Lenovo Vibe P1 First Impressions: A powerful battery-centric phone priced aggressively

Lenovo recently launched the Vibe P1 and Vibe P1m smartphones in India. These smartphone fall under the P series which stands for power, be it in terms of powerful battery of specs and features. The Vibe P1 is the company's flagship range smartphone that is loaded with premium specs but is priced aggressively at Rs 15,999.

With this smartphone, Lenovo has tried to give a specs-heavy smartphone option to consumers who wish for a bigger and more powerful battery in smartphone. The Vibe P1 houses an unprecedented battery of 5,000mAh capacity which can run for up to 81 hours in single charge. Besides battery, other specs such as full HD display, 13MP snapper, and metal body design of the phone also seem promising enough to make it a strong competition for others playing in this price range.

We went hands on with the Lenovo Vibe P1 at its launch event and here are our first impressions:

Design and display:

The Vibe P1 is a uni-bodied smartphone that dons aluminum chassis holding its big 5.5-inch display. The smartphone scores well for its metal body, form factor and premium looks, though we did not find the design very interesting. However, considering the few metal-made smartphone options we have in this price range, this one does make for a good looking one for its price, against its competitors. The key elements added in the phone are a fingerprint scanner, and a dedicated key to instantly kill apps running in the background and switch to low-power mode.

The front has a 5.5-inch 1080p IPS display with Gorilla Glass 3 on top, front facing snapper and home key with a fingerprint reader for added security. The display is vivid, reproduces colors well and offers good angles. The fingerprint scanner, on the other hand, can register up to 5 fingerprints. During the brief hands-on experience, the scanner worked fine and we found it handy to use as well.

The right hand side of the phone is home to power key and volume key, while the left adorns the OneKey Power Saver key, which is a useful addition to save phone's battery. The rear panel has a 13MP primary camera with LED flash, Vibe moniker, and speaker.

Over all, the phone seems nice, but is slightly thick at 9.1mm considering that most smartphones now flaunt a slimmer profile. However, the thickness is due to make space for the 5000mAh battery which makes more sense we think. Despite a large screen, the phone is easy to use single handedly.

Processor and memory

The Vibe P1 smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 hexa-core chipset coupled with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of built-in storage. The native storage space can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card.

Battery

The battery and related features are the key highlight of the Vibe P1 smartphone and give it an edge over its rivals in the market. Not only does this smartphone boasts 5000mAh battery, which the company claims can last for up to 81hours, the Vibe P1 also supports fast charging, as its charger can put out 24W of power. The company calls the super fast charging features as ‘Rocket Charge', which gives about 3 of talk time in just 5 minutes of charging. A bigger battery will be an advantage, considering that the phone has a bigger display with 1080p resolution, which eats up battery fast.

In addition, the phone gets what the company calls OneKey PowerSaver key, which is a handy slider key to put the phone in power-saving mode with a slide. This will further ensure that the device runs for longer. With the power saver mode on, you can see the remaining battery life on the home screen.

If that is not enough, the phone is capable of doubling up as battery pack to charge other smartphones via OTG.

Lenovo claims that this is the best battery-centric phone a user can get for this price. Well, the phone does seem pretty impressive, going by what its specs are on paper, however we will give our take on the battery performance once we review the device.

Camera

The smartphone adorns a 13-megapixel rear with dual-color flash and a 5-megapixel shooter on the front for clicking selfies. Lighting conditions were not the best to test the camera, and we will reserve our take on its camera for detailed review.

Software

The Vibe P1 runs Android 5.1 Lollipop topped with Lenovo's own UI. The interface looks nice.

Other

The Vibe P1 has nano-coating on its innards that make it splash resistant, but not water resistant. The smartphone boasts PA technology with dedicated audio chip, which has been used to offer enhanced audio experience. This is a dual-SIM device which supports 4G, and other standard connectivity options. The phone is available in platinum, graphite gray and gold colors.

Conclusion:

The Lenovo Vibe P1 seems pretty impressive in terms of feature and specifications, as mentioned on paper. It has almost everything that make it an attractive offering for its price of Rs 15,999. We quite like the device and are looking forward to test it.