Review of Lenovo Vibe Z - a fast-firing flagship. New middle class: review of the Lenovo Vibe Z2 smartphone Lenovo vibe z k910 mobile phone

Vibe Z2. This creation of the Chinese manufacturer appeared on the mobile device market not so long ago. We’ll actually talk about the device itself in more detail a little later, and we’ll start the article with a short introduction to the history of the creation of the flagship.

About Lenovo

We all remember very well that the manufacturer Lenovo bought out the Motorola Mobility company, after which it solemnly made a promise in which it mentioned its plans to divide the smartphone market. More specifically, the Chinese company decided, if you can call it that, to crush several segments under itself in order to ensure sustainable dominance over other companies. At the same time, as expected, Lenovo declared strong ambitions: it wanted to take no less than third place in sales at a minimum. The Chinese company did not even intend to reckon with bronze instead of (minimal!) bronze. This option was not even considered de facto.

Despite such seemingly prohibitively ambitious performances, the company has every chance to make its desire come true. Currently, there are official data that can tell us that Lenovo closes the top five leaders in the smartphone market. Don't you think that this is really a result that is worth our attention? Nevertheless, we will evaluate the manufacturer’s success soberly. Of course, the bulk of the devices sold are sold in China. On the territory Russian Federation Devices classified as the A-series are more popular. A shift in the situation began when a series of flagships called Vibe appeared on the horizon.

Analysis of models

A stripped-down version of the flagship has already been released. Many people call her Lenovo Vibe Z2 Mini, however, it is best to remove the last word from the name, because this is how official sources and representatives of the Chinese company position it. There are probably practical reasons for this. In fact, answer just one question: can a phone equipped with a 5.5-inch screen be called Mini? It will look illogical to say the least. However, this word still appears in the device index. That is, it is called like this: K920 Mini. But it’s much easier to present the device simply under the name Vibe Z2, which is what we see.

The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Titanium smartphone got its name due to the use of exclusively metal materials in its design. Before us is a device that has a thickness of only 7.8 millimeters and is equipped with a fairly powerful and high-quality camera (with built-in optical stabilization function). Otherwise, it should be noted that there is support for two SIM cards, the presence and operation of a 64-bit processor from the Qualcomm family, powerful battery, whose capacity is 3,000 mAh. The cost of the device is 20 thousand rubles. But the price is justified, since prices for everything are currently increasing mobile devices. Meanwhile, we move on to a more detailed analysis.

Connection

The subject of our today's review is equipped with a large number of the most different modules, and now we will talk about them in more detail. So, the phone operates in the GSM, UMTS, and LTE bands. The latter actually means open access To cellular networks fourth generation. Well, in principle, for a device corresponding price segment This is the rule rather than the exception. 4G networks will allow the phone owner to exchange data and Internet traffic at increased speed. Now you can download and upload pictures, music, videos and movies faster. Let’s not forget that interaction with the browser and web pages in it will be faster.

International network

By the way, about the Internet. Access to it is provided through 3G and 4G standards. GPRS and EDGE options are available. But, of course, the first two are preferable. There is a built-in modem. If necessary, you can create a point Wi-Fi access. Other users who have modules in their devices will be able to connect to it wireless communication. These can be smartphones on different operating systems, tablet computers and laptops. It will also be possible to connect to the access point from a computer, but only if you have installed LAN card with Wi-Fi module.

Bluetooth technology allows you to exchange files with other devices. Here its module is equipped with version 4.0. Wi-Fi operates in b, g, and n bands. If you are actively using email to exchange messages with other users, you will probably use the built-in E-mail client. You can synchronize your smartphone with a computer or laptop using a MicroUSB - USB 2.0 cable.

Display

The screen diagonal in Lenovo Vibe Z2 is 5.5 inches. The display matrix is ​​made using IPS technology. This means that the user will not need to think particularly about whether his vision is deteriorating. IPS technology reduces eye strain, allowing long reading times e-books from the device screen even in night mode with minimally activated backlight. Our screen resolution is 1280 by 720 pixels. Thus, the picture is displayed on the display in HD quality. Up to 16 million colors are transmitted. Color rendition is generally good; fonts and images do not fade in the sun. There is a good reserve of brightness. Touch type. There is a multi-touch function. It handles multiple simultaneous touches. To further protect the screen, you can purchase cellular communications case for Lenovo Vibe Z2.

Cameras

The resolution of the main camera of the device is 13 megapixels. The device takes very good pictures, and the user has the opportunity to change the settings as he sees fit. Pictures are obtained in a resolution of 4128 by 3096 pixels. As mentioned earlier, the device is equipped with optical image stabilization. The case for Lenovo Vibe Z2 allows you to protect the device from mechanical damage, but does not cover the flash located on the side of the main camera lens. LED flash with good power. Video shooting is carried out in a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Frame rate - 30 frames per second. Additional camera located on the front side of the phone, its resolution is 8 megapixels. Selfie lovers will definitely appreciate it.

Chipset

The hardware is represented by a Qualcomm family processor. This is a model called MSM8916. The chipset contains four cores at once, which ensure smooth operation of the operating system. Their maximum clock speed is about 1.2 gigahertz.

Memory

The amount of RAM is 2 gigabytes. Let’s not forget that part of it is taken by the jealous and extremely greedy operating system of the Android family. 32 gigabytes of non-volatile memory are available for storing user data. In principle, this is not so little. The volume can be filled with any files, be it e-books, games or applications, cache programs, music, videos or movies. It doesn't matter, in general.

Conclusion and reviews

What can the owners of this model tell about its pros and cons? According to reviews from buyers of the device, it has the following advantages:

• good main camera with optical stabilization;
• excellent front camera with a resolution of 8 megapixels;
• exclusively metal thin body;
• work with two SIM cards;
• large amount of long-term memory;
• powerful battery.

