Test and review of Lenovo Vibe X (S960) – a thin and stylish Full-HD smartphone

Authors: Anton Smerdov

A five-inch smartphone with a Full-HD screen? Recently, this combination has come as no surprise to anyone. Many manufacturers offer customers several similar solutions at once. To stand out from competitors, companies try to make their product special in some way.

For example, Sony Xperia Z is distinguished by its shock resistance and water resistance, Google Nexus 5 is distinguished by “pure” Android and fresh updates, Lumia 1020 (test and review) captivates with its camera, and, as a rule, manufacturers add proprietary software to their devices.

Our test laboratory received the Lenovo Vibe X smartphone, the distinctive features of which include its design and ultra-thin body with a thickness of 6.9 mm. In our review we will take a closer look at the new smartphone.

In addition to the name Lenovo Vibe X, the manufacturer sells its smartphone under the name Lenovo IdeaPhone S960 or simply Lenovo S960.

Below are the specifications shown by the CPU-Z utility.

The smartphone is delivered in a small box with an attractive design.

The front of the smartphone is initially covered with a protective film to prevent scratches during transportation. We immediately removed it.

The smartphone turned out to be stylish. The entire front part is covered with Gorilla Glass 3, which reduces the likelihood of scratches to almost zero. The glass is very pleasant to the touch, so working with a smartphone is a pleasure. The glass is slightly curved on the sides, which is quite unusual and creates a feeling of integrity of the screen and body.

It seems to us that the smartphone will not need a protective film: firstly, it somewhat spoils the appearance, secondly, Gorilla Glass is already quite scratch-resistant, and thirdly, the glass of the Lenovo Vibe X is pleasant to the touch and does not cost hide it with protective film.

In front there is a single speaker, which also serves as a conversation speaker. We will describe the speaker in more detail below in the music and multimedia tests. The front camera is located nearby.

Below are the touch buttons: the left button is functions, the middle button is home, the right button is back. In the Vibe ROM shell, the properties of these keys are somewhat different from those we are used to in Android, but we will talk about this in the description of the firmware. It seems to us that the “Back” button would look better on the left, since most users hold their smartphone with their right hand, and they are more accustomed to reaching for the button located on the left.

The first thing that surprises you when you pick up the Lenovo Vibe X is its weight. The smartphone feels surprisingly light in the hand for two reasons. First, it weighs just 121 grams, while most 5-inch competitors weigh at least 130 grams. For example, this is exactly what the LG Nexus 5 and Samsung Galaxy S4 weigh. Secondly, the streamlined shape allows the Lenovo Vibe X to fit comfortably in your hand, so it feels less heavy. This is ensured by smooth curved edges and a comfortable back cover.

In general, this “shovel” fits very well in the hand for its size.

The back of the Lenovo Vibe X, as well as the front, is initially covered with a film, the inscriptions on which read that:

• The smartphone only supports microSIM cards
• The built-in battery is non-removable, do not replace it yourself
• This tape contains important information about the phone, so it is recommended that you save it.

If you remove the film, you can now admire the back of the Lenovo Vibe X.

It would seem that the rear of the Lenovo Vibe X is made of aluminum. But have you ever wondered why a smartphone is so light? In fact, the rear side is almost entirely made of chrome-plated plastic, which strongly resembles aluminum not only in appearance, but also in tactile sensations (although the plastic is warm to the touch, not cold, unlike metal). As a result, scratches are to be expected, but, however, after more than a week of active use, not even a hint of them appeared.

At the back there is a 13-megapixel camera, a noise-canceling microphone and an LED flash. A little lower is the Lenovo logo, and at the very bottom is a rim made of chromed plastic, but glossy.

As already mentioned, the Lenovo Vibe X is ultra-thin: its thickness is only 6.9 mm. But, despite the small thickness, no one canceled the buttons. The on/off and lock button is on the left - a controversial point. Most people are used to locking their smartphone with their thumb by pressing the button located on the right. In the case of Lenovo Vibe X, it will be more convenient to lock the phone with your index finger, or hold the phone in your left hand.

Overall, the phone feels very comfortable in the hand. In the photo, the thumb is located on the volume rocker, and the index finger is on the lock button.

However, you can set the phone unlock function to the volume rocker located on the right. In addition, several gestures are supported to lock/unlock your smartphone, so you can do without buttons at all. Looking ahead, we’ll say that you can unlock your phone by simply swiping across the bottom of the screen from left to right, and lock it by simply shaking it. In our opinion, these are very convenient functions. You just might have to get used to the fact that you take your phone out of your pocket and the screen is already on, since you often accidentally run your finger over it. In the pocket, by the way, the Lenovo Vibe X fits well for its size due to its small thickness.

The microSIM tray is hidden on the right. To open it, a special key is supplied. However, to open it, you can use any available tool that can fit into the microscopic hole and pull out the tray.

Note that the body is solid and non-separable. Therefore, it feels solid and the build quality is excellent. It will be a pleasure to use the phone. However, the disadvantage of a non-separable case is the difficulty of repairing and replacing the battery in particular, but judging by the build quality, such an outcome is unlikely.

