Dubai: Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro is the world’s first augmented reality (AR) smartphone in collaboration with Google’s Tango technology.
All you have to do is look through the device and you will see objects and information overlaid onto the real world in 3D. Google’s Tango software certainly will help you in unlocking the potential of AR imagination.
The 6.4-inch Quad HD (1440 x 2560 resolution) LCD display with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage capacity is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor, optimised for Tango. It has a microSD slot to support up to 128GB of external storage capacity. It runs on Android 6 Marshmallow out of the box and not with Android’s latest Nougat version.
The dual-SIM phone is well-built and packs a gigantic battery but it is huge and bulky. It sports an 8.9mm aluminium unibody and weighs 259 grams.
The 459 pixel per inch density display is crisp and colours are vivid but if you’re coming from a device with an AMOLED screen you will be quite disappointed.
The device has a single speaker carved into its bottom edge with bass notes utterly lacking, especially for Tango-enabled games. But Lenovo ships with a Dolby Atmos app that launches automatically when JBL headphones, included in the box, are plugged in.
Included are presets for music, movies, games and voices and they added a decent amount of power to my audio.
The device’s two microphones — one primary front-facing microphone, and a secondary mic for noise cancellation — performed better than its external speaker. It rendered voices cleanly, crisply, and without the crackling sometimes exhibited by low-quality mics.
The advantage of this phone is the AR but it is too early for Tango to become a success as there are very few apps in the Google Play store, around 35 apps. As more vendors are expected to launch AR-enabled devices this year, I hope that third-party developers will then jump and develop apps for this segment.
The device ships with 13 AR-enabled apps such as Google’s Measure app to measure distance between two points and Lowe’s Vision app has a similar trick, and when Tango’s sensors cooperate, the results can be very accurate indeed.
The others are online retailer Wayfair app, Domino World, Woorld, Hot Wheels, Holo, Dinosaurs Among Us, Raise, Fury of the Gods, Towers for Tango, Phantogeist and Ghostly Mansion. Most of these apps are divided into gaming, education, camera, shopping and utility. Some more can be downloaded from the App Store.
Some of these apps need fine tuning and somethings it does not respond when the hardware and software don’t come together as they should. Hardly any of the Tango apps available feel like killer apps.
The Phab 2 Pro still feels like a proof of concept and we’ll see the platform become more useful as more app developers make foray but it’s undeniably ripe with potential and novelty.
The cameras on the backside of this device play an important role. The 16MP camera has two more cameras — one has an infrared emitter to determine how far things are from the phone, and the other is a wide-angle camera with a fisheye lens that works as part of Tango’s motion-tracking system.
The accelerometer, gyroscope and rear-facing sensors work in tandem to gather visual information about your environment, like where the walls are, as well the position of the phone within that space.
Its depth tracking reacts to forward, backward, and strafing motions. If you take a step forward in a Tango game, digital objects on the screen react in turn, staying in perspective as you circle or duck under them.
The fingerprint sensor is below the camera and placing of this sensor is quite awkward. You need to be bed your finger to find the sensor.
The camera takes decent snaps in bright light but in lowlight conditions it struggles. You’ll probably want HDR mode on all the time to give your photos a dose of verve that would otherwise be missing.
The rear camera features geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR. It can record 1080p videos at 30 frames per second and no 4K recording.
The fast focus ability has a difficult time finding objects and representing them accurately in the dark.
Dark interior shots yield noisy, grainy results. The camera often struggles to lock focus in dim environments, sometimes hesitating or failing to hone on a subject entirely.
The modes for the rear are Augmented Reality, Group Selfie, Panorama and Night. By activating the Augmented Reality mode, you’ll see an animated cat, dog or dragon superimposed on the objects around you, ready and waiting for a quick play session, selfie, or photo.
The 8MP front camera has f/2.2 aperture and 1.4 µm pixel size which is capable of recording 1080p is still better than the rear. It snaps bright, clear selfies relatively free of grain and grittiness. But like the Phab 2 Pro’s rear-facing camera, it struggles to capture colours evenly across the spectrum.
Regarding connectivity, it has 4G LTE, 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB port, WiFi, WiFi Direct, Bluetooth 4.0 and no NFC.
The 4,050mAh battery gave just more than 12 hours of video playback which is pretty average. The huge QHD display size sucks the juice and if you are using AR apps it sucks more. Apart from the AR apps, the device last more than a day for heavy users and around two days for moderate users.
In my tests, using Tango even for a half-hour straight dropped the battery down from full to 80 per cent.
It supports Qualcomm Quick Charge technology. In a half-hour, you’ll be back up to 37 per cent, and it takes about 90 minutes to re-juice the phone’s battery completely.
The device is still a decent value as a stand-alone phone and for those who want to be on the cutting-edge of mobile AR technology. It is priced at Dh1,999.
Pros
• Integrated Tango
• Large QHD display
• Reasonably priced
• Well-built and quick charging capability
• Excellent battery life without Tango
• Stock Android and no bloatware
Cons
• Mediocre battery life with Tango apps
• Awkward positioning of fingerprint reader
• No NFC, latest OS and USB Type-C
• Large and heavy
• Tango apps need fine tuning
• Camera needs improvement
