Lenovo has been on a little bit of a spree, launching quite a lot of new smartphones in fast succession. The corporate is nice at creating fashions that cater to particular wants, such because the Vibe P1 (Evaluate | Photos) with its outsized battery, the Vibe Shot (Evaluate | Photos) for digicam lovers, the Vibe S1 (Evaluate | Photos) for individuals who care most about seems to be, and most lately, the Vibe K4 Word for the funds phase. We now have with us the model new Vibe X3, which takes its place on the prime of the heap as Lenovo’s newest flagship.
The Lenovo Vibe X3 prices simply Rs. 19,999 however packs quite a lot of options and attributes that may make it a competitor to telephones that price far more. The spec sheet alone would give us fairly a bit to dig our tooth into, however Lenovo has additionally tossed in a number of issues that it says enhance the person expertise in much less tangible methods. We’ll should dig deep to search out out if that is only a advertising line or if the Vibe X3 actually does blow all its competitors away.
Appear and feel Lenovo Vibe X3
The Lenovo Vibe X3 seems to be nothing just like the multi-coloured Vibe X2 (Evaluate | Photos) which launched in late 2014. In actual fact, it has a really sturdy resemblance to the Vibe K4 Word, which should not be shocking contemplating the latter is offered in some territories because the Vibe X3 Lite. The telephone is available in a slick rectangular field, and you will find a neat clear plastic case and adhesive display protector together with the standard charger, USB cable, and headset.
At first look, the display seems to be huge, with solely slim white plastic strips for the dual stereo audio system above and under it. Nonetheless, what you see is definitely the black Gorilla Glass three extending past the display to embody the entrance digicam, sensors and standing LED on prime, and capacitive navigation buttons under.
The ability and quantity buttons are on the suitable, although a bit too low for our liking. There is a Hybrid SIM tray on the left, which suggests you get one slot for the primary Nano-SIM and one other slot for both a second Nano-SIM or a microSD card. This association forces you to decide on between a second line and extra storage, which we’re by no means in favour of.
There is a three.5mm audio socket on prime, with a small IR emitter to maintain it firm. You should use this at the side of an included app to manage a wide range of units. There’s additionally an ordinary Micro-USB port on the underside which apparently permits you not solely to cost and sync the telephone as standard, but in addition to make use of the Vibe X3 as an influence financial institution to cost different units.
Across the again, you may see the first 21-megapixel digicam and fingerprint sensor proper under it. That is additionally the place the telephone’s NFC radio is positioned, and Lenovo says that wi-fi funds might be supported when such providers launch in India. You can too see a fairly large Dolby Atmos brand on the underside.
The battery is sealed contained in the telephone’s aluminium unibody. Lenovo says the matte white end is proof against smudges and fingerprints, however we discovered a number of scuffs inside minutes of taking the plastic cowl off. We additionally observed a number of scratches on the silver chamfered edges after a day or two of cautious utilization.
The Vibe X3 is 9.3mm thick within the centre however that is masked fairly successfully by the curvature of the again. It matches properly in a palm, however utilizing it one-handed is actually a stretch. The 175g weight just isn’t as simple to compensate for, and you will positively really feel it when utilizing this telephone for any size of time.
It is not simple to achieve the capacitive buttons on the underside with out feeling just like the Vibe X3 will tip over. Amazingly for a telephone that is not scraping the underside of the funds barrel, the buttons will not be backlit. It might have made much more sense for Lenovo to have gone with on-screen buttons on this telephone. The ergonomics are simply not fairly nearly as good as we anticipate of a telephone that claims to be its producer’s flagship.
Specs Lenovo Vibe X3
Lenovo has struck a stability between price and efficiency, and so the Vibe X3 has at its coronary heart a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, which is one step under the present top-of-the-line Snapdragon 810, providing six CPU cores and built-in Adreno 418 graphics. There’s additionally 3GB of RAM which ought to maintain issues chugging alongside easily. The 32GB of storage will be bumped up by 128GB when you’re keen to forego a second SIM. Surprisingly, solely 24.37GB was reported to be free on our evaluate unit after we turned it on for the primary time.
