship in terms of physical design and internal processing power but at the cost of battery life and heating issues. In real life raw power usage The Vibe Z2 leaves its contemporaries into dust and Lenovo has done well to tell the world that It isn't just a PC hardware maker any more; Although, there are kinks that need to be worked on and I have no doubt Lenovo will come out with an even better surprise!
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 is a worthy powerhouse flagship in terms of physical design and internal processing power but at the cost of battery life and heating issues. In real life raw power usage The Vibe Z2 leaves its contemporaries into dust and Lenovo has done well to tell the world that It isn't just a PC hardware maker any more; Although, there are kinks that need to be worked on and I have no doubt Lenovo will come out with an even better surprise!
