We go hands-on with the Vibe Z2 Pro!

We’ve finally managed to get our hands on Lenovo’s latest phablet, the Vibe Z2 Pro. Launched a few months ago, the Vibe Z2 Pro builds on the company’s rather excellent (and affordable) Vibe Z that was released at the beginning of this year. The Vibe Z2 Pro hopes to compete in the space that’s already crowded with amazing hi-end devices like Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4, Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus and Huawei’s Ascend Mate7, so it’ll be interesting to see what Lenovo’s newest flagship brings to the table.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 specs

• 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AC processor
• Adreno 330 GPU
• 3GB of RAM
• 6-inch QHD IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 2560×1440 resolution
• 32GB of internal storage, non-expandable
• 16-megapixel rear camera with AF, OIS
• 5-megapixel camera
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, A-GPS
• 3G, LTE
• Android 4.4 KitKat
• 4000mAh battery

Initial Impressions: beefy muscular design with matching internals

The overall design of the Vibe Z2 Pro is rather different when compared with its contemporaries. While other companies made their devices curvy and elegant, the Vibe Z2 Pro is filled with corners and muscular styling. This thing is pretty beefy looking, and has a certain industrial feel to it, which is only heightened by the metal body used to make the device.

That feeling is only reinforced when you take a gander at the camera module on the back. Unlike other devices that try to minimize the size of the camera module by making it round, the one on the Vibe Z2 Pro is big and square, accented by bright red anodized aluminum. The four corners of the rectangular plastic piece that the camera module sits on is held in place by rather prominent torx screws.

As far as physical controls go, the volume rocker is located on the left while the power button is located on the right. The 3.5mm jack can be found on top while the USB port is on the bottom of the device. The device uses two micro-SIM cards, though it does not support dual LTE.

The Vibe Z2 Pro uses a 6-inch, QHD IPS display that has three Android capacitive buttons right below it. We’re loving the fact that Lenovo did not waste any valuable space on the Vibe Z2 Pro on bezels that wasn’t necessary – while it has a larger display size than Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus, it’s actually slightly smaller and is almost the same size of Huawei’s Ascend Mate7.

The display is rather sharp and because of the QHD resolution you’re looking at a rather generous pixel density of 490 ppi. If you like watching movies and playing games, then the Vibe Z2 Pro is definitely a smartphone to consider.

The Vibe Z2 Pro has beefy specs to go with its beefy exterior. Qualcomm’s 2.5GHz Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor runs under the hood, paired with an Adreno 330GP and 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. Because of the rather high-end specs, The Vibe Z2 Pro has rather high synthetic benchmark scores, though only a full review will reveal if the device is up to snuff especially when compared to other flagship phablets currently out in the market today.

Another interesting feature of the Vibe Z2 Pro is large 4000mAh battery. If past experience is any indication, we’re sure that the phone is capable of going for more than a day without charging, though only a full test will show for sure.

The Vibe Z2 Pro is a promising device, and we’ll be using it as our primary smartphone in the next few days. If you’re not keen on waiting for our verdict before buying it, it’s now on sale for Php 29,999.