Metal tablet phone with modest characteristics

There is little in common between the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro and the regular Vibe Z2. More precisely, of course, there is something in common (smartphones are as similar to each other as two peas in a pod), but the external similarity is where it all ends. To be honest, we expected a lot more from the closest relative of the powerful and advanced, truly top-end flagship model Vibe Z2 Pro. The Vibe Z2 smartphone may also be interesting in terms of some of its capabilities, but the fundamentals - the screen and the hardware platform - clearly do not correspond to the level at which its creators are trying to position the new product.

A resolution of only 720p for a huge 5.5-inch screen is definitely not enough, and installing an entry-level hardware platform into a smartphone cannot be explained at all. However, before making a final judgment, let’s take a closer look at all the features of the Lenovo Vibe Z2.

Key Features of Lenovo Vibe Z2

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916), 4 cores ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2 GHz
• GPU Adreno 306
• Operating system Android 4.4.4
• Touch display IPS, 5.5″, 1280×720, 267 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 32 GB
• No microSD support
• Micro-SIM support (2 pcs.)
• 2G communication: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• 3G Communication: WCDMA 900/2100 MHz
• Data transmission FDD LTE (Cat4, up to 150 Mbps)
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (1 band), Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display
• Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
• USB 2.0
• GPS (A-GPS), Glonass, Beidou
• Position, proximity, lighting sensors, electronic compass
• Camera 13 MP, f/2.1, optical stabilization, autofocus, LED flash
• Camera 8 MP, fixed. focus, front
• Battery 3000 mAh
• Dimensions 148×76×7.8 mm
• Weight 158 ​​g

Appearance and ease of use

In design, the smartphone is an almost exact copy of the expensive flagship Z2 Pro, which, in general, is logical, given their names. Here is the same solid base of the case in the form of a thick metal plate with curved edges that make up the sides of the case; the same cover with a square camera module protruding outwards on the back side; the same absolutely sharp corners without any rounding (in plan); design, arrangement of elements - everything is the same. The design, by the way, is truly recognizable, one might even say unique: other manufacturers have nothing similar, and this Lenovo design began with the legendary Lenovo K900 model, released two years ago.

A smartphone with a huge 5.5-inch screen simply cannot be called elegant, and yet, due to its thin profile and pleasant-to-touch slightly rounded side edges with a matte and non-marking metal surface, it is very pleasant to hold in the hand. The dimensions and weight are large, but the device still fits quite comfortably in the palm of your hand, although such sharp corners are not the best fit for internal and especially trouser pockets.

The level of assembly, real metal as a reliable and practical material for the manufacture of the case - all this does not cause the slightest alarm, nothing creaks, the metal case is monolithic and reliable. True, against the backdrop of a large amount of real metal, the plastic ends here look somehow unfinished, to put it mildly.

Brand-name glossy plastic simply has unsightly holes and slots cut for sound exit, metal screws are screwed in out of place, and all this does not look at all on cheap shiny plastic. In addition, this greatly reduces the perception of real metal as a premium material used to create the case, cheapening the overall appearance of the smartphone.

Obviously, realizing this, the developers even took the unexpected step of artificially embellishing the model in advertising pictures. On the company website, the ends of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone are drawn as if beautiful and solid metal panels are screwed into them - much like in the Z2 Pro modification. But in reality, the Vibe Z2 doesn’t have anything similar; everything here is much simpler.

The sound grille here is not on the back side, but is embedded in the bottom end. There are two slots at the end, they are symmetrically located around the Micro-USB connector, but only one of them is used for sound output from the speaker - you can easily verify this by covering the holes one by one with your finger.

On the back side there was only a camera module protruding outward, combined with an LED flash consisting of two sections. In the drop-down notification shade you can find a virtual button for quickly launching a flashlight program that works with this flash.

The front part of the case is completely covered with flat protective glass. At the top of the glass there is a slot cut out for the speaker, next to it there are eyes for the sensors and the front camera. Unlike the Lenovo S90, they still didn’t forget to build in such a useful element as an LED notification indicator. The indicator shines in the right corner with a large bright dot; there is a separate sub-item in the menu to configure it.

The creators, again, unlike the strange S90 model, took care of providing backlighting to the touch buttons below the screen. The sensor icons at the bottom are softly illuminated with a not too bright, pleasant whitish light, the backlight mode is widely adjustable in the settings, everything is convenient and well thought out.

Both mechanical control buttons are located on the same right side. The buttons are metal, quite large, and noticeably protrude beyond the body; their action is elastic and responsive. The location and implementation of mechanical controls on the Z2 are at a decent level, there are no complaints at all.

On the opposite side there is a lone slot for SIM cards. Two Micro-SIM cards are placed on a metal truss one after another, and the tray is removed using the usual paperclip key. There was no room for a memory card in the smartphone; connecting external flash drives via an OTG adapter to the Micro-USB connector is also not supported. The connectors of the device are not covered with plugs, and there are no fastenings for the strap on the case. The device does not receive protection from water and dust, nor does it support wireless charging.

As for the color differences of the cases, it is known that the Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone is available for sale in three color options; the developers themselves describe the colors of the device as white, titanium and gold (as in our photographs).

Screen

Lenovo Vibe Z2 is equipped with an IPS touch matrix with screen dimensions of 68x122 mm. With a diagonal of as much as 5.5 inches, the resolution turned out to be not even Full HD, but only 1280x720 pixels, which, of course, is not enough for such a large display. Accordingly, the dot density is only 267 ppi.

The thickness of the side frames from the edge of the screen to the edge of the case is about 4 mm - the side frames are quite wide, but with such a large total area of ​​​​the front panel, the screen fits quite organically. The frame width at the top is only 11 mm, at the bottom - 16 mm.

