Lenovo Vibe P1 – one of the best of the year | Keddr.com Reviews

At the end of 2015, the Lenovo Vibe P1 smartphone was released, equipped with relatively powerful hardware and a large 5000 mAh battery (we recently reviewed its older version). Also in November of that year, the Lenovo Vibe P1m appeared, which, despite the name, is not some kind of modification of this device. This is a completely different smartphone, which only has a large battery in common with the specified model. That is why the manufacturer chose this name in order to emphasize this similarity.

Now you can buy Lenovo Vibe P1m at a price from 100 to 130 dollars. Now this price does not look very attractive, since there are enough alternatives, but nevertheless, this is the normal cost of a state employee. Our review will help you understand whether it’s worth buying a smartphone.

Specifications Lenovo Vibe P1m

The main characteristics of the Lenovo Vibe P1m are not surprising. This is a typical budget phone both at the time of release and by the standards of 2021. The only thing is that if back then it was closer to the middle class, now such hardware is available for less money.

Design, case materials, dimensions and weight

Despite the similar name, Lenovo Vibe P1m differs significantly from the model without m. It has completely different body design and materials. The dimensions of the device are 141x72 mm, thickness is 9.4 mm, and the device weighs 149 grams. The indicators are close to average, the thickness is a bit large, but this is the price to pay for a capacious battery.

The front of the device is completely covered with glass. Below the screen there are three touch buttons, above it there is a speaker, sensors, a camera and a notification indicator.

The back panel is removable and is made of matte plastic. There are black and white colors. On the cover there are two logos and a silver island, which houses the camera, flash and second microphone.

The side edging imitates metal, but it is plastic. At the top end there is a MicroUSB socket and a headphone jack, at the bottom there are microphone and speaker grilles.

On the left side of the Lenovo Vibe P1m there is a special slider for switching power saving modes, on the right there is a volume rocker and a power/lock key.

CPU

Lenovo Vibe P1m chipset is quad-core MT6735P. This is an energy-efficient version of the chip, and therefore Cortex A53 cores operate at frequencies up to 1 GHz. Graphics processing is handled by the Mali T720 Mp2 accelerator. This is not the fastest solution, and taking into account the reduced frequencies, the performance is not high at all. In AnTuTu, the device is capable of scoring about 25 thousand points.

Overall, performance can be considered minimally acceptable for 2021. Lenovo Vibe P1m will run any games and applications, but heavy games will only produce normal FPS on minimum graphics, and resource-intensive applications will not work very quickly. Therefore, a smartphone can be considered a solution suitable for communication, web surfing, watching movies, but not games.

Memory

The LPDDR3 RAM capacity is 2 GB. This is still enough to avoid problems with multitasking and program crashes, but there is no reserve. Whether everything will work just as well in a year, when the same Google services become even more voracious, no one can say.

The built-in storage capacity is 16 GB, of which about 9 GB is available to the user. There is a slot for a memory card, it is separate. Flash drives up to 32 GB are officially supported. You can also try 64 GB drives, but to do this you must first format the card in FAT32. There is USB OTG, but again, it only sees flash drives in FAT32, and for an external HDD the output current is not enough for promotion.

Battery

The battery capacity of the smartphone is 4000 mAh. Despite the removable cover, the battery itself is not removable, as a sticker on it warns. For particularly persistent users, the manufacturer duplicated this warning on two warranty seals, making it impossible to remove the battery without breaking them. A 2A power supply is included for charging. It takes about 3 hours to replenish the battery capacity to 100%.

The autonomy of the Lenovo Vibe P1m is good, even excellent. The smartphone can withstand up to 12 hours of active screen time while surfing the web or watching videos over Wi-Fi. In mixed mode, you can count on 2-4 days, depending on the individual style of using the smartphone, as well as the activity of background programs.

Cameras

At the back, the Lenovo Vibe P1m has an 8MP camera. It supports a conventional (contrast) autofocus mechanism and is equipped with a flash. The lens has an aperture of F/2.2. Video recording is supported in a resolution of 1280x720, with a frame rate of 30 FPS.

