Lenovo Vibe X2 Review – with MT6595m Big Little octa core chipset

Lenovo launched an octa core smartphone called the Vibe X2. It is the world’s first layered phone that runs Android KitKat with 2GB RAM and 32GB storage space. This handset is available for Rs. 19,999. Is it a good buy? read the review.

Box Pack
Surprisingly the box packing is also layered style. When you open the box you will find two box layers, the first one houses the handset, screen guard, user guide, warranty card, SIM tray ejector pin and free transparent phone case and the second layer houses power adapter, data cable and earphone.

Design and Display
The Vibe X2 looks completely different, it is eye catchy thanks to the layers deign with colourful shades. There are 3 layers and another black layer – the screen. The touch screen layer is lightly inside as compared with the other layers.

The body has got a metallic finish and is made of plastic. It is very light weight – 120 grams. Dimensions are 68.66mm x 140.02mm x 7.32mm. Handset is slim, lightweight and very comfortable to hold.

I got the gold colour handset with red, orange and gold shades. It look great and is very attractive. It is not just the multi layered design its also about the usability. On the back side you will find connectors that will be used by Vibe X2 accessories – for example the Vibe X2 battery and  Vibe X2 speaker. All you need to do is attach the accessory on the back and it becomes a part for the phone – a new layer.

3.5mm audio jack is placed on the top, volume rockers and power button are on the right, micro USB port at the bottom and SIM tray is on the left side. Use the pin to eject the SIM tray – be extra careful when using a SIM adapter. The SIM tray can house two SIM cards – SIM 1 is micro SIM and SIM 2 is nano SIM. Both the SIMs support 4G/3G/2G.

It is with a 5 inch screen supporting 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution. Touch is very smooth. The screen is scratch resistant to some extent, though it is not specifically mentioned on the box. Colour reproduction and viewing angles are very good.

SAR Value as mentioned on the box – 0.58 W/kg @ 1g head and 0.375 W/kg @ 1g Body. There is LED notification and accelerometer, gyro, magnetic, proximity and light sensors.

The speaker out vent is on the flat back panel; the speaker is fairly audible when placed on a flat surface.

Memory and OS
There is 2GB on board RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Micro SD card slot is missing. Of the 2GB RAM about 1GB is available on the first boot and about 26GB is the space for apps / personal storage. OTG is not supported.

Lenovo Vibe X2 is running KitKat 4.4.2 with Vibe UI.

Performance
This handset is using the pure MediaTek Octa Core MT6595m chipset clocked at 2GHz. It is using ARM big.LITTLE architecture – 4 x ARM cortex A17 and 4 x ARM Cortex A7 CPU. It is a true octa core, when required all of the core will work simultaneously. The GPU used is PowerVR G600.

Benchmark scores

Gaming
I installed and played the Asphalt 8 and Modern Combat 5 (MC5) games. Some games were pre-installed like the Asphalt 8, Spiderman but you will still need to download the data files. Asphalt 8 was playable in highest visual quality mode. MC5 was also very smooth. No issues with high end games.

Camera and Entertainment
There is 13MP rear AF camera with LED flash and 5MP on the front. I found it difficult focusing very close up objects that many handsets would easily do. I guess the minimum close up focus point is a little further. Also at times the focusing is not that sharp especially in indoor conditions.

This handset is using the Lenovo SNAPit camera application. There is no option to set the megapixel resolution. If you select 16:9 it will shoot in 9.4 MP resolution and in 4:3 it will shoot in 13MP resolution. Camera supports HDR and you can shoot FHD videos. I recorded few videos and found a strange sound being recorded probably it is the auto focus motor sound. Do check the video review and the sample video shot using this handset.

I downloaded Google camera and recorded FHD video – Got the same results it recorded the strange noise and it happens when the camera is focusing an object.

Still camera quality is good but could have been better. Do check the sample images.

Others
The Vibe UI is different, check the video review to get an idea. There are many features like smart answer, full screen caller photo, smart brightness, shake to unlock, double tab to wake up the screen  and more.

Sound is very loud and clear. Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth worked without any issues. 4G is not available in my area. There is built in GPS and it took me almost about 45 seconds to get the first lock.

When you connect the Vibe X2 with a PC you will get an option to install the Lenovo Suite – there is a small partition on the internal storage that has the suite installation files.

Battery
This handset comes with a 2300 mAh non-removable battery. The handset supports ultimate power saver mode that when enabled will turn the phone into a basic feature phone with minimal features, so as to get a much better battery backup. This can be used when the battery is extremely low and you don’t want to get cut off. Check out the battery performance.

I have used the handset for a day and it lasted for almost 24 hours.  With heavy usage it will drain off faster.

Verdict
The handset looks very good, the layered accessories are pretty interesting and it is using a powerful octa core processor. Having said that the camera quality is good (not that impressive) it could have been better. When recoding videos it records the auto focus motor sound. Battery life is average; you will get 3 to 5 hours with moderate to heavy usage and when playing high end games it will hardly last for up to 3 hours.

Overall between the Vibe X2 and the Huawei Honor 6 the X2 is more powerful with good looks, but fails in front of Honor 6 when it comes to camera and battery backup.

Lenovo Vibe X2 is available for Rs. 19,999 on Flipkart.

Sample Images shot using Vibe X2 handset

Front camera sample