Note that the entire delivery set was contained in two small boxes. They look stylish, apparently, the manufacturer created the phone for real aesthetes.

The package included:

• USB-microUSB cable
• USB charging for Russian sockets (5V, 1A)
• Headset and several additional attachments
• User manuals in different languages
• Key for opening the microSIM tray

As you can see, the package is quite extensive and, in our opinion, there is nothing more to add. Not all users need a case, especially since with it the device loses its “flavor” in the form of light weight and thickness. As mentioned above, the smartphone does not need film.

The included headphones are symmetrical, there is a special button for answering calls with a built-in microphone. The sound insulation is good, we also liked the sound quality, so the headphones are very good. You won't need to buy a new headset.

Lenovo Vibe X is equipped with a 5-inch Full-HD screen made using IPS technology. The pixel density is 440 dots per inch, so the pixels are almost impossible to distinguish even at close range. Multi-touch up to 5 touches is supported.

The colors on the screen are bright and rich. It's pleasant to look at the screen, the viewing angles are wide. For comparison, we took the Nexus 5.

As you can see, viewing angles are wide and color reproduction is not distorted. The Lenovo Vibe X matrix is ​​in no way inferior to the Super IPS+ matrix installed in the Nexus 5 screen.

The brightness reserve is sufficient for working in sunny weather. At minimum brightness, the screen will not “harm” the eyes in complete darkness, so there are no problems with brightness. There is also automatic brightness adjustment depending on the light level. Below are photos of the Lenovo Vibe X screen at maximum and minimum brightness, respectively.

The screen can be called one of the main advantages of a smartphone.

Lenovo Vibe X runs on Android 4.2.2 OS with Lenovo's proprietary shell installed on top of it. This shell is in many ways similar to the MIUI interface used in devices from the Xiaomi line and some others.

First of all, we checked for firmware updates and updated the system.

At first glance, the shell resembles iOS. There is no separate menu for applications, as in “pure” Android, the folders look the same. But that's probably where the similarities end.

Note that when you first launch your smartphone, a virtual assistant helps you, so even less advanced users will be able to figure it out easily. Moreover, there is a separate “Textbook” program for teaching beginners.

In our opinion, the shell is very successful and convenient. There are many pre-installed applications that can hardly be called unnecessary. These are such popular programs as Skype, Twitter, Facebook, VKontakte, and several Yandex services. Therefore, you do not have to waste time searching and installing them.

Let's talk about some special programs.

The SECUREit antivirus is installed, which does not allow the phone to “catch” a virus, although such on Android are relatively rare. It cannot be deleted.

The SYNCit application allows you to synchronize data by uploading it to a cloud service. Everything is extremely simple.

We especially liked the Power Manager application, which allows you to configure many energy saving parameters in detail. It is possible to create several modes for energy saving and quickly switch between them. We also note the option that switches the smartphone to maximum energy saving mode, leaving only the functions of a regular phone.

Standard applications such as “Clock”, “Flashlight”, “Compass” and others are also included.

But among so many programs, only Google Music can play music, and the Books application can only download them, no matter how funny it may sound.

On the contrary, four browsers are offered for the Internet.

Note that the Lenovo Vibe X works quickly in the browser, no problems arose.

Let's mention the assignment of the Lenovo Vibe X keys. A short press on the middle button returns you to the desktop, and a long press brings up Google Now or Yandex Assistant, depending on your choice. The list of running applications is called up by long pressing the settings button.

Initially, about 11 GB of memory is available to the user.

We liked the Lenovo Vibe X shell; it looks well thought out and comfortable.

The settings in the firmware are mostly the most standard for Android.

It is important to note that there are many special features that allow you to use Lenovo Vibe X much more comfortably. For example, you can unlock your smartphone by simply swiping your finger across the bottom of the screen, and lock it with a simple shake.

The smartphone is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear and 5-megapixel front camera.

We liked the quality of the pictures, they are shown below. You can evaluate the quality yourself by downloading a full-size version of the photo.

Rear camera shots

Shot with front camera

The Camera app in iOS is different from the standard Android app and has a large number of advanced features.

It is possible to edit photos in the gallery.

Lenovo Vibe X is capable of shooting Full-HD video at 30 fps.

Video from the rear camera. You can download the full version of the video on cloud.mail.ru (17 MB).

Since April 2013, we have been using a new testing methodology for testing multimedia devices. It is divided into several parts.

• Popular formats - commonly used video formats and codecs. It is recommended to evaluate their support first
• DVD and Blu-Ray Disc Images - Tests playback of complete DVD/Blu-ray images, including menus. Recommended if you store your media library as images
• Rare formats - less common formats, but still relevant
• Ultra HD 2K and 4K are future-proof formats. Ultra-high-definition video will gain popularity in 2013

We played all test files in the MXPlayer application.

Lenovo Vibe X successfully handled most of the proposed formats. There wasn’t enough power for 2K video, but this is not at all fatal, especially since you won’t notice the difference on a Full-HD smartphone screen.