The display brightness can be adjusted manually, or you can use automatic adjustment. Multi-touch technology here allows you to process up to 10 simultaneous touches (in Lenovo S90 - only 5). When you bring the smartphone to your ear, the screen is locked using a proximity sensor. The screen can be activated by the usual double tapping on the glass, and can also be put back to sleep by tapping on the lock screen. There are other options, from unlocking using the hardware volume key (it’s not entirely clear why, since it’s located next to the lock button itself), to sharply shaking the device to lock the screen.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the “Monitors” and “Projectors and TV” sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the sample under study.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface that is scratch-resistant. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are no worse than those of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) screen (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the switched off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - Lenovo Vibe Z2, then they can be distinguished by size):

The Lenovo Vibe Z2's screen is slightly darker (photo brightness is 102 versus 110 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the Lenovo Vibe Z2 screen is very weak, this indicates that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen (more specifically, between the outer glass and the surface of the LCD matrix) (OGS - One Glass Solution type screen). Due to the smaller number of boundaries (glass-air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in the case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be replaced. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, even slightly worse than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier and appear at a lower speed than in the case of regular glass.

When manually controlling the brightness and displaying the white field in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 500 cd/m², the minimum was 12 cd/m². The maximum brightness is high, and, given the excellent anti-glare properties, readability even on a sunny day outdoors could be at a good level, but, unfortunately, everything is not quite the same, why - see below. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (located to the right of the front camera). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. In complete darkness, the auto-brightness function reduces the brightness to 26-59 cd/m² (from normal to bright), in an artificially lit office (approximately 400 lux) it sets it to 95-112 cd/m² (suitable), in a very bright environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to a maximum of 500 cd/m². As a result, the auto-brightness function works more or less adequately, but with significant hysteresis, since the established brightness value depends on whether the external illumination decreased or increased. There is also some strange dependence of the operation (or non-operation) of this function and even manual brightness adjustment on the current application. Additionally, in the screen settings you can enable the high brightness mode, in this case we got about 605 cd/m². At any brightness level, there is virtually no backlight modulation, so there is no screen flickering.

This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. The microphotographs show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without a significant color shift even with large deviations of the view from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting (except for the very darkest when deviating along one diagonal) shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of Lenovo Vibe Z2 and Nexus 7, while the screen brightness is initially set to approximately 200 cd/m² (across the white field in the entire screen), and the color balance on the camera is forcibly switched to 6500 K . White field perpendicular to the screens:

The uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field is good. And a test picture:

Color reproduction is good and colors are rich on both screens (on the Lenovo Vibe Z2, the colors in the photo look more saturated due to the decrease in screen brightness, see below), but the color balance is noticeably different. Now at an angle of approximately 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors have not changed much on both screens, but the contrast on the Lenovo Vibe Z2 has decreased to a greater extent due to the greater brightening of blacks, and there are also signs of inversion of the darkest shades. And a white field:

The brightness of the screens at an angle decreased (by at least 5 times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 the drop in brightness is slightly less. When deviated diagonally, the black field brightens very much and acquires a slight purple tint or remains approximately neutral gray. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is approximately the same!):

And from another angle:

When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good, although not ideal:

The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is normal - about 800:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 28 ms (17 ms on + 11 ms off). The transition between halftones of gray 25% and 75% (based on the numerical value of the color) and back takes a total of 42 ms. Constructed using 32 points with equal intervals based on the numerical value of the shade of gray, the gamma curve revealed a blockage in the shadows (the shade up to the 8th in 8-bit color does not differ in brightness from black), but all shades differ in the highlights. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.70, which is significantly higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve deviates very strongly from the power-law dependence:

Due to the dynamic and very aggressive adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the output image (in dark areas the brightness decreases), the resulting dependence of brightness on hue (gamma curve) does not correspond to the gamma curve of a static image, since the measurements were carried out with sequential output of shades of gray almost in full screen. For this reason, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination at angles - when displaying special templates with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen. Let us show the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time when switching from a black field to a white field in halves of the screen alternately, while the average brightness does not change and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does not work (graph 50%/50%). And also the dependence, but with alternate display of fields in full screen (graph 100%), while the average brightness is already changing and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness works in full:

In general, this non-disabled brightness correction does nothing but harm, since constantly changing the screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort and reduce the visibility of gradations in the shadows in the case of dark images. In this case, the manufacturer has surpassed all others, since this dynamic adjustment, when displaying any image other than a white field on the entire screen, significantly reduces the brightness, which significantly reduces the readability of the screen in bright light.

The color gamut from a practical point of view is equal to sRGB:

The spectra show that the matrix filters moderately mix the components with each other:

As a result, visually the colors have a natural saturation. The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is much higher than the standard 6500 K, but the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is less than 10, which is considered a good indicator for a consumer device. At the same time, color temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since color balance there is not very important, and the error in measuring color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

In this smartphone, in the screen settings, you can select a high-brightness mode, set a couple of strange options and modes (maybe the Chinese know why they are doing this), and also switch to manual mode, in which you can adjust the color tone, saturation (color contrast ) and just contrast. An example of what we got when we tried to adjust the color balance is shown in the graphs above in the form of dependencies labeled as Corr. After the correction, the color balance improved, as the color temperature became closer to 6500 K, ΔE, unfortunately, increased, but not very much.

