in terms of market share. A new IDC study released recently shows that
that Lenovo (now including Motorola) saw significant increase in sales
during the
, Moto G4 series, and the Lenovo K5 series. Lenovo seems to be intent on maintaining its momentum in the new year.
in India. The smartphone was first
at IFA last year and is coming to India within four months of its global debut.
,
is a large battery. This time around, however, Lenovo is also promoting
other aspects of the phone, including its design, camera, and security
features. The Lenovo P2's pricing puts it up against some of the most
popular mid-range smartphones. Will the company's first 2017 launch be
as well received as last year's successful models? We try to find out in
our review.
The
Lenovo P2 features an all-metal body, and the aluminium material
certainly feels sturdy. There is nothing new in terms of design, but the
P2's overall polish gives it premium feel. There's a lot of empty space
above and below the display. The physical home button has an integrated
fingerprint scanner, but there's nothing else on the phone's relatively
thick chin.
The Lenovo P2 will be launching in Champagne Gold and
Graphite Grey (which we got for our review) in India. At 177 grams,
this phone is a bit heavier than most others in its class, but that's
explained by the massive battery. Lenovo is stressing the fact that the
Lenovo P2 at 8.3mm is thinner than the Lenovo P1 (
),
which measured 9.9mm thick. In everyday usage, the Lenovo P2 felt a bit
too heavy, and we were more comfortable when using it with two hands,
especially when typing.
The right side of the P2 is where you'll
find the volume rocker and power button, while the hybrid SIM tray which
accepts dual Nano-SIMs is on the left. The left side also has a slider
switch that Lenovo calls a "power-saving key", which toggles the
Ultimate Power Saver mode. In this mode, you see a countdown timer which
actually tells you how much battery life you have remaining. The
physical button placement is fairly ergonomic and there is decent
tactile feedback for all buttons.
There is a Micro-USB port along with speaker grilles on the bottom,
and a 3.5mm audio jack on top. The primary camera with dual-LED flash is
on the back, and Lenovo branding can be seen lower down. The smartphone
also sports a "Made in India" tag. The design of the P2's rear panel is
a lot like that of Lenovo's other recent smartphones, and it fits in
well with the range.
The 5.5-inch full-HD Super Amoled display on
the Lenovo P2 is vibrant, with good visibility even under direct
sunlight. Text and images appear really sharp, and the screen size makes
the device well suited for media consumption. Viewing angles are
decent, and colour reproduction is adequate. There is 2.5D curved glass
covering the display. However, we were disappointed that there is no
scratch protection, and we noticed minor nicks on the glass during our
review.
In the retail box, you get a screen guard, a cover, a data
cable, a 24W power adaptor, a SIM ejector, and an instruction booklet.
Lenovo P2 specifications and featuresThe
Lenovo P2 is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 (MSM8953)
clocked at 2GHz, coupled with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM. Both versions of
the phone have 32GB of built-in storage.
There have been a lot of smartphones launched in India with the same SoC, including the
Asus ZenFone 3 (
Review) and
Moto Z Play (
Review) - both of which are priced higher than the P2 smartphone.
To
expand the 32GB of storage microSD cards of up to 128GB are supported.
However, the hybrid SIM means that users will have to choose between a
second SIM and a microSD card. There is a 13-megapixel camera with a
Sony sensor and dual LED flash at the back, plus a 5-megapixel camera on
the front.
Other specifications include Wi-Fi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n,
Bluetooth 4.1, NFC, FM radio, and GPS/A-GPS. The phone supports 4G as
well as VoLTE on both SIMs, and we were able to make calls through the
Jio network. Lenovo claims that the P2 supports LTE Cat. 6 with download
speeds of up to 300Mbps and uploads at up to 50Mbps.
The Lenovo
P2 runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the company's Vibe Pure UI on
top. The software is largely the same as what we have seen recently on
the Lenovo K6 Power (
Review) and K6 Note (
Review).
For the P2, Lenovo has gone with on-screen navigation keys rather than
capacitive buttons. Lenovo told Gadgets 360 that the P2 is the first
Lenovo phone to have on-screen navigation buttons, and this solves one
of the big issues we faced on the Lenovo K6 Power and K6 Note, which was
the lack of backlighting for their capacitive buttons.
Lenovo
has added a System button option in the settings, which lets you choose
the positioning of the on-screen buttons, or even hide the navigation
bar altogether - users will have to swipe up from the bottom to show the
hidden buttons if this is enabled. The P2 retains a lot of software
features from the Lenovo K6 Power and K6 Note including the Dual Apps
mode that allows apps to be used with two different accounts on the same
phone. Knock to Light wakes the phone with double-tap on the screen
while it is off; VR mode allows the smartphone to work with Ant VR
headset; and Wide Touch offers one-touch shortcut access through a
floating button. You can also quickly toggle the flashlight by
long-pressing the Home button when the phone is in standby.