At the same time, the owners of the device talk about the presence of some minor and major shortcomings. For example, many users noted that the resolution with such a diagonal could have been higher. Otherwise, phone owners highlight the following disadvantages:

• lack of a slot for an external MicroSD drive;
• protruding lens of the main camera.

Chinese industrial giant Lenovo is a well-known player in the global IT market. The company's capitalization reaches $34 billion, and the number of employees is 54,000 people who work in 60 countries. Lenovo products are represented in more than 160 countries around the world. On this moment the company is a world leader in production personal computers. However, it does not stop there and is extremely active and quite successfully storming other market segments. This is evidenced by a report for the second quarter of 2014 from analysts with IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, according to which Lenovo managed to take fourth place in the global smartphone market, overtaking the Korean company LG and approaching its compatriots Huawei. At the same time, Lenovo achieved even greater success in the Ukrainian market, becoming the undisputed leader in the smartphone segment with a market share of 31.5%. This became possible thanks to the wide model range and a fairly good price/feature ratio. In total, the company has five lines of smartphones, which have their own index: “A” - affordable solutions; “P” - professional models for work; "S" - stylish smartphones for fun; “K” - premium and ultra-thin devices; "Vibe" - powerful and sophisticated smartphones. This variety allows the consumer to choose the optimal model for their own needs and wallet.

This time we are testing flagship smartphone- equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display, a high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, a 13 MP main camera and a number of others, no less interesting features, which we will discuss in detail below. We suggest starting the review of the new product with technical characteristics:

Manufacturer
Type, form factor	Smartphone, monoblock
Communication standards			850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
			850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
High speed data transfer	GPRS (32-48 Kbps), EDGE (236 Kbps), HSDPA+ (up to 21.6 Mbps), HSUPA (up to 5.76 Mbps)
SIM card type
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974): 4 Krait 400 cores, up to 2.2 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 28 nm HPm process technology
Graphics adapter	Adreno 330, up to 450 MHz
	IPS, 5.5", 1920 x 1080 pixels (400 ppi), touch, capacitive, multi-touch up to 10 touches, Corning protective glass Gorilla Glass 3
RAM
Persistent memory
Card reader
Interfaces	1 x 3.5mm mini-jack audio jack
Multimedia	Acoustics
	Microphone
	Main	13 MP (Sony Exmor RS), 1/3" format BSI sensor, f/1.8 aperture, electronic image stabilization, autofocus, dual led flash, video recording in 1080p 30 fps format
	Frontal	5 MP, fixed focus, viewing angle 84°, video recording in 1080p 30 fps
Communication capabilities		Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4 / 5 GHz) (Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Hotspot)
	Proximity sensor, Light sensor, LED indicator, accelerometer, digital compass, gyroscope
Battery	Lithium polymer, non-replaceable: 3000 mAh
Charger	Input: 100~240 VAC eg at 50/60 Hz Output: 5 VDC e.g. 1.5 A
	149 x 77 x 7.9 mm
	Silver
operating system	Android 4.4.2 KitKat
User interface	Lenovo Launcher 5.0.804
Official guarantee	12 months
Products webpage

Delivery and configuration

In the kit you will find everything you need to fully work with your smartphone:

• user guide;
• warranty card;
• Charger(5 V, 1.5 A);
• micro-USB↔USB cable;
• SIM card tray clip;
• headset with vacuum design headphones and replaceable ear pads.

Appearance, arrangement of elements

Despite the fact that Lenovo Vibe Z belongs to the new Lenovo Vibe line, it is a direct successor to Lenovo K900, as evidenced by another model name - Lenovo K910L. But due to such disruption, the new product is quite different from its predecessor. Therefore, instead of a metal case with strict straight shapes and sharp corners, we see a classic candy bar with slightly rounded corners and beveled edges. In addition, the body is now completely plastic - there is no metal here. Despite this, the new product looks quite interesting and beautiful. The effect is enhanced by the pleasant tactile sensations of working with a smartphone. In addition, Lenovo Vibe Z has become noticeably more compact than the Lenovo K900, although slightly thicker: 149 x 77 x 7.9 mm versus 157 x 78 x 6.9 mm, respectively. And the weight has become somewhat less (147 g versus 162 g). Note that reducing the height of the smartphone by almost 1 cm has a positive effect on the ease of use.

A positive feature of the new product, like the entire first-generation Lenovo Vibe line (new models in the line that were presented at IFA 2014 have already been announced), is its design. It has a black front panel with relatively small frames (on the sides - 3 mm; on top - 9.5 mm; on the bottom - 12.5 mm; excluding edging), covered with strong tempered glass Corning Gorilla Glass 3, combined with metal-look edges "(the side edges have a polished pattern, and the areas that cover the bottom of the front and back are simply chrome-plated) and the back is made of gray plastic, which has a fine relief texture. There is a small plastic border along the contour of the screen, which additionally protects the glass from damage.

Above the display are located: a speaker grid, proximity/light sensors, a front camera and the company logo. The event indicator is located under the earpiece grille, which is a rather practical solution. It flashes green when there are calls or alerts, red when charging, and green when the battery is full. Below the display there is a main microphone and three touch buttons, which are made in Lenovo’s corporate style: “Menu” (holding opens the “Running Application Manager”), “Home” (holding opens the Google Now) and “Back” (holding opens multi-window mode). They are displayed only when the screen is active and have a not very uniform white backlight, the duration of which can be adjusted in the settings. But turning it off or changing the brightness will not work.

At the top end there is a “Power/Lock” button and a universal audio jack (mini-jack 3.5 mm). We note that the location of the “Power/Lock” button is not very good, since due to the size of the smartphone you need to reach for it or use your other hand. But the manufacturer has somewhat simplified this task by providing the ability to wake up the new product using the “Volume” button. And you can lock your smartphone by simply shaking the device in one plane (the “Shake-lock” function) or double-tapping in a free area of ​​the screen (the “Gesture settings” item), which greatly simplifies the user’s life. The bottom end contains only a micro-USB connector.