Let's summarize. Formally, the screen has a fairly high maximum brightness (even without additional amplification) and has good anti-glare properties. However, dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness greatly reduces the brightness when displaying any image other than a full-screen white field, which significantly reduces readability in conditions with bright ambient lighting. The high-brightness mode helps somewhat, but it will have to be turned on manually. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. It is also possible to use a mode with automatic brightness adjustment, which works more or less adequately. The advantages of the screen include an effective oleophobic coating, the absence of air gaps in the layers of the screen and flickering, as well as the sRGB color gamut and good (especially after manual correction) color balance. Significant disadvantages include, first of all, the extremely aggressive, non-disabled dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness and the low stability of black to the deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane. Both of these shortcomings (especially the first) no longer allow us to assign the screen a “high quality” rating; in the end, it is average.

Sound

Lenovo Vibe Z2 sounds quite decent. Both in the speakers and in the headphones the sound is pleasant, thick, clear, rich in the entire spectrum of frequencies, bass is also present, but the maximum volume level is perhaps not high enough. In conversational dynamics, the voice of a familiar interlocutor remains recognizable, the maximum volume level is quite sufficient.

To play music, there is only a standard Google Music player with a minimum number of settings in the form of preset equalizer values.

An FM radio is included as standard with the smartphone, and there is also a voice recorder. The device can also record telephone conversations from the line; to do this, just press a special button in the telephone application interface right during a call.

Camera

Lenovo Vibe Z2 is equipped with two digital camera modules with a resolution of 13 and 8 megapixels. The front 8-megapixel camera has a fixed focus, and, unlike the Lenovo S90, does not have its own LED flash. In low-light conditions, the Light Fill function is called upon to save the situation, in which most of the screen around the viewfinder begins to glow brightly, highlighting the face of the shooter. The screen can be illuminated in yellow or pink, as you like. Here you can initiate taking a “selfie” not only by pressing a virtual button on the screen, but also by touching anywhere on the viewfinder screen, as well as using gestures, voice and even blinking your eyes - all this is configured in the corresponding menu. The quality of shooting for selfies is quite decent, but with such a high resolution of the module, it would be completely unforgivable to take mediocre pictures with the front camera. The Z2 takes selfies maybe even a little better than the S90, and it’s surprising that that device was given a front-facing flash, but for some reason this one is not.

The camera can shoot video in the maximum Full HD resolution (1920×1080, 30 fps), but the smartphone was not able to adequately cope with this resolution. An example of test videos is presented below.

• Video No. 1 (42 MB, 1920×1080, 30 fps)
• Video No. 2 (38 MB, 1920×1080, 30 fps)

	Overall sharpness is good. A small area of ​​blur on the left side of the frame.
	Good sharpness across the entire frame.
	The camera handles dark details well.
	Good sharpness in distant shots.
	The trees are well done, and you can almost make out the license plates of the cars.
	Noticeable area of ​​blur on the left. Looks like a focus or stabilizer error.
	Judging by the small inscriptions, the camera can handle regular text.
	Despite the slightly noticeable sharpening, the overall performance of the program can only be praised.

Looking at the pictures, it’s hard to resist comparisons with the Lenovo S90 camera, since everything here reminds us of it. But there are still differences, and noticeable ones. Despite the fact that the module here is almost the same, the Vibe Z2’s pictures look more noble: the dynamic range seems wider, the details are a little better worked out, and the choice of exposure is more competent. It seems that the program has been improved exactly as much as the Z2 class is higher than the S90. Although sometimes you can notice similar focus errors and slight areas of blur, in this case this seems to happen less often. Describing the Vibe Z2 camera, it can rightly be described as “above average”. Sharpness is fine in most cases, and the program works quite softly and moderately. Perhaps it is quite suitable for documentary shooting, and sometimes it can cope with artistic shooting.

Telephone and communications

The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also supports fourth-generation networks LTE Cat 4 with a theoretical possible reception speed of up to 150 Mbit/s (LTE FDD Band 1/3/4/720). In practice, with a SIM card from the domestic operator MTS, the smartphone is confidently registered and works in 4G networks.

The rest of the smartphone's network capabilities are typical. Support for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac is announced with the ability to organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels, however, our Lenovo Vibe Z2 was still able to recognize a Wi-Fi access point at a frequency of 5 GHz. Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display are supported as standard. NFC, unlike the Lenovo S90, is available here, but OTG connection is also not provided.

There are no particular complaints about the operation of the navigation module; the cold start is not fast (about 2 minutes), but the module recognizes GPS, Glonass, and the Chinese BDS network. Unlike the S90, there is a magnetic field sensor here; it is necessary for the successful functioning of the electronic compass of navigation programs.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts. Support for input by continuously sliding from letter to letter (Swype) is also implemented here. Right during a telephone conversation, you can press the record button in the menu to save the conversation, voices from both sides are recorded. For ease of operation with one hand, it is possible to move the virtual keyboard of the telephone dialer closer to either side of the screen.

The smartphone supports work with two SIM cards: you can designate any of the SIM cards as the main one for organizing voice calls, transferring data or sending SMS messages. When making a call, you can select the desired card only if a specific one has not been previously assigned, otherwise the call will always be made only from it, which is not very convenient. Work with two SIM cards is organized according to the usual Dual SIM Dual Standby standard, when both cards can be in active standby mode, but cannot work at the same time - there is only one radio module.

The slots for SIM cards are unequal in their capabilities: only the first slot supports high-speed data transmission in 3G (4G) networks, the second is intended only for working in 2G, that is, in reality it can only be used for transmitting voice data.

