Lenovo vibe z k910 mobile phone. New middle class: review of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone. Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for transmitting data over close distances between different devices
A week ago, we talked about what results Lenovo managed to achieve in the smartphone segment in just one year. In this review, we will talk about the crown of Lenovo's creation - the flagship smartphone Vibe Z. The model absorbed all the best that was in and - a 5.5-inch Full HD screen, 13 MP and 5 MP cameras, a battery with a capacity of 3050 mA* h, Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 hardware platform, and the current version of the Vibe OS shell.
Equipment
Lenovo's flagships are delivered in cardboard boxes with a cut-out part in the form of the model name. In our case, it is VIBE Z. The inner side of the removable part is painted red, harmoniously contrasting with black.
Inside the box, in addition to the smartphone, you can find white accessories, including: a USB cable, a 1.5 A mains charger, documentation, a stereo headset with a flat cable and a metal clip for removing the SIM card tray.
Design and ergonomics
The smartphone inherited the corporate design. Most new Lenovo products have exactly the same appearance. The front of the case is black, covered with tempered glass Gorilla Glass 3. The glass is framed by a slightly protruding plastic frame. There is a slot in the upper part for the speaker. Below it you can see the logo, on the right – the 5 MP camera lens, as well as proximity and light sensors. The event indicator is hidden at the left edge of the speaker grid.
The touch keys are invisible in the standby mode, from left to right they go: “Menu” aka “Running Application Manager” when held, “Home” is also responsible for calling Google Now, and “Back” - when held, launches multi-window mode. The backlighting of the keys is bright, but not intrusive.
The side edges are flat, it may seem that they are metal, but in fact they are plastic. On the left side there is a volume key. On the right side there is a slot for a micro SIM card. Our version of the smartphone (K910L) has one SIM, but can be found on sale with two SIM cards. At the bottom there is a Micro-USB connector. At the top end there is a power/lock key and a headphone jack. The location of the power key, to put it mildly, is not the most convenient; it is difficult to use; it helps that you can use the volume buttons to wake the smartphone from sleep mode.
The back side, with the exception of the glossy and easily scratched plastic at the bottom of the case, is made of textured plastic with a peculiar pattern. The block with the camera protrudes above the rest. In addition to the lens, there is a double flash, and a little to the right is a hole for the second microphone. The body of the smartphone is very slippery, and the tactile sensations do not correspond to an expensive device. Perhaps such a solution looks practical in a smartphone for 2000-3000 hryvnia, but it is not appropriate in a flagship.
The case cannot be disassembled, all the parts fit together closely, although when twisting you feel that it is not put together as well as most analogues. Various software add-ons allow you to use your smartphone with one hand. We will talk about them in the next section. To estimate the dimensions of the Lenovo Vibe Z, we suggest taking a look at the comparison table, which shows other smartphones with a screen diagonal of about 5.5 inches.
Operating system and shell
The day before the release of this review, Lenovo Vibe Z was running Android 4.3 with the proprietary Vibe OS shell. Now on Android 4.4. It is commendable that the manufacturer managed to release an update before the new product entered the Ukrainian market. Today, flagships from all manufacturers run on the latest version of the OS.
The shell has hardly changed since it was described in, but there are still some differences. We will tell you about them.
The arrangement of elements on the lock screen depends on the selected theme. In the default theme, it contains a time with date, a camera icon and system indicators. To launch the camera, you need to slide the screen to the left. To unlock - up. When incoming messages arrive, a corresponding icon is displayed, by clicking on which you can read the text of the message.
Unlocking the screen takes you to the desktop. The desktop can contain from one to nine windows. There is no application menu, so all installed applications are on the desktop. To edit the desktop, you need to hold your finger on any part of the screen. To add widgets or shortcuts, you need to swipe up at the bottom of the screen and select the desired item from the menu that appears.
Among the pre-installed programs there is a set of standard Lenovo applications, including a program for exchanging files between devices - SHAREit, games (Asphalt 7, Real Football 2014, Green Farm 3), Power Manager, FM player, Flashlight, Compass, Voice Recorder, Evernote , CamCard, CamScanner, Kingsoft Office, UC Browser, AccuWeather, Navigate (Route 66). For beginners, the “Tutorial” application will be useful, which explains all the functions and capabilities of the smartphone.
You can also access the notification panel from the lock screen, provided that you have enabled this option in the menu. Here you can find five switches and a non-removable Security application line. To open the entire list of switches, you need to pull the arrow under the current ones. There is no slider to adjust brightness. The location of the five main toggle switches is configured in the corresponding menu.
The dialing keyboard includes Latin and Cyrillic letters. In messages, you can change the font size with a pinch-to-zoom gesture.
The settings are presented in two tabs. In the first - “System”, that is - everything, in the second - “Special”. Special ones contain additional modes that make it easier to work with the device. Among these are increasing the volume of the call melody if the smartphone is in your pocket, mode in hands - decreasing the volume of the call melody if you take the smartphone in your hands, “Live Keyboard” - shifting the keys to one side when tilting the body and many others - to understand which What it is responsible for can be determined by its name and description.
Among the unusual ones, we note the “Smart Menu”. When activated, a transparent key appears at the edge of the screen, clicking on which opens a menu of eight icons. Among these are screen lock, camera, calculator, favorites (link to any of the available applications), flashlight, alarm clock, minimizing all windows. Any of the shortcuts can be replaced by holding it down for a second and then clicking on the “Add” icon that appears in its place. Additional options include: Search, Home, Music, Video, Voice Search, and Switches. The latter displays eight toggles from the notification panel in this small window. All this allows us to call the “Smart Menu” one of the most useful additions for devices that are difficult to operate with one hand due to their size. With this menu, all the necessary elements are always at hand, or rather, under the finger you need.
One item has been added to the gesture settings, which no flagship can do without now - lock the screen by double-clicking on an empty area of the screen. You can also use gestures to open the running application manager, for example, by swiping up on the screen, or the notification panel, by swiping down.
Hardware platform
The smartphone is based on the Qualcomm hardware platform - a system-on-a-chip of the Snapdragon 800 family - MSM8974, which includes four Krait 400 processor cores with a clock frequency of up to 2.15 GHz, and an Adreno 330 graphics core. The amount of RAM is 2 GB, the amount of storage Memory is 16 GB, of which 11.5 GB are available to the user. As we have already said, the smartphone does not have a slot for memory cards, but if necessary, it can be expanded by connecting a Flash drive via a USB OTG adapter. When the system boots, 1 GB of RAM remains available.
For Lenovo, the Vibe Z is the first device powered by a top-end Qualcomm chip. Prior to this, flagships used single-chip systems from Intel (Lenovo IdeaPhone K900) and MediaTek (Lenovo Vibe X). The advantage of Snapdragon 800 is obvious. Firstly, among systems-on-a-chip, it is Qualcomm solutions that can boast of the best performance (we are talking about Android devices); it supports the increasingly popular LTE communication standard. In addition, it does not have problems with power consumption, like Intel chips. As a result, when choosing the optimal SoC a year ago, Lenovo made the right decision.
If we talk about performance, Vibe Z shows results comparable to other devices on the same SoC. The Snapdragon 800's shortcomings are also characteristic of the device; they appear when engineers pay insufficient attention to the operation of the smartphone under high load conditions, namely, high heat. While smartphones from other manufacturers deal with this problem by reducing the processor clock speed, Lenovo leaves everything up to the user. As a result, in the Antutu Tester application the battery temperature always exceeds 50º C, which directly affects autonomy (the problem was solved by updating the OS to Android 4.4).