The speaker volume is enough for movies - it is loud enough. But, unfortunately, there is only one.

Given the small amount of built-in memory, we believe that most users will watch movies online, and since online video is slowly moving to Full-HD, there should be no problems with video playback.

If above we talked more about pleasant things, then not everything is so smooth here. Lenovo Vibe X is equipped with a quad-core MTK 6589T processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. Its performance, of course, is far from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800, but for everyday work and most games the MTK 6589T will be enough. Moreover, it spends much less energy, so this will have a positive effect on autonomy. The role of the graphics core is played by PowerVR SGX544.

We compared the performance of Lenovo Vibe X with smartphones that were tested in our laboratory:

• Nokia Lumia 1020
• iconBIT NetTAB Mercury Quad
• Treelogic Optimus TL-S531
• Prestigio MultiPhone PAP5000 DUO

AnTuTu

We have added the results of the popular AnTuTu test version 4.1.7.

As you can see, the Lenovo Vibe X is seriously inferior in performance to many flagship smartphones. Let us find consolation in the fact that the MTK 6589 processor is more economical, which will have a positive effect on battery life. But we'll check this later.

Interface

The smartphone runs Android 4.2.2 OS with the proprietary Vibe ROM shell. The company has abandoned the separate screen with applications typical of Android: the Lenovo Vibe X interface is represented by desktops. All icons can be sorted into folders.

At the bottom of the display are 4 applications that always remain in place while scrolling through the screens - “Phone”, “Contacts”, “Messages” and the browser.

The interface is reminiscent of iOS in terms of organization and appearance and differs only in the ability to add widgets, which can be placed both on the main desktop and on a separate screen designed for them.

Among the pre-installed applications, in addition to Play Music, Facebook, Evernote and Skype, there are also proprietary ones, for example, Lenovo Safe and Lenovo Sync. Lenovo Safe is a program that, in addition to protecting against viruses, monitors traffic - it shows how many megabytes have been spent and what their cost is - and can also set a limit on it. In addition, the application has a processor control option, with which you can increase or decrease its frequency. The Lenovo Sync app helps you synchronize data, including SIM contacts and SMS.

Lenovo gives you great options for changing themes that change not only the wallpaper, but also the icons, fonts and effects that accompany scrolling through the screens.

In general, the Lenovo Vibe X software shell is pleasing: it is convenient, stable in operation and provides a lot of scope for settings.

3DMark

We have added test results from the cross-platform 3DMark benchmark.

The results are not impressive. In the Ice Storm test, the Lenovo Vibe X scores just 3,131 points, while competing flagship models score around 10,000 points.

Appearance

First of all, Lenovo Vibe X surprises with its small thickness - only 6.9 mm. Combined with a large five-inch screen, the device looks very thin. The design is dominated by rounded corners, there are no sharp edges. Light weight (121 grams) complements the impression of compactness.

The elongated case with dimensions of 71 x 144 mm is assembled from two panels connected by a chrome edging. The front panel is completely covered with Gorilla Glass 3. The back panel is convex, with strongly beveled edges.

There are practically no side frames around the five-inch display. The front camera is located on the right; The central place is occupied by the speaker, which performs the functions of both an external and a voice speaker. The back panel has a silver-matte metal-look finish with an unusual texture. The case cannot be disassembled. The smartphone does not support memory cards and there is no slot for them.

The touch control keys “Menu”, “Home” and “Back” are equipped with backlight and vibration and are traditionally located below the screen.

On the right side, near the edging, there is a volume rocker and a SIM card slot. On the left side at the top there is an on/off button.

There is a 3.5 mm jack at the top end of the smartphone, and a microUSB port at the bottom.

On the back panel on the left there is a camera, under it there is an LED flash. Also on the back panel is a logo stylized as metal. The edging that goes around the entire body, going to the back panel, thickens and “captures” part of it.

Overall, the manufacturer's claim of premium design is justified. Lenovo Vibe X combines amazing compactness, a large screen diagonal, as well as a laconic and quite interesting appearance, which is characterized by both elegance and a certain rigor. Despite the fact that the smartphone is made almost entirely of plastic, it looks rather metallic, which adds to its solidity.

Overall system performance

We used Smartbench 2012 1.0 to evaluate overall system performance. This test is very similar to the 3DMark and SysMark suites in that it provides simple and easy-to-use performance indexes for two categories: productivity applications and games. On the other hand, a synthetic test may not accurately reflect the actual performance of applications and games.

You can compare the results of Lenovo Vibe X with other smartphones and tablets at https://smartphonebenchmarks.com/

Based on the test results, we can say that Lenovo Vibe X should be positioned more as a smartphone for work because of its good productivity, but with games everything is a little more complicated. Still, the high resolution of the Full-HD screen has an effect. But we will look at this further in the results of gaming tests.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped with a five-inch IPS display with Full HD resolution 1080x1920 (ppi 441). The screen is protected on top by Gorilla Glass 3 with an oleophobic coating. There is a light sensor that helps automatically adjust the screen brightness.

