The Lenovo Vibe X3 costs just Rs.
19, 999 but packs a number of
features and attributes that
might make it a competitor to
phones that cost way more. The
spec sheet alone would give us
quite a bit to dig our teeth into,
but Lenovo has also tossed in a
few things that it says improve
the user experience in less
tangible ways. We'll have to dig
deep to find out if that's just a
marketing line or if the Vibe X3
really does blow all its competition
away.
Look and feel
The Lenovo Vibe X3 looks nothing
like the multi-coloured Vibe X2
( Review| Pictures) which
launched in late 2014. In fact, it
has a very strong resemblance to
the Vibe K4 Note, which shouldn't
be surprising considering the
latter is sold in some territories as
the Vibe X3 Lite. The phone comes
in a slick oblong box, and you'll
find a neat clear plastic case
and adhesive screen protector
along with the usual charger, USB
cable, and headset.
At first glance, the screen
appears to be enormous, with only
narrow white plastic strips for the
twin stereo speakers above and
below it. However, what you see is
actually the black Gorilla Glass 3
extending beyond the screen to
encompass the front camera,
sensors and status LED on top,
and capacitive navigation buttons
below.
The power and volume buttons are
on the right, though a bit too low
for our liking. There's a Hybrid
SIM tray on the left, which means
you get one slot for the first
Nano-SIM and another slot for
either a second Nano-SIM or a
microSD card. This arrangement
forces you to choose between a
second line and additional
storage, which we are never in
favour of.
There's a 3.5mm audio socket on
top, with a small IR emitter to
keep it company. You can use this
in conjunction with an included
app to control a variety of
devices. There's also a standard
Micro-USB port on the bottom
which interestingly allows you not
only to charge and sync the phone
as usual, but also to use the Vibe
X3 as a power bank to charge
other devices.
Around the back, you'll see the
primary 21-megapixel camera
and fingerprint sensor right below
it. This is also where the phone's
NFC radio is located, and Lenovo
says that wireless payments will
be supported when such services
launch in India. You can also see
a pretty big Dolby Atmos logo on
the bottom.
The battery is sealed inside the
phone's aluminium unibody.
Lenovo says the matte white
finish is resistant to smudges and
fingerprints, but we found a few
scuffs within minutes of taking
the plastic cover off. We also
noticed a few scratches on the
silver chamfered edges after a
day or two of careful usage.
The Vibe X3 is 9.3mm thick in the
centre but this is masked quite
effectively by the curvature of
the back. It fits nicely in a palm,
but using it one-handed is
literally a stretch. The 175g
weight is not as easy to
compensate for, and you'll
definitely feel it when using this
phone for any length of time.
It isn't easy to reach the
capacitive buttons on the bottom
without feeling like the Vibe X3
will tip over. Amazingly for a
phone that isn't scraping the
bottom of the budget barrel, the
buttons are not backlit. It would
have made a lot more sense for
Lenovo to have gone with on-
screen buttons on this phone. The
ergonomics are just not quite as
good as we expect of a phone that
claims to be its manufacturer's
flagship.
Specifications
Lenovo has struck a balance
between cost and performance,
and so the Vibe X3 has at its
heart a Qualcomm Snapdragon
808 processor, which is one step
below the current top-of-the-
line Snapdragon 810, offering six
CPU cores and integrated Adreno
418 graphics. There's also 3GB of
RAM which should keep things
chugging along smoothly. The
32GB of storage can be bumped
up by 128GB if you're willing to
forego a second SIM. Surprisingly,
only 24.37GB was reported to be
free on our review unit when we
turned it on for the first time.
The screen measures 5.5 inches
diagonally and has a resolution
of 1080x1920. Again, this is one
step below what other companies
are offering on their flagships,
but considering the price, we feel
that this is probably the right
balance of features for most
people. Lenovo is quick to point
out that the screen can reproduce
100 percent NTSC colour gamut,
and that colours are consciously
not oversaturated.
You get Cat 6 4G LTE on Indian
bands with support for carrier
aggregation, if and when that is
supported by service providers
here. There's also Wi-Fi 802.11ac,
Bluetooth, GPS, and NFC. USB-
OTG functionality lets you store
more files on a Micro-USB pen
drive or a standard one using a
dongle. The battery has a
capacity of 3500mAh which should
be more than enough to get
through a full day of heavy use.
One of the most interesting facets
of the Vibe X3 is its claimed high-
end audio credentials. There's a
Wolfson 8281 processor with a
three-mic array to handle phone
conversations, and an ESS Sabre
9018C2M DAC with three TI-
OPA1612 OP amps which kicks in
when you're playing music or
videos. Lenovo also says the
3.5mm audio output is studio
grade and lossless.
Lenovo is also promoting its
TheaterMax headset, which works
with this phone and its cousin, the
Vibe K4 Note. It sells for Rs. 1, 299
extra which is a lot less than most
VR headsets will cost. What it
does is give you a cinematic
experience when playing movies -
you don't have to have specially
prepared content. While
interesting, it's not something you
can wear on your daily bus or
train ride, so we're not sure how
much it will catch on. Lenovo did
not send us a headset along with
the Vibe X3, so we can't say
anything about the experience
yet.
Software
Lenovo has cleaned up its Vibe UI,
which we're very glad to see. The
default UI is a lot more like stock
Android, including its dedicated
app drawer. You can still switch
back to the single-layer launcher
if you like, but we don't think
anyone will. There are of course
customisations, most noticeably
the notifications shade which has
lots of additional quick-access
toggles and a unique log feature
that shows notifications you've
dismissed in the past.