The right side contains a tray for a SIM card in Micro-SIM format. Note that there is a version of the smartphone with two SIM cards, but it is not represented on our market. On the left side there is a double volume rocker.

The non-separable rear side of the Lenovo Vibe Z is made of non-marking, although slightly slippery, plastic. At the top are: a door peephole of the main chamber, framed in a chrome edging that barely rises above the body; two-section LED flash (flashlight software is present) and a second microphone hole. Below is the Lenovo company logo. Only at the very bottom is a slightly beveled perforated area of ​​the multimedia speaker, which has a chrome finish. During use, it actively collects fingerprints and abrasions. It should be noted that the new product is available in two color variations: silver and black (Silver and Titanium according to the manufacturer’s terminology).

The smartphone, as befits a flagship, is assembled very well and feels monolithic: without any gaps or backlash. The body is characterized by excellent rigidity: it does not bend or change its geometry under moderate torsion. Smudges appear on the display, but to do this you need to press the glass quite hard.

Overall, the Lenovo Vibe Z fits quite comfortably in the hand and looks nice, although the size does take its toll. Therefore, it is more convenient to hold the smartphone in the left hand - then the volume rocker is under the thumb, which makes it possible to quickly unlock the new product. With some skill, it can be operated with one hand when performing daily tasks, but you will have to change your grip.

The Lenovo Vibe Z smartphone is equipped with an IPS touch matrix (manufactured by Japan Display Inc.) made using OGS technology (without an air gap between components), which has a positive effect on image brightness and maximum viewing angles. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which has a relatively good anti-glare filter and an excellent oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating. Thanks to the latter, the fingers glide quite well and easily and there is no accumulation of fingerprints. And those that appear are easily removed.

The resolution of the 5.5-inch screen is 1920 × 1080 (Full HD). At the same time, the pixel density is 400 ppi, which is more than enough to obtain a fairly detailed image and display very smooth fonts. It is hardly possible to examine individual pixels, even with a strong desire.

The Lenovo Vibe Z display is bright, colorful, contrasty and with quite pleasant color reproduction, although with some shift color temperature towards cool shades (with basic settings). Thus, the level of green is noticeably higher than the red and blue shades. But thanks to the settings present, you can adjust the level of color saturation, shades and sharpness. For example, by setting the tint to “Warm”, you can eliminate the mentioned drawback as much as possible. Thanks to this, each user will be able to adjust the display to their own taste.

The screen brightness can be changed manually or automatically adjusted. The maximum brightness is not a record, but it should be quite enough to view information on a sunny day. But the minimum level is quite comfortable for working in the dark. The proximity sensor locks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to process up to 10 simultaneous touches. There are no complaints about her work. Only the sensitivity seems a little too high, which is why sometimes erroneous actions are performed. For example, scrolling through desktops in the wrong direction with a slight accidental movement of the finger.

Sound

As already mentioned, Lenovo smartphone Vibe Z is equipped with only one speaker, which is located on the slightly sloping lower part of the back side. Thanks to this placement, the sound is not muffled if the gadget lies on a hard horizontal surface.

The multimedia speaker is quite good and very loud, but the reproduced range includes only mid and high frequencies (the latter are even a little oversaturated), but there are almost no low frequencies. Only occasionally does a slight hint of bass leak through. Despite this, its capabilities are quite sufficient for games, watching videos, calls and notifications.

The sound in the headphones is very pleasant (tested on Kingston HyperX Cloud gaming devices with an impedance of 60 Ohms and Technics RP-F600 monitors with an impedance of 56 Ohms). In both cases the volume is more than sufficient even at 40-50%. Sound detail is good, but high frequencies noticeably dominate over others, which can be leveled out using equalizer settings. The latter is present in the standard Music application.

The smartphone has a built-in radio module that allows you to listen to and record FM radio stations operating in the frequency range from 87.5 to 108 MHz. Traditionally, to turn on the radio, you must connect a headset, which is used as an antenna. A standard voice recorder is useful not only for creating audio notes, but can also record telephone conversations off the line.

The complete vacuum type headset has a flat wire (noodle type) that does not tangle. It is equipped with replaceable silicone ear pads. If we talk about sound quality, it is at a fairly good level: a wide frequency range with a considerable volume reserve. Although, again, with a predominance high frequencies, which is most likely due to the use of a specific audio codec.

During testing of the earpiece speaker, no shortcomings were found: the quality of speech transmission is clear, moderately loud (depending on the operator and the interlocutor’s phone) and with quite pleasant sound detail.

Camera

Lenovo Vibe Z is equipped with two digital cameras. Unlike last year's flagship, which had a 2 MP front camera, the new product received a 5 MP sensor and a lens with an f/2.0 aperture, fixed focus and a viewing angle of 84°. The camera is capable of capturing photos and videos with a resolution of 2592 × 1944 and Full HD, respectively. When you shoot video, you can take photos.

The created images are of fairly high quality for a front camera, so its capabilities should be quite sufficient for creative self-portraits and video calling. The only thing missing is autofocus: sometimes the pictures are out of focus. If we talk about the quality of the video, it is also worthy of praise, as is the resulting sound.

The main camera migrated from the Lenovo K900, so we have the familiar 13-megapixel module (Sony Exmor RS), a 1/3" BSI sensor and a lens with an f/1.8 aperture. Autofocus, dual LED flash and digital stabilization have not disappeared anywhere (available only when shooting video) Photos have a resolution of 4096 x 3072 (13 MP) at a 4:3 aspect ratio and 4096 x 2304 (9 MP) at a 16:9 wide aspect ratio Video is shot at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (30 FPS ) and is in mp4 format.When shooting video, you can capture photos.