OS and software

The device uses the Google Android software platform version 4.4.4 as a system with its own graphical user interface called Lenovo Vibe UI installed on top of it. The well-known proprietary shell here is exactly the same in appearance and has all the same capabilities as other modern models of the Lenovo mobile family. There is no separate program menu; the settings section is divided into two parts for regular settings and for specific ones, such as working with gestures. There may be some differences in this section from model to model. For example, unlike the S90, here the switched-off display is activated by double-tapping the glass rather than swiping along the bottom edge of the screen; by shaking the smartphone to lock the screen, and by tilting to the side to move the dialer buttons to the side, etc. But the basic features are still the same. There is, for example, a smart button, which, when pressed, opens a quick access menu to the main functions of the smartphone.

As usual, there are a lot of pre-installed programs and proprietary utility utilities, most of them are completely free. Branded utilities are easy to recognize by similar names: ShareIt, SyncIt, SnapIt, SeeIt, CloneIt. Traditionally annoying is the non-disabled and non-removable Security module that is forcibly pre-installed into every Lenovo smartphone and constantly hangs in the system tray.

Performance

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 hardware platform is based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 single-chip SoC. The platform is still quite recent, 64-bit, but this is an entry-level solution, the capabilities of this SoC are limited. The central processor here has 4 Cortex-A53 cores operating at 1.2 GHz. Graphics processing is handled by the Adreno 306 video processor with a core frequency of 400 MHz. The device has 2 GB of RAM, and the user has about 25 GB of free flash storage at his disposal. The device does not provide the ability to expand memory using cards. The mode for connecting external devices to the USB port (USB Host, USB OTG) of the Vibe Z2 is also not supported.

Based on the test results, the performance of the next budget Qualcomm platform from the Snapdragon 400 series family confidently demonstrates rather weak results, especially with regard to the video subsystem. This weak platform is inferior to literally all modern mid-level platforms, including those from competing MediaTek (even the inexpensive MT6592). Once again, it becomes surprising that such eminent manufacturers as Lenovo and Samsung do not hesitate to install such frankly weak hardware in their expensive smartphones, which claim a place in the middle market segment with a price of 20 to 25 thousand rubles. The same applies to Lenovo S90 and Samsung Galaxy A5 devices.

So, it’s a huge stretch to call devices based on the Snapdragon 410 platform, even 64-bit, “average”; their hardware performance is below average. The capabilities of the smartphone will not be enough to perform demanding tasks. For example, when recording video in the maximum resolution FHD (1080p), there is a noticeable slowdown in the interface, and work becomes uncomfortable. There is no need to talk about demanding games - the final figures in the GFX Benchmark graphics test, for example, clearly demonstrate disastrous results (5 - 9 fps). The weakest point of this SoC, of ​​course, is the backward Adreno 306 video subsystem, with all the ensuing consequences. As a result, we can state that in terms of performance at the moment the smartphone is already closer to the entry level; the platform installed in the Lenovo Vibe Z2 clearly does not correspond to the segment in which Lenovo is trying to position this device.

Testing in the latest versions of comprehensive tests AnTuTu and GeekBench 3:

For convenience, we have compiled all the results we obtained when testing the smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks into tables. The table usually adds several other devices from different segments, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry figures). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” - due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark game tests,GFXBenchmark, and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark, the most powerful smartphones now have the ability to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (which can cause the speed to rise above 60 fps).

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for assessing the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowance for the fact that their results significantly depend on the browser in which they are launched, so the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this is possible during testing not always. For Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

Playing video

To test the omnivorous nature of video playback (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Internet. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern options using processor cores alone. Also, you shouldn’t expect a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the testing results, the subject was not equipped with all the necessary decoders that are necessary for full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network. To successfully play them, you will have to resort to the help of a third-party player - for example, MX Player. True, it is also necessary to change the settings and manually install additional custom codecs, because now this player does not officially support the AC3 sound format.

¹ sound in MX Video Player can only be played after manually installing an alternative custom audio codec AC3

Tested video output features Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We did not find the MHL interface, like Mobility DisplayPort, in this smartphone, so we had to limit ourselves to testing the output of video files on the screen of the device itself. To do this, we used a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame (see “Method for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices) Red marks indicate possible problems associated with the playback of the corresponding files.

According to the criterion of frame output, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can (but are not required) be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. Except for files with 60 fps, in which some frames are always skipped. One gets the impression of some kind of software flaw that does not allow the player to output frames evenly and without skipping when using hardware decoding. When playing video files with a resolution of 1280 by 720 (720p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, one to one in pixels, that is, in the original resolution. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - all shade gradations are displayed in shadows and highlights - which is what is required for correct playback of typical video files.

Battery life

Lenovo Vibe Z2 has a high-capacity non-removable lithium-polymer battery with a respectable capacity of 3000 mAh. The display resolution, as the most energy-intensive element of a smartphone, is not at all high here (only 720p), and the platform is far from demanding and productive, so it is not at all surprising that a smartphone with such a large battery demonstrated a very long battery life in all testing modes . In normal operation, the device will confidently survive for more than 2 full days or more. The creators themselves promise up to 17 days of standby time, and up to 30 hours of talk time. It is also worth noting that testing was traditionally carried out without using any energy-saving functions and modes, although the device does have them.

Continuous reading in the FBReader program (with a standard, light theme) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd/m²) lasted almost 18.5 hours until the battery was completely discharged, and when continuously watching videos in high quality (720p) with The device lasted the entire 12 hours at the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network. In game mode, the smartphone operated for more than 5.5 hours. At the same time, the smartphone charges quite quickly - the total charging time is only 2.5 hours, which is not so much for such a large volume of built-in battery.

Bottom line

At the time of writing, certified Lenovo Vibe Z2 devices in Russian retail were sold for 27 thousand rubles, which is certainly a bit expensive for such an average smartphone in all respects on an entry-level hardware platform and with a display with a resolution of 720p. Moreover, the price reduction happened quite recently, and just a week ago the official cost of the Vibe Z2 reached almost 30 thousand rubles.