The touchscreen has good sensitivity and processes up to five simultaneous touches. The color rendition of the display is not satisfactory. The smartphone's performance in bright sunlight is pleasing - there is enough brightness reserve, the screen does not “blind” and, moreover, does not suffer from strong glare.

The Lenovo Vibe X display does not stand out among its peers in the segment, but is not inferior to them. It is quite high quality, with good color reproduction, but it lacks contrast and saturation. The manufacturer promises wide viewing angles, but in reality, when looking at the screen at an angle, the colors are distorted and fade slightly.

JavaScript Performance

SunSpider is a JavaScript benchmark that demonstrates both the performance of the tablet's JavaScript engine and (to a lesser extent) the processing power of the hardware. A poor implementation of JavaScript on a very fast tablet can ruin the overall performance of the platform. And at the same time, an excellent implementation of JavaScript will allow you to effectively use even slow systems. However, today the main implementations of JavaScript engines are becoming closer to each other, and developers are borrowing all the best ideas. JavaScript tests are single threaded due to the nature of browsers. SunSpider correctly evaluates CPU-sensitive tasks found in real web applications.

Below are the results of SunSpider 1.0 on Android tablets and phones. Android devices use Google's V8 JavaScript engine.

Performance in the browser is good, heavy sites load quickly, so browsing the Internet will not be a weak point of the Lenovo Vibe X.

Camera

The main camera of the Lenovo Vibe X has a resolution of 13 megapixels, autofocus and LED flash, and produces fairly sharp images in daylight. In addition, it can shoot 1920x1080 video at a frame rate of 30 fps.

However, it also has disadvantages and they are expressed in reduced detail in the dark areas of the image. And sometimes, especially when shooting at dusk, noise and artifacts appear around contrasting elements in the photo.

At the same time, compared to other mobile devices, pictures taken in low light have surprisingly decent color rendition.

In general, the camera works quickly, but sometimes the autofocus slows down. Color rendition is not bad, but errors do occur - dark colors fade into blue or purple. Auto exposure works flawlessly.

Artificial lighting reduces the sharpness of images.

The front camera has a resolution of 5 megapixels and can recognize a face and apply a filter to it that smoothes out skin imperfections. In general, the quality of shooting on this camera is acceptable for video calling.

Network Bandwidth

We tested network performance using the IxChariot test, as well as an 802.11 b/g/n router with 1 Gbps ports. The smartphone was at a distance of about 1 meter from the access point. We tested the maximum available network mode (802.11g or 802.11n), at this time there were no other active transmissions, and no pronounced interference was detected in the network coverage area.

The network throughput was 55 Mbit/s - quite a decent result. It's safe to say that Wi-Fi speed will not be a bottleneck on the Lenovo Vibe X. Coupled with the Sunspider results, it is obvious that there will definitely not be any problems with “heavy” pages.

Test results do not always correspond to real performance, so we decided to conduct tests in real conditions.

Three applications were selected for this purpose:

• Cut The Rope is a casual game with simple and beautiful animations
• Epic Citadel – demo of the Unreal engine with built-in benchmark
• NFS Most Wanted – a modern game with “powerful” graphics

These tests test performance under a variety of conditions and measure real-world performance.

In games, frames per second (fps) is an important factor. The higher it is, the smoother the game feels. Frame rates below 30 fps can lead to stuttering and other unpleasant consequences. Frame rates below 15 fps turn the game into a slideshow and you'll hardly be able to enjoy it. We took the average frame rate throughout the test run in the selected game.

Lenovo S960 Vibe X review

Perhaps at the moment the phone does not have outstanding technical characteristics, and it is built on a not very new platform from MTK - 6589T, but it can still compete with even newer and more expensive phones. PS I tried to shorten the review as much as possible, but still, there wasn’t too little text and pictures, so: “be careful, traffic!”

Introduction.

I liked the Lenovo Vibe X model for its cute appearance, thin, monolithic body and beautiful bright display. True, I liked this model for quite a long time and at the moment this phone entered the market, I decided that I would definitely consider this device in more detail, but only when the cost of it was reduced. Now the moment has come when Vibe X can be bought not for 15 thousand rubles, as at the beginning of its life, but within 7 thousand. Perhaps at the moment the phone does not have outstanding technical characteristics, and it is built on a not very new platform from MTK - 6589T, but it can still compete with even newer and more expensive phones.

The technical specifications are as follows:

• Processor: MTK 6589T 1.5 GHz, quad-core • Operating system: Android 4.4.2 KitKat with Vibe 1.5 shell • RAM: 2 GB • Built-in hard drive: 16 GB • Display: 5 inches, capacitive touch screen, resolution: 1920 x 1080, Full HD, 440 PPi, Gorilla Glass 3 • 3G: 2100 MHz/900 MHz or 1900 MHz/850 MHz • 2G: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz or GSM 850/1800/1900 MHz • Baud rate data: HSPA+ 21.1 Mbit/s (DL) / 5.76 Mbit/s (UL) • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot • Bluetooth ® 4.0 • Sensor: gravity, lighting, proximity , compass • Battery • 2,000 mAh, lithium polymer, built-in • 13 MP main camera with autofocus and LED flash • 5 MP front camera with fixed focal length • One slot for Micro SIM card • Dimensions (L x W x H): 144 mm x 6.9 mm x 74 mm • Weight: 121 g

Contents of delivery.