I would immediately like to praise Lenovo, which managed to significantly improve the software algorithms for processing data from the sensor, thanks to which the resulting photographs deserve high marks. Under favorable conditions, photographs are characterized by very good detail with excellent color reproduction and adequate white balance. The “HDR” mode looks especially nice, which significantly expands dynamic range the resulting image in low light conditions. The only complaint is that the autofocus is quite slow, especially in low light conditions.

As for video recording, under favorable conditions it can boast of sufficient picture quality, both in terms of detail and color rendition. Only with sound recording there is a small problem: if the video is shot in fairly loud places, then the noise reduction system tries to muffle the noise, which negatively affects the quality of the recorded material. Electronic stabilization does a good job of its intended purpose: reducing shaking and improving video smoothness.

The camera software is proprietary and exactly the same as last year’s flagship. The application is called Lenovo SNAPit, version 3.5.6. More detailed information can be found in the Lenovo K900 review. We will only note the fairly wide possibilities for customization and a considerable list of available effects and modes. Among the latter, we should highlight: “Standard” (“Panorama”, “HDR”, “Macro”, “Timer”, etc.) and “Advanced” (“Clear photo”, “Group photo”, “GIF” and “ Magic GIF"). In addition, it is possible to start video recording not only with the corresponding icon, but also with the help of the volume rocker. In Photo mode it is used for digital zoom.

Examples of photography

Video examples

Example daytime shooting from a Lenovo Vibe Z smartphone at 1080p resolution with basic settings

User interface

Lenovo Vibe Z comes with a pre-installed Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system, on top of which the proprietary Lenovo Launcher shell version 5.0.804 is installed. There is the possibility of over-the-air software updates (FOTA) and updates from USB drives, fortunately there is support for the OTG specification. Visually, it is good and bright, with pleasant and fairly smooth animation. In addition, the shell has enough settings and functions to suit every taste. Let us dwell in more detail on the most interesting of them.

The main difference between Lenovo Launcher and the “stock” Android design is the absence of a regular application menu. Instead, all programs and games are placed directly on the desktops. If desired, applications can be sorted into folders. The icons themselves are quite large, so they are difficult to miss. As in previous versions shell, it is possible to change it appearance thanks to pre-installed themes. Note that you can modify application icons, lock screen, color design, animation, screensaver, font size and style. In addition, there is the ability to download new themes.

The notification shade is called up by simply sliding your finger from the top edge of the screen. It has a number of switches for quick access to the necessary functions. It is possible to customize them. To open the Running Application Manager, hold down the Menu key or swipe up from the bottom of the screen. The last option must be activated in the settings. Closing applications is accomplished by simply swiping up.

The standard keyboard has a normal appearance. It is quite convenient to use. There is support for the SmartDial function, that is, when dialing a number, automatic search V phone book. In addition, the developer took care of comfortable work with one hand: when you tilt the smartphone, the keyboard moves to a certain edge (the function is called “Live Keyboard”).

It should be noted a considerable number preinstalled programs and games that should appeal not only to beginners, but also to experienced Android users. In any case, you can easily remove most unnecessary applications using the standard method.

Among them, we should highlight the rather functional “Security” program, which is responsible for the security of the smartphone and optimizing its performance. It has an intuitive interface and a number of interesting opportunities: “Antivirus”, “Data protection”, “ Mobile Internet", "Antispam", "Accelerator", "Personal Space" and "Anti-Theft". Most of the application items have simple and understandable functionality. They will not only help protect your device from malware and spam, but also keep your personal information away from unwanted eyes. The Anti-Theft mode deserves special attention: it will block the smartphone if the SIM card is replaced and send an SMS to the number you specified. To unlock the device you will have to enter a password.

Among the modes, “Driving” should be highlighted, which is designed to simplify the use of Lenovo Vibe Z in a car. It makes it possible to use it as a DVR or navigator. In addition, the application provides fast access to the main functions of the phone (calls, SMS, music, navigation) and recognizes well voice control(there is support for the Russian language).

Like most modern flagships, the new product has a “Multi-Window” mode, which allows you to simultaneously work with two programs running in small windows. They can be located parallel or overlap one another. The selection of applications is limited to a preinstalled list.

To quickly exchange files over Wi-Fi, you can use the SHAREit program, which speeds up the process up to 40 times compared to regular Bluetooth.

To do backups personal data (SMS, contacts, calls, applications) should use the “SINCit” program. It can work according to a pre-configured schedule and save copies of files to cloud storage.

There is an application "Power Manager", which has flexible settings and will help increase the battery life of the device. It is possible to select ready-made modes: “Normal”, “Economy” and “Emergency”. When the latter is activated, phone calls and SMS remain available, and other functions are turned off, which allows you to almost double the battery life of your smartphone.

The settings menu is divided into two tabs: “System” and “Special”. The first group contains well-known items that give access to system settings. The “Special” tab looks much more interesting, where a number of features are concentrated that are designed to simplify the user’s life. Among them there is the “In your pocket” mode, when activated, the volume is turned up to the maximum so as not to miss the alert signal. And in the “In Hands” mode, the signal volume is automatically reduced. In addition, Smart Standby mode does not block the smartphone while you are looking at it. And in Smart Lock mode, the device is locked when placed on a flat, horizontal surface. The “Smart Menu” mode, which is a floating icon, looks quite interesting. By clicking on it, access to necessary applications, which can be customized. Once again, we note the above-mentioned “Live Keyboard” and “Shake-lock” modes, which greatly simplify operating the device with one hand.

Overall, the user interface is subjectively pleasant and colorful. It runs quite quickly and smoothly without any complaints.

