Lenovo PHAB Plus review

There is no sugar-coating the fact that the Lenovo PHAB Plus is one of the latest phones on the market, but despite it’s size I could see a happy future with it.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been splitting my time between the LeTV Max, Meizu MX5 and OnePlus 2. Well actually to be honest its the Meizu and OnePlus that get most of the use as I’ve come to the opinion the Le Max is just too big (plus its a little buggy and the camera isn’t great).

With this in mind I didn’t think I would appreciate the 6.8-inch Lenovo PHAB Plus. This is a phablet that is so big that Lenovo had to add ‘Plus’ to its name just to indicate how huge it is! But in the hand it feels quite manageable. Between the Lenovo and LeTV the former has the less impressive hardware, but it also has the better weight distribution. I feel I could happily wield in one hand.

I can see the Lenovo PHAB Plus making a great travel companion. That huge screen would look great on the dashboard of my car as Google Maps prevents me from driving off a cliff. The kids could use it for games and movies and the promise of a 24 hour battery life makes it the perfect device for using while away from a power outlet.

A few things do worry me though. Although it is claimed that the PHAB Plus can give you 24 hours of use, I am a little wary of this. The 6.8-incher has a battery of just 3500mAh, that’s only slightly larger than some 5.5-inch phones. Another concern I have is the Snapdragon 615 chipset, I hate this processor with a passion. It is the single reason why I don’t use the Xiamoi Mi4i and part of the reason my Vivo X5 Pro is sitting at the bottom of a draw (or lake, I don’t remember which).

The rest of the hardware reads like any other mid-range phone. The surprisingly lightweight unibody comes in gold, silver or black (grey), the massive screen is a 1920 x 1080 panel, rear camera 13 mega-pixel, front 5 mega-pixel and Android 5.1 comes as standard.

Lenovo reps told me that they plan to launch the Lenovo PHAB Plus in Europe for around 299 Euros. I’d wait to see how the Snapdragon 615 handles the big screen before going out to buy one though.

[ gizchina.com ]