The built-in video player does not play all test files. For some reason, the stumbling block was the Spartak video, and the problem was not only with the sound (everyone has difficulties with this part, except for LG smartphones), but with the video as a whole. The player refused to launch the file. But there were no problems with the rest. I didn’t like the fact that the player does not take into account the overall brightness of the screen, which led to the need to set the backlight level by eye, since there is no way to measure it in the player, and the slider for adjusting it does not facilitate precise tuning. The sound volume is average, both in headphones and through the speaker. Placing the speaker on the rear side is not the best idea, but a similar layout is used on most devices.
Like many other new generation smartphones, the Vibe Z has something like a multi-window mode. To launch them, you need to press and hold the “Back” key. Two applications can be running at the same time. When starting a new one, the first one closes. The applications may include any of those preinstalled by the manufacturer, including a video player. In addition to the limited number of applications, there is one more thing - working exclusively in portrait mode. But if, while the video is running, you turn on the browser and turn the smartphone to a horizontal position and close it, the smartphone will continue to work in this mode, which is clearly not provided for by the system, as can be judged by the location of shortcuts and other shell elements.
Playing video files
| Codec\Name | UltraHD4K.mp4 | Neudergimie.mkv | GranTurismo.mp4 | Spartacus.mkv | ParallelUniverse.avi |
| Video | MPEG4 Video (H264) 3840×2160 29.92fps, 19.4 Mbit/s | MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920×816 23.98fps | MPEG4 Video (H264) 1920×1080 60fps, 19.7Mbit/s | MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280×720 29.97fps | MPEG4 Video (H264) 1280×536 24.00fps 2726kbps |
| Audio | AAC 44100Hz stereo 124kbps | MPEG Audio Layer 3 44100Hz stereo | AAC 48000Hz stereo 48kbps | Dolby AC3 44100Hz stereo | MPEG Audio Layer 3 44100Hz stereo 256kbps |
To play audio files, the standard Play Music application is used with all the attendant features. The sound quality is good, the volume, as with video playback, is average. The FM player does not support RDS, but allows you to record broadcasts. Sound can be output through the multimedia speaker.
In the call settings, you can set the subscriber's number to be automatically dialed when you raise the phone to your ear when writing an SMS or viewing contact data (we've already seen this somewhere). There is speed dialing and the ability to enter data for IP telephony. Recording telephone conversations became possible when the OS was updated to Android 4.4.
The Wi-Fi signal reception quality is good, the speed is typical, close to maximum. When the GPS was cold started, it took 11 seconds to find satellites, and when restarted, it took 6 seconds.
The autonomy of Lenovo Vibe Z leaves ambivalent impressions. On the one hand, during normal use for the author, the smartphone works as long as the LG G2 (both are built on the same platform and are powered by a battery of the same capacity), on the other hand, under load, especially in games, the smartphone body gets very hot and the battery begins to discharge at double the speed. A similar feature was noticed only at maximum load and in the Antutu Tester application. In GFXBench, the smartphone, on the contrary, shows results superior to the LG G2. If the smartphone is not loaded with games or frequent work with GPS, you can be sure that its charge will last for a day and a half of work. In a situation where you need to maximize operating time, you can use energy-saving modes. In “Super Economical,” the operating time is doubled, while the smartphone is switched to “Flight” mode, the duration and brightness of the backlight is reduced to the required minimum, and all wireless modules are turned off. The very best mode is “Maximum battery saving”. In it, the smartphone disables the usual interface, leaving only calls, messages and an alarm clock. In this mode, the time that the user can count on increases even more.
Below is a standard comparison table with operating time indicators in various modes.
| Operating time indicators | ||||
| Mode\Device | Lenovo Vibe Z | Lenovo IdeaPhone K900* | LG Optimus G Pro* | Huawei Honor 3X |
| Music | 100:00 | 40:00 | 40:00 | 77:50 |
| Reading | 11:26 | 5:16 | 8:20 | 11:07 |
| Navigation | 8:00 | 5:24 | 7:25 | 9:31 |
| Watch HD video | 13:20 | 4:10 | 7:14 | 15:23 |
| Watching HD videos from Youtube | 9:31 | 7:08 | 7:42 | 6:15 |
| Antutu Tester | 2:46 | 2:10 | 3:57 | — |
| GFXBench | 3:50 | — | — | 3:17 |
| GFXBench (scores) | 1285 (23 fps) | — | — | 695 (12.4 fps) |
In mode reading All wireless communications are turned off, including data transmission on the mobile network, and the display brightness is set to 200 cd/m2. When listening music automatic data synchronization and data transfer worked. The sound volume in the headphones is at 12 out of 15 possible levels. All music files are in MP3 format, bitrate 320 Kbps. Navigation includes route planning in the Google Navigation application. The brightness is set to 200 cd/m2, all data communication modules are disabled. During playback video Data transmission on the mobile network is active, display brightness is set to 200 cd/m2, sound volume in headphones is at level 12 out of a possible 15. Video file format is MKV, resolution 1024x432 pixels, frame rate 24. Play video from Youtube was accompanied not only by working on a Wi-Fi network, but also by active data transfer. The display brightness is set to 200 cd/m2, the sound volume in the headphones is set to 12 out of 15 possible levels.
* - data obtained under similar conditions, but with brightness set to 50% and possible
You can familiarize yourself with the testing methodology in the material
Display
Chinese manufacturers have been using JDI displays in their devices for a long time, which allows them not only to compete with A-brands, but also to surpass them in quality. Vibe Z was no exception. It has a 5.5-inch Full HD matrix (401 ppi) with wide viewing angles. The quality of the oleophobic coating is high.
The minimum backlight level is 10.6 cd/m², 50% corresponds to 151.2 cd/m², the maximum brightness is at 301 cd/m². As you can see, the maximum brightness level is far from record-breaking, so on a sunny day the readability of information is not the best, the situation is saved by the absence of an air gap between the matrix and the glass, so it is impossible to say that the information is unreadable, it’s just that in other devices with this parameter things are somewhat better. With automatic adjustment, the brightness is adjusted within a range close to manual, from 10.6 cd/m² to 298.7 cd/m². But what the Vibe Z is more than good at is the contrast, which is 1433:1. When compared with a device from another Chinese manufacturer with a JDI matrix, you can clearly see how much better Lenovo looks in this regard.
Checking the factory screen calibration revealed the following features. Before moving on to the evaluation, we will briefly describe the available screen settings. The presence of such attitudes is considered a rule of good form. Among the settings you can select the level of saturation, hue and sharpness. The last point raises questions, in particular, who needs it. When you turn on increased sharpness, a “ladder” on letters and other interface elements becomes noticeable. But the presence of a change in saturation and hue can be useful for those who like it brighter or, conversely, cooler. Both have a significant impact on the image. Below we provide screenshots for each mode. Users who want to get indicators as close as possible to the reference values will have to be disappointed, since it is impossible to achieve this in the three main disciplines (color temperature, accuracy of matching primary colors and gamma). You'll have to sacrifice something.
To be fair, it should be said that these parameters and indicators cannot be called a minus; in any case, the screen leaves an excellent impression, it’s just that if there were settings, they (indicators) could be made even better.
Default settings
Settings: Color "Soft"
Settings: Vivid color
Settings: Cool Tint
Settings: Warm Tint
Cameras
The smartphone has two camera modules - the main one, with a resolution of 13 megapixels and an f/1.8 aperture, and an additional one, located on the front, with a resolution of 5 megapixels and an f/2.0 aperture.