Hardware platform and performance

This time, Lenovo decided not to experiment with the Intel platform and used a well-known solution in the Lenovo Vibe Z - Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974). It is manufactured on 28nm technological process and includes four proprietary Krait 400 cores based on the ARM Cortex-A7 microarchitecture, which operate at a nominal clock frequency of 2.2 GHz (2.15 GHz according to CPU-Z indicators). The L2 cache size is 2 MB. The graphics subsystem uses the Qualcomm Adreno 330 solution integrated into the CPU, which has support for the DirectX 9.0c API and OpenGL ES 3.0. Works graphics adapter at clock frequencies up to 450 MHz.

The amount of RAM is 2 GB (32-bit LPDDR3-800), and the permanent memory is 16 GB, not expandable, since there is no support for memory cards. Of these, approximately 11 GB are available to the user. This platform supports OTG mode, which makes it possible to connect an external USB drive, keyboard and mouse when using the appropriate adapter.

If we talk about performance, it is more than enough for almost all mobile tasks. Despite the rather bright proprietary shell and a considerable number of pre-installed applications, everything works perfectly, without any noticeable flaws. The most modern and demanding games are played without any complaints.

Note that with prolonged active use, unpleasant heating of the case becomes noticeable, which causes some discomfort. At the same time, the front part of the smartphone heats up more than the back.

Communications

The Lenovo Vibe Z smartphone works in modern mobile networks GSM, WCDMA / HSPA+. There is only one radio module, just like the number of SIM cards. To open the Micro SIM card tray, use the supplied paperclip. There is a version of the device that supports LTE and dual SIM cards in Dual mode SIM Dual Active, that is, there are two radio modules, but it is not supplied to our market.

Call quality is at high level: There are no interruptions or self-drops, and voice transmission is clear, but depends on the user's location and the quality of the network itself.

A set of communication capabilities is presented Bluetooth modules 4.0 HS and Wi-Fi. The latter has support for 802.11 a/b/g/n protocols and Wi-Fi Direct and Wi-Fi Hotspot functions. It is capable of operating in the 2.4/5 GHz bands. There is also DLNA support.

The global geopositioning navigation module supports work with satellite systems GPS, GLONASS and even the Chinese Beidou. In an open area, about 11 satellites, or even more, are quickly identified. Communication is stable with most of them. Under the tested conditions, the detection accuracy was up to 4 meters.

Autonomous operation

Lenovo Vibe Z is powered by a non-replaceable lithium polymer battery. The battery capacity is 3000 mAh. At an average load, a full charge should be enough for a day or a day and a half of work without recharging. You can achieve a longer performance by using the “Power Manager” mode and the “Emergency” profile. The latter allows you to almost double the battery life of your smartphone, but only calls and SMS remain active, and other functions are disabled. If we talk about the maximum load (games, GPS, Wi-Fi), then the new product can be discharged in a matter of hours, especially at elevated battery temperatures. According to the manufacturer, the smartphone can work in talk mode for up to 33 hours and up to 27 days in standby mode.

As a result of watching HD video (MPEG-4 / AVC, MKV container, 4 Mbit/s stream) using the MX Player (50% display brightness, Wi-Fi and GPS modules turned on), the device was discharged in 11.5 hours (if to be precise, 11 hours and 24 minutes). Gaming simulation using the Epic Citadel app (Guided Tour mode) with display brightness at 100% and Wi-Fi modules and GPS repeated for almost 2.5 hours until the battery was depleted. The estimated operating time of the smartphone according to the GFXBench benchmark is 192 minutes, that is, 3.2 hours.

The battery charging time from the complete unit (5V, 1.5A) is about 3 hours.

Results

To begin with, I would like to congratulate Lenovo on its significant success in the smartphone market. Especially in 2014, in which it managed to rise to fourth place among world producers. The company actively continues to increase its presence in this market, which demonstrates the seriousness of its intentions to become an industry leader. This is also evidenced by the company's latest acquisition, Motorola. Thus, Lenovo has all the necessary resources and experience to achieve what you want.

If we talk about the hero of today's review, then this is last year's flagship Lenovo K900, rethought and improved in almost all respects. The new product has received an updated, quite interesting and good design and, as always, can boast of high build quality. The advantages of the device also include: an excellent 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with maximum viewing angles and pleasant color reproduction; modules digital cameras(5 MP and 13 MP), which can please you with the high quality of the resulting photos; high-performance Qualcomm processor Snapdragon 800, which is enough for most mobile tasks, including the most demanding games. In addition, the new product has a capacious lithium-polymer battery (3000 mAh), which is enough for a day and a half of moderate work without recharging. All the necessary communication capabilities are also present here and function properly. But all this cannot work without a high-quality software component. The latter is presented current version Android 4.4.2 KitKat OS, on top of which the proprietary Lenovo Launcher 5.0.804 shell is installed. It has a pleasant and bright appearance with wide customization and personalization options, which we wrote about in the corresponding section. It is worth mentioning the presence of functions and modes that greatly simplify operating a smartphone with one hand (“Live Keyboard”, “Shake-lock”, “Driving”, “Smart Menu”, etc.). In addition, Lenovo Vibe Z contains a number of interesting and useful programs that will help not only protect your data and optimize your work (“Security” and “SINCit”), but also increase your offline time (“Power Manager”).

It's a pity, but it's not without its drawbacks. The most significant of them are the small amount of permanent memory (16 GB) and the lack of support for memory cards. Partially solve this problem possible using connection external media(OTG support is present), but this is not always convenient. In addition, some may not like the lack of metal in the body of the new product, which we saw in last year’s flagship, but this is a matter of taste. By the way, at the IFA 2014 exhibition new models of the Lenovo Vibe line were presented, which received a metal case and an increased amount of permanent memory. This shows that Lenovo listens to its connoisseurs.

