Lenovo Vibe X3 pictures

A couple of years ago, Lenovo hardly had any phone presence outside of China. But in the meantime, the company has made some serious strides, particularly in price-sensitive markets where multiple well-priced models follow one after the other. This strategy has helped bolster the company's reputation as an affordable and reliable smartphone manufacturer. Reliable because the Lenovo name is well known and highly regarded in the portable computer industry, and as such enjoys that much more of a trust from consumers over some of the other Chinese phone brands. And now, with the acquisition of Motorola, the company is poised to take on the smartphone market with an ever greater confidence.
The Vibe X3 is one of the company's recent launches, and it's a flagship device. As with Lenovo's other offerings, the Vibe X3 plays the value card instead of getting into the spec race. That's not to say the phone isn't well equipped, but as Lenovo would repeatedly tell you, it's not about the specs with this one but rather the overall package that you are getting for the price. So let's take a brief look at what you're getting for your money.

Lenovo Vibe X3 at a glance

• Hybrid DualSIM/microSD slot
• Aluminum frame with Corning Gorilla Glass 3
• 5.5-inch, 1920x1080 resolution, IPS LCD with 401PPI density
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC, 4x 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 + 2x 1.8GHz Cortex-A57, Adreno 418 GPU
• 3GB RAM, 32GB eMMC storage, support for microSD cards up to 128GB
• 21MP rear camera with PDAF and 4K video, 8MP front camera
• LTE Cat. 6 (300/50MBps), Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, A-GPS, GLONASS, NFC, IR
• Fingerprint sensor
• 2x 1.5W front stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos
• 32-bit Sabre ES9018K2M DAC with 3-amp for music
• Wolfson WM8281 Audio Hub for calls with a 3-mic noise cancelling setup
• 3,500mAh Li-Polymer battery
• Android 5.1.1 Lollipop

  Software and Performance

  The Vibe X3 runs on Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Lenovo made a note of scaling back on its custom Vibe UI for this one and going for a more stock look. Right off the bat, you will notice that the company now has a standard launcher with an app drawer, similar to the Google Now Launcher, whereas previously all the apps would appear on the homescreen. The pop-up dialogues in the UI also have the native Lollipop look to them.
  Beyond that, however, things are a bit disappointing, as it is very much the Vibe UI but with a white and gray theme designed to mimic stock Android look. The way Vibe UI is trying to replicate the vanilla Android experience is equal parts amusing and frustrating. Just imagine all the time the company must have spent trying to make its UI look like stock Android when it could have just used... you know, stock Android.
  
  
  The Vibe UI on the Lenovo Vibe X3
  Granted, the UI does look better than before, an area that has traditionally been a weak point for Lenovo phones. Some of Lenovo's customizations are welcome too, such as the expanded notification center. Hopefully, the company will move closer to stock Android in the future while maintaining the additional functionality that it has to offer.
  
  
  Some of the settings offered by the Vibe X3
  As for the performance, the phone performed very well in day to day tasks. The Snapdragon 808 is not exactly a flagship chipset, but it has more than enough power for your messaging and social networking apps to work without a hitch. Where it falters is in gaming, an area where it could have used some more juice. This is especially true for heavy 3D games, which don't run as smoothly as you'd like. Lighter 3D games and 2D games are not an issue.
  

  GeekBench 3 multi-core

  Higher is better
  • Sort by Label
  • Sort by Value

  • Meizu MX5 5110
  • Meizu m1 metal 4825
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 4537
  • Lenovo K3 Note 4067
  • Lenovo Vibe X2 3647
  • Lenovo Vibe X3 3644
  • LG G4 3509
  • Xiaomi Mi 4c 3321

  AnTuTu 6

  Higher is better
  • Sort by Label
  • Sort by Value

  • Lenovo Vibe X3 66762
  • LG G4 60858
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 45474

  Basemark OS 2.0

  Higher is better
  • Sort by Label
  • Sort by Value

  • LG G4 1584
  • Lenovo Vibe X3 1413
  • Meizu MX5 1252
  • Xiaomi Mi 4c 1233
  • Meizu m1 metal 1039
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 1018
  • Lenovo K3 Note 984

  Basemark X

  Higher is better
  • Sort by Label
  • Sort by Value

  • Lenovo Vibe X3 15599
  • LG G4 15090
  • Xiaomi Mi 4c 12096
  • Meizu MX5 10403
  • Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 8540
  • Meizu m1 metal 8526
  • Lenovo Vibe X2 6512
  • Lenovo K3 Note 5656
  If you're worried about heating, there's not much to complain about. While the phone does get nominally warm during intensive games, as you'd expect from something pushing that many pixels on screen at once, it's never hot per se, and is hardly a cause for concern.
  

  Camera

  The Vibe X3 has a 21 megapixel Sony IMX230 sensor with hybrid autofocus, which has added phase detection autofocus. It's, essentially, the same sensor as on the Moto X Style but the results aren't quite as good, a fact we are willing to attribute to Lenovo's take on image processing.
  The camera often blows highlights in brightly lit situations and Lenovo's artistic HDR modes are quite useless as they turn the image into a Jackson Pollock painting. In low light, focusing is a hit or miss, and the image quality itself is not satisfactory. The camera makes you work a bit to get the best out of it, which not everybody would have the patience for. Lenovo's camera app, however, is pretty good, and better than what you find on Motorola or Nexus phones

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