Lenovo classifies the Vibe X phone as a premium smartphone, and considers this model one step lower than the Vibe Z phone, which, as is known until recently, was the company's flagship.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the S960 comes in exactly the same box, with a pleasant velvety coating reminiscent of a “soft-touch” surface and an additional black casing on the box with cut-out VIBE letters, through which the red inner side is visible. Looks very nice and stylish.

On one of the ends of the box, you can see information on the phone. Some interesting things here are IMEI, phone release date, model name and phone version. By phone version I mean WCDMA designation.

Opening the box, the first thing we see is the phone itself.

The set also includes three compartments containing:

1) Stereo headset with vacuum-type ear pads (and four additional tips of different sizes). The headset is good, exactly the same, only in black I have already seen in the K910 phone.

2) Micro USB cable

3) 1 A charger

4) Tool for removing the Micro SIM card slot. 5) Instructions and warranty card

The equipment is good, there is everything you need, and for those who like to listen to music or the radio, the kit includes a good stereo headset.

Appearance, materials, control elements.

The phone has an excellent appearance; the entire front part of the smartphone is covered with tempered glass Gorilla Glass 3. In addition, the glass itself is slightly curved, which also gives a certain charm to the device. The more expensive and technically advanced K910 model, it seems to me, is quite inferior to the seemingly simpler S960 model, although they are both considered by Lenovo to be premium phones.

On the back of the phone there is a 13 MP camera, an additional microphone and an LED that acts as a flash. Just below there is the inscription Lenovo. The back of the phone, according to the manufacturer's information, has been laser-treated and feels like fabric. I have already seen such a cover on the S650 phone, which is the younger brother of this model and is called VIBE Mini. But, unlike the younger version, the back cover on the S960 is not removable. Fingerprints will not be noticeable on such a surface, and scratches will also be difficult to distinguish.

The camera module protrudes slightly from the body, and the frame around the camera eye is made of metal and is located above the glass itself, which in theory should slightly protect the camera from damage.

On the top edge of the phone there is only a 3.5 mm jack for connecting a headset.

On the bottom edge there is the main microphone and Micro USB port.

On the left side of the phone there is a screen/phone on/off button.

On the right side there is a volume rocker, a hole for the SIM card slot removal tool, and the SIM card slot itself.

The Micro SIM card slot is made of metal.

At the top of the phone there is: proximity and light sensors, earpiece and main speaker, hidden under the mesh is an LED indicator that will remind you of missed events and a 5 MP front camera. Just below the speaker is the company logo, and below the logo is a 5-inch display.

Below the display there are three touch buttons – menu, home and return/back. The buttons have white backlight. The backlighting of the buttons is not very bright, but it is enough to understand where and which button is located.

When events are missed, the LED indicator flashes a pleasant blue color, and when the battery is low or the phone is charging, the color changes to red.

Dimensions and weight.

The dimensions of the phone are 144 × 74 × 6.9 mm, weight 121 grams.

The phone is not a record holder in terms of its size, five-inch screen and 2000 mAh battery. But, oddly enough, this model fits perfectly in the hand and you get the feeling of an even lighter and thinner phone. This effect is achieved due to the fact that the body tapers very strongly towards the edges of the phone. Convenient to use with one hand

The appearance of the phone and how it fits in your hand can be seen in the video.

You can also look at the interface and viewing angles of the display in the video.

Display.

The Vibe X has a 5-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080. The pixel density at this size and resolution is 440 PPI. Naturally, you won’t be able to see any pixels at such a density; everything looks very beautiful and clear on the screen. Judging by the fact that I didn’t notice an air gap between the display and the touch panel, the screen is most likely made using OGS technology, it seems. The viewing angles of the phone are maximum.

In bright, sunny weather, the information on the display remains readable. The illumination is uniform, there are no “flares”. The protective glass used is Gorilla Glass 3, which has an oleophobic coating. Fingerprints are easily removed from the screen. The number of simultaneous clicks should be five. The Antutu Tester program helped me determine this value.

Operating system.

At the time of going on sale, this device ran on Android 4.2.2 with an add-on from Lenovo - VibeRom 1.0. After some time, Lenovo was one of the first to promise that this phone would be equipped with firmware based on Android 4.4.2 and with additional add-on VibeRom version 1.5. The promise was kept and at the moment we have one of the latest builds of Android. By the way, there are two firmware versions for this phone, one for China (CN) and the other for everyone else (ROW). Replacing the firmware from one region to another is very simple; you just need to flash the phone using the Flash Tool with the required software version. The differences between the versions are at least the presence of applications from Google and Russian localization in the ROW version. The CN version is currently already running on the add-on from Lenovo - Vibe 2.0.

The firmware for the ROW region under version S211 dated July 14, 2014 is currently current, but if new firmware appears, it can be easily updated in the System Update program directly from the phone itself.