The icons still seem childish to us
and we didn't find any adequate
replacement packs in the Theme
Center app. Lenovo has
preinstalled quite a lot of apps,
ranging from its own SHAREit,
SYNCit, and Lenovo Companion
support app to Evernote,
Facebook, Guvera Music, McAfee
Security Route 66 Navigate,
Shazam, Skype, Step Counter,
Truecaller, Twitter, UC Browser,
WeChat, and WPS Office. Game
Store has some low-quality games
that you can play after setting
up a profile. Peel Smart Remote
ties in to the IR emitter and
shows program guides for local TV
channels. There's also one game,
Tap the Frog. All of this might
explain all the missing storage
space, but thankfully you can
uninstall most of them.
There are also quite a few custom
settings that help you get more
out of the phone. You can
double-tap the screen to wake the
phone, and also flip it over to
lock it immediately. You can take
a photo directly from sleep by
double-pressing either volume
button, and use the fingerprint
sensor as a shutter button. If you
need to get something done with
one hand, trace a C shape on
either side of the screen to shrink
the display by about two-thirds,
making everything easier to
reach.
Cameras
The Vibe X3 has a 21-megapixel
rear camera with phase-
detection autofocus and an
aperture of f2.0. You can record
4K video, though this isn't
enabled by default. There's also
a front-facing 8-megapixel
camera. Lenovo promises multiple
features for photographers,
which mostly have to do with the
software interface, but we didn't
find much to be impressed with.
Lenovo's custom camera app
takes a second or two to load and
has been over-simplified. The
app automatically detects lighting
conditions and makes
adjustments, but you can disable
this if you like. There are also
scene modes including Panorama,
Art Nightscape, Artistic HDR, and
Blur Background. Most options are
two or three taps away and not
really labelled well - in fact you
can't get to the video settings
when in video mode; you have to
dip back into the standard photo
mode, tap twice to get to the
settings, and then once again to
see video settings.
( Tap to see full sized images)
A Pro mode surfaces controls for
some settings including shutter
speed and focal depth, but there
really isn't much you can do even
so. Surprisingly, a menu appears
when you switch to the front-
facing camera, giving you control
over mirroring, shutter release
gestures, quality, and making the
screen go bright for a second in
lieu of a flash.
Photo quality is okay most of the
time, but a few of our daylight
shots were overexposed and
shaky. Details and textures
seemed to be artificially
smoothened out with over-
aggressive software compression.
Colours were a bit on the dull
side. Low-light shots came out
okay but again, we wouldn't want
to use them for anything other
than casual social media sharing.
You won't get anywhere with this
camera if you need to zoom in to
photos and see them at their
actual size. On the other hand,
4K and 1080p videos came out
looking crisp and motion was
smooth.
( Tap to see full sized images)
Performance
One of Lenovo's main pushes with
this phone is its screen, and true
to its word, colours are vibrant
and engaging without being
oversaturated. Brightness can be
pushed up to blinding levels and
outdoor visibility is not a problem
at all. As far as the Vibe X3's
audio pedigree goes, there
certainly is an improvement to
sound reproduction when using
good headphones. Dual front-
firing speakers are always nice to
see, and while these are loud, the
sound isn't especially clear or
engaging.
The Vibe X3 was comfortable to
hold, though the capacitive
buttons were definitely awkward.
Since this phone is pretty much
perfectly symmetrical, we often
ended up jabbing the wrong side
and getting frustrated when
watching videos in landscape,
especially in the dark. We also
would have preferred it to have
been a lot lighter. The rear did
get slightly warm when we played
games and ran benchmarks, but
not enough to become a problem.
Formal benchmarks showed that
this phone has quite a lot of
power on tap. We got scores of
69, 044 in AnTuTu and 26, 200
overall in Quadrant. GFXBench
ran at a very impressive 34fps,
and 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited
managed 15, 453 points.
The Vibe X3's battery lasted all
day with plenty of usage
including short bursts of 4K video
recording, lots of Internet usage,
and a bit of gaming. Our video
loop battery test ran for 9 hours
and 33 minutes, which was just a
shade below our expectations.
Verdict
Lenovo has delivered very nearly
the best components in circulation
right now, and considering that
the price is just shy of Rs. 20, 000,
this is not a bad thing by any
means. The Vibe X3 aims to
undercut popular phones such as
the OnePlus 2,
Moto X Play( Review), and Nexus
5X( Review| Pictures) but is doing
so on its own terms, by making the
fight more about the end-user
experience than raw specs alone.
We were impressed with how much
Lenovo has been able to cram in
to a phone at this price, not just
in terms of specifications but also
the little touches. Unglamorous
things like the notification shade
improvements and the ability to
charge small devices over USB
show that a lot of thought has
gone in to the creation of this
product.
On the other hand, if user
experience is what matters the
most, Lenovo has some rough
edges to polish. The Vibe X3 is a
bit too bulky and heavy, and not
the easiest to hold or use. The
biggest disappointment was the
camera performance, and then
there are other annoyances such
as the hybrid SIM tray and off-
balance capacitive buttons.
If you can live with these things,
you'll find that the Lenovo Vibe
X3 delivers excellent value for
money. Lenovo has joined a
growing list of companies that
have made it hard for a lot of
people to justify spending double
or triple this amount of money
for a flagship Android phone
from a top-tier manufacturer.
