Lenovo Vibe X2 review: Rainbow of colors

Performance

The Lenovo Vibe X2 sports a MediaTek MT6595 chipset with four high-powered Cortex-A17 2.0GHz cores and four low-power Cortex-A7 1.7GHz cores for when you need to conserve battery. The only other phone to tout this chipset is the Meizu MX4, but there, the Cortex-A17 cores are set to run on to 2.2GHz. The RAM is at 2GB and the GPU is the PowerVR G600, so overall, we're looking at a very respectable hardware setup.

Before we proceed with the tests, we would like to note that we specifically checked whether the Vibe X2 cheats in the tests and it doesn't.

So, our first test inspects the raw CPU performance. In the multi-OS GeekBench 3 the Lenovo Vibe X2 tops the chart among its main rivals and also beats the Meizu MX4 by almost 100 points. In the similar AnTuTu 5 benchmark, the Vibe X2 is marginally slower than the Galaxy Alpha and the Meizu MX4.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  3647
• Meizu MX4
  3556
• HTC One (E8)
  3229
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  3214
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  3175
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  2984
• LG Nexus 5
  2453
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1171
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1106

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  51905
• Meizu MX4
  46922
• HTC One (E8)
  46857
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  46666
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  43676
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  19016
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  18245

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• LG Nexus 5
  1351
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  1324
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  1176
• HTC One (E8)
  1146
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  930
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  915
• Meizu MX4
  695
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  526
• Nokia Lumia 830
  478
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  452
• Nokia Lumia 735
  435

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• HTC One (E8)
  2579
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  2579
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  2573
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  2571
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  2409
• Meizu MX4
  1729
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1131
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1123

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  15096
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  13999
• Meizu MX4
  12268
• HTC One (E8)
  10219
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  9948
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  9508
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  5001
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  4887

As mentioned, the Lenovo Vibe X2 employs a PowerVR G600 GPU, but it managed only mediocre 1080p offscreen results in GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan tests. Unsurprisingly, its results are quite close to the Meizu MX4, but since Meizu has opted for a higher clock speed of its chipset components, it offers better results.

Gaming benchmark Basemark X gives the Vibe X2 a score lower than the Motorola Moto X (2014) and Samsung Galaxy Alpha, but most games will be upscaled anyway. You won't run into any gaming issues with the Vibe X2.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  31.3
• HTC One (E8)
  28
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  27.6
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  26.6
• LG Nexus 5
  23
• Meizu MX4
  22.7
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  17.8
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  6
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  5.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  13.4
• HTC One (E8)
  12.3
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  11.6
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  11.4
• Meizu MX4
  7.9
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6.1
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1.7

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  11855
• LG Nexus 5
  11638
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  11065
• Meizu MX4
  8324
• Lenovo Vibe X2
  6512
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  3142
• HTC One (E8)
  3063

In terms of web browsing, the Lenovo Vibe X2 did a great job at Kraken 1.1 where it beat the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and Xiaomi Mi4 despite running Android 4.4.2 KitKat. It also topped the BrowserMark 2.1 chart, which we're pretty sure is a direct result of Lenovo opting in for the latest version of Chrome.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  4747
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  4911
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  6137
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  6209
• HTC One (E8)
  6460
• LG Nexus 5
  7148
• Meizu MX4
  9408
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  15988
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  16129
• Nokia Lumia 830
  26542
• Nokia Lumia 735
  26913

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Lenovo Vibe X2
  2211
• Motorola Moto X (2014)
  1600
• Samsung Galaxy Alpha
  1364
• HTC One (E8)
  1362
• LG Nexus 5
  1286
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1085
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  883
• Xiaomi Mi 4
  744
• Meizu MX4
  720
• Nokia Lumia 735
  625
• Nokia Lumia 830
  599

Overall, we are more than happy with the performance of the Lenovo Vibe X2. It's a snappy hardware and it handles the user interface operations and even demanding applications and games quite well. MediaTek has come a long way and we feel the MT6595 chipset with an octa-core CPU is its strongest silicon to date.

We can only assume that if Lenovo updates the Vibe X2 to Android 5.0 Lollipop, we'll not only see a slight boost in performance, but also some nice optimizations resulting in better battery life. Get to work, Lenovo.