Lenovo P2

Cheap phone provides reasons to be cheerful

When we reviewed the Moto G4 last year (see Issue 479), we wondered when other makers of budget phones would catch up. They still haven’t. But Lenovo, which bought Motorola’s mobile business in 2014, has decided to compete with itself. The P2 is a new model that’s equally impressive value. It’s exclusive to Three, but comes unlocked on pay-as-you-go with a minimum £10 top-up.

The P2’s best feature is battery life: our video-playback test took 28 hours 50 minutes to run it down. In everyday use, we went a whole weekend with 70 per cent still remaining. This is phenomenal for any phone, let alone a relatively cheap one. How has Lenovo managed it? Simply by fitting a bigger battery. The phone feels a little fatter than average for it, but still great, with a metal case in grey or gold.

The big Samsung-style 5.5in AMOLED screen isn’t the brightest, which could be annoying on sunny days, but it covered all but a fraction of the SRGB colour range in our tests. Below it is a fingerprint reader for unlocking the phone and Android Pay. Inside, a 2GHZ Snapdragon processor with 4GB of memory gave us better speed scores than the Moto G4, rivalling the £239 Honor 6X. It even managed games convincingly.

Only the 13- megapixel rear camera let us down a little. Compared to the Moto G4’s, it gave us decent pictures outdoors but grainy results inside and in lower light. We’d also have liked simpler camera settings, but if you want more control over your photography, Lenovo’s Pro mode will appeal.

Surely there must be a catch? Well, for unexplained reasons the P2 comes with Android 6, not the current version 7 (Nougat), but we’re told a free update will be available soon. The Moto G4 is still cheaper, and the slightly pricier 6X is more fancy. But for us the battery life clinches it.