Review: Lenovo Phab 2- An Entry Level Multimedia Powerhouse

While most brands shifted their focus on smartphones with dual cameras or huge battery size, phablets seems to be forgotten due to its price and usability. People tend to reason out that if they will get this kind of device, might as well go for a tablet instead. But I personally believe phablets are here to stay and with today’s tech innovation and the emergence of Movie/TV Show streaming apps, we might be able to see more upcoming models soon.

We take a look at Lenovo’s Phab 2, a P9,990 phablet device with 6.4 -inch HD IPS display with Dolby Atmos technology. Read on below for our full review:

Build

Although it is just a sub-10k phablet, the Lenovo Phab 2 doesn’t disappoint with smooth matte finish at the back that is made entirely of plastic, It’s easy to grip, use, and navigate through the UI with just one hand. The capacitive buttons lights up to make up for the absence of physical buttons. One thing I noticed though is that I hear some constant clicking sound when holding it too tight, maybe the back cover is not fully attached due to its battery size. But overall, it is a decent-looking phablet.

Camera

At the back you’ll see its 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash that is capable of taking good shots and can even produce “semi-bokeh” portraits. Yes it is not in par with the latest camera smartphones today but for a 10k phablet this is actually pretty good. It also has an interesting feature which is called AR mode, It manipulates your real time surrounding by adding some stuff that you can play around with. Checkout the Image samples taken by Lenovo Phab 2 below:

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Display and Sound

To keep the price of the Lenovo Phab 2 at bay, the resolution is toned down to just 1280×720. It does have good and bad effects like battery life is longer, the processor has less load due to fewer pixels and the price is of course, cheaper. The IPS screen gives it great viewing angles and the brightness nits is good enough for it to be used in well-lit areas. Meanwhile the bad side is that you can obviously see the details are not sharp and clear compared with Full HD smartphones/phablets. To compensate with its display resolution, Dolby Atmos technology is installed for great sound experience which makes it an ideal “budget-friendly multimedia device”. You won’t be needing a speaker as the bass quality is outstanding for its price.

Software/UI

The Lenovo Phab 2 is equipped with Android Marshmallow 6.0 from out of the box and I’m glad they didn’t put any customized skin or bloatwares (except for Netflix and McAfee which you can easily remove) for better performance and less load for its RAM and CPU. Browsing through the app drawer is a breeze, no delays in launching apps at all. Lastly, I love the multi-user function of this device which lets you create a guest account to keep your files safe.

Performance

A 64-bit quad core Mediatek 8735 processor is installed within along with 3GB of LPDDR3L RAM and Mali-T720 GPU. The Lenovo Phab 2’s gaming performance is mediocre, you can play Asphalt 8 in high settings with no lags but it struggled a little when playing high demanding games like Mobile Legends. But you can always adjust its settings to able to play smoothly.

Battery

Another category where the Phab 2 excels in, the 4050mAh battery manage to last 2 days before charging, and that includes LTE, internet browsing and binge watching with Netflix

Overall

Lenovo Phab 2 redefines the Phablet category with its Dolby Atmos technology and great battery life. Although it does have some flaws especially on the display you can’t expect more considering its price at just P9,990 this is quite already a steal.