The main module, like the display, came from the IdeaPhone K900 smartphone; the only differences are in the software. In my review of the metal flagship, I noted the poor quality of the images and the problem with focusing. The Vibe Z has none of this. Problems with focusing can only arise when using the HDR mode, where by default the focus is set to infinity, which does not always correspond to the situation and you have to focus manually by indicating the desired area of the image on the screen.
In short, the quality of the pictures is excellent, with video things are a little different, there is a problem in the form of overload with sound. After updating the Android version, focusing speed has increased.
The viewfinder interface is similar to what we saw on the IdeaPhone K900.
Below you can evaluate the capabilities of the smartphone's main camera. Most of the pictures were taken in HDR mode.
Example of Full HD video shot by Lenovo Vibe Z smartphone
Results
The smartphone is worthy to stand on a par with the flagships of other manufacturers, but as it happens, it is not without its shortcomings. Let's start with them. These include a non-removable battery, a small amount of internal memory without the possibility of expanding it with memory cards, and case materials that do not correspond to the status. The advantages of a smartphone include the screen, the quality of photos, the current version of the OS and a shell with the widest possibilities for customizing the interface and additional settings that make it easier to work with a large device. In addition, one cannot fail to note the good autonomy and still relevant hardware platform.
As a result, the combination of features and an attractive price tag makes Lenovo Vibe Z a worthy alternative to smartphones from other manufacturers.
Detailed testing of the new flagship of the Chinese company
After the impressive success achieved last year by the Lenovo K900 smartphone, which until recently was the flagship model of the entire family of mobile devices of the Chinese company, its successor, the new K910 smartphone, does not need any special introduction. The success of its progenitor was ensured by several nuances: the fact that Intel itself took an active part in promoting the smartphone, because the Lenovo smartphone was built on its platform, and the fact that the price of the new product right from the start of sales turned out to be very attractive, even in such a specific market, like Russian.
In the photo: left - K910 (Vibe Z), right - K900
The new flagship differs in many ways from its ancestor, and primarily in that this time the hardware platform chosen for it was not the Intel platform, but a proven solution with the ARM architecture of the market leader, Qualcomm. At the same time, the smartphone did not lose in performance - on the contrary, it became even more powerful in hardware terms, but the price remained at the same level, which adds even more points to it.
The new flagship has, as is customary among the Chinese, several different modifications at the same time, and in order not to immediately get confused in them, we will present here in order their most noticeable distinctive features. Firstly, there is no point in arguing about the correct name for Lenovo’s new flagship smartphone - it has two names, and both have a right to life. The device received the name “K910” according to the “old” classification, following its predecessor K900, and it became “Vibe Z” later, when the scale of a whole series of smartphones was already outlined, many of which were included or will still be included in the new line under the general name “ Vibe." So we ourselves will call this model Vibe Z in the future, because this name is newer. Further, there are simultaneously three different modifications of the smartphone called Vibe Z on the market: one model supports work with two SIM cards operating in WCDMA+GSM networks, the other also supports two SIM cards, but in TD-CDMA+GSM networks , and the third is a model with only a SIM card, but capable of working in fourth generation networks (LTE). The latter, among other things, also has the ability to expand the memory capacity using microSD cards. Now most often you can find on sale the first of the modifications - with two SIM cards operating in WCDMA + GSM networks, and this is the device we are testing today. Accordingly, our model does not support LTE networks, nor does it have a slot for additional memory cards.
Key Features of Lenovo Vibe Z (Model K910 Dual SIM)
| Lenovo Vibe Z (K910 Dual SIM) | Acer Liquid S2 | LG G2 | Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (N9005) | |
| Screen | 5.5″, IPS | 6″, IPS | 5.2″, IPS | 5.7″ Super AMOLED |
| Permission | 1920×1080, 400 ppi | 1920×1080, 367 ppi | 1920×1080, 424 ppi | 1920×1080, 386 ppi |
| SoC | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (4 Krait 400 cores) @2.2 GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (4 Krait 400 cores) @2.2 GHz | Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (4 Krait 400 cores) @2.2 GHz | |
| GPU | Adreno 330 | Adreno 330 | Adreno 330 | Adreno 330 |
| RAM | 2 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB | 3 GB |
| Flash memory | 16 GB | 16 GB | 16/32 GB | 16—64 GB |
| Memory card support | — | microSD | — | microSD |
| operating system | Google Android 4.2 | Google Android 4.2 | Google Android 4.2 | Google Android 4.3 |
| Battery | non-removable, 3050 mAh | non-removable, 3300 mAh | non-removable, 3000 mAh | removable, 3200 mAh |
| Cameras | rear (13 MP; video 1080p), front (5 MP, video 1080p) | rear (13 MP; video 1080p), front (2 MP) | rear (13 MP; 4K video), front (2 MP, 1080p video) | |
| Dimensions | 149×77×7.9 mm, 147 g | 166×86×9 mm, 229 g | 139×71×8.9 mm, 143 g | 151×79×8.3 mm, 168 g |
| average price | T-10516952 | T-10483288 | T-10505130 | T-10545574 |
| Lenovo Vibe Z offers | L-10516952-10 | |||
- SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, 2.2 GHz, 4 Krait 400 cores
- GPU Adreno 330
- Operating system Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
- Touch display IPS, 5.5″, 1920×1080, 400 ppi
- Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, internal memory 16 GB
- Data transmission 2G, 3G (HSPA+)
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2.4 + 5 GHz), Wi-Fi hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct
- GPS, Glonass
- Camera 13 MP, autofocus, LED flash, f/1.8
- Camera 5 MP (front), viewing angle 84°
- Proximity sensor, lighting sensor, accelerometer, electronic compass
- Lithium polymer battery 3050 mAh
- Dimensions 149×77×7.9 mm
- Weight 147 g
Equipment
What the new flagship really has in common with its predecessor is the packaging. The new smartphone goes on sale in exactly the same black cardboard box with an additional casing, in which, however, now completely different letters are cut out - “Vibe Z”.
Inside, everything also remained the same: there were several compartments containing a charger, a USB-Micro-USB connecting cable, wired stereo headphones with vacuum-type gel ear pads, a key clip for removing the SIM card and several pieces of paper.
Appearance and ease of use
But in appearance, the new flagship has absolutely nothing in common with its ancestor: a flat, elongated, somewhat brutal metal block with chopped features, straight edges and sharp corners has been replaced with an unremarkable plastic “remnant” streamlined on all sides, which can easily get lost among other modern equally inexpressive solutions. And don't be fooled by the shiny chrome inserts - there's no real metal here anymore. The back of the case is made of plastic textured with small pimples with a metal coating - the surface is not easily soiled or too slippery. The side rim that connects all four edges has a smoother, slipperier finish, but also feels like metal. The entire front panel is entirely covered with scratch-resistant protective glass.
As for the dimensions, in general the smartphone remained approximately the same narrow, although this time the body height has become slightly smaller. Due to the small width of the case for such a large device, the smartphone fits well in the hand, and this is also facilitated by the small thickness and not too much weight of the device.
The Lenovo Vibe Z case is a candy bar with a non-removable back cover, hence the side slot method for installing SIM cards.
Both Micro-SIM cards are inserted into metal slides that can be pulled out using a key-clip, one after the other, like a holder, so there is only one cover on the case. There are no other slots provided here, because this modification of the model does not support memory expansion.
The landscape of the rear surface is made up of familiar elements: a slightly raised rectangular rear camera window, as well as a dual LED flash that shines quite brightly, and also has the ability to act as a flashlight with SOS mode - the corresponding software is already installed in the smartphone.
A long row of small holes are made in the lower chrome insert, forming a grille for the ringing speaker. Since the holes are located on the beveled part of the back surface, the sound is practically not blocked when the smartphone is lying on the table.
