Lenovo P2 review: Charge & Go

Introduction

With or without a Vibe (in its name), the P2 is a Lenovo purebred and a worthy successor to the acclaimed midrange Vibe P1. It offers an even higher battery capacity fitted inside a thinner and lighter body. And when we say higher capacity, we mean some incredible 5,100 milliamp hours worth of battery juice.

The P2 is not just about autonomy or slimness, not the least. Lenovo has improved pretty much every aspect of the P1. There is nothing better than a vivid Super AMOLED screen to up the game. Camera buffs will notice an improved 13MP main camera with a wider aperture, and there is now 4K video capturing.

The processor also got a nice bump - there is now a power-efficient Snapdragon 625 in charge of the whole thing, and there is more RAM to go with it, too.

Lenovo P2 key features

• 5.5" Super AMOLED screen of 1,080 x 1,920px resolution; 401ppi; Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• Body measuring 153 x 76 x 8.3 mm and weighing in at 177g
• Snapdragon 625 chip: octa-core Cortex-A53 @ 2.0GHz, Adreno 506 GPU; 3GB/4GB of RAM
• 32GB/64GB of storage; hybrid microSD card slot (uses SIM slot 2)
• Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
• 13MP main camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, dual-tone LED flash; 2160p@30fps
• 5MP front-facing camera
• Front-mounted always-on fingerprint reader in the Home button
• Dual-SIM; Cat. 6 LTE support; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 4.1 LE; NFC; GPS; FM radio
• 5,100mAh battery; Rapid Charging support (0 to 48% battery capacity in just 30 mins)
• microUSB port, USB OTG support

Main shortcomings

• Generic design
• Hybrid card slot limits options

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses. The design is boxy, and on the outside, the phone doesn't seem to have any personality to speak of. The 5MP selfie snapper comes straight from the Vibe P1 specs sheet. The Android version is not the most recent one, and by the time the Android 7.0 is out, it might be time for Android 8.0. Feature-wise, however, Lenovo has added plenty of custom features to the stock experience, so at least there is that.

Our most favorite thing about the Lenovo P2 (besides its battery capacity), however, must be its price tag. While not cheap in absolute terms, the P2 has a rather competitive price point for a device with 4K video recording and a power-efficient Snapdragon 625 chipset. That's especially true for a device from a manufacturer with such a wide distribution and support network across the world.

Lenovo P2 is shaping up as a solid mid-range offer and who knows, there might be more to this blocky fellow than the unimaginative looks reveal at first glance. We are more than eager to get surprised, and we're looking forward to discovering more about the P2 on the following pages.