Day photo

The quality of the images is very low-cost; in the camera’s defense, we can only say that it has relatively good sharpness (if you don’t look at 100% zoom) and acceptable quality of macro shots with flash or in good light.

Macro in good light

Otherwise, the camera is weak: noise, soap, poor detail is obvious.

In room

The front camera has a 5 MP matrix, without autofocus. It does not have a flash, the quality of selfies is average, but not terrible. For video communication, such a camera is also quite sufficient.

Screen

The smartphone differs from its “big brother” not only in terms of design and materials, but also in screen diagonal. Here it reaches 5 inches, and the resolution of the IPS panel is 1280x720 pixels. Now such a matrix can be considered the standard for the lower price category. Its viewing angles are not bad, color rendition is also normal. But with brightness, like the Vibe P1, everything is not very good. It is about 330 cd/m2, which is 20% lower than the average for state employees. It was sacrificed for the sake of autonomy, and therefore readability is not very good under the bright sun.

The sensor is covered with ordinary flat (not 2.5D) glass, the tempering of which is not available. Oleophobic coating is present, and it is of good quality; the finger glides well. Multi-touch for 5 touches is supported.

Communications

The Lenovo Vibe P1m has SIM card slots; they are separate and located under the back cover. 2G GSM/EDGE, 3G UMTS (HSPA\WCDMA) and 4G LTE Band 1, 3, 7, 8 and 20 networks are supported. Wi-Fi can connect to 802.11n networks operating at 2.4 GHz, as well as older ones versions (b and g), but the 5 GHz band is not available. Bluetooth complies with version 4.1, supports stereo and other features.

The navigator can only work with GPS satellites, but it does it correctly. The track recording shows that as you move, the accuracy is +/- 5 meters, which is quite enough for navigation.

Sound

The smartphone has one speaker. It’s loud: it doesn’t let you miss the call, and if the audio track in the film is quiet, then you can hear everything. Naturally, the frequency spectrum is poor, there is no bass. Everything about the headset is pretty decent, with good headphones you can even try to enjoy music, the frequency spectrum of the audio output itself is smooth. There is also a radio receiver for FM stations.

operating system

Lenovo Vibe P1m runs on a proprietary modification of the VibeUI OS, based on Android 5.1. The interface is typical for the Chinese (there is no separate menu for all programs), the curtain is slightly improved compared to pure Android. Changing themes is supported. The system as a whole works well and stably, without obvious glitches or sudden crashes.

However, at the kernel level there is one unpleasant bug that can only be cured by installing unofficial patched firmware. It lies in the fact that if a notification arrives that activates the indicator, the smartphone cannot return to sleep mode. When there are few programs showing background activity, this is not scary (well, not 5% of the charge will go away overnight, but 10%), but if there are a lot of them, the discharge will be stronger. There are no updates to fix the bug (or any updates at all), which is disappointing.

Peculiarities

On the left side of the smartphone there is a special switch that activates the extreme energy saving mode. It reduces hardware frequencies and screen brightness, turns off the Internet, and activates a simplified interface. In general, the smartphone is not much more functional than a dialer, but it consumes noticeably less energy.

An interesting feature is the moisture protection provided by special spraying. The manufacturer claims that the smartphone's electronics are covered with a thin (several nanometers) film that prevents short circuits and oxidation. You can't swim with the device, but thanks to the protection it should survive the rain.

Services for residents of Moscow

order food

Utkonos is a leader in online trading of food and related products.

order food

General Food is a foodtech company engaged in the production and delivery of healthy meals for the whole day (or a diet for 6 days) in Moscow.

order food

We prepare and deliver to your home a daily diet of healthy nutrition, packaged in boxes, at an affordable price.

Our review of Lenovo Vibe P1m

Lenovo Vibe P1m is a smartphone that is interesting for its autonomy. The review showed that its battery life is fine, even taking into account a minor bug with sleep mode. There are not many competing devices on the market in the sub-$150 category, so the choice is limited. If you need a durable budget phone that basically copes with all tasks, even if not at the highest level, it’s worth buying a smartphone.

I'm glad that Lenovo Vibe P1m is equipped with a large battery, has a separate slot for a flash drive and OTG support, and works with all Russian networks. But what’s disappointing is the mediocre camera, not the brightest backlight and lack of OS updates. Considering that now even small Chinese companies have begun to release updates for their products, Lenovo’s behavior is not encouraging.