Overall, this is a high-quality smartphone with a large display, a powerful hardware platform and equally high-quality software that will definitely appeal to many users.

Advantages:

• interesting and good design;
• high-quality body assembly;
• excellent 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with maximum viewing angles and pleasant color reproduction;
• good photographic capabilities of digital cameras (5 MP and 13 MP);
• productive hardware platform;
• pretty good autonomy;

• USB OTG specification support;
• current version of Android OS 4.4.2 KitKat;

• bright and quite functional proprietary shell Lenovo Launcher 5.0.804.

Flaws:

• The amount of permanent memory is only 16 GB;
• lack of memory card support;
• The chrome elements of the case collect fingerprints and abrasions.

We express our gratitude to the Ukrainian representative office of Lenovo for the smartphone provided for testing.

All prices for Lenovo+K910

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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 they did not choose the hardware platform for it. 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 present here in order their most noticeable distinctive features. Firstly, there is no need to argue about what to call correctly new flagship Chinese Lenovo smartphone - it has two names, and both have the 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 due to 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, as there is no slot for additional cards memory.

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 room Android system 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
• Touch display IPS, 5.5″, 1920×1080, 400 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 2 GB, inner 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. 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. Rear end The body is made of plastic textured with small pimples with a metal coating - the surface is not easily soiled and not 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 monoblock 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 connection mode external devices OTG (mouse, keyboard, flash drive), but also a transmission standard USB data 2.0. 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.

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 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 graphic 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. Eat automatic adjustment brightness by the light sensor (it is located to the right of the front camera eye). IN automatic mode When 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.

IN this smartphone An IPS type matrix is ​​used. 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 Lenovo screens The K910 and Nexus 7 output identical images, with 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 pick on it, gives rise to complaints, but without a standard for comparison, the color rendition of of this screen visually still 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 low frequencies the range is 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 recorder can regular means record a conversation from the line. 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. Radio without connected quality external antenna headphones will not work.

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.

	The sharpness is not bad. The choice of exposure is quite a compromise.
	Good sharpness and work with light.
	The choice of exposure is quite strange. The background is out of focus.
	In the cold, the camera shows “the world through the eyes of a myopic person.” Either the lens fogged up, or the autofocus froze.
	Again there are problems with sharpness, as if the camera cannot focus at infinity.
	The macro is quite decent.
	The text is a little damaged software processing, but basically the situation is spoiled by a drop in sharpness towards the edges.

	Lighting ≈3200 lux. The camera does a good job.
	Lighting ≈1300 lux. The situation gets worse largely due to autofocus errors.
	Lighting ≈130 lux. Autofocus has improved a little. The resolution gradually decreases.
	Lighting ≈130 lux, flash. The flash, oddly enough, only worsens the situation and overexposes the image. The camera doesn't control the flash well.
	Lighting<1 люкс. В темноте камера не справляется.
	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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. We download three archives to the PC: (in this case - for Android 4.2.2), and an image for recovery.
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. 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.

1. We launch command line mode and go to the folder where the custom recovery image is unpacked from the archive.
2. In command line mode on the PC, run the command: “adb devices”.
3. 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.
4. We give the command: “adb reboot-bootloader”.
5. The smartphone will reboot itself and go into recovery firmware installation mode.
6. We give the command: “fastboot boot cwm_recovery_custom.img”.
7. The standard Clockworks recovery menu will appear on the phone screen.
8. Use the volume buttons to select “install from zip”.
9. 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".
10. 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.

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.

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

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)

720/24p Fine No

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.

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 network 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 operation 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 slightly 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.

SIM card type Micro-SIM Number of SIM cards 1 operating system Android 4.4 (KitKat) Type of shell monoblock Keyboard type screen input Dimensions, mm 149x77x7.9 Weight, g 147 Protection from dust and moisture — Accumulator battery 3050 mAh no data Diagonal, inches 5,5 Permission 1920x1080 Matrix type IPS PPI 401 Dimming sensor + Touch screen (type) touch (capacitive) Other CPU Kernel type Krait 400 Number of Cores 4 Frequency, GHz 2,2 RAM, MB 2048 Built-in memory, GB 16 Expansion slot — Main camera, MP 13 Autofocus + Video shooting 1920×1080 pixels, 30 fps Flash LED Front camera, MP 5 Other digital zoom WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi hotspot Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP) GPS + IrDA — NFC — Interface connector USB 2.0 (micro-USB) Audio jack 3.5 mm MP3 player + FM radio SIM card type Micro-SIM Number of SIM cards 1 CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 + GPU Adreno 330 Number of Cores 4 Frequency, GHz 2,2 Battery 3050 mAh Operating time (manufacturer's data) no data Diagonal, inches 5,5 Permission 1920x1080 Matrix type IPS PPI 401 Dimming sensor + Display Features 16 million colors, Gorilla Glass 3 protection Main camera, MP 13 Video shooting 1920x1080 pixels, 30 fps Flash LED Front camera, MP 5 Camera Features digital zoom High speed data transfer GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA (up to 42 Mbit/s) Communication standards GSM 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 850/900/1900/2100 WiFi 802.11ac Bluetooth 4.0 (A2DP) GPS + IrDA - FM radio + Audio jack + NFC - Interface connector micro-USB Dimensions, mm 149x77x7.9 Weight, g 147 Protection from dust and moisture - Type of shell monoblock Housing material metal Keyboard type screen input More proximity and light sensors, accelerometer, E-Compass, A-GPS receiver, vibration alert

Information about the make, model, and alternative names of the specific device, if available.

Design

Information about the dimensions and weight of the device, presented in different units of measurement. Materials used, colors offered, certificates.