The smartphone has a practical body with a recognizable design, although the design is not for everyone - not everyone will like the rough industrial style now, times have changed. The camera and sound of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 are not bad, the battery life is excellent, but that’s all. The very large screen cannot boast of decent resolution, the entry-level hardware platform along with its video subsystem is frankly weak, network capabilities are at a good level, but there is no support for USB OTG and the issue of support for the 5 GHz Wi-Fi band has not been fully clarified. The lack of support for memory cards also does not benefit the smartphone. There is no need to talk about the lack of moisture protection, wireless charging, fingerprint sensor, etc. Many other Chinese manufacturers of a lower rank, whose product quality has long been at a quite acceptable level, are even now ready to offer much more for that kind of money. A striking example is the worthy Meizu M1 Note smartphone with a Full HD screen and a powerful, highly productive platform, officially sold on the Russian market at a price 10 thousand cheaper.

The most depressing thing is the frankly weak video subsystem in the 400 series Qualcomm Snapdragon. Some manufacturers (Lenovo, Samsung) began to choose this entry-level platform for their far from budget mobile products. With a GPU like the one in this SoC (Adreno 306), you can’t play demanding games, and the single-chip system used cannot always handle high-resolution video processing. In this regard, new low-cost products on competing MediaTek platforms (MT6732, MT6752) are perhaps starting to look more attractive than Qualcomm's budget solutions offered in end products at such high prices.

Lenovo has a wide selection of devices in different price categories, ranging from acceptable budget models to top-end flagships. This time the company presented the Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone market - a worthy option “up to 20 thousand”.

Characteristics

• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 (MSM8916), 4 cores ARM Cortex-A53, 1.2 GHz
• GPU: Adreno 306
• Operating system: Android 4.4.4 (updated to 5.0.2)
• Display: IPS, 5.5″, 1280×720, 267 ppi
• RAM: 2 GB
• Internal memory: 32 GB
• Communication: 2 Micro-SIM, GSM bands 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, WCDMA 900/2100 MHz, FDD LTE (Cat4, up to 150 Mbit/s), Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n/ac (1 band ), Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS (A-GPS), Glonass
• Sensors: position, proximity, lighting, electronic compass
• Camera: Main 13 MP, f/2.1, optical stabilization, autofocus, LED flash, front 8 MP, fixed. focus, front
• Battery: 3000 mAh
• Dimensions: 148×76×7.8 mm
• Weight: 158 g

Equipment

Appearance

Screen

Using a smartphone with a screen with the above characteristics is a pleasure. Wide viewing angles, very clear images, rich colors, high contrast and a wide range of brightness levels - what else is needed for comfortable work with a smartphone?

Lenovo has provided the ability to change the color balance in the settings. The user can activate the high-brightness mode and the outdoor mode, which determine the lighting. I was pleased with the eye protection technology, which changes the white balance for comfortable reading from the screen.
Here you can adjust color saturation, contrast and even tones.

Software

• When locked, you can change the position of the clock
• Swiping sideways allows you to change the wallpaper, go to calls/messages and the camera
• When the screen is unlocked, you can turn on the flashlight by holding down the on/off key
• The “curtain” is called by swiping from bottom to top
• The second swipe brings up the shortcut keys
• Long tap on the menu key brings up recently opened applications

So, for example, Security can be very useful, since it turns on an antivirus, blocks spam, activates data protection, anti-theft and parental controls, and limits the mobile Internet. Minus - you will need to pay for the antivirus, but for that. To remove the application you need root rights.

Connection

Camera

Iron

Battery

In our test, the smartphone showed a pretty good result - 11 hours 7 minutes with the display turned on at 50% brightness and Wi-Fi.

Let's sum it up

Lenovo Vibe Z2 is a truly worthy smartphone that impresses with its set of characteristics: durable aluminum body, stylish appearance, good camera and performance indicators. For such advantages it is not a pity to pay moderate money.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 is a 5.5-inch smartphone with a metal body and LTE support. It got its brutal appearance from Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro. In terms of dimensions, the Vibe Z2 can be called compact; competitors with the same diagonal are larger and heavier. It is inconvenient to use the device with one hand due to the dimensions and sharp corners of the case.

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone received a mid-level chipset - a quad-core Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410 and 2 GB of RAM. Its performance is sufficient for daily tasks, but it is not suitable for demanding games. The decision to use this platform in this model seems strange; after all, the Vibe Z2 is positioned as a premium device. The built-in memory of 32 GB is enough for most tasks. But if there is not enough free space, it will not be possible to expand this volume - there is no slot for a memory card.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 has an average quality HD display (1280x720 pixels). For a 5.5-inch diagonal, this does not provide an optimally clear picture - individual pixels are visible. This looks depressing compared to the 5-inch, cheaper Vibe X2 with a Full HD display and the 6-inch Vibe Z2 Pro with excess Quad HD resolution (2560x1440). At the same time, the Vibe Z2 display has good viewing angles, brightness and color rendition.

The higher price compared to competitors is explained by high-quality cameras and communication capabilities. Lenovo Vibe Z2 supports LTE (1/3/4/7/20), NFC and high-speed Wi-Fi. The cameras are also capable of pleasing the buyer - the main 13 MP can replace the point-and-shoot camera, and the front 8 MP does an excellent job of taking selfies.

