Lenovo Vibe Z mobile review

Lenovo has masterminded its smartphone business with aplomb, where the company has managed to offer quality products across different price points meant for varied kind of users (P780 comes to mind). But with the Vibe series, Lenovo is looking to gatecrash the party and offer something different to consumers. No easy task but seems possible.

Very very slim and appealing

Lenovo has been known for its top build quality and with Vibe Z the trend continues. The phone is built around brushed metallic-cum-plastic body that offers the premiumness the user is looking for. Easy to hold, even with its big 5.5 inch size and really lightweight at 147 grams, this mixture enables one-hand usage; however the size is still too big for your pockets. Not only is Vibe Z on the lighter side but also comes in sleek form factor with a mere 7.9 mm thickness.

Looks that compliment the display

Vibe Z stands out for its good looking design as well as its high quality full HD 5.5 inch display. The best part about the display is that it takes most of the area around which you thin bezel lines; this enables optimum use of 5.5 inch size. The display offers bright and crisp output with good color reproduction and excellent viewing angles owing to its size. With the added coating of Corning Gorilla 3 glass, the display is durable and meant for rough & tough usage and does not really warrant use of screen guard.

Equally high on performance

The phone runs on forked Android 4.3 Jelly Bean version that is built over Lenovo's custom UI that basically has no home screen and looks more like a basic quick launcher interface. The phone packs the quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset and unlike the Vibe X (Mediatek chipset), Vibe Z gets the best in the business that offers solid performance as well as stability. The processor is well supported by 2 GB RAM for smooth and lag-free experience. Sadly, the high priced device is only available in 16/32 GB internal storage option with no expansion possible. The inbuilt speakers are average at best and will offer medium to low output depending on where you are situated.

Now we come to the crucial aspect of a high-end device, cameras. Vibe Z is fitted with a 13 MP rear camera with LED flash that is good enough for normal daylight shooting but we did find the camera taking few seconds to capture the image. The low light capability of the camera is strictly average and one requires to add the value of flash to get any value out of the image. On the front, you have a 5 MP snapper which is decent for video calling and capable of taking good selfie images.

The other important part is the battery life and over here the Vibe Z gets top marks. The phone's 3000 mAh battery is more than capable of last a day and with judicious usage, it can run for more than that. During our battery tests, wherein we play HD movies at full brightness on Wi-Fi and the phone lasted for more than 8 hours that usually translates into more than 20 hours of normal usage.