The front panel is completely covered with flat protective glass without edges, in which a slot is cut out on top for the speaker grille. Nearby you can see the eyes of the front camera and touch sensors. Below the screen there is a traditional row of touch-sensitive hardware control buttons, which have a dim and uneven whitish backlight.
The remaining hardware buttons are traditionally located on the sides of the device: on top there is a power and lock key, on the side there is a paired volume rocker. The buttons are small, barely protrude beyond the body, it is difficult to feel them blindly, and besides, the lock key here, in the worst traditions, is placed at the top end, where no finger can reach with such large dimensions of the case - you have to use a second hand.
In addition to the buttons, there are also universal connectors on the side edges of the device: an audio output with a diameter of 3.5 mm for headphones or a headset is embedded in the upper end, and a standard Micro-USB connector is embedded in the lower end.
Now about some useful little things that the developers did not forget to provide for: the Micro-USB connector here supports not only the OTG mode for connecting external devices (mouse, keyboard, flash drive), but also the USB 2.0 data transfer standard. And one more thing: obviously, realizing how difficult it is to reach the top power key every time, the developers have provided the ability to activate the device by also pressing the side paired volume key, which significantly straightens the situation. In addition, an event indicator light was placed at the top of the front panel - a bright dot shines in different colors directly from under the speaker grille, which is a huge plus regarding the ergonomics of the K900.
Finally, let's mention the color differences: the Lenovo Vibe Z is available in two color options, black and silver - we tested the latter. True, the developers themselves call their signature colors Titanium and Silver, trying to emphasize how similar the body of the new product is to real metal. Below are a few photos of what the Titanium version looks like in real life.
Screen
The Lenovo Vibe Z smartphone is equipped with a huge IPS touchscreen matrix with a wide aspect ratio. Its dimensions are 68x121 mm, diagonal - 5.5 inches, resolution - 1920x1080 pixels. The pixel density per inch here is 400 ppi, which is very good for a screen of such a huge physical size.
The thickness of the side frames from the edge of the screen to the edge of the body is approximately 4.5 mm - they definitely cannot be called too thin. The display brightness can be adjusted manually, or you can enable automatic adjustment - the corresponding checkbox is in place. Multi-touch technology here allows you to process up to 10 simultaneous touches. The smartphone also has a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear.
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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, there is an effective anti-glare filter, which in terms of reducing the brightness of the reflection is no worse than that of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (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 K910, then they can be distinguished by size and characteristic button icons):
At first glance, the darkness of the screens is the same, which is confirmed by statistics from the graphics editor - the differences are negligible, that is, both screens reduce the brightness of the reflection approximately equally. The ghosting of reflected objects on the K910's screen is very weak, indicating that there is no air gap between the layers of the screen. The outer surface of the screen has a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, but slightly worse than that of the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much more easily and appear at a slower rate than with regular glass.
When manually controlling the brightness and displaying the white field in full screen, the maximum brightness value was about 430 cd/m², the minimum was 16 cd/m². The maximum brightness is high, which means, given the effective anti-glare filter, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable level. There is automatic brightness adjustment based on the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front camera eye). In automatic mode, as external lighting conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. In complete darkness in automatic mode, the brightness is reduced to 16 cd/m² (you can still read), in an office illuminated by artificial light (approximately 400 lux) the brightness is set to 170 cd/m² (normal), in a brightly lit environment (corresponding to lighting on a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) - increases to 400 cd/m² (unfortunately, not to the maximum, and in conditions of maximum illumination the sensor may malfunction, which leads to an inadequate change in the brightness of the backlight). As a result, the auto-brightness function works more or less adequately, except in the case of very high external brightness. At any level of backlight brightness, its modulation is practically absent, which eliminates screen flickering.
This smartphone uses an IPS matrix. Microphotographs demonstrate a typical IPS subpixel structure (of this and other types of screens):
The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even with large viewing deviations from perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which identical images are displayed on the Lenovo K910 and Nexus 7 screens, with the screen brightness initially set to approximately 200 cd/m². There is a white field perpendicular to the screens:
In the case of the Lenovo K910, the brightness of the backlight (even with automatic adjustment disabled) changes depending on the nature of the image and, for some reason, over time, so it is better not to evaluate the lightness of the screens from this photograph, but the uniformity of brightness and the color tone of the white field can. The uniformity is good, the color tone is exactly different from the Nexus 7 screen tone (when photographing, the color balance is forced to 6500K). And a test picture:
Color reproduction is good and colors are rich on both screens, but the differences in color balance are more noticeable. 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 did not “float” on all screens and the contrast at an angle remained at a high level. And a white field (on a black and white template, on which we managed to achieve stable backlight brightness):
The brightness of the Lenovo K910 at an angle decreased a little more than in the case of the Nexus 7. When deviated diagonally, the black field is lightened weakly and acquires a red-violet tint or remains almost neutral gray. The photographs below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is the same for the screens!):
And from another angle:
When viewed perpendicularly, the uniformity of the black field is good, but not ideal:
The contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1030:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 20 ms (11 ms on + 9 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 31 ms. A gamma curve constructed using 32 points did not reveal any blockage in either the highlights or the shadows. The exponent of the approximating power function is 2.09, which is lower than the standard value of 2.2, while the real gamma curve deviates from the power law:
Due to the presence of an aggressive and seemingly chaotic dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness in accordance with the nature of the displayed image (in light images the brightness tends to increase, in dark images it tends to decrease) and over time, 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 display of shades of gray on the entire screen. For this reason, we carried out a number of tests - determining contrast and response time, comparing black illumination and white brightness at angles - when displaying special templates, and not monochromatic fields in the entire screen.
The color gamut is generally 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 noticeably higher than the standard 6500 K and the deviation from the blackbody spectrum (ΔE) is above 10, which is considered not a very good indicator even for a consumer device. However, the color temperature and ΔE change little from hue to hue, which has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance - the main thing is not to compare directly with a screen whose balance is closer to the standard one. (Dark 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.)
However, if you delve into the settings, you can find a tab where the user is asked to select the level of saturation and hue correction, as well as enable sharpening.
The latter does not cause a visible effect, saturation correction is performed simply by increasing or decreasing the color contrast without changing the gamut, so it is not of interest, but adjusting the color tone allows you to adjust the colors towards a lower color temperature, which in this case somewhat equalizes the color balance, and even ΔE decreases by two units and becomes on average less than 10 (option HUE=Warm in the graphs above).
Let's summarize: the screen has a high maximum brightness and an effective anti-glare filter, so you can use the smartphone without much difficulty even on a sunny summer day. 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, but in a very bright environment, you may have to resort to additional actions to ensure that the backlight is still guaranteed to increase to the maximum. The advantages of the screen include a good oleophobic coating, the absence of flicker and air gap in the layers of the screen, high contrast, sRGB coverage and high black stability to deviation of the gaze from perpendicular to the screen plane. The color balance, if you nitpick, gives rise to complaints, but without a standard for comparison, the color rendition of this screen is still visually good (even more so after correction). As a result, in most respects we have a very high-level screen.
Sound
In terms of sound, the smartphone is average; to be honest, there is nothing to praise here. And the low frequencies in the range are not enough, and wheezing can be seen at maximum volume. The speaker also somehow does not clearly and accurately convey all the intonations and timbre of the familiar voices of the interlocutors - there are distortions, the voice is at least muffled. On the other side of the wire, subscribers did not notice any distortion.