The Vibe shell represents a rethinking of the MIUI firmware by the guys from LENOVO... The principle is the same as in the iOS operating system, all applications are placed on desktops, there is no additional menu for them, and “widgets” can also be placed on these tables. Applications can be grouped into folders.

The desktop can also be changed beyond recognition using themes. You can combine elements of different themes, for example, set a different “lock screen”. The disadvantage of the ROW firmware compared to the CN version is the lack of selection of online themes from the Theme Center program.

In the phone settings, you can find the “Special” sub-item. In this menu, you can make working with your phone even more convenient, for example, here you can turn on the “In Pocket” mode and the phone will automatically increase the volume to maximum when it is in your pocket. This is necessary so that you do not miss any important call by mistakenly forgetting to turn up the volume. When the “in hand” mode is turned on, the phone will turn down the volume, and when you put the phone on lock, the “Shake-lock” function will help you move the phone from your ear with the screen to the floor. “Smart Answer” will start a conversation during an incoming call, if you simply bring the phone to your ear, and “Smart Call”, with the same movement, will be able to call people by taking a number from an SMS message or from an open contact. The “Smart Standby” function will prevent the screen from going dark if you are looking at the phone screen. Very convenient additions in my opinion. Here's the truth: "Smart unlocking", which allows you to turn on the phone screen by simply moving your finger from the left edge of the bottom of the screen to the right edge, does not work very quickly, or rather the screen wakes up quite quickly, but the self-movement needs to be done slowly and in a couple you think that it's been a while I would turn on the screen and unlock it the old fashioned way. By the way, to turn on the screen, you can activate the “on” item. volume" and when you press the volume buttons, the screen will wake up.

If necessary, you can activate the “Smart Menu” item. After activating it, a virtual button will be added to the screen, clicking on which will bring up an additional menu with shortcuts to programs or actions. So from this menu you can open the camera application, calculator, turn on the flashlight or lock the screen. You can add a shortcut to something else.

Lenovo is adding its “Power Manager” program, which will manage energy consumption; in it you can set the required operating mode and see which programs are consuming the battery. When you select the emergency mode of operation of the smartphone, the expected operating time of the phone increases noticeably, but of all the functions of the smartphone, the only functions left are writing SMS messages, viewing contacts, clocks and alarm clocks, as well as making calls. In essence, the smartphone turns into the simplest phone.

“Sound profiles” are not often found on phones, but it’s convenient; you just need to configure everything at your discretion once and just switch them in one motion.

If desired, you can adjust the color gamma and screen temperature. If desired, the event indicator light can be turned off completely or you can turn off blinking for one of two events, such as “missed call” and “unread message”.

About 12 GB of free space is available for storing applications; there is no slot for a Micro SD memory card. I couldn't get USB-OTG to work.

You can read more about the operating system, with lots of pictures, on my blog.

Performance.

The Lenovo Vibe X smartphone is built on the MTK platform, namely MTK6589T, where the last letter T is used to denote the turbo version. In the turbo version, the frequency of each of the four processor cores is overclocked from 1.2 GHz to 1.5 GHz, compared to the regular version. The role of the GPU here is PowerVR SGX 544 operating at a frequency of 357 MHz. The device interface works smoothly, but there are some slight hiccups. Most likely, this is due to the use of Full HD resolution, but it seems to me that it would be more than enough to stick with regular HD resolution. Of course, the number of ppi would decrease, pictures and photographs would not seem so perfectly clear and beautiful, but the load on the GPU would also decrease, which is why we would get a slight increase in FPS in games.

Antutu Benchmark gave it a good score, 18141 points. Quite a decent result, even at the moment. The closest phone in terms of scores was LG Nexus 4, with which I compared this device. From the comparison it is clear that in some moments Vibe X even surpasses its competitor, but is very inferior in 2D and 3D graphics. This is primarily due to the more powerful GPU in the LG phone. And plus, the Nexus smartphone uses regular HD resolution, while the S960 smartphone uses FullHD.

Quadrant rated the device's performance quite well and gave it a score of 9,779.

Not everything is so good with NenaMark graphics tests. Although in the first test the phone received the maximum number of FPS, in the second it could only boast of 33.1 FPS.

3DMARK gave the standard number of points for the combination of the platform from MTK 6589T and the FULL HD screen. The points are not great, but you will still be able to play powerful games.

Epic Citadel showed good results for this hardware. 42.4 FPS in High Performance mode and 39.5 FPS in High Quality. Ultra High Quality mode showed 13.7 frames per second.

Antutu 3DRating Benchmark - 1738 points.

At this point in time, I would draw conclusions regarding system performance as follows: you can use the phone calmly and comfortably, viewing web pages, movies and photos will bring a lot of pleasure, in some powerful games of 2013 the phone will slow down, and new products will show the number of FPS no more than what Epic Citadel produced in Ultra mode. Also, the system interface can and will sometimes jiggle a little, but most likely this will not be very noticeable. If we take into account the price at which you can now buy a phone, then I would buy this model, since this performance will be enough for all my tasks, I like the appearance of the phone, and the screen is absolutely wonderful.

