The thing with smartphones lately is that they are mostly uninteresting. There’s a lot of action under the hood, with processors starting to approach levels that were previously left to desktop computers, but externally, they’re all starting to look like the same, generic white or black slates that are practically interchangeable, with a few differences in the details. Lenovo isn’t going to take this sitting down though. They’ve released a phone that not only performs like the state-of-the-art device it is, but does so in style. Say “hello” to the Lenovo Vibe X2.
Design: 4.5/5
As we mentioned in our happy little intro above, this phone is a looker. The phone has an eye-catching layered design that’s unlike any other phone we know of. Our particular model came in different shades of orange, making for a phone that not only looks great in your hand, but has the illusion of being thinner than it actually is. The rest of the layout is standard, with a sleep/wake button, and volume rocker on one side, a headphone jack on the top, and a micro USB charging and data port at the bottom. The phone is quite sharply edged-off, with the sharp, clean lines giving it a distinct profile in a market that’s currently all about softer curves.
There is a SIM card tray on the side of the device, accessible only with an included pin, or easily-available paper clip, with enough space for two SIMs; one micro, and another nano. Apart from these, there’s little else going on. I like the simple general design, with just a little spice, care of the color scheme on the sides.
Hardware: 4/5
For a phone that seems to have focused heavily on looks, the Vibe X2 is no slouch. With specs that give top-tier phones from other brands a run for their money, this phone isn’t going to let you down when you need solid performance.
With a combination of 5-inch, 1080 x 1920 screen, a MediaTek MT6595m chipset and twin 2.0GHz and 1.7GHz quad core processors, as well as 2GB of RAM, this is a phone that isn’t going to leave you hanging. It also has LTE connectivity, so if fast mobile data is important to you, the X2 does not disappoint. A PowerVR G600 GPU rounds off the spec, and gives some impressive graphics performance to boot.
The device only has 32GB of non-expandable, internal storage, which may be a problem for some, but with all the cloud services available, on top of streaming services for music and video, this should be plenty. It might be a problem if you use the 13 Megapixel camera like a photo journalist, but as long as you back your files up on some place other than the camera, you should be just fine.
User Experience: 4.5/5
I was honestly a little hesitant to use the device, not because I was expecting poor performance, but because it’s honestly really pretty, and I Was afraid to mar its beautiful exterior. Design has always been a feature to consider, and this one has it in spades. You’re going to spend a little time just looking at it, I guarantee.
Once I finally got my SIM cards installed and the setup complete, I fell in love. The screen is roomy and gorgeous, very responsive, and the UI is buttery-smooth. One of the things I find I always do a few minutes after a new phone is taken from the box, is install a different launcher. I was very happy to find that this wasn’t necessary with the X2. The UI, which is Lenovo’s own, is simple and wonderfully unobtrusive. Though takes an iOS approach and leaves out the App Drawer, which might not be for everyone, but makes using the phone a little less complicated.
Given the hardware spec, I expected stellar performance. I was not disappointed. There was nothing I could do to significantly slow the device down. Multiple apps, tasks in the background, even HD video—none of these posed any problem for the device.
Battery life was great on the device. With my normal office use, I could manage about a day and a half before the 2300mAh battery gave up on me. Using the LTE connection dropped that to about a workday, with just enough juice to make it to the wall outlet once I got home. Tethering, however, will drain the small-ish battery quite quickly, so if you intend to share the data with other devices, you’re going to want to have a power bank handy.
A small niggle I had with the phone, however, is that raised bezel at the top edge of the screen sticks out just enough to be a little uncomfortable when held against your ear, as you would during a call. On one hand, you want to press the phone closer to your ear to hear the other party better, and on the other hand, you’re trying not to press too hard to keep it from hurting. It’s a really fine line to tread.
Value: 4/5
Because of steps taken to reduce the cost, the X2 comes in under the 20k ceiling, with a sticker price of PHP 19,000. For the specs, look and performance of the device puts it squarely in the list of devices I would recommend (without hesitation) to people who ask.
What’s hot:
Beautiful
Great specs
Affordable
What’s not:
Sharp top edge gets in the way of calls
Bottomline:
LTE, a great design, dual-SIM connectivity and a great price tag. You can’t really ask for more.
Specs:
MediaTek 6595m 2.0 GHz 4G LTE
Operating System: Android 4.4 KitKat
Dimensions 68.6mm x 7.27mm x 140.2mm
Weight 120g (0.26 lbs.)
Battery: Type: 2300 mAh
Camera: Rear: 13 MP, Front: 5 MP fixed-focus
Memory: 2 GB RAM, 32 GB ROM
4G Network: LTE FDD Band 1/3/7, TDD B40 or LTE FDD Band 1/3/7/30
3G Network: 2100/900 MHz or 2100/900/850 MHz
2G Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0 + 4.1 LE