Lenovo has been releasing more than decent smartphones in every segment possible and getting good response from users as well. The company has released two devices which are battery oriented, with the Vibe P1 sporting a 4900mAh battery and the more budget friendly Lenovo Vibe P1m sporting a 3900 mAh battery, which is the one we are reviewing today.
The Lenovo Vibe P1m carries a massive battery along with decent specifications for its price range. With the amazing battery life, this device will surely give tough competition to its competitors in the segment. Let us see in detail about the device build, design, performance and most importantly, the battery life.
Design: The design is a bit on the bulkier side thanks to the huge battery inside. Carrying a big battery surely shows in the design with the device being a bit bulky to see, but when held in your hand it is surprisingly comfortable to carry as it is kept at just 148 grams. There is plastic on the back panel and the sides are given a feel of a metal casing, but it actually feels like plastic given a metal-like look.
The front of the device sports the display with front camera and sensors on either side of the earpiece above the display. The bottom of the screen has three capacitive buttons on the unusually large lower border, which might be to accommodate the large battery. It comes with P2i nano-coating making it splashproof to protect from just splashes but it does not make it waterproof.
The right side of the device sports a unique toggle switch which brings an extreme power saving mode which we will discuss about later, the left side of the device has the volume rockers and the power button. the Bottom has a micro USB port along with two speaker grills on either side, out of which only one is functional and the other one is just for design.
Display: The phone has a 5-inch HD IPS display with resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels. The colors and the sharpness of the device are all good, the text looks crisp and the viewing angles are pretty good even while viewing Videos. The first thing I noticed after unboxing is that, the display is a fingerprint magnet, thanks to the lack of oleophobic coating. With just 10 mins of use I could see a lot of fingerprints, smudges and dust on it, then I realised why the company has given a screen guard in the box. Make sure that you put on a screen guard or tempered glass over the display immediately.
There is also no Corning Gorilla Glass protection which makes it vulnerable to scratches and cracks and getting a tempered glass is the best option. Overall it is a decent display which is good in outdoor and indoor conditions along with great viewing angles.
Operating System: The Lenovo Vibe P1m runs Android 5.1 Lollipop OS based Vibe UI. On first boot what annoys me is the presence of a lot of pre-installed apps with all the Google apps, Lenovo Apps and other apps. We get 10GB out of the 16GB on first boot occupied by the OS and the bloatware. The Apps carry the typical Lenovo design and interface is similar to the ones seen in Lenovo devices, it also comes with Dolby Audio. The OS is good and there is nothing to complain about it as well.
Performance: The Lenovo P1m is powered by a 1.0 GHz 64-bit MediaTek quad-core processor which is coupled with 2GB of RAM and internal memory of 16GB which is expandable using microSD card (in hybrid 2nd SIM slot) up to 32GB. Upon using with my primary SIM the performance was smooth and it was not at all laggy even while multitasking with browser and other apps running in the background.
It is not exactly a device to play heavy games like Asphalt or Need For Speed etc, as it tends to act up a bit, but games like Subway surfers etc run pretty smoothly without any problem even while playing for extended period of time. There was no particular problem of heating which I could notice, it got slightly warm while watching videos for about 1 hour on Youtube but was nothing to bother about. Overall the device performs pretty decent at the price point.
Camera: The phone has an 8MP rear camera with LED flash and a 5MP front facing camera which. The Camera is not extraordinary but decent for the price range, the images are good in natural lighting and good artificial lighting as well, even while in sunny areas it focuses on the object pretty well. But there is noise while taking photos in low lighting conditions, the flash does a decent job but found that it covers only a small portion.
Check Camera Samples
The front camera on the Lenovo Vibe P1m was good, even with the bright background it focussed well on the faces and adjusted the exposure to give a good image. regular selfies were good. The camera set up is decent and gives good output which I feel is good enough for the segment.
Battery: This is the main feature of the Lenovo Vibe P1m, which is its USP as well, Lenovo has included a 4000 mAh (precisely 3900 mAh) battery in the device. With moderate daily usage I could get two days of battery backup on a single full charge.
Along with the huge battery the company has included an extreme battery saver mode which will turn the device into a feature phone by shutting down all the functions with the toggle of just one button. You can only make calls, listen to music, calculator, Facebook and messages with the saving mode activated, this surely improved the battery life even further.
With two days of battery life with one full charge and the battery saving mode, this is a great device in the price range giving such impressive battery life.
Conclusion: The Lenovo Vibe P1m is a device in the budget segment with an impressive battery which almost every budget device lacks. The performance is good with regular usage, not so great when it comes to gaming. Regular multitasking was all good with no lag as of such seen while performing any functions. The camera is not exceptional but good enough for regular day to day photos. The display is pretty good and what else do you expect from a Rs. 7,999 smartphone.
If you are a user looking for a budget device with not much of heavy gaming and are fed up of charging your device every day or twice every day, go for the Lenovo Vibe P1m with eyes closed. Other devices which compete with this device are Coolpad Note 3 which has its own unique USP.
