Lenovo Phab2 Pro review: Tango One

Benchmarking the Snapdragon 652

The Phab2 Pro is driven by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 CPU. Not exactly the kind of CPU you'd expect to find in a smartphone of this price range. But still, seeing how in other reviews the Snapdragon 652 was comparable performance-wise to the Snapdragon 810, we expect a great, all-around performer. Let's see if Lenovo's efforts to optimize the Snapdragon 652 for use with Tango have paid off.

The Snapdragon 652 is no slouch, by any means. It has two quad-core clusters: four Cortex A-72 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four, more efficient Cortex A-53 cores clocked at 1.2GHz. Lower intensity tasks like background processing is taken by the A-53 cores while the more intensive tasks are handled by the larger A-72 cores. The Snapdragon 652's GPU is an Adreno 510 which is more efficient than the 810's Adreno 430, but the Adreno 430 performs better than the 510. So, keep that in mind when looking at the benchmark results.

We'll be comparing the Phab2 Pro with other Snapdragon 810-powered devices, as well as a couple of other Snapdragon 652-powered devices and an 820 or two. Let's start off with GeekBench. The single core scores show low numbers compared to the other phones. The Mate 9 and OnePlus 3 win here with higher single-core scores on the Kirin 960 and the Snapdragon 820.

GeekBench 4 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  1898
• OnePlus 3
  1719
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  1472
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  1469

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  2383
• Huawei Mate 9
  2173
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  1543
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1536
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  1505
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  1466
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  1451
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  1363

When it comes to multi-core scores, the Snapdragon 652 performed comparably to the Aclatel IDOL 4S, better than the Nexus 6P's Snapdragon 810 scores, and scored second to the Snapdragon 820 in the GeekBench 3 multi-core test.

GeekBench 4 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  6112
• OnePlus 3
  4045
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  3426
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  3169

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  7290
• OnePlus 3
  5520
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  4885
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  4869
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  4759
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  3861
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  3695

The Lenovo Phab2 Pro performed well on Antutu among the other Snapdragon 652-and-below phones, but came in short behind the 810-powered Huawei Nexus 6P. The IDOL 4S is just behind the Phab2 Pro in this regard.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  141764
• Huawei Mate 9
  122826
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  89345
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  83557
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  82744
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  76186
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  74488
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  64591
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  50109

GFX benchmarks measure graphic and gaming performance. The Phab2 Pro did okay with these. While the off-screen tests placed the Lenovo phone around the median, the onscreen tests have a harder time keeping up with the phablet's display's QHD resolution. In fact, because both the IDOL 4S and Phab2 Pro have QHD screens and tick with the same Snapdragon 652 CPU. This is why they are performing quite similarly to each other.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  46
• Huawei Mate 9
  30
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  25
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  16
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  15
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  13
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  7.2

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  45
• Huawei Mate 9
  28
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  14
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  13
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  9.7
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  9.2
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  7.5

GFX 3.1 Car scene (offscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Huawei Mate 9
  13
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  5.6
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  5.5
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  5.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  5.3
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.5

GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)

Higher is better

• OnePlus 3
  18
• Huawei Mate 9
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  5.5
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  5.4
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  3.4
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  3.2
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  2.7

Basemark X visually separates the CPUs into more distinguishable categories. From lowest to highest, the Xperia XA Ultra is powered by a Helio P10 CPU, next are the Snapdragon 65X CPUs scoring pretty close with a range of less than 1000 points within the others. Then the Nexus 6P's 810, the OnePlus 3's 820, and finally, the Huawei Mate 9 tops the chart with its Kirin 960 processor.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  36519
• OnePlus 3
  32715
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15487
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  15290
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  15210
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  14717
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  14651
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  6754

With Basemark OS 2.0, the Phab2 Pro ranked right in the middle among the other devices. It performed average among the other Snapdragon 65X CPUs. Just like the Basemark test before this one, we can still see the visual division of the phones and their respective processors.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  2637
• OnePlus 3
  2365
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  1647
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  1596
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  1529
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3
  1426
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1362
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  987

Finally, the Basemark ES 3.1 test makes use of the Vulkan APIs. This is where a clear division is seen between the Snapdragon 600 series and the 800 series, even though the 652 is structurally similar to the Snapdragon 810 with a few exceptions.

Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal

Higher is better

• Huawei Mate 9
  794
• OnePlus 3
  625
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  504
• Samsung Galaxy A9
  253
• Lenovo Phab2 Pro
  251
• Alcatel IDOL 4S
  244
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  238
• Sony Xperia XA Ultra
  131

Undoubtedly, the Lenovo Phab2 Pro won't stutter with casual gaming. But for load times and actual raw performance, the Phab2 Pro is a bit underwhelming. For a device of this price range, we would expect to see something faster.

Everyday performance is not bad. The Snapdragon 652 is plenty fast for everyday tasks, multitasking, and casual gaming, but definitely expect to see some dropped frames on more graphic intensive titles. There is no stutter or lag throughout the UI or when inputting text. The only place where performance is less than desirable is while using Tango apps. Tango apps demand more from the hardware and not just the CPU and GPU. (More on Tango later)

The phone warms up when using Tango for extended periods of time, but the big metal unibody does a great job of dissipating heat. Otherwise, the phone is not prone to getting hot with extensive text messaging or social media.