Width Width information - refers to the horizontal side of the device in its standard orientation during use.	77 mm (millimeters) 7.7 cm (centimeters) 0.25 ft (feet) 3.03 in (inches)
Height Height information - refers to the vertical side of the device in its standard orientation during use.	149 mm (millimeters) 14.9 cm (centimeters) 0.49 ft (feet) 5.87 in (inches)
Thickness Information about the thickness of the device in different units of measurement.	7.9 mm (millimeters) 0.79 cm (centimeters) 0.03 ft (feet) 0.31 in (inches)
Weight Information about the weight of the device in different units of measurement.	147 g (grams) 0.32 lbs 5.19 oz (ounces)
Volume The approximate volume of the device, calculated based on the dimensions provided by the manufacturer. Refers to devices with the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped.	90.64 cm³ (cubic centimeters) 5.5in³ (cubic inches)
Colors Information about the colors in which this device is offered for sale.	Silver

SIM card

The SIM card is used in mobile devices to store data that certifies the authenticity of mobile service subscribers.

Mobile networks

A mobile network is a radio system that allows multiple mobile devices to communicate with each other.

Mobile communication technologies and data transfer speeds

Communication between devices on mobile networks is carried out using technologies that provide different data transfer rates.

Operating system

An operating system is a system software that manages and coordinates the operation of hardware components in a device.

SoC (System on Chip)

A system on a chip (SoC) includes all the most important hardware components of a mobile device on one chip.

SoC (System on Chip) A system on a chip (SoC) integrates various hardware components, such as a processor, graphics processor, memory, peripherals, interfaces, etc., as well as the software necessary for their operation.	Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8274
Technological process Information about the technological process by which the chip is manufactured. Nanometers measure half the distance between elements in the processor.	28 nm (nanometers)
Processor (CPU) The primary function of a mobile device's processor (CPU) is to interpret and execute instructions contained in software applications.	Krait 400
Processor size The size (in bits) of a processor is determined by the size (in bits) of the registers, address buses, and data buses. 64-bit processors have higher performance compared to 32-bit processors, which in turn are more powerful than 16-bit processors.	32 bit
Instruction Set Architecture Instructions are commands with which the software sets/controls the operation of the processor. Information about the instruction set (ISA) that the processor can execute.	ARMv7
Level 0 cache (L0) Some processors have L0 (level 0) cache, which is faster to access than L1, L2, L3, etc. The advantage of having such memory is not only higher performance, but also reduced power consumption.	4 kB + 4 kB (kilobytes)
Level 1 cache (L1) Cache memory is used by the processor to reduce access time to more frequently used data and instructions. L1 (level 1) cache is small in size and works much faster than both system memory and other cache levels. If the processor does not find the requested data in L1, it continues to look for it in the L2 cache. On some processors, this search is performed simultaneously in L1 and L2.	16 kB + 16 kB (kilobytes)
Level 2 cache (L2) L2 (level 2) cache is slower than L1 cache, but in return it has a higher capacity, allowing it to cache more data. It, like L1, is much faster than system memory (RAM). If the processor does not find the requested data in L2, it continues to look for it in the L3 cache (if available) or in RAM memory.	2048 kB (kilobytes) 2 MB (megabytes)
Number of processor cores The processor core executes software instructions. There are processors with one, two or more cores. Having more cores increases performance by allowing multiple instructions to be executed in parallel.	4
CPU clock speed The clock speed of a processor describes its speed in terms of cycles per second. It is measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).	2200 MHz (megahertz)
Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) The Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) handles calculations for various 2D/3D graphics applications. In mobile devices, it is most often used by games, consumer interfaces, video applications, etc.	Qualcomm Adreno 330
Number of GPU cores Like a CPU, a GPU is made up of several working parts called cores. They handle graphics calculations for various applications.	4
GPU clock speed Running speed is the clock speed of the GPU, measured in megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz).	450 MHz (megahertz)
Amount of random access memory (RAM) Random access memory (RAM) is used by the operating system and all installed applications. Data stored in RAM is lost after the device is turned off or restarted.	2 GB (gigabytes)
Type of random access memory (RAM) Information about the type of random access memory (RAM) used by the device.	LPDDR3
Number of RAM channels Information about the number of RAM channels that are integrated into the SoC. More channels mean higher data rates.	Dual channel
RAM frequency The frequency of RAM determines its operating speed, more specifically, the speed of reading/writing data.	800 MHz (megahertz)

Built-in memory

Each mobile device has built-in (non-removable) memory with a fixed capacity.

Screen

The screen of a mobile device is characterized by its technology, resolution, pixel density, diagonal length, color depth, etc.

Type/technology One of the main characteristics of the screen is the technology by which it is made and on which the quality of the information image directly depends.	IPS
Diagonal For mobile devices, screen size is expressed by the length of its diagonal, measured in inches.	5.5 in (inches) 139.7 mm (millimeters) 13.97 cm (centimeters)
Width Approximate screen width	2.7 in (inches) 68.49 mm (millimeters) 6.85 cm (centimeters)
Height Approximate screen height	4.79 in (inches) 121.76 mm (millimeters) 12.18 cm (centimeters)
Aspect Ratio The ratio of the dimensions of the long side of the screen to its short side	1.778:1 16:9
Permission Screen resolution shows the number of pixels vertically and horizontally on the screen. Higher resolution means clearer image detail.	1080 x 1920 pixels
Pixel Density Information about the number of pixels per centimeter or inch of the screen. Higher density allows information to be displayed on the screen with clearer detail.	401 ppi (pixels per inch) 157 ppcm (pixels per centimeter)
Color depth Screen color depth reflects the total number of bits used for color components in one pixel. Information about the maximum number of colors that the screen can display.	24 bit 16777216 flowers
Screen area Approximate percentage of screen area occupied by the screen on the front of the device.	72.92% (percent)
Other characteristics Information about other screen features and characteristics.	Capacitive Multi-touch Scratch resistance
	Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Sensors

Different sensors perform different quantitative measurements and convert physical indicators into signals that a mobile device can recognize.