The smartphone comes standard with an FM radio, and there is also a voice recorder. By the way, the voice recorder can record a conversation from the line using standard means. True, tests have shown that only one side is clearly audible in the recording - the called party, and your own voice is practically not recognized. The radio will not work without headphones connected as an external antenna.
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Camera
Lenovo Vibe Z comes standard with two digital camera modules. The front camera here has a 5 megapixel sensor, shoots video with a maximum resolution of 1920x1080 and takes photos - 2592x1944; while shooting video, you can simultaneously take photos.
The main rear camera (with an f/1.8 lens) is equipped with a 13-megapixel module with autofocus, a two-section LED flash and the ability to shoot video in 1080p resolution. By default, the camera shoots in normal mode, in which the resolution is set to 10 megapixels; pictures are taken with a resolution of 4160x2340 (16:9). You can achieve the maximum resolution by manually setting the settings for shooting at a resolution of 13 megapixels, then the pictures will be taken with a resolution of 4160 × 3120 (4: 3).
Examples of photographs with our comments are presented below.
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The sharpness is not bad. The choice of exposure is quite a compromise. |
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Good sharpness and work with light. |
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The choice of exposure is quite strange. The background is out of focus. |
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In the cold, the camera shows “the world through the eyes of a myopic person.” Either the lens fogged up, or the autofocus froze. |
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Again there are problems with sharpness, as if the camera cannot focus at infinity. |
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The macro is quite decent. |
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The text is slightly damaged by software processing, but mostly the situation is spoiled by a drop in sharpness towards the edges. |
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Lighting ≈3200 lux. The camera does a good job. |
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Lighting ≈1300 lux. The situation gets worse largely due to autofocus errors. |
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Lighting ≈130 lux. Autofocus has improved a little. The resolution gradually decreases. |
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Lighting ≈130 lux, flash. The flash, oddly enough, only worsens the situation and overexposes the image. The camera doesn't control the flash well. |
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Lighting<1 люкс. В темноте камера не справляется. |
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Lighting<1 люкс, вспышка. Вспышка достаточно слабая, но все же помогает в темноте. |
The manufacturer did a good job when writing the camera application, cramming many modes and scenarios into it. The camera can even shoot animated GIFs, not to mention a variety of other fun effects for regular photos. But the quality of the module let us down. Of course, the conditions of the Russian winter are harsh for any camera, which to some extent justifies the quality of street shots, but bench shooting confirms the non-flagship quality of the module.
In addition to the blurry upper right corner of the frame, the camera can be criticized for many things. Sometimes she chooses the exposure strangely, although this could also be due to the type of metering. Areas of blur often appear, it is unclear what caused them. Too obvious sharpening is often noticeable. But the camera can be praised for its good work with noise - they are practically invisible. But still this is not the main thing. The camera produces completely successful photographs every once in a while: from the street photographs, only one good one can be distinguished, and it was taken from the window of a house. The main problem with the camera is poor autofocus performance. The photo of the text clearly shows that the camera sometimes makes mistakes with white balance. But she seems to be good at macro.
It's hard to recommend a camera like this for anything. Nevertheless, it is suitable for not too demanding documentary shooting in “comfortable” conditions, and sometimes for artistic shooting, but it is worth considering that the camera has a rather high probability of error.
The camera can shoot video; there are several resolutions to choose from, up to a maximum of 1920x1080. An example of a test video is presented below (video: MPEG4 Video (H.264) 1920×1080 30 fps 19.6 Mbps; audio: AAC 48 kHz stereo 153 Kbps).
- Video No. 1 (60.8 MB, 1920×1080)
Shooting a video can be done either by touching a special icon on the display or by pressing the volume key, which, when the video recording mode is activated, begins to be responsible for starting recording. But in photography mode, this key is responsible for digital zooming, so the shutter can only be released by pressing the icon on the screen. While recording video, you can simultaneously take photos.
Telephone and communications
The smartphone works as standard in modern 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks. In general, support for wireless networks is at a good level, the 5 GHz Wi-Fi range is supported, you can organize a wireless point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels, there is a Wi-Fi Direct mode, but there is no NFC support. The navigation module works with both GPS (with A-GPS) and the domestic Glonass system.
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There were no freezes or spontaneous reboots/shutdowns observed during testing. When you bring it to your ear, the screen is blocked by the proximity sensor. The light sensor controls the screen brightness level automatically. An LED sensor at the top of the front panel alerts you to incoming events and charging status.
The screen is large, so drawing letters and numbers on virtual keyboards is quite comfortable to control. The layout and location of the keys is standard: switching languages here is done by pressing a special button with a globe image; there is no dedicated top row with numbers - you will have to switch the layout each time. The keyboard for dialing a telephone number (DialPad) here has a fun additional feature called the Mercury keyboard: if you tilt the device to the side, the keys will “roll” to the “bottom” edge, and it will be more convenient to press them with the finger of the hand holding the smartphone. This function only works with the dialer.
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The smartphone supports working with two SIM cards, and in general, working with them in the menu is organized according to a familiar principle: you can assign each SIM card as the main one for organizing voice calls, transferring data or sending SMS messages; When dialing a number, you are also prompted to select any of the cards. In terms of data transfer, the first card supports 3G (WCDMA) mode, the second - only 2G (GSM). It is curious that both SIM cards always remain active, that is, you can receive calls on both at the same time or, by putting the conversation on hold, call somewhere from the other SIM card. Most likely, Dual SIM Dual Active (DSDA) technology is fully implemented here, when two separate radio modules are installed in the device - the same implementation has already been seen in the HTC One Dual SIM device.
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OS and software
Lenovo Vibe Z currently runs on the Google Android software platform version 4.2.2. The main feature of the proprietary user interface installed on top of the standard OS is the absence of an application menu. All icons of installed programs appear directly on the desktop, and it is possible to organize them using folders. Otherwise, everything is familiar: the notification menu has a convenient strip with icons for accessing the most popular functions; in the settings there is a separate menu dedicated to gesture control, and the energy saving section traditionally has several different profiles with a lot of preset modes for all modules and functions. But what’s unusual here is that a multi-window system has appeared, that is, you can simultaneously work with two different applications in small windows on the display. This is called MultiWindow, and the mode is configured by clicking on the translucent button floating along the right edge of the screen to call up a special submenu with the ability to select programs that will simultaneously open in small windows. You can only open two windows at a time, and the menu list can be changed and supplemented to your liking.
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Lenovo Vibe Z with support for two SIM cards will almost certainly not be officially supplied to the Russian market, but the model, of course, turned out to be very interesting and quite worthy for some users to bother purchasing this device from abroad. The problem is that in China itself, in local markets, manufacturers traditionally do not bother themselves with the need to pre-install a full set of proprietary Google applications - the so-called gapps. So a Russian buyer who ordered this smartphone with delivery from Asia may be unpleasantly surprised by the absence of even the usual Google Play application store, not to mention other Google programs - but the phone will have a lot of local Chinese analogues, mainly in hieroglyphs. Accordingly, here, as always in such cases, you will have to resort to the help of “traditional craftsmen”.
We took one of the simplest and most logical paths, which helped us quite easily and even without interfering with the original firmware, add Google branded applications to our Vibe Z and, if desired, obtain Root rights. The original instructions in English that we used can be found at. We will try here to briefly describe the steps we have taken, translating into Russian and adding explanations.
First you need to take the preparatory steps:
- We download three archives to the PC: (in this case - for Android 4.2.2), and an image for recovery.
- First, we connect the phone to the PC and install the driver (it is recorded in a special area of the phone’s memory, which is mounted like a CD drive - the instructions will be there). To do this, you simply need to cancel the standard Windows driver installer and run the installation from the mounted virtual CD drive. Important: by this time you need to have ADB and fastboot installed on your PC - all this is included in the Android SDK (you can also find them separately).
