| Pros | Cons |
| + Amazing battery | - Middling camera |
| + Stylish build | - 5.5 inches but only 1080p |
| + Packed full of power and features | - Unoriginal appearance |
"The Lenovo P2 is a near perfect lower mid-range phone. It meets or exceeds rivals in almost every way and its battery life is superb."
The Lenovo P2 is a mid-range phone, but one which stands out from not just similarly priced rivals, but also from most top-end handsets, as it has a huge 5100mAh battery, supposedly offering near unparalleled performance.
But does it live up to the hype? And what else does the Lenovo P2 have going for it? Stick with us as we delve into all the details below, and find out whether this phone is worth your £200 on pay as you go, or £18 on contract.
The Lenovo P2 has a 5.5-inch 1080 x 1920 screen with a pixel density of 401 pixels per inch. Personally, at that resolution, we’d rather have something a little bit smaller and crisper, but the P2’s display is still fairly sharp and you’re not likely to notice much pixellation unless you compare it directly to a sharper screen.
And being 5.5 inches it’s on the large side. It’s personal preference whether that’s a good or bad thing, but for our money it strikes a good balance between a mammoth phablet and a more standard 5-inch handset.
The Lenovo P2 also has a trick up its sleeve in the form of Super AMOLED technology. This is most famously used by Samsung, and leads to rich colours and great contrast.
The Lenovo P2 has a high-end design, with a full metal unibody the likes of which wouldn’t look out of place on a handset that cost twice the price.
If we were feeling mean we might be tempted to call it plain – it’s all basically one colour and the design is derivative of any number of other phones. It’s also a little on the large and heavy side, at 153 x 76 x 8.3mm and 177g.
But it’s a stylish look and a premium one. Which, given that some £200 phones are clad in plastic, is a major point in the Lenovo P2’s favour.
This is another area where the Lenovo P2 punches above its weight, with a mid-range 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor, coupled with a choice of either 3GB or 4GB of RAM.
It’s the RAM that’s the real highlight here, at least in the 4GB configuration, as that’s as much as most flagships. The processor is more ordinary but still at the upper end of what you’d expect for the money, and enough for slick, seamless performance, even when playing quite demanding games.
If there’s a more ordinary element to the Lenovo P2, it’s the camera. But even then, it’s far from bad. There’s a 13MP snapper on the back, complete with a dual-LED flash, for solid low-light shots – though even with that this isn’t one of the best cameras for shooting in the dark, but in good light you can take some decent pictures, that easily rival those from the likes of the Moto G4.
There’s also a 5MP camera around the front, which is a fairly standard spec, especially at this sort of price, and takes some fairly standard but unexceptional selfies.
If you’re more into video, you can capture it in 2160p at 30fps from the rear camera, or in 1080p from the front-facing camera.
You want features? You’ve got features. There’s a fingerprint scanner for a start, built into the home button below the screen, so you can keep your phone secure without any hassle.
There’s also a switch on the side which will enable a battery saver mode, disabling most apps and features in order to massively extend its life. We’ll discuss the battery itself below, but with this feature as well as a big juice pack it’s clear that the P2 takes battery life seriously.
Some versions of the phone also come with a second SIM card slot, so you can have two SIMs in one device, if you want. And the Lenovo P2 runs Android 6.0, so it’s almost on the latest version of Google’s operating system.
Battery life is often a negative point on smartphones, but not here. The Lenovo P2 has an enormous 5100mAh battery. To put that in perspective, the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge – which is one of the longest lasting phones around – has just a 3600mAh one, while the similarly sized iPhone 7 Plus has a mere 2900mAh juice pack and many phones have far smaller ones.
The Lenovo P2 is that rare handset that you won’t be charging daily, and while realistically you probably won’t stretch to three days between charges, you should comfortably manage over two.
The P2 also supports fast charging, so you can get up to 10 hours of life from just a 15-minute charge, and in a neat trick the P2 can be used to juice up other devices too. This probably isn’t something you’ll want to do often, but if you’re out and about with little charge in your tablet or camera and the P2 still has plenty of life left it could come in handy.
Memory comes in at a choice of 32GB or 64GB, both of which are fairly generous for a mid-range phone. And on top of that it can take microSD cards of up to 256GB, for almost unbeaten storage space, at least in the world of smartphones.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 and NFC, which, coupled with the fingerprint scanner, make mobile payments possible.
The Lenovo P2 goes well above and beyond what you’d expect from a £200 phone. In almost every way it’s at least as good as similarly priced rivals, and in many it’s far better.
Of course, the battery is the real star, and if you’re a heavy user you might want to consider the P2 even if you can afford a flagship, but from the premium build, to the vivid screen, extra features, strong performance and lots of RAM there’s very little to be disappointed about.
You can get better elsewhere on almost all counts, but not without spending a lot more. The only exception is the camera, which feels fairly ordinary compared to everything else the Lenovo P2 offers. If you’re big into mobile photography then this may not be the phone for you, but it’s still perfectly competent as an everyday snapper.
Dimensions (mm): 153 x 76 x 8.3
Weight (g): 177
Battery capacity (mAh): 5100
Colours: Champagne Gold, Graphite Grey
Screen size (inches): 5.5
Resolution: 1080 x 1920
Pixels per inch (PPI): 401
Processor: Octa-core 2GHz
Processor make: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
RAM: 3/4GB
Internal storage: 32/64GB
Expandable storage up to (GB): 256GB
Camera: 13MP (5MP front-facing)
Operating System: Android 6.0
