The Lenovo Phab 2 was announced this month along with two other devices. This unanimous announcement includes a budget device, a mediocre device and a flagship high achiever all of which belong to the Phab 2 bloodline and go by the names of Phab 2, Phab 2 Plus and Phab 2 Pro respectively. Here’s how Lenovo’s cut the price tag short on its Phab 2:
Build:
The device is in every way a budget smartphone and fits its price tag. Its body provides a cheap all plastic experience rivalled to aluminum body of Plus and a metallic unibody of the Pro. Just like the name suggests, it is a phablet with a 6.4 inch display like its bigger siblings. It is 175 x 89.5 x 9.6 mm in dimensions and weighs about 225 g. It will be available in two colors: Gunmetal Grey, Champagne Gold; just like Plus and Pro upon its release.
Software:
This device comes with an Android 6.0 marshmallow android software patched atop with Lenovo’s skin which does it no justice. It won’t come as a surprise if this skin slows your phone down. There’s a whole lot of bloatware always on the ready to sneak its way into your free RAM.
Memory:
Speaking of which this phone comes with 3GB RAM. It will have 32 GBs of internal storage and will have an option for additional expandable storage up to 256GBs.
Camera:
The rear cam is a 13 MP shooter with all the required necessities. The secondary front cam is a 5MP selfie shooter. Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, panorama, phase detection autofocus etc. are some perks that accompany these cameras. The rear cam is accompanied by a single LED flash that sits beneath it.
Speakers and Mics:
The sound quality on this device is exceptional though; just like its siblings. Lenovo’s dealings with Dolby are finally being apparent and we expect to see more mashups in the future. It comes with 3 mics that support active noise cancellation. Dolby Atmos and Dolby Digital Audio Capture 5.1 are incorporated into this device which is not bad considering this is a budget device.
Display:
The display is an IPS capacitive touchscreen with 16M colors. The 6.4 inch front panel has a 72.1% screen to body ratio and it does not come with Gorilla Glass protection or shatterproof technology which is not entirely forgivable. But if the bigger better siblings were not given this protection it was a given that so wouldn’t a much meagre device. It has 229 pixel per inch pixel density rivalled with 324 of the Plus and 459 of the Pro and it supports multitouch.
Sensors:
It has just the necessary amount of sensors to help with gaming and some simple phone functions. These include: accelerometer, gyro, proximity and compass. We see the cut of a few bucks pronounced as an unavailability of fingerprint sensor on this device.
Hardware:
It has a Mediatek MT8735 chipset and no GPU which we think is a major deal breaker. How this device will be able to cope with strenuous graphics remains a mystery to us. It does however come with an extra micro-sim slot to provide dual sim functionality.
Battery:
One of the few commendable features on this device is its big battery. Lenovo has made rightful use of all the space this phablet had to offer in giving you a whopping 4050 mAh battery. Also don’t worry about the screen size being a drain on battery because it is not that pixel rich. With normal use, consumers may get a little over 2 days on a full charge which is more than what people require these days. Sadly, it does not come with quick charge like the Pro but who needs that when you have a 4050 mAh battery?
Final Verdict:
We think that at 200$ it may be appropriate for some Phablet lovers if not all of them. If you’re all in for gaming then this might not be the phone for you. We suggest you check out the Pro if gaming is all you need. That phone would give you all the gaming experience an Adreno 510 GPU chipset can offer. Also it lets you tweak your surroundings by creating an augmented reality which means you’re essentially getting a HoloLens in your phone.
However if you’re not a gamer, and you’re just looking for a phone that’ll help you see videos in a bigger screen and provide ample screen on time, then this might be the right phone for you.