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- The best smartphone battery life
- Brilliant display, on a budget
- Speedy performance
- Camera could be better
Lenovo P2 unavailable in the UK
All good things must come to an end, and sadly the Lenovo P2 is no more. The smartphone with the longest-lasting battery life, unfortunately, just wasn’t meant to be. If you still have one kicking about, I’d keep hold of it if I were you and if not, well, sadly you’ll have to live in a post-Lenovo P2 world.
As for the phones with the best phone battery life you can actually buy, the Mate 10 is your best bet, with the Moto E5 Plus coming in just underneath. If you’re curious how 2019’s best phones stack up, you can check out our best phone battery life hierarchy here.
My original Lenovo P2 review continues below.
Lenovo P2 review
Remember when your phone lasted more than a day on a single charge? Well, the glory days are back and Lenovos P2 the saviour: it lasted a staggering 28hrs 50mins in our continuous video test. Thats a full five hours longer than our previous winner, Motorolas Moto Z Play. Anecdotally, after a heavy weekends sightseeing filled with Google Maps, selfies and the odd game of Mini Metro, the P2 never dipped below 70%.
Lenovo achieves this by squeezing a 5,100mAh battery into the P2s metal body (most current phones are around the 3,000mAh mark), but this isnt a bulky phone. It does feel a little fatter than super-svelte flagships such as the Galaxy S7 Edge, but at 8.3mm thick and 177g its only 0.6mm thicker and 20g heavier than the Samsung.
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A fingerprint reader sits below the screen, a volume rocker and power button on the right edge, while the left treats you to a dual SIM slot and an intriguing battery saving switch. Flick it up and your P2 enters Ultimate Power Saver mode, switching off data and disabling apps. It could be a handy Defcon 1 function, but given the already impressive battery life, its unlikely to see much use.
Lenovo P2 review: Display
Up front, were treated to a Full HD, 5.5in AMOLED display, covering 99.9% of the sRGB colour gamut and, as with all AMOLED displays, its contrast ratio is effectively perfect. Some of the darker tones deeper reds and dark blues were oversaturated under the scrutiny of Expert Reviews’ colour calibrator, but you wont spot this day to day.
One sticking point is the P2s peak brightness, which sits at a lowly 326cd/m2. While thats fine for gloomier winter days, youll be squinting at your phone once the sun finally pokes through the clouds. The Honor 6X is much better suited to such conditions, with a peak of 502cd/m2.
Lenovo P2 review: Performance
For the price, the P2 is a surprisingly nippy performer. Powered by Qualcomms octa-core 2GHz Snapdragon 625 chip and 4GB of RAM, overall responsiveness was good. With a Geekbench 4 multi-core score of 3,130, the P2 bettered the Moto G4 by almost 700, and wasnt far behind the Honor 6X’s 3,319.
Switching to games, the phone scored a 10fps average in the onscreen GFXBench Manhattan benchmark, beating both the Honor 6X (8.4fps) and Moto G4 (7.7fps). Sky Force: Reloaded, a game that grinds to a halt on lower-powered devices, ran without a single frame drop, even during those action-packed enemy encounters.
Lenovo P2 review: Camera
Thats near-full marks then, but then we come to the camera. Its not that the P2s 13-megapixel rear camera is bad; its just that it loses out compared with the Moto G4. Outdoor test shots under gloomy skies picked up plenty of colour, with noise kept at bay reasonably effectively. Flicking on HDR gave mixed results, with oversaturation on the orange bricks in our test shot, but it did help to balance out exposure levels.
Where it falls down is indoors, especially in low light. Under close inspection, our test subjects looked grainy and, while colours were vibrant enough, noise was apparent. Try to use the P2s camera outside with plenty of natural light, if you can.
The P2s camera software is also a tad clumsier to use than its rivals. Navigating through tedious menus isnt ideal for on the fly photography, and the P2 would have benefitted from Huaweis one-hand-friendly left and right swipes. At least Lenovos Pro mode allows you to delve into settings such as ISO and white balance.
The final and relatively minor con is that theres no Android 7 Nougat here; the phone is currently stuck on Android 6 Marshmallow, which feels a little dated in comparison. Were told an over-the-air update is coming in the very near future, though.
Lenovo P2 review: Verdict
Do these criticisms matter? Arguably not. That absurd battery life alone is well worth the price: dont forget, youre buying the longest-lasting smartphone by far. And it doesnt stop there: the P2s display, performance and build quality are all top notch given the price, and its a worthy competitor to much more expensive mid-range phones.
There is competition. You can buy the Moto G4 for £40 less, and in return get a rear camera thats a better performer in low light, while the Honor 6X is arguably sexier, for around £25 more. Yet still we come back to the P2s amazing battery life and all-round performance. The Lenovo P2 is the new budget smartphone king.