The display measures 5.5 inches diagonally and has a decision of 1080×1920. Once more, that is one step under what different corporations are providing on their flagships, however contemplating the value, we really feel that that is most likely the suitable stability of options for most individuals. Lenovo is fast to level out that the display can reproduce 100 p.c NTSC color gamut, and that colors are consciously not oversaturated.
You get Cat 6 4G LTE on Indian bands with assist for service aggregation, if and when that’s supported by service suppliers right here. There’s additionally Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC. USB-OTG performance enables you to retailer extra information on a Micro-USB pen drive or an ordinary one utilizing a dongle. The battery has a capability of 3500mAh which ought to be greater than sufficient to get by way of a full day of heavy use.
One of the crucial fascinating aspects of the Vibe X3 is its claimed high-end audio credentials. There is a Wolfson 8281 processor with a three-mic array to deal with telephone conversations, and an ESS Sabre 9018C2M DAC with three TI-OPA1612 OP amps which kicks in if you’re enjoying music or movies. Lenovo additionally says the three.5mm audio output is “studio grade” and “lossless”.
Lenovo can also be selling its TheaterMax headset, which works with this telephone and its cousin, the Vibe K4 Word. It sells for Rs. 1,299 further which is so much lower than most VR headsets will price. What it does is provide you with a cinematic expertise when enjoying motion pictures – you do not have to have specifically ready content material. Whereas fascinating, it is not one thing you may put on in your each day bus or prepare trip, so we’re undecided how a lot it’s going to catch on. Lenovo didn’t ship us a headset together with the Vibe X3, so we won’t say something concerning the expertise but.
Software program Lenovo Vibe X3
Lenovo has cleaned up its Vibe UI, which we’re very glad to see. The default UI is much more like inventory Android, together with its devoted app drawer. You possibly can nonetheless swap again to the single-layer launcher when you like, however we do not assume anybody will. There are after all customisations, most noticeably the notifications shade which has numerous further quick-access toggles and a novel log function that reveals notifications you have dismissed up to now.
The icons nonetheless appear infantile to us and we did not discover any sufficient substitute packs within the Theme Heart app. Lenovo has preinstalled various apps, starting from its personal SHAREit, SYNCit, and Lenovo Companion assist app to Evernote, Fb, Guvera Music, McAfee Safety Route 66 Navigate, Shazam, Skype, Step Counter, Truecaller, Twitter, UC Browser, WeChat, and WPS Workplace. Sport Retailer has some low-quality video games you could play after organising a profile. Peel Sensible Distant ties in to the IR emitter and reveals program guides for native TV channels. There’s additionally one sport, Faucet the Frog. All of this may clarify all of the lacking space for storing, however fortunately you may uninstall most of them.
There are additionally fairly a number of customized settings that assist you to get extra out of the telephone. You possibly can double-tap the display to wake the telephone, and likewise flip it over to lock it instantly. You possibly can take a photograph immediately from sleep by double-pressing both quantity button, and use the fingerprint sensor as a shutter button. If it’s worthwhile to get one thing accomplished with one hand, hint a C form on both facet of the display to shrink the show by about two-thirds, making every part simpler to achieve.
Cameras Lenovo Vibe X3
The Vibe X3 has a 21-megapixel rear digicam with phase-detection autofocus and an aperture of f2.zero. You possibly can report 4K video, although this is not enabled by default. There’s additionally a front-facing Eight-megapixel digicam. Lenovo guarantees a number of options for photographers, which largely should do with the software program interface, however we did not discover a lot to be impressed with.
Lenovo’s customized digicam app takes a second or two to load and has been over-simplified. The app mechanically detects lighting circumstances and makes changes, however you may disable this when you like. There are additionally scene modes together with Panorama, Artwork Nightscape, Creative HDR, and Blur Background. Most choices are two or three faucets away and probably not labelled nicely – in truth you may’t get to the video settings when in video mode; it’s a must to dip again into the usual photograph mode, faucet twice to get to the settings, after which as soon as once more to see video settings.