The results of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 battery tests were unexpected for us. The formal capacity of 3000 mAh was enough for a little more than a day of use. The result is satisfactory, but most of the smartphones we tested with the same capacity and diagonal worked 20-30% longer. Lenovo Vibe Z2, in our opinion, is too expensive for its characteristics. Especially compared to cheaper smartphones with the same diagonal. In this case, the overpayment is for a metal case, an NFC chip and an 8 MP front camera.

Where can I buy

Dimensions - 3.9

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 is compact for a 5.5-inch device. The dimensions of the smartphone are 148.5×76.4×8.2 mm. More compact than Huawei Honor 4X with the same diagonal (153×77.2×8.7 mm) or Sony Xperia C3 (156×79×7.9 mm), which turned out to be slightly thinner. The Lenovo Vibe Z2 feels good in the hand, but the sharp corners dig into the palm a little. Operating the phone with one hand is inconvenient.

The weight of the smartphone is 157 grams, lighter than the metal Huawei Ascend G7 (168 grams) or iPhone 6 Plus (171 grams) with the same diagonals. In our opinion, the phone looks stylish, but rough due to sharp corners, beveled edges, a protruding lens and screws on the back. The front side of Lenovo Vibe Z2 is completely covered with protective glass. Below the display there are separate control buttons. The back panel and side edges are metal; the lens that sticks out from the body catches your eye. The speaker is hidden at the bottom, to the left of the Micro-USB connector. The build quality is at a high level, the use of metal is justified, and during the tests the phone did not lose its presentation. The Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone can be purchased in gold, white and gray colors.

Screen - 3.9

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone has an average quality display. Screen resolution - 1280x720 pixels, matrix type - IPS. The pixel density is not that high - 267 per inch, the image is not very clear, especially on small fonts. If the “older” version, Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro, received an overly clear Quad HD display, then here they decided to “not report” the pixels. At the same time, Lenovo has a stylish Vibe X2 with a Full HD display, which is also cheaper.

But the display turned out to be bright - up to 399 cd/m2, the information remains readable in the sun. The minimum brightness of the white background is 12 cd/m2, convenient for reading in the dark. The viewing angles of the display are wide, the image does not fade, and the colors do not shift when deviated. The phone has a light sensor and automatic brightness adjustment, which work correctly. The image on the display is set high due to the lack of an air gap between the glass and the matrix panel. The advantages of the screen are good color rendering and an effective oleophobic coating - fingerprints almost do not remain on the display. Unlike the Lenovo Vibe X2, the Vibe Z2 does not have a glove mode.

Camera

Lenovo Vibe Z2 received high-quality cameras of 13 MP and 8 MP. The main camera is equipped with an optical stabilization system, takes panoramas, has an HDR mode, a number of special effects and the ability to adjust contrast, white balance, ISO, sharpness, exposure and saturation. Photo resolution (which for some reason cannot be changed in the settings) is 4208x3120 pixels. The camera overall can take clear pictures and reproduces colors well. The only problem is that you often have to tap on the screen to get the camera to focus properly. The maximum video resolution is Full HD (1920×1080) at 30 frames per second and with stereo sound. It's better not to shoot dynamic scenes on video - the camera has tracking autofocus, but it doesn't work right away. There is a risk that moving objects will be out of focus.

The 8 MP front camera is designed for high-quality selfies and does its job well. The maximum photo resolution is 3264x2448, video - 1280x720. The disadvantage is that the focus is fixed; a clear picture can be taken at a distance of 1-2 meters.

Photo from camera Lenovo Vibe Z2 - 3.2

Photos from the front camera of Lenovo Vibe Z2 - 3.2

Working with text - 3.0

The smartphone comes pre-installed with a standard Google keyboard. It is quite convenient for typing texts. In it you can switch between languages ​​with one key. The top row of keys allows you to dial numbers with a long press. The keyboard supports continuous input. There is no additional character marking. The smartphone works with a custom dictionary and remembers previously typed words.

Internet - 3.0

The browsers presented are: Google Chrome and Yandex Browser and UC Browser. In the first, you can synchronize tabs and history with desktop Chrome. Yandex Browser has a turbo mode and the ability to close tabs when exiting the browser. UC Browser supports automatic text adjustment to the screen width and reading mode. 2 GB of RAM allows you to open multiple tabs without any problems.

Communications - 5.0

According to this criterion, Lenovo Vibe Z2 is comparable to top-end smartphones. There is support for LTE, NFC, two slots for Micro-SIM cards, dual-band and high-speed Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 with the A2DP profile, A-GPS along with GLONASS - everything is at a high level. The set of ports is typical - Micro-USB 2.0 with USB-Host for connecting peripheral devices and a headphone jack.

Multimedia - 3.0

As our tests have shown, the smartphone supports a limited number of video and audio formats. Thus, Lenovo Vibe Z2 could not cope with video formats MPG, TS, WMV, MKV and FLV. In terms of audio, the situation turned out to be better, but in the tests, the Lenovo Vibe Z2 was unable to play FLAC format tracks. The built-in players turned out to be poor in settings and capabilities: there are no equalizers, subtitle settings, etc.

Battery - 3.1

The battery life of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 was not that great for a 3000 mAh capacity. 6 hours 50 minutes of continuous video or 63.5 hours in mp3 player mode. Sounds good, but Huawei Honor 6, Ascend G7 and Sony Xperia C3 last longer. In our “average mode” (one movie, about an hour of gaming, listening to music, browsing, Wi-Fi turned on), the device had 10-11% charge left after one day of use. Note that our tests were carried out without using the energy-saving functions of the smartphone. The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Power Manager allows you to disable apps in sleep mode and reduce screen and GPU power consumption. There is a separate “emergency mode”, in which the image becomes black and white, and only calls and SMS are available from the functions.

