Lenovo Phab Plus Hands-on

Back in the days when 4-inch smartphones were abundant, the term “phablet” is used to coin a smartphone with a screen size that’s larger than five inches. But as 5-inch displays become the norm, the term is almost exclusively reserved for really ginormous handsets like the recently-launched Lenovo Phab Plus that sports a 6.8-inch panel.

Although its specs sheet alone should already convince anyone that it is indeed a humongous device, holding the Lenovo Phab Plus for the first time is still a surreal experience. It changes whatever perception you had about phablets and from there you’ll either be awed with the sheer size of its display or find it absurd for a smartphone to have such a huge screen.

Whatever impression it left, the Lenovo Phab Plus is truly a sight to behold. Its 6.8-inch, 1080p panel is almost the only thing you’ll see on the front of the device with a just tiny room at the top for the earpiece, sensor and secondary camera.

There were some undeniable semblance to the iPhone 6 Plus’ design can be found on the Phab Plus. This include the unibody design with rounded corners, the flat back panel complete gray pinstripes that run across bottom section of the handset and along the side of the top panel, as well as the design of the microUSB port.

Phab Plus

Despite the similarities, the Phab Plus is far from being an iPhone 6 Plus knock off. Perhaps the most striking design feature of the former is the top-mounted speakers on its back side. Apart from providing very decent audio output, the loudspeaker also serves as an accent to the otherwise all-metal smartphone.

Also found in this section is the Phab Plus’ 13-megapixel rear camera along with its dual-LED flash unit near the left corner of the device.

Around the edges of the device, you’ll find the usual set of components which include the three physical buttons on the right side for power and volume adjustments, microUSB at the lip and audio jack at the top.

Lenovo Phab PLus Philippines

As is expected from such a big smartphone, one-hand operation can be quite a chore, unless of course you’re Shaq or someone with similarly-sized mitts. Even the most mundane task of reaching for the power button or adjusting the volume can be quite challenging without holding the phone with both hands.

These are just some of the tradeoffs, but in return you get a spacious 6.8-inch IPS display with full-HD resolution that equates to a respectable pixel density of 323ppi.

Lenovo PHAB Plus specs:
6.8-inch Full HD IPS display, 1920 x 1080 @326ppi
64-bit 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
up to 64GB via microSD
13MP rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual SIM (micro + nano)
4G LTE, 3G
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
1.0 cc Sound Chamber, Dolby ATMOS
Android 5.0 Lollipop w/ VIBE UI
3,500mAh battery
Unibody metal
Dimension: 186.6 x 96.6 x 7.6 mm
Weight: 229 g

There’s no getting around the simple fact that the Lenovo Phab Plus’ greatest attribute is its display. Sure, the specifications meet the standard of what we consider as a mid-range smartphone nowadays, but at the end of the day it’ll still boil down to whether or not you’re comfortable to use such a big handset that won’t fit your side pocket.

The Lenovo Phab Plus can be had for Php14,999 and is exclusively available in all AllPhones outlets nationwide. It will also be available under Globe Tattoo Plan 999 with a Php9,000 cash-out and under MyLifestyle Plan 999 with a Php3,500 cash-out.

The post Lenovo Phab Plus Hands-on appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Lenovo PHAB Plus to launch in PH this September

We just got an invite straight from Lenovo Philippines that the newly-announced PHAB Plus is set to make its local arrival this month. It touts a 6.8-inch Full HD display, has LTE, and runs on Android Lollipop. When will be the launch? Details are after the break.

lenovo phab plus_1

Lenovo PHAB Plus specs:
6.8-inch Full HD IPS display, 326ppi
64-bit 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable to 64GB via microSD
13MP rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual SIM (micro + nano)
4G LTE, 3G
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0 GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
1.0 cc Sound Chamber, Dolby ATMOS
Android 5.0 Lollipop
3,500mAh battery
Unibody metal
7.6mm thick
229 g
Gunmetal Grey, Titanium Silver and Champagne Gold

The Lenovo PHAB Plus will be launched locally on September 16, 2015. Stay tuned for the local pricing.

{Lenovo PH}

The post Lenovo PHAB Plus to launch in PH this September appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Lenovo PHAB Plus to launch in PH this September

We just got an invite straight from Lenovo Philippines that the newly-announced PHAB Plus is set to make its local arrival this month. It touts a 6.8-inch Full HD display, has LTE, and runs on Android Lollipop. When will be the launch? Details are after the break.

lenovo phab plus_1

Lenovo PHAB Plus specs:
6.8-inch Full HD IPS display, 326ppi
64-bit 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core CPU
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
Expandable to 64GB via microSD
13MP rear camera w/ dual-tone LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual SIM (micro + nano)
4G LTE, 3G
WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth 4.0 GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS
1.0 cc Sound Chamber, Dolby ATMOS
Android 5.0 Lollipop
3,500mAh battery
Unibody metal
7.6mm thick
229 g
Gunmetal Grey, Titanium Silver and Champagne Gold

The Lenovo PHAB Plus will be launched locally on September 16, 2015. Stay tuned for the local pricing.