- Then we write into the phone’s memory (directly to the root) an archive with Google applications, and if Root rights are needed, then also SuperUser.
- On the PC, download the file containing the recovery image to any convenient folder and unpack it. This will be the cwm_recovery_custom.img file.
- We launch command line mode and go to the folder where the custom recovery image is unpacked from the archive.
- In command line mode on the PC, run the command: “adb devices”.
- If at the same time it displays “device: k910”, it means that everything is going according to plan, the device is correctly connected and recognized.
- We give the command: “adb reboot-bootloader”.
- The smartphone will reboot itself and go into recovery firmware installation mode.
- We give the command: “fastboot boot cwm_recovery_custom.img”.
- The standard Clockworks recovery menu will appear on the phone screen.
- Use the volume buttons to select “install from zip”.
- There we select in the phone memory (if you put the archives in the root, then this is the / folder) the archive with Google applications “gapps-jb-20130812-signed.zip” and then, if necessary, SuperUser (archive “UPDATE-SuperSU-v1.86 .zip".
- After this, you can immediately select the “reboot” option.
That's all! The original firmware is not affected, over-the-air (OTA) updates, Lenovo proprietary applications and, of course, the Play Store and other Google applications will work.
Possible problems and additions:
If there are problems with installing applications from Google Play (for example, the error “could not be downloaded due to an error (406)” is displayed), then you need to turn off the smartphone, hold down the “volume down” and the power button, wait until we get into recovery mode, and select “factory reset”. After a factory reset, Google and SU apps will not be removed if they are already installed.
Important: it is better to activate Lenovo Experience mode - our experience shows that when this mode is enabled, everything works more stable.
It is also recommended to remove unnecessary Chinese applications (using a utility like root remove), and simply disable those that cannot be removed. Lenovo Safe (antivirus-firewall-optimizer-etc.) can also be disabled if it's annoying.
Performance
The Lenovo Vibe Z hardware platform is based on a single-chip system (SoC) Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. The central processor here has 4 Krait 400 cores with a maximum frequency of 2.15 GHz. The processor is supported in graphics processing by the most modern video accelerator Adreno 330. The device has 2 GB of RAM, and the storage available to the user for downloading their own files is a little more than 12 GB of the nominally designated 16 GB. Support for memory cards is not provided in the smartphone version with two SIM cards (in the “single-carry” version it is), but it is possible to connect external media using the OTG (USB host) mode, so you can connect not only a mouse or keyboard to the smartphone , but also flash drives, which allows you to partially compensate for the lack of free memory.
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To get an idea of the performance of the platform of the smartphone under test, we will conduct a standard set of tests.
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 their “obstacle courses” on previous versions of test programs.
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The results obtained during testing quite naturally confirmed very high, almost maximum performance for a smartphone to date, similar to the performance of other most famous top-end flagship models of our time built on the same platform. The smartphone is extremely powerful; its capabilities will be more than enough for a long time to perform any of the most difficult tasks that can be imagined for a modern mobile gadget.
Test results in MobileXPRT, as well as the latest versions of AnTuTu 4.x and GeekBench 3
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Results of testing the graphics subsystem in the Epic Citadel gaming test
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.
Since the Micro-USB connector here supports USB-host (OTG) mode, a device with such a large, high-quality screen and very powerful hardware can be comfortably used as a multimedia processor. It is enough to connect any flash drive through the adapter, and you can play music, movies, and view photos directly from it. True, the standard player of a smartphone is not initially equipped with all the necessary hardware codecs for decoding; sometimes you will have to resort to the help of third-party solutions.
| Format | Container, video, sound | MX Video Player | Standard video player |
| DVDRip | AVI, XviD 720×400 2200 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
| Web-DL SD | AVI, XviD 720×400 1400 Kbps, MP3+AC3 | plays normally | plays normally |
| Web-DL HD | MKV, H.264 1280×720 3000 Kbps, AC3 | Hardware+ | |
| BDRip 720p | MKV, H.264 1280×720 4000 Kbps, AC3 | plays fine with decoder Hardware+ | The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹ |
| BDRip 1080p | MKV, H.264 1920×1080 8000 Kbps, AC3 | plays fine with decoder Hardware+ | The video plays fine, but there is no sound¹ |
¹ MX Video Player only played sound after switching to software decoding or a new mode Hardware+; The standard player does not have this setting
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 “Methodology for testing video playback and display devices. Version 1 (for mobile devices)
Note: If in both columns Uniformity And Passes Green ratings are given, this means that, most likely, when watching films, artifacts caused by uneven alternation and frame skipping will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect the viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with playback of the corresponding files.
According to the frame output criterion, the quality of playback of video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is high, since frames (or groups of frames) can be output with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without skipping frames. The smartphone can even display files with a resolution of 4K up to 30p inclusive. However, uniform alternation of frames is a relatively unstable state, since some external and internal background processes lead to periodic failure of the correct alternation of intervals between frames and even (very rarely) to the skipping of individual frames. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p), the image of the video file itself is displayed one-on-one, exactly along the border of the screen, but the image is cyclically shifted 1 pixel to the left with this strip displayed on the right side of the screen. In theory, this flaw can appear not only in test images. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - all gradations of shades are displayed in shadows and highlights.
Battery life
The capacity of the lithium-ion battery installed in the Lenovo Vibe Z is 3050 mAh, which is decent for a smartphone by modern standards. The battery here is non-replaceable, so you can’t remove it or replace it with another one. True, despite the fact that the battery capacity is comparable to top-end solutions from Samsung and LG, in terms of battery life, the Lenovo smartphone turned out to be far from these modern centenarians. The results of testing the Lenovo Vibe Z in the most common user scenarios were not a failure, but it did not reach records either.
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 until the battery was completely discharged in less than 12 hours, and when continuously watching videos from YouTube in high quality (HQ) with The device lasted about 8 hours at the same brightness level via a home Wi-Fi network - these are modest figures. In 3D gaming mode, the smartphone lasted only 3.5 hours, and this is generally the same as last year’s and the year before last models, when the battery capacities were not around the 3000 mAh mark, but about 2000 mAh.
Bottom line
In general, Lenovo’s new flagship smartphone turned out to be worthy: a very powerful platform and a huge screen with Full HD resolution allow us to talk about it as one of the most productive and at the same time the most compact and lightest tablets today. The new product even slightly exceeded in compactness the size of such a very elegant smartphone for its characteristics as the Galaxy Note 3. And in terms of thickness, the Lenovo Vibe Z has practically no equal among tablet phones. True, the design of the new flagship of the line has changed, compared to the previous flagship K900, beyond recognition and, unfortunately, not for the better. Now it is just another ordinary “remnant”, smoothly turned on all sides - it did not inherit any metallic sharp-angled brutality from its ancestor. It's a pity.
As for the price of the new product, there are two nuances in this issue. Firstly, it has already been practically confirmed that this smartphone will not reach Russian stores - at least in official deliveries. So everyone who is “hooked” by this newcomer today will have to obtain the device in other ways, fortunately now almost anyone can order their favorite new product through the appropriate Internet intermediaries directly from the Middle Kingdom. True, taking into account the latest decisions of the party and government, this must be done quickly. And the cost of such a purchase can turn out to be very “delicious”: abroad the price for Lenovo Vibe Z starts at about $550 excluding delivery. Like the previous K900 model, Lenovo offers its new flagship for a very good price - this is the second nuance that allows you to turn a blind eye to some shortcomings. Needless to say, this device is more than worthy of such a price, even if it costs a little more with delivery to Russia.
Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro has a 6-inch Quad HD display. In terms of its size, it belongs to the category of “phablets”. The manufacturer tried to compensate for the dimensions with a thin body and narrow frames, beveled side edges, but with such a diagonal it’s hard to “deceive” - it seems huge. Dimensions of the smartphone are 156×81×7.7 mm. By the way, of the new products of the year we tested, only the elongated iPhone 6 Plus is longer. The smartphone is quite heavy - 184 grams, the same weight as Huawei Mate 8. The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro is not designed for one-handed use; even just holding it in your hand is not that comfortable. We also note the location of the buttons, for example, the volume rocker is very high, it will be difficult for you to adjust the volume with one hand. While playing games, holding it with both hands, we occasionally pressed the touch buttons, which interfered with the gameplay.
The Lenovo K920 Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone has a thin metal textured body with thin side frames. On the back you can see an oblong plastic insert-strip, which is held on by screws. There is also a plastic insert at the bottom, fastened with screws. These plastic inserts (a feature of all-metal housings) are necessary for the antennas. In our opinion, they look awkward, especially with these screws, however, this is purely an amateur matter. However, we note that in the iPhone 6 they were “hidden” behind a pattern of lines. In this case, they simply stuck in a rectangular black strip of plastic, which contrasts in color with the brushed textured metal of the back. We should also say something about the camera lens: it sticks out significantly - you will have to be careful. It is protected by a red frame into which the surface of the lens is slightly recessed.
The build quality is generally at a high level, worthy of a flagship model made of metal.
Screen - 4.4
One of the advantages of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro is, of course, its six-inch display. The display resolution is 2560x1440 pixels, the matrix type is IPS, there is an oleophobic coating and protection in the form of Gorilla Glass 3. The pixel density per inch with such a “crazy” resolution is 490 pixels per inch. Of the ones we tested, only the displays of the LG G3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 were clearer, however, only due to the fact that the diagonals of these devices are slightly smaller.
One can argue for a long time whether such a huge resolution is necessary or is it overkill, but Lenovo posted a very successful demo video in 4K resolution on the smartphone, which looks amazing, the image detail is incredible - every small detail is clearly visible! The Vibe Z 2 Pro has one of the best screens we've seen. It has a high level of maximum brightness (up to 566 cd/m2), but at the same time the minimum is 70 cd/m2, which will be too bright for reading in the dark. We also note the natural color rendition and good behavior in the sun, which allows you to use the device without any problems even on a sunny day. The viewing angles of the display are wide, colors are not distorted at right angles and at deviations. Among the pluses, we note adequate auto brightness and smooth color balance adjustment.
Camera
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone has a 16 MP camera that allows you to take very clear pictures. The camera is equipped with dual LED flash, optical stabilization and features such as autofocus, HDR mode, smile face detection, panorama shooting and much more. If the camera in the previous Lenovo Vibe Z seemed unfinished to us, here it can be called excellent, comparable to one of the best cameras on the Samsung Galaxy Note 4. The only thing is that some frames turn out, in our opinion, a little dark.
The maximum photo resolution is 3456×4608 pixels. The camera has the ability to shoot 4K video, as well as slow motion. Audio is recorded in stereo mode. The camera interface is simple and clear, especially convenient for operation with one finger - you can press the button with your finger and turn the settings wheel in the desired direction.
The phone's 5 MP front camera is even more than what's needed for video calling. You will be able to shoot high-quality selfies and Full HD videos at 30 frames per second. By the way, one front camera here takes better pictures than the 5 MP cameras of many budget phones we tested.
Photo from camera Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro - 4.9
Working with text - 3.0
It is not clear why, but Lenovo did not “draw” a proprietary keyboard for its flagship - the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro uses a standard keyboard from Google. It has a function for continuous text input and a separate button for switching languages. True, you won’t find a separate key for the comma, and there is no marking of additional characters, but the top row of keys allows you to type numbers by holding down the key. Note that it would be nice to have a function for convenient “one-handed” text input, like some competitors, but for such cases there is only a “microscreen” mode, with the image on the display reduced. Also notable is the “live keyboard”, when the buttons on the keys are shifted towards the tilt of the smartphone.
Internet - 3.0
As a browser, the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone is pre-installed with Google Chrome with support for synchronizing tabs with the desktop version of the browser and Yandex Browser with a “Turbo” mode for fast loading pages, the ability to close tabs automatically when exiting the browser, etc. In both browsers There is no support for multiple page scaling and a separate reading mode, but you can manually, by double-clicking on the page, scale the text once - in this case, the text will be scaled to the size you pre-selected.
Interfaces
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone supports all popular wireless interfaces. Separately, we will note the presence of dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with support for the A2DP profile for audio transmission, work in Russian LTE frequencies (Cat 4 up to 150 Mbit/s), A-GPS with the ability to work with GLONASS. Among other things, Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro has an NFC chip. In general, a complete flagship set. The phone is equipped with a Micro-USB connector, however, we found it inconvenient to plug the corresponding plugs into it - sometimes they hardly fit into the connector.
The Micro-USB connector supports USB-OTG and MHL for connecting peripherals and transmitting high-definition video, respectively. In addition, the smartphone has two slots for Micro-SIM cards, but one radio module, which means that when talking on one of the SIM cards, you will not be available when there is an incoming call on the second.
Multimedia - 4.2
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro video player supports many common formats and codecs and plays video in high quality, up to 4K video. However, in our tests it was unable to run, for example, MOV and MKV video formats. There is no choice of subtitles or audio tracks in the built-in video player, as well as other functions. The audio player plays popular formats MP3 and AAC, as well as WAV, FLAC (the latter will have to be launched through the file manager).
Battery - 3.8
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone was equipped with a large battery with a capacity of as much as 4000 mAh! The Lenovo P780 we tested had the same capacity, and the Philips Xenium W6610 had 5300 mAh. We checked how quickly the device sat down in our tests. The phone played HD video at maximum brightness for about 8 hours 45 minutes, and lasted 97 hours while listening to music! If we compare it with the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the latter is a winner, despite the less capacious battery - it lasted much longer in the video test, but died a little faster in audio player mode. However, charging your smartphone may last you a couple of days of fairly intensive use. It came with a 1A charger that fully charged the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro in just under two and a half hours.
Performance - 4.4
The device uses the Qualcomm MSM8974AC Snapdragon 801 platform with a quad-core processor operating at 2.5 GHz, a graphics subsystem - Adreno 330, RAM - 3 GB. The hardware is one of the most productive today and can handle any load, from watching Full HD video to heavy games. We tested the performance of the chipset in everyday use. Thanks to shell optimization and powerful hardware, Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro worked quickly, and this applies to both built-in applications and any third-party programs. The smartphone can be considered as a gaming smartphone; in tests, the games NOVA 3 or Asphalt 8 loaded and ran easily. However, when actively browsing, the phone sometimes slowed down a little and froze, which, of course, is not good for a flagship model.
Memory - 2.5
The amount of internal memory in the Lenovo Vibe Z 2 Pro is 32 GB, approximately 25.6 GB is available to the user. Like the previous Vibe Z, there is no slot for a memory card and this is a significant disadvantage of the phone.
Peculiarities
The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro smartphone runs on Android 4.4.2 OS and Lenovo's proprietary shell. The company has completely changed the appearance of Android, redrawn the dialer, browser, and replaced the launcher and status bar. At the same time, it’s unusual that there is no separate menu with a list of all applications, and in order to unlock the display, you will need to pull the lock screen up, and not just move your finger. The smartphone also has separate “special” settings, where a lot of interesting things are hidden, for example, 3D gestures for control, a microscreen for comfortable one-handed operation, and much more. Among the features, we note the metal body of the smartphone, which gives the device a premium look.