A Professional mode surfaces controls for some settings together with shutter velocity and focal depth, however there actually is not a lot you are able to do even so. Surprisingly, a menu seems if you swap to the front-facing digicam, supplying you with management over mirroring, shutter launch gestures, high quality, and making the display go shiny for a second in lieu of a flash.
Photograph high quality is okay more often than not, however a number of of our daylight pictures had been overexposed and shaky. Particulars and textures gave the impression to be artificially smoothened out with over-aggressive software program compression. Colors had been a bit on the boring facet. Low-light pictures got here out okay however once more, we would not need to use them for something apart from informal social media sharing. You will not get anyplace with this digicam if it’s worthwhile to zoom in to photographs and see them at their precise dimension. Then again, 4K and 1080p movies got here out trying crisp and movement was easy.
Efficiency Lenovo Vibe
Considered one of Lenovo’s important pushes with this telephone is its display, and true to its phrase, colors are vibrant and interesting with out being oversaturated. Brightness will be pushed as much as blinding ranges and outside visibility just isn’t an issue in any respect. So far as the Vibe X3’s audio pedigree goes, there definitely is an enchancment to sound copy when utilizing good headphones. Twin front-firing audio system are all the time good to see, and whereas these are loud, the sound is not particularly clear or participating.
The Vibe X3 was comfy to carry, although the capacitive buttons had been positively awkward. Since this telephone is just about completely symmetrical, we regularly ended up jabbing the unsuitable facet and getting pissed off when watching movies in panorama, particularly at nighttime. We additionally would have most well-liked it to have been so much lighter. The rear did get barely heat after we performed video games and ran benchmarks, however not sufficient to change into an issue.
Formal benchmarks confirmed that this telephone has various energy on faucet. We acquired scores of 69,044 in AnTuTu and 26,200 total in Quadrant. GFXBench ran at a really spectacular 34fps, and 3DMark Ice Storm Limitless managed 15,453 factors.
The Vibe X3’s battery lasted all day with loads of utilization together with brief bursts of 4K video recording, numerous Web utilization, and a little bit of gaming. Our video loop battery check ran for 9 hours and 33 minutes, which was only a shade under our expectations.
Verdict
Lenovo has delivered very practically one of the best parts in circulation proper now, and contemplating that the value is simply shy of Rs. 20,000, this isn’t a nasty factor by any means. The Vibe X3 goals to undercut standard telephones such because the OnePlus 2 (Evaluate | Photos), Moto X Play (Evaluate), and Nexus 5X (Evaluate | Photos) however is doing so by itself phrases, by making the combat extra concerning the end-user expertise than uncooked specs alone. We had been impressed with how a lot Lenovo has been capable of cram in to a telephone at this worth, not simply by way of specs but in addition the little touches. Unglamorous issues just like the notification shade enhancements and the power to cost small units over USB present that loads of thought has gone in to the creation of this product.
Then again, if person expertise is what issues probably the most, Lenovo has some tough edges to shine. The Vibe X3 is a bit too cumbersome and heavy, and never the simplest to carry or use. The largest disappointment was the digicam efficiency, after which there are different annoyances such because the hybrid SIM tray and off-balance capacitive buttons.
When you can stay with these items, you may discover that the Lenovo Vibe X3 delivers glorious worth for cash. Lenovo has joined a rising record of corporations which have made it exhausting for lots of people to justify spending double or triple this amount of cash for a flagship Android telephone from a top-tier producer.
Thank you for the awesome review!
thanks
Thanks for the awesome feedback!
I bought some of these products back in 2001, its very good.
Dude, this is entirely something else.
I had one of these items last year, highly recommended.
Thanks for the suggestion!
My coworker had some of these things last year, its great.