{Lenovo PH}

The post Lenovo PHAB Plus to launch in PH this September appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Lenovo intros its 6.8-inch PHAB Plus in China

Lenovo, over in China, announces its humungous phablet dubbed as the PHAB Plus. It sports a 6.8-inch screen with a Full HD display and performs on a Snapdragon octa-core CPU.

lenovo-phab-plus

Lenovo PHAB Plus specs:
6.8-inch Full HD display @ 1920 x 1080 resolution
1.5GHz Snapdragon 615pcta-core processor
2GB RAM
32GB internal storage
13MP rear camera with dual LED flash
5MP front camera
Dual-SIM
LTE
3500mAh battery
Android 5.0 with Vibe UI

The PHAB Plus is listed on Lenovo’s site for CNY2,599 and will be available for China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile.

{Via} {Source}

The post Lenovo intros its 6.8-inch PHAB Plus in China appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines News & Tech Reviews.

Torque Droidz Slate HD Quick Review

Local smartphone brand, Torque, offers a good-looking 5.5-inch smartphone with a slim profile, MediaTek octa-core CPU, and sub-Php6K price tag, but are these enough to lure consumers especially now that we have a lot of options within this price range? Read our quick review of the Droidz Slate HD to find out.

Design and Construction

When it comes to its physical attributes, we would give a thumbs up to the sleek physical design of the phablet and its good plastic build. The whole front is dominated by the 5.5″ IPS LCD with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Thanks to the IPS panel, viewing angles of the device are wide though colors are not as vibrant as we like it to be but it has good clarity thanks to its acceptable pixel density of 267ppi. Brightness levels are average with sub-par sunlight legibility. We noticed that the display turns bluish when completely dimmed and the ambient light sensor feels like it’s having a hard time adjusting.

Below is a unique home capacitive button together with the usual back and menu keys. The back panel has a matte plastic cover that is removable to give access to the battery, microSD and dual SIM card slots.

On the right side of the device is the power/lock button and on the left is the volume rocker. The top side features the micro-USB port for charging and data connectivity and the 3.5mm headphone jack. While the microphone sits alone at the bottom edge of the device.

The sides are surrounded by a chrome frame with black lining that adds a distinct look and feel to the device. In terms of looks, the Slate HD can definitely stand out.

Camera

Equipped with a 13-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front cameras, the phone may appear competitive if you base it on numbers but when it comes to actual image quality it doesn’t stack up against its competitors.

Even under broad daylight, the primary 13MP shooter captures soft and uninspiring images. It generally has trouble with focus and color reproduction. We find the camera to be a slouch for quick snapshots. In case of dark scenarios, you can fire up the dual LED flash. The front camera, on the other hand, struggles with indoor lighting. You may check out the samples below for your own judgement:

Upon further checking, we found out that the front camera has an aperture of f/2.8 only, which explains the lack of light. Both cameras can also record videos with the same quality as those of the still images up to 1080p full HD.

Performance and Benchmarks

The device runs Android 4.4.2 “KitKat” with no indicated future with 5.0 “Lollipop.” Overall, it runs smoothly with little to no lag during everyday use. The 1GB of RAM can handle simultaneous apps well as long as you keep things light and steady.

Torque’s skin on top is very similar to stock Android but with white backgrounds and imported icons from other themes. We personally dislike the pale icons, good thing 3rd party launchers and icon packs are available for download through the Play Store.

Benchmarks of the device reveals the following scores:

    Antutu 5 – 18,240
    Quadrant Standard – 6,974
    Nenamark 2 – 51.6 fps
    Vellamo – 1262 (Multicore), 678 (Metal)

Call Quality

It’s worth noting that the earpiece of the device is soft and tinny. We were surprised to hear such bad output from the it since most modern smartphones today already has quality phone calls, making the Slate HD not suitable for everyday cellular talking. And also, the loudspeaker doesn’t do justice to media playback.

Battery

Despite its large display, only a 2,200mAh removable Li-ion battery powers the device. Its juice lasted for only 3 hours and 19 minutes during our routine battery test which involves playing a 1080p file in loop using its native video player as MX Player has an issue with the device causing it to crash.

Conclusion

The Torque Droidz Slate HD is priced at Php5,499 and offers good looks with some compromise. This phablet is okay for light gaming and multimedia consumption thanks to its large display. However, it has a terrible earpiece for calls, mediocre camera, weak loudspeaker, and poor battery life. For its asking price, one might just consider shelling out an extra Php1K and get a better performing device instead.

Torque Droidz Slate HD specification:
5.5-inch IPS LCD @ 1280×720 pixels, 267ppi
MediaTek MT6582 1.3GHz quad-core processor
Mali-400 MP GPU
13-megapixel primary camera
5-megapixel front-facing camera
1GB RAM
8GB internal storage
up to 32GB via microSD card
3G/HSPA
Dual SIM / Dual Standby
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.0
GPS with aGPS
Li-Ion 2,200mAh battery
Android KitKat 4.4.2

What we liked about it:

  • Decent to good looks
  • Responsive large display
  • Tap-to-wake function

What we didn’t:

  • Terrible earpiece
  • Quiet loudspeaker
  • Mediocre cameras
  • Small battery capacity

The post Torque Droidz Slate HD Quick Review appeared first on YugaTech | Philippines, Tech News & Reviews.