Performance - 1.9

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone is equipped with 2 GB of RAM and a mid-level chipset - Qualcomm MSM8916 Snapdragon 410. Four cores, a frequency of up to 1.2 GHz, an Adreno 306 graphics accelerator - this looks strange for a premium model. However, the Lenovo Vibe Z2 can handle everyday tasks quickly, but it starts to falter in demanding games like Asphalt 8 or NOVA 3. The results in the benchmarks turned out to be average, at the level of the mini-versions of the 2014 flagships. Thus, in the AnTuTu benchmark it received 20820 points, and in the Ice Storm Unlimited test from 3DMark - 4315 points. The numbers are not impressive; the results of the cheaper Huawei Honor 4C and 4X in the same tests were noticeably higher.

Memory - 2.5

The built-in memory of Lenovo Vibe Z2 is 32 GB, of which about 25 GB is available to the user. This should be enough to store photos and applications. There is no possibility to expand the memory capacity - there is no slot for an SD card, this is a drawback of the model.

Peculiarities

Lenovo Vibe Z2 runs Android 4.4.4 OS, with an update to 5.0 Lollipop expected in the second quarter of 2015. As features, we note a metal body, support for two SIM cards, LTE, NFC and an 8 MP front camera. The proprietary interface does not have a separate list of applications, and the settings are divided into system and special. In the latter you can find many unusual functions: from turning on the display with a double tap to automatically increasing the ringer volume when the smartphone is in your pocket. The phone comes pre-installed with applications for popular social networks, services from Google and Yandex, Explorer, Security application, SYNCit for backing up contacts, SMS messages and call logs, as well as SHAREit for exchanging data with other devices via Wi-Fi.

Where can I buy

Competitors

The average price for a Lenovo Vibe Z2 mobile phone at the end of spring 2015 was 23,500 rubles. Competitors include Huawei Ascend G7, Sony Xperia C3 and Huawei Honor 4X. All of them are cheaper than Lenovo, but, by and large, are in no way inferior to it. All have LTE support, mid-level chipsets and their own features. The Sony Xperia C3 also has NFC, but the body and camera materials are simpler. But it has a front camera with flash. Honor 4X is made of plastic, the only one of its competitors discharged faster than the Vibe Z2, it does not have an NFC chip, but it also costs half as much. The Ascend G7 is a metal competitor with similar specs. It is slightly larger and heavier, and costs less. Among its competitors, Lenovo Vibe Z2 stands out for its relative compactness, 8 MP front camera, support for dual-band Wi-Fi and a higher price.

The Lenovo company, despite its rather small age in the field of smartphone manufacturing, does not miss the chance to become one of the best in this segment and now, based on the results of the second quarter of 2014, it ranks 4th among the main players in the mobile technology market, behind only three powerful players: Samsung, Apple and Huawei. However, everything can change thanks to a powerful new product that can compete with famous brands - the Lenovo Vibe Z2 K920 smartphone.

Characteristics

The main driving force of the Lenovo K920 smartphone is the 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974-AC processor with a clock frequency of 2.5 GHz, and the Adreno 330 graphics processor is responsible for graphics processing. The device has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory for installation applications and storage of personal data.

The smartphone operates in GSM (850/900/1800/1900), WCDMA (850/900/1700/1900/2100) and LTE (800/850/900/1800/2100/2600) networks and supports simultaneous operation of 2 SIM cards -kart.

Wireless communications include GPS and GLONASS positioning systems, as well as Bluetooth 4.0, NFC and of course Wi-Fi. The overall dimensions of the Lenovo K920 are: 156 x 81.3 x 7.7 mm, and the weight is 179 g. The battery in the device has a capacity of 4000 mAh.

The device runs on the modern operating system Android 4.4.2, but there is a possibility that such a device will be updated in the future with more modern software that keeps up with the times. Interestingly, unlike its predecessors, the Lenovo K920 can switch from the built-in launcher to “pure” Android.

Video

Display

The display of the Vibe Z2 is one of the key features that not all leaders in the smartphone industry can boast of at the moment. Having a diagonal of 6 inches, the Lenovo K920 smartphone has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels, which is currently quite rare. The screen occupies almost the entire front panel of the device on the sides, leaving only thin frames for a comfortable hand grip.

Sound

Despite the lack of Doulby systems, the sound in the phone is quite loud and of high quality, and the built-in music player has ample capabilities. In addition to the usual player, the device also has an FM receiver.

On the front side of the smartphone there is a 5 MP camera, and on the back there is a 16 MP camera with flash and optical stabilization (Optical Anti-Shake). As a video camera, the device allows you to record video in resolution up to 4K.

Appearance

Lenovo K920, with its metal body and strict forms, resembles its predecessor, .

On the front side of the device there is a 6-inch diagonal screen, sensors, a 5 MP camera and touch control buttons, and on the back there is a 16 MP camera with flash, as well as Lenovo and VIBE logos.

The volume rocker is located on the right side, and on the left there is a SIM card slot and a power button for the device.

Video: unpacking a smartphone

Results

pros

• high quality screen
• metal case
• good camera

minuses

• lack of memory expansion slot

Video: games and benchmarks

The Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 pro smartphone turned out to be a powerful and interesting device that can win the hearts of many fans of large phones, however, for fans of smaller diagonal devices it may not be so comfortable, although there is a possibility that Lenovo will have this device in the near future.

Vibe Z2. This creation of the Chinese manufacturer appeared on the mobile device market not so long ago. We’ll actually talk about the device itself in more detail a little later, and we’ll start the article with a short introduction to the history of the creation of the flagship.