The
Secure Zone feature is also present on the Lenovo P2 though users
should note that it will only work when the Dual app profile feature is
turned off. The Secure Zone lets users configure secondary accounts for
apps such as Whatsapp. Much like with previous Lenovo handsets, you get
the option to lock these apps with a PIN, pattern, or even fingerprint.
The
Lenovo P2 also allows users to perform gestures using the fingerprint
sensor. A single tap can act like the back button, touching and holding
triggers the recent apps screen, and a single press takes you back to
home screen. The fingerprint scanner can also be long-pressed to launch
Google Now.
With its new UI, Lenovo has cut down the bloatware,
though there are still plenty of third-party apps preloaded on the
Lenovo P2 that can be uninstalled, if the user wants. These include
Evernote, McAfee Security, Skype, Truecaller, and UC Browser. There are
few Lenovo apps also on-board including Lenovo Companion, Shareit, and
Syncit. Lenovo has once again not included any default gallery app
though users can access all kinds of files through a File Manager app.
The
dropdown notifications shade offers the usual quick settings toggles
along with notifications. The Themes Center app, which comes preloaded
on the P2, offers several customisation options for wallpapers, icons,
lock screen settings, and more. We found the UI on the P2 really smooth
and fast for everyday usage.
Lenovo P2 performanceThe
Lenovo P2 performs really well when it comes to multitasking and
general app performance. With 4GB of RAM, there is ample memory for
tasks at any given time. The 5.5-inch full-HD display is adequate for
watching videos and looking at photos. We had a good time playing
Asphalt 8 on the P2 and we didn't notice any frame drops during
gameplay.
The smartphone was able to latch onto mobile networks at
all times, and download speeds over 4G were decent as well. In terms of
audio, the speaker located at the bottom was adequate for a small,
empty room, though we noticed distortion at higher volumes. Lenovo once
again disappointed us with its bundled earphones, and we recommend using
a third-party headset rather than the awful one that comes in the box.
We
ran our usual benchmarks and got decent scores of 63,445 on AnTuTu;
40,634 overall in Quadrant; 8,098 in 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme; and 23fps
in GFXBench's T-Rex test.
The 13-megapixel rear camera is really
quick when it comes to focusing, thanks to its phase-detection autofocus
capability. The P2 can click detailed macros in well-lit situations but
landscapes appeared average. Details were passable, but noise is
apparent at the corners of the image. The P2 can take decent low-light
shots if there are light sources around. Without any light source, the
shots get very grainy. We also found that the P2 was often unable to
focus on subjects in low light, which was disappointing. The camera was
able to reproduce accurate colours only with photos taken in conditions
where there was a good amount of light.
Tap to see full-sized Lenovo P2 camera samples
The
camera app on the P2 is the same as what we've seen on the K6 Power and
K6 Note, and it's easy to use. One can access camera modes with just
one tap. The P2 can record full-HD videos with decent quality. Selfies
are passable when taken in good light, but turn out really dark
otherwise. Overall, the Lenovo P2 fares reasonably well in the camera
department even though this is not its main feature.
That brings
us to the 5100mAh non-removable battery, which managed to last for a
phenomenal 21 hours, 40 minutes in our video loop battery test. With
ordinary usage, the Lenovo P2 easily managed to last over two days.
Even
with heavy usage including music streaming, continuous Google Maps use
for navigation, and few hours of YouTube video streaming among other
things, the battery on the Lenovo P2 lasted roughly two days. Fast
charging support is a huge advantage, and we easily got to 30-40 percent
charge in just 20 minutes. The phone can be charged fully in less than
90 minutes, which is again impressive.
One of the highlight
features of the P2 is its Ultimate Power Saver mode which drastically
extends battery life. The mode, as expected, kills a lot of features
including cellular data connectivity and syncing. It only allows basic
usage such as calls, text messages and the radio, but it could really
come in handy in emergency situations. We switched on the Ultimate Power
Saver mode at one point when we were down to 20 percent on the battery
indicator, and the device stayed alive for almost 20 hours after that.
VerdictThe
Lenovo P2 is a beast when it comes to battery performance. Power users
who like to be online all the time without worrying about their battery
level will be quite happy with the P2. This also makes it a good choice
for frequent travellers. The P2 does well when it comes to overall
performance, with its octa-core processor turning out to be adequate for
everyday usage. For a phone that is focused on battery life, the Lenovo
P2's cameras also perform well, and its software is easy to use.
The
Lenovo P2 will come at a starting price of Rs. 16,999 for the version
with 32GB of storage and 3GB of RAM, while the variant with 4GB of RAM
will cost Rs. 17,999. The smartphone will be available exclusively
online via Flipkart starting at midnight on Wednesday.
Smartphones like the
Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime,
Asus ZenFone 3 Max, and the now-dated
Xiaomi Mi 5 can be considered alternatives at roughly the same price level.