You can read more about performance, with lots of pictures and tests, on my blog.

Games.

Nowadays it’s difficult to imagine a situation where someone wouldn’t launch a game on a smartphone at least once, even just to get distracted. Therefore, it would be strange if I did not check how at least several 3D toys work on this device.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted behaves

As it turned out, this game behaves quite well, even despite the high screen resolution, everything is quite smooth and fast.

Asphalt 8

The toy works a little worse than previous races, but it also has more special effects.

Edge of Tommorow

Despite the fact that the game weighs little, it is still quite resource-hungry and, due to the abundance of special effects and constant explosions, it works with slowdowns in busy scenes.

Injustice

In this FPS game, it seems to me that everything is even worse; you can play it, of course, but there are a lot of dropped frames.

Despite this, many games work great, for example Dead Trigger and Dead Trigger 2 work very well. “The Dark Knight” from the Gameloft studio also behaves very decently. So, you won't be left without games.

Battery.

This smartphone is equipped with a non-removable 2000 mAh lithium polymer battery. This capacity is not enough for a smartphone with a five-inch screen with FullHD resolution, and I admit honestly, I had concerns about even one day of the phone operating on a full battery charge during normal use. I understand that this value was chosen in order to make the phone quite thin and beautiful, but if you put a 2500 mAh battery in this model, while increasing the thickness of the device by 1 mm, no one would be upset.

Before using the phone, I decided to test the battery using the Antutu Tester program and saw interesting results. The phone is located next to the LG Nexus 4, but this is not the most interesting thing; in terms of the number of points scored, the phone's battery life has surpassed such phones as: Nexus 5, Mi3 and Galaxy S5. Of course, you cannot completely rely on tests, and you need to test the phone under normal conditions.

Under normal conditions, the phone lived for about 29 hours and could have lived a little longer, since 11% of the charge remained, but it was sent for recharging. During this time, I played games, watched movies on Google Play, surfed the Internet and naturally talked and wrote messages. In total, my conversations lasted 40 minutes, and the screen lasted four and a half hours. The screen backlight was set to automatic mode. Quite a decent result. So, my fears about the battery were unfounded, the phone can easily last a whole day of very active use, and with moderate use I can easily use the smartphone for two days.

Camera.

The Lenovo S960 phone is equipped with two cameras.

The main camera is 13 MP. The frame around the camera eye is metal and protrudes slightly, this is done so that the glass does not scratch on any surfaces.

Front camera 5 MP.

Example of photos taken with the front camera:

The photographs are of fairly good quality and the text is easy to read. For communicating via Skype and taking selfie photos on Instagram, this camera is more than enough.

Examples of photos taken with the main camera:

I liked the main camera, the photos come out rich and beautiful. Auto focus works very well.

Focus on the bump.

Focus on grass.

By default, photos have a resolution of 9 MP; in this resolution, the pictures are widescreen, with a side resolution of 16 by 9 and fill the entire screen. In 13MP resolution, the pictures have an aspect ratio of 4 to 3 and in this case there will be empty spaces on the left and right of the smartphone screen. Wireless interfaces. The smartphone has the entire necessary set of wireless interfaces: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and 3G. The wi-fi module works well. The reception is very stable. Below, in the “screenshots” you can see the signal reception level five and ten meters from the router:

The speed of data transfer and reception matches my network, everything is fine with this.

After turning on the AndroiTS program, I had to wait about five minutes and only after that, the phone saw only seven satellites, however, it instantly connected to all of them.

Perhaps I should have left the phone in one place a little longer, but I didn’t wait, I realized that the GPS was working.

List of all available sensors in the device:

All sensors are working properly.

Regarding the quality of speech reception and transmission, everything is excellent. The phone holds the signal confidently, the audibility of the opponent in the conversational speaker is good, no extraneous noise or sounds.

Conclusion.

At the time of its release to the market, this model was overpriced. Even for a slightly lower price, you could buy an Alcatel Idol X phone, which had identical characteristics, also a stylish design and a screen with minimal bezels. But the most important difference was the ability to use two SIM cards and Micro SD memory cards in the Idol X phone. Lenovo removed this option. At the moment, when the price of the phone has fallen, this phone is more interesting to buy. Despite the not very new hardware platform, the phone copes well with games, even despite the Full HD screen resolution, and the monolithic thin body does not make you think that the phone is worth that kind of money.

Pros:

• Excellent design • Monolithic body • Gorgeous Full HD IPS OGS screen with protective Gorilla Glass 3 • Excellent cameras • Good battery life for a 2000 mAh battery. • Latest Android version

Minuses:

• At the moment, the MTK 6589T platform is outdated • Not high performance in games due to Full HD resolution • No memory card slot • One SIM card, with the initial possibility of using two • Not the most compact size for a 5-inch phone

Overall, to sum it up, I liked the phone. It has an excellent stylish appearance, a good monolithic body, a clear, bright Full HD display and good cameras. At the moment, the price for the phone is not bad, especially if you are not chasing new products and do not play very demanding 3D games, this phone is worth considering buying first.