Main camera

The main camera of a mobile device is usually located on the back of the body and is used for taking photos and videos.

Sensor model Information about the manufacturer and model of the photo sensor used in the device's camera.	Sony IMX135 Exmor RS
Sensor type Digital cameras use photo sensors to take photographs. The sensor, as well as optics, are one of the main factors in the quality of the camera in a mobile device.	CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor)
Sensor size Information about the dimensions of the photosensor used in the device. Typically, cameras with larger sensors and lower pixel densities offer higher image quality despite the lower resolution.	4.69 x 3.52 mm (millimeters) 0.23 in (inches)
Pixel size The smaller pixel size of the photosensor allows more pixels per unit area, thereby increasing resolution. On the other hand, a smaller pixel size can have a negative impact on image quality at high ISO levels.	1.127 µm (micrometers) 0.001127 mm (millimeters)
Crop factor The crop factor is the ratio between the dimensions of the full-frame sensor (36 x 24 mm, equivalent to a frame of standard 35 mm film) and the dimensions of the device's photosensor. The indicated number represents the ratio of the diagonals of the full-frame sensor (43.3 mm) and the photosensor of a particular device.	7.38
ISO (light sensitivity) ISO indicators determine the level of light sensitivity of the photosensor. A lower value means weaker light sensitivity and vice versa - higher values ​​mean higher light sensitivity, i.e. better ability of the sensor to work in low light conditions.	100 - 1600
Diaphragm Aperture (f-number) is the size of the aperture opening that controls the amount of light reaching the photosensor. A lower f-number means the aperture opening is larger.	f/1.8
Flash type The most common types of flashes in mobile device cameras are LED and xenon flashes. LED flashes produce softer light and, unlike brighter xenon flashes, are also used for video shooting.	Double LED
Image Resolution One of the main characteristics of mobile device cameras is their resolution, which shows the number of horizontal and vertical pixels in the image.	4160 x 3120 pixels 12.98 MP (megapixels)
Video resolution Information about the maximum supported resolution when shooting video with the device.	1920 x 1080 pixels 2.07 MP (megapixels)
Video - frame rate/frames per second. Information about the maximum number of frames per second (fps) supported by the device when shooting video at the maximum resolution. Some of the main standard video shooting and playback speeds are 24p, 25p, 30p, 60p.	30fps (frames per second)
Characteristics Information about other software and hardware features related to the main camera and improving its functionality.	Autofocus Continuous shooting Digital zoom Geographical tags Touch Focus Face recognition White Balance Adjustment ISO Setting Exposure compensation Scene Selection Mode

Additional camera

Additional cameras are usually mounted above the device screen and are used mainly for video conversations, gesture recognition, etc.

Audio

Information about the type of speakers and audio technologies supported by the device.

Radio

The radio of the mobile device is a built-in FM receiver.

Location determination

Information about the navigation and location technologies supported by your device.

WiFi

Wi-Fi is a technology that provides wireless communication for transmitting data over close distances between various devices.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard for secure wireless data transfer between various devices of different types over short distances.

USB

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is an industry standard that allows different electronic devices to exchange data.

Headphone jack

This is an audio connector, also called an audio jack. The most widely used standard in mobile devices is the 3.5mm headphone jack.

Connecting devices

Information about other important connection technologies supported by your device.

Browser

A web browser is a software application for accessing and viewing information on the Internet.

Video file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support different video file formats and codecs, which respectively store and encode/decode digital video data.

Battery

Mobile device batteries differ from each other in their capacity and technology. They provide the electrical charge necessary for their functioning.

Capacity A battery's capacity indicates the maximum charge it can hold, measured in milliamp-hours.	3000 mAh (milliamp-hours)
Type The type of battery is determined by its structure and, more precisely, the chemicals used. There are different types of batteries, with lithium-ion and lithium-ion polymer batteries being the most commonly used batteries in mobile devices.	Li-polymer
2G talk time 2G talk time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged during a continuous conversation on a 2G network.	33 h (hours) 1980 min (minutes) 1.4 days
2G latency 2G standby time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged when the device is in stand-by mode and connected to a 2G network.	648 h (hours) 38880 min (minutes) 27 days
3G talk time 3G talk time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged during a continuous conversation on a 3G network.	33 h (hours) 1980 min (minutes) 1.4 days
3G latency 3G standby time is the period of time during which the battery charge is completely discharged when the device is in stand-by mode and connected to a 3G network.	648 h (hours) 38880 min (minutes) 27 days
Characteristics Information about some additional characteristics of the device's battery.	Fixed

Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)

The SAR level refers to the amount of electromagnetic radiation absorbed by the human body while using a mobile device.

Body SAR level (EU) The SAR level indicates the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation to which the human body is exposed when holding a mobile device at hip level. The maximum permissible SAR value for mobile devices in Europe is 2 W/kg per 10 grams of human tissue. This standard has been established by the CENELEC Committee in compliance with the ICNIRP 1998 guidelines and IEC standards.	0.824 W/kg (Watt per kilogram)
Head SAR level (US) The SAR level indicates the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation that the human body is exposed to when holding a mobile device near the ear. The maximum value used in the USA is 1.6 W/kg per 1 gram of human tissue. Mobile devices in the US are regulated by the CTIA, and the FCC conducts tests and sets their SAR values.	1.43 W/kg (Watt per kilogram)
Body SAR level (US) The SAR level indicates the maximum amount of electromagnetic radiation to which the human body is exposed when holding a mobile device at hip level. The highest permissible SAR value in the USA is 1.6 W/kg per 1 gram of human tissue. This value is set by the FCC, and the CTIA monitors mobile devices' compliance with this standard.	1.12 W/kg (Watt per kilogram)