A sophisticated phablet with a stunning 5.5” Full HD IPS monitor
The Lenovo Vibe Z K910 IdeaPhone smartphone is a real flagship “phablet”. It has an almost tablet-like screen in both size and quality, while thanks to its minimal frames and thinnest body it continues to be an extremely mobile gadget. 5.5 inches on an IPS matrix with ultra-clear Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) form such a clear and smooth picture that the effect of a three-dimensional display is created. Less than 8 mm thick and weighing 147 grams, it is difficult to find a more compact “tablet phone”. Oleophobic coating, Gorilla Glass 3 protective glass, OGS technology without an air gap - the best achievements of “screen design” are fully applied here. The designers also worked hard on the back panel. It is laser processed and has a very similar texture to fabric.
Snapdragon 800 - 4 fastest cores on the market
At the start of sales, the Lenovo IdeaPhone K910 Vibe Z smartphone is equipped with the most powerful processor on the market. Namely, a 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 with a frequency of each core of 2.26 GHz. Not all laptops can boast such performance! “Brain” is 75% faster than the previous S4 Pro series, and just as economical! New heights were achieved thanks to the completely asynchronous operation of the cores. Each of them is turned on only and precisely when the task requires it. On hand are 2 GB of RAM and an updated Adreno 330 graphics core. There is no mobile task that cannot be solved by this “monster” in the “blink of an eye”.
They promise fast support for LTE at maximum speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s
The hero of the description is equipped with all modern communications, including an NFC module, dual navigation with GLONASS and, most importantly, work in 4G networks. True, there is a small nuance: support for Russian LTE frequencies is promised to “arrive by air” in one of the next OTA firmware updates. At the time of description, apparently, the company is setting up software to provide mobile Internet speeds at the level of dual-band Wi-Fi (up to 150 Mbit/s). The implementation of such banalities as Bluetooth is probably not worth writing about.
Android 4.3 with a full set of all necessary programs to work out of the box
Lenovo IdeaPhone Vibe Z K910 runs the latest version of Android 4.3 OS with an updated interface, smart keyboard and separate user accounts. By the way, it’s very convenient if you’re not the only one using the phone. You will probably say a special “thank you” to the manufacturer for the complete set of programs. Here, in addition to the already regular clients for all popular social networks. networks have an advanced Evernote notebook, Kingsoft Office office suite, antivirus, Skype, Lenovo Cloud cloud storage and several games, including the mobile racing masterpiece Asphalt 7.
13 MP BSI camera with record sensitivity F1.8 + 5 MP front
Lenovo K910 IdeaPhone Vibe Z is equipped with advanced cameras. The rear is based on a 13 MP BSI matrix with coated, especially sensitive optics, which gives an F1.8 aperture - a record value on the market. There is autofocus, LED flash and the Smart Camera application. The latter not only provides high-speed shooting up to 99 frames in a row, but also improves photographs in automatic mode, optimizing color, eliminating noise, and improving the quality of faces in portrait shots. The rear and front cameras keep up. Not only that, its matrix is again a record in its class - 5 megapixels. So it is also wide-angle, with a coverage of 84 degrees. Self-portraits are not only clear, but also comprehensive, including not only all your friends, but also part of the street in both directions!
A serious processor needs a serious battery. At 3000 mAh
Naturally, the most powerful platform and huge screen consume electricity like crazy. Plus, the super speeds of fourth generation networks also require a lot of food consumption. And Android has never suffered from a lack of “appetite”. Therefore, engineers had to work hard to build the most “capacious” battery into such a thin case. And they succeeded. Lenovo K910 Vibe Z IdeaPhone has 3000 mAh at its disposal. This is a solid figure for any mobile device, let alone a mobile phone. With such a battery, you don’t have to worry that you won’t reach the outlet. It lasts for a full day without any problems.
We confess that we are a little late with our review of Lenovo Vibe Z. So much so that we’ve already had a sneak peek at its successor, the Vibe Z2 Pro. However, this chronology of events has one obvious advantage. The original “Vibe-Z” managed to drop in retail to a very “tasty” fifteen thousand rubles, and if you purchase it in various types and types of online stores, the smartphone can be sold for 10-12 thousand. Agree, this is quite a bit for a flagship-level gadget from a brand that may not be the most experienced in smartphone manufacturing, but is generally large and respected. So those readers who hear about Lenovo Vibe Z for the first time today will be pleasantly surprised.
We, in turn, will remind you that we have already managed to communicate with the gadget, albeit in a hurry. It was in Barcelona, at MWC 2014, from which we brought a two-minute story dedicated to Vibe Z. Before testing, we invite readers to watch it.
⇡ Appearance and ergonomics
The first thing that catches your eye when you get acquainted with a smartphone is its small dimensions. There is an unspoken rule in the mobile device market: flagship gadgets should be thin, and the Vibe Z was no exception. The thickness of its case is 7.9 millimeters - not a record, but quite a bit. The weight of the device is also small - less than one hundred and fifty grams.
Meet the Lenovo Vibe Z
Despite the rather large display - 5.5 inches, it is quite convenient to communicate with the device with one average human hand. This is partly achieved by taut forms, partly by thin frames around the display.
Lenovo Vibe Z - front panel
From an ergonomic point of view, most modern Android smartphones are like two peas in a pod. The only exception is the LG G2 and its successor, but that's a completely different story. In general, the layout of the keys on the Lenovo Vibe Z is standard. At the bottom of the front panel there are three dedicated backlit touch buttons: Menu, Home and Back. At the top there is a speaker, an event indicator and a front-facing 5-megapixel camera. The front panel of the smartphone is covered with protective glass Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which quite successfully protects it from scratches and other minor damage. We deliberately tried to scratch the surface, but it didn’t work.
Lenovo Vibe Z - rear panel
An unpleasant surprise was the refusal of Lenovo engineers to use aluminum, which was used in the predecessor of the Vibe Z - a smartphone with the internal index K900. The body of the new flagship is entirely plastic (but when developing its successor, the Vibe Z2, the designers returned to metal). The back panel is textured, thanks to which the gadget is pleasant to the touch and does not slip out of your hands, and does not get dirty - this, as you understand, is also very, very good.
Lenovo Vibe Z - official photo
The device's power key is located on the top end. Next to it is a universal 3.5 mm audio output for connecting a wired headset. The volume control buttons are located on the left side. All buttons are located quite conveniently - they are easy to reach when holding the smartphone in one hand.
Lenovo Vibe Z - Hardware Key Locations
The slot for a single micro-SIM card is located on the right side of the case. It opens with a regular paper clip. The micro-USB interface is located on the bottom side.
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Lenovo Vibe Z - side ends
The delivery package for the device is quite standard. Inside the box we found the following accessories:
- Charger from a 220 V network with a 1.5 A USB connector;
- USB ↔ Micro-USB data cable;
- In-ear headphones with a set of silicone tips of different sizes;
- Metal key for installing SIM card;
- Paper quick start guide.
Lenovo Vibe Z - equipment
In our opinion, the exterior of the K910L (internally called “Vibe-Z”) is quite successful. The device is assembled well - no suspicious play was found during testing. The only thing is that the plastic creaks a little when you squeeze the sides, but this is forgivable. Lenovo Vibe Z has two color options: Silver and Titanium. We were dealing with the second option, and what the silver one looks like can be seen in the official photo above.
