Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro review: Expanding universe

Performance

Under the hood of the Vibe Z2 Pro ticks a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset (MSM8974AC) with a 2.5GHz quad-core Krait 400 CPU and an Adreno 330 GPU clocked at 500MHz. There's also 3GB of RAM, which is plenty even if you are running multiple heavy apps simultaneously.

The Krait 400 CPU architecture has proven to be fast in almost every use case. However, the QHD resolution of the 6" IPS display is going to make the Adreno 330 GPU sweat a bit in the GPU-based benchmarks.

So, our first test inspects the raw CPU performance. In the multi-OS GeekBench the Vibe Z2 Pro slid just under the iPhone 6 Plus, the Galaxy Note 4 and some way behind the Huawei Ascend Mate7, which employs the Kirin 925 chipset with four 1.8GHz Cortex-A15 cores.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  3165
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2925
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  2884
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  2709
• OnePlus One
  2663
• LG G3 - EU version
  2563

The compound Antutu 5 saw the Vibe Z2 Pro place behind the Snapdragon 805-powered Galaxy Note 4, but ahead of the Ascend Mate7.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  46824
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  42460
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  41510
• LG G3 - EU version
  39905

Basemark OS saw the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro slide lower down the ranks as its QHD screen takes its toll on the chipset.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  1222
• OnePlus One
  1196
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  1181
• LG G3 - EU version
  1126
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  1120
• Nokia Lumia 1520
  1116
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  830

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4031
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2588
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  2334
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  2216
• LG G3 - EU version
  2213
• OnePlus One
  2213

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  15012
• OnePlus One
  10234
• LG G3 - EU version
  9611
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  9604
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  9446
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  9332

The Adreno 330 GPU inside the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro managed average 1080p offscreen results in GFXBench's 2.7 T-Rex and 3.0 Manhattan tests. As expected it's on par with the LG G3, which also features a QHD display and the same GPU.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  44.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  41.7
• OnePlus One
  28.3
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  27.2
• LG G3 - EU version
  27.2
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  16.4

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  30
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  26.4
• LG G3 - EU version
  20.5
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  19.5
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  17.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18.6
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18.5
• OnePlus One
  12.1
• LG G3 - EU version
  11.4
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11.3
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus One
  12.9
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  11.2
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  8.5
• LG G3 - EU version
  7.2
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6.9

Gaming benchmark Basemark X gives the Vibe Z2 Pro a score some way off the leaders, showing that a high-res screen like that could have done with a more potent GPU.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  18684
• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  18297
• OnePlus One
  13129
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  11875
• LG G3 - EU version
  11552
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  6501

In terms of web browsing, the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro did a great job at Kraken 1.1 where it beat the iPhone 6 Plus and the Galaxy Note 4. However, its HTML performance wasn't up to scratch and in BrowserMark 2.1, the Lenovo flagship came behind the LG G3.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  4650
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  5351
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  5567
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  6072
• LG G3 - EU version
  6987
• OnePlus One
  7008

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6 Plus
  3389
• Samsung Galaxy Note 4
  2208
• Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro
  1543
• LG G3 - EU version
  1474
• OnePlus One
  1339
• Huawei Ascend Mate7
  795

Overall, the Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro doesn't outshine its competitors in most benchmarks. However, it's real life performance is more than satisfactory and in general usage the phone's chipset doesn't skip a beat. Very rarely were there any stutters in the UI, but we're sure those instances were from unpolished software code. In any case, there's still more for Lenovo to polish from its Vibe 2.0 UI and we're sure it will deliver in the months ahead.