About Lenovo

We all remember very well that the manufacturer Lenovo bought out the Motorola Mobility company, after which it solemnly made a promise in which it mentioned its plans to divide the smartphone market. More specifically, the Chinese company decided, if you can call it that, to crush several segments under itself in order to ensure sustainable dominance over other companies. At the same time, as expected, Lenovo declared strong ambitions: it wanted to take no less than third place in sales at a minimum. The Chinese company did not even intend to reckon with bronze instead of (minimal!) bronze. This option was not even considered de facto.

Despite such seemingly prohibitively ambitious performances, the company has every chance to make its desire come true. Currently, there are official data that can tell us that Lenovo closes the top five leaders in the smartphone market. Don't you think that this is really a result that is worth our attention? Nevertheless, we will evaluate the manufacturer’s success soberly. Of course, the bulk of the devices sold are sold in China. On the territory of the Russian Federation, devices classified as A-series are more popular. A shift in the situation began when a series of flagships called Vibe appeared on the horizon.

Analysis of models

A stripped-down version of the flagship has already been released. Many people call it Lenovo Vibe Z2 Mini, but it is best to remove the last word from the name, because this is how official sources and representatives of the Chinese company position it. There are probably practical reasons for this. In fact, answer just one question: can a phone equipped with a 5.5-inch screen be called Mini? It will look illogical to say the least. However, this word still appears in the device index. That is, it is called like this: K920 Mini. But it’s much easier to present the device simply under the name Vibe Z2, which is what we see.

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Titanium smartphone got its name due to the use of exclusively metal materials in its design. Before us is a device that has a thickness of only 7.8 millimeters and is equipped with a fairly powerful and high-quality camera (with built-in optical stabilization function). Otherwise, it is worth noting the support for two SIM cards, the presence and operation of a 64-bit processor from the Qualcomm family, and a powerful battery with a capacity of 3,000 mAh. The cost of the device is 20 thousand rubles. But the price is justified as the prices of all mobile devices are currently increasing. Meanwhile, we move on to a more detailed analysis.

Connection

The subject of our today's review is equipped with a large number of different modules, and now we will talk about them in more detail. So, the phone operates in the GSM, UMTS, and LTE bands. The latter actually means open access to fourth generation cellular networks. Well, in principle, for a device in the corresponding price segment this is rather the rule than the exception. 4G networks will allow the phone owner to exchange data and Internet traffic at increased speed. Now you can download and upload pictures, music, videos and movies faster. Let’s not forget that interaction with the browser and web pages in it will be faster.

International network

By the way, about the Internet. Access to it is provided through 3G and 4G standards. GPRS and EDGE options are available. But, of course, the first two are preferable. There is a built-in modem. If necessary, you can create a Wi-Fi access point. Other users who have wireless communication modules in their devices will be able to connect to it. These can be smartphones on different operating systems, tablet computers and laptops. It will also be possible to connect to the access point from a computer, but only if a network card with a Wi-Fi module is installed there.

Bluetooth technology allows you to exchange files with other devices. Here its module is equipped with version 4.0. Wi-Fi operates in b, g, and n bands. If you actively use e-mail to exchange messages with other users, then you probably use the built-in E-mail client. You can synchronize your smartphone with a computer or laptop using a MicroUSB - USB 2.0 cable.

Display

The screen diagonal in Lenovo Vibe Z2 is 5.5 inches. The display matrix is ​​made using IPS technology. This means that the user will not need to think particularly about whether his vision is deteriorating. IPS technology reduces eye strain, which allows you to read e-books from the device screen for a long time, even in night mode with the backlight minimally activated. Our screen resolution is 1280 by 720 pixels. Thus, the picture is displayed on the display in HD quality. Up to 16 million colors are transmitted. Color rendition is generally good; fonts and images do not fade in the sun. There is a good reserve of brightness. Touch type. There is a multi-touch function. It handles multiple simultaneous touches. To further protect the screen, you can purchase a case for Lenovo Vibe Z2 at a mobile phone store.

Cameras

The resolution of the main camera of the device is 13 megapixels. The device takes very good pictures, and the user has the opportunity to change the settings as he sees fit. Pictures are obtained in a resolution of 4128 by 3096 pixels. As mentioned earlier, the device is equipped with optical image stabilization. The case for Lenovo Vibe Z2 allows you to protect the device from mechanical damage, but does not block the flash located on the side of the main camera lens. LED flash with good power. Video shooting is carried out in a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Frame rate - 30 frames per second. The secondary camera is located on the front of the phone and has a resolution of 8 megapixels. Selfie lovers will definitely appreciate it.

Chipset

The hardware is represented by a Qualcomm family processor. This is a model called MSM8916. The chipset contains four cores at once, which ensure smooth operation of the operating system. Their maximum clock speed is about 1.2 gigahertz.

Memory

The amount of RAM is 2 gigabytes. Let’s not forget that part of it is taken by the jealous and extremely greedy operating system of the Android family. 32 gigabytes of non-volatile memory are available for storing user data. In principle, this is not so little. The volume can be filled with any files, be it e-books, games or applications, cache programs, music, videos or movies. It doesn't matter, in general.

Conclusion and reviews

What can the owners of this model tell about its pros and cons? According to reviews from buyers of the device, it has the following advantages:

• good main camera with optical stabilization;
• excellent front camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels;
• exclusively metal thin body;
• work with two SIM cards;
• large amount of long-term memory;
• powerful battery.

At the same time, the owners of the device talk about the presence of some minor and major shortcomings. For example, many users noted that the resolution with such a diagonal could have been higher. Otherwise, phone owners highlight the following disadvantages:

• lack of a slot for an external MicroSD drive;
• protruding lens of the main camera.