You can read more about this phone on my blog, thanks for your attention!

Cut the rope

We decided to test the smartphone on ordinary casual games that many users play to have a good time. Since the user can play them for hours, a good frame rate per second (fps) is an important indicator, because not everyone can watch a jerky picture for many hours. We tested the Lenovo Vibe X on the game Cut the Rope HD.

The result of 55 frames per second is quite decent, this is more than enough for games. Therefore, Lenovo Vibe X has no problems with casual games.

Detailed technical specifications

Make and model

Make and model of the device, and alternative names (if any).

Design

Appearance of the device including dimensions, weight, volume, colors and materials.

System on a Chip (SoC)

A system on a chip, a single-chip system (System on a Chip, SoC) is when several systems performing different device functions are connected on one chip.

Central processing unit (CPU)

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

Random access memory (RAM)

Built-in memory

Most mobile devices have built-in Flash memory, which is used as a storage for system data, the operating system, as well as user data - photos, videos, recordings and much more.

Operating system

A mobile operating system (OS) is pre-installed software with a well-thought-out interface for user control of device functions.

Battery

To operate autonomously, a mobile device requires a battery that powers all its components.

Screen

The screen (display) is the main element for displaying graphic information.

Main camera

The main camera, usually built into the rear of the device, is designed for creating photo and video content.

Front-camera

The front camera of a mobile device (selfie camera, rear camera) is a camera on the front part, which is usually used for video communication, recognition of gestures or faces, and selfie photographs.

SIM card

Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) used in mobile devices to identify subscribers in cellular networks.

Mobile networks

This is a system in which communication and data transfer is carried out between subscribers, the location of one or more of which changes. This section lists the supported mobile communication standards and frequencies.

Mobile network data standards

What data transfer standards in cellular networks are supported by the device, as well as their speed.

WiFi

Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) is a technology for wireless data transmission over a local network among devices based on IEEE 802.11 standards.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth (BT, bluetooth (z), “blue tooth”) is a short-range wireless network (up to 10, sometimes 100 meters) operating on radio waves to transmit voice and data between devices.

Sensors

Modern devices have many sensors that help in measurements, trigger functions, and make using the device more pleasant.

Audio

Audio - characteristics and capabilities of a mobile device in terms of sound.

Radio

The radio in a mobile device can be built-in by the manufacturer (catch local radio channels, no internet required, often works only with headphones (as an antenna), but not always) or installed as an online application (requires internet, but more channels and often better quality) .

Navigation and location

The location is determined by satellite navigation systems that track the device's autonomous geospatial location at multiple points. The most common satellite navigation systems are GPS, GLONASS, and the Chinese BeiDou.

USB connector

USB (Universal Serial Bus) is a serial interface for connecting peripherals to computers, smartphones, laptops and much more. The interface allows you to exchange data and power a peripheral device with energy, as well as connect several peripheral devices to one USB connector at once.

Headphone jack

A TRS headphone jack (or jack) is a common standard of connectors used for transmitting audio signals. By diameter there are jack (6.5 mm), mini-jack (3.5 mm) and micro-jack (2.5 mm). In mobile devices, the 3.5mm jack was considered the most popular and widespread, but recently they began to be removed, leaving only USB connectors, through which headphones are connected with a corresponding plug or using adapters.

Connection and synchronization

Options for synchronizing your mobile device and connecting it to other devices.

Browser

A browser is a browser program for viewing sites and their content on the Internet. Through the browser, you can open websites, search for information, download necessary files, watch streaming videos, play browser games, etc.

Audio file formats/codecs

Mobile devices support many audio file formats, as well as codecs for playing them.

Video file formats/codecs

Video file formats that the device supports and is capable of decoding and playing.

SAR

The specific absorption rate (SAR) of electromagnetic energy is a measure of the electromagnetic field energy absorbed in the tissues of the human body in one second. Essentially, this is an indicator that measures the magnitude of the harmful effects of cell phones on the body.

Epic Citadel

We have added the Epic Citadel gaming test, which is a demonstration of the capabilities of the Unreal engine from Infinity Blade for Android OS. The test has different .apk and cache for different GPUs, so you need to take your versions for the test. The test was carried out in High Quality and Ultra High Quality modes. You can see the results below.

As you can see, in High Quality mode the smartphone produces a playable 32 fps, but in Ultra High Quality mode the result drops to 13 fps. The high resolution of the Full-HD screen is largely to blame here, which significantly reduced the result.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted

For testing and demanding games, we chose NFS: Most Wanted. To install this game, you have to download the cache for each device separately; it was not possible to find something common for devices even with the same GPU, and the cache itself “weighs” 2 GB; an archive of 600 MB is downloaded. Therefore, get ready for the fact that you won’t be able to play immediately after installation; you’ll have to pump out the cache.

The smartphone shows a result of 25 frames per second. It feels like you can play, and it’s even comfortable, but during complex actions, such as collisions, fps can sometimes decrease for a short time.