Hands On: Lenovo Vibe X2

Lenovo may not be as big as Samsung or Apple in the smartphone industry, but this new member of the Lenovo family, the Vibe X2, may be worth at least a second glance. With a rather interesting design language and the processing power to complement it, this smartphone might surprise a few cynics out there.

First, let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way: the layered design of the Vibe X2. Admittedly, it does sound silly at first, but look at it this way – it does show that Lenovo is trying to innovate the way it designs its smartphones to deliver something different. Some may like it, while some may think of it as only a gimmick. Whichever side you’re on, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Let’s move on to the display. The Vibe X2 has a 5-inch Full HD display that is rather impressive with sufficient brightness and pixel density. However, it’s not all perfect. When it comes to displaying whites, the phone tends to show a more yellowish white instead of a true white, which can be problematic to the more picky consumers.

With that said though, the screen still produces very nice colours, so don’t be too caught up with the rather minor flaw that only some consumers would realise.

Powering the Vibe X2 is the MediaTek MT6595 True8Core 2GHz octa-core processor, which consists of four Cortex-A17 cores and four Cortex-A7 cores. Paired with 2GB of RAM, no noticeable lag or stutter were present during our short stint with the phone.

Games run pretty well, and browsing the web with the Vibe X2 is pleasant with little to no lag. As far as first impressions go, the Vibe X2 ticks all the right items.

Software wise, Lenovo incorporated the Vibe UI on top of the 4.4 KitKat the Vibe X2 is running on. Lenovo decided to go away with the app drawer and added their own enhancements, such as the customised lock screen.

If you were to tap on the giant bubble where the time is being displayed, the coloured bubbles surrounding it will spread across the screen to show shortcuts to specific apps.

Lenovo also added theming capability to the Vibe X2. Among the things that can be customised is the boot animation, the system sounds, and the lock screen.

While this may seem novel, it will appeal to consumers who would like to customise their Android smartphone without going through the hassle of rooting and flashing custom ROMs.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of a smartphone this size is how comfortable it is to hold. Thanks to the slightly rounded corners of the Vibe X2, comfort will be the least of your worries when operating this phone.

The all-plastic construction doesn’t feel cheap, and seems to be pretty well built as well. However, the plastic material leads to another problem: it is quite slippery.

There was an instance where I almost dropped the phone due to the slippery sides of the phone. To add to that, the Lenovo branding at the back of the phone is also rather sharp to the touch.

Sure, you can just slip on a case to avoid touching it altogether, but not everyone likes the extra bulkiness of a case.

The Vibe X2 comes in four choices of colours, which are White, Gold, Red and Charcoal. All four colours are available for sale in Malaysia, but the Charcoal Vibe X2 was not on display during the launch event.

With some strong and weak points here and there, at RM1199, the Vibe X2 is a pretty interesting smartphone. With 32GB of non-expandable internal storage, dual-SIM 4G connectivity, and weighing only 120 grams, this smartphone might be the right choice for most consumers.