Compare prices (2)

How to buy or where we are +

"SkidkaGUID" is a price comparison service in stores, a cashback service and assistance in choosing products through a selection of video reviews, testimonials and product comparisons. Most of the stores presented on the website deliver throughout Russia, so it is beneficial to use online ordering on the website of this store (you can find out whether orders are delivered to your region on the website of the selected store). To buy the selected product, you need to click the “ buy ” button next to the selected store and continue purchasing on the website of this store. To get cashback, follow the same steps by registering first.

Price from 6990 rubles to 6990 rubles in 2 stores

Cashback service DiscountGuide

Buy in neighboring cities

Display

The display is what suffers in most centenarians. At a time when HD had already passed the baton to FullHD, such smartphones were equipped with displays with qHD resolution. Now we see an improvement, but only up to HD. The Vibe P1 has a good FullHD IPS screen, with good colors and viewing angles. The pixel density with a 5.5″ diagonal is 401 ppi, which is more than enough. Probably the only serious drawback of the display that I found was the low maximum brightness. There were no sunny days during testing, but I'm afraid in the summer there may be problems with reading information from the screen.

Ergonomics and design

This is the most interesting thing. Despite the presence of a large-capacity battery, the smartphone was able to be made not just usable, but also convenient. It has a 5.5″ display, a metal body, and not too bulky, and has a mechanical Home key. The location of everything is almost standard, except that the headset jack is on top, which may seem inconvenient to some.

In general, there might not have been any questions about ergonomics at all, if not for two points. The first is that the volume and lock keys are located on one side; they had to be spaced apart. And secondly, just like in Phab Plus, the lock key is very easy to press, which is bad.

So that you understand how angry I am, I just accidentally blocked my smartphone while passing the battery test in AnTuTu Tester, when the test was 60% complete. Do you have any idea how much time I spent on this? And now the smartphone needs to be charged again and run all over again. Of course, most people would never run such a test, but I had random blockages here and there. It's especially annoying in games.

The home key has a built-in fingerprint scanner and this is another plus in the P1’s portfolio of advantages. The scanner is not just for show; it works adequately, with virtually no errors. To unlock, you don’t even need to press a key, you can just touch it with your finger, recognition happens very quickly. Objectively, the scanner performance here is better than in top-end Samsung ones.

Something unusual is that on the left side there is a slider for quickly switching to energy-saving mode. To be honest, this is a controversial decision, since it will be used very rarely. I would recommend adding the ability to assign other actions to this switch, for example, switching to silent mode.

Buy in credit

application for a card

Interest-free installments up to RUB 300,000 for up to 12 months for any product. QIWI Bank (JSC), Bank of Russia license No. 2241.

application for a card

Interest-free period - up to 100 days. Issuing a credit card is free

application for a card

Loan amount - up to 300,000 rubles. Interest-free period - up to 55 days!

application for a card

Up to 12 months - installment period for purchases from partners; 0% — interest on purchases in installments; Free – card registration and maintenance; 40,000 partner stores.

application for a card

Up to 10% on account balance; Free cash withdrawal from any ATM in the world; Cashback up to 30% for purchases on special offers; For citizens of any country.

application for a card

Cash loan to Sovcombank: Loan amount - from 5,000 to 100,000 rubles; Loan term - 12 months; Interest rate - from 12% per annum; Age - from 35 to 85 years.

application for a card

Debit cards: Profitable cashback up to 3.9% on all purchases; Up to 5.5% on account balance; Free delivery of the card by courier.

conclusions

Regarding the philosophy of the P1 as a whole, it seems to me to be the right answer to the needs of most active users. No matter how promotional it may sound, this particular smartphone allows you to use all the functions to the fullest. Be it social networks, mail, watching videos on Youtube, photo-video shooting, calls and everything else. And although it is not the only long-liver on the market, it is distinguished by several positive aspects: the cost is $310 in our country, a metal case, a fingerprint scanner, a good FullHD display, a memory card slot, two SIM card slots and generally not bad characteristics .