Review of Lenovo ThinkPhone: Inspired Design from the ThinkPad Laptop Line, Powerful Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

At the CES 2023 event, Lenovo - under the Motorola brand - unveiled the Lenovo ThinkPhone with several exciting highlights. Notably, the product's design inherits from the ThinkPad business laptop line. So what's new with the Lenovo ThinkPhone? How powerful is the Lenovo ThinkPhone's performance? Does the Lenovo ThinkPhone capture beautiful photos? How long does the Lenovo ThinkPhone's battery last? Let's explore this phone through the Lenovo ThinkPhone review below!

Note: This article references content and images from the GSMArena website.

More: Hands-on with Lenovo ThinkPhone: Durable Design, Snap 8+ Gen 1, 144 Hz Display

Simple Yet Impressive Design of Lenovo ThinkPhone

Lenovo ThinkPhone boasts a simple exterior design that may not stand out compared to other flagship models on the current market. This is understandable as the ThinkPhone's design is inspired by the simplicity of ThinkPad business laptops.

On the rear panel of the Lenovo ThinkPhone is a deep black color with the 'ThinkPhone - by Motorola' logo in the bottom corner, adding to the product's visibility. However, compared to the 'ThinkPad' logo, the logo on this phone appears less prominent, according to observations from GSMArena. Additionally, the rear panel of the Lenovo ThinkPhone features a carbon fiber pattern, combined with gently curved edges, providing users with a comfortable grip.

Moreover, Lenovo ThinkPhone features a frame made of aerospace-grade aluminum, making the device incredibly lightweight at just 188.5 grams. Furthermore, thanks to its special construction material, the Lenovo ThinkPhone is MIL-STD-810H certified for military-grade durability (withstanding impact when dropped from a height of up to 1.3 meters onto concrete). Additionally, the Lenovo ThinkPhone is IP68 water-resistant, capable of surviving immersion in water for 30 minutes at a depth of 1.5 meters.

The frame of the Lenovo ThinkPhone also houses physical buttons and familiar ports such as the volume rocker and power button on the right side. Meanwhile, the USB-C charging port, speaker grille, microphone, and SIM tray are located at the bottom. A distinctive highlight of the Lenovo ThinkPhone is the red button on the left side of the device. This button allows users to quickly access utilities such as music playback, voice recording, screen recording, or launching Moto applications. Essentially, this red button takes inspiration from the legendary TrackPoint button on ThinkPad laptop keyboards.

Turning to the front, we can see the display area of the Lenovo ThinkPhone designed in a punch-hole style with finely chamfered screen edges. Additionally, the front of the Lenovo ThinkPhone is protected by a sturdy layer of Gorilla Glass Victus to enhance screen durability.

In terms of display specifications, Lenovo ThinkPhone features a 6.6-inch OLED panel with Full HD+ resolution (1,080 x 2,400 pixels). This allows for crisp image reproduction and vibrant colors. Additionally, the OLED panel on the Lenovo ThinkPhone boasts a very high brightness of up to 1,069 nits (in auto brightness mode), ensuring convenient usage even in brightly lit environments.

Furthermore, Lenovo ThinkPhone is equipped with a screen refresh rate of up to 144 Hz to provide users with smooth touch interactions and seamless display. In the settings, the device offers four refresh rate options: 60Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz, and Auto mode, allowing users to choose according to their usage preferences.

However, according to the reviewer on GSMArena, the Auto mode only pushes the refresh rate up to 120 Hz at most. Therefore, users will need to manually adjust the refresh rate for the optimal experience.

Lenovo ThinkPhone boasts a powerful configuration with Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

Before delving into performance evaluation, let's take a look at the specifications of Lenovo ThinkPhone!

• Display: 6.6-inch size, OLED panel, Full HD+ resolution, 144 Hz refresh rate.
• CPU: Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
• RAM: 8 GB or 12 GB.
• Internal Storage: 128 GB, 256 GB, or 512 GB.
• Rear Camera: 50 MP + 13 MP.
• Front Camera: 32 MP.
• Battery: 5,000 mAh, supports 68 W wired fast charging, 18 W wireless fast charging.

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In terms of performance, Lenovo ThinkPhone is equipped with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor. This is an upgrade version from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, manufactured on TSMC's 4nm process with an 8-core CPU and Adreno 730 GPU. With these specs, will the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 bring strong performance and more stable temperatures to Lenovo ThinkPhone to handle all tasks well?

To verify the strength that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 can provide for Lenovo ThinkPhone, GSMArena's reviewer conducted several performance tests using familiar benchmarking software such as GeekBench 5, Antutu, and CPU Throttling. In GeekBench 5, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip in Lenovo ThinkPhone scored 1,303 single-core points and 4,207 multi-core points. Meanwhile, the total performance score given by Antutu reached up to 1,081,805 points.

Regarding the CPU Throttling stability test, Lenovo ThinkPhone delivers relatively stable results. Specifically, during 60 minutes of operation at maximum intensity, the performance of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip gradually decreased from 100% to 72% and remained at this level. Additionally, the heat emitted by Lenovo ThinkPhone is not excessive, so users' experience is minimally affected. However, the author notes that this may still result in slight frame drops when users play heavy games on Lenovo ThinkPhone.

Furthermore, Lenovo ThinkPhone is equipped with 8 GB of RAM - a sufficient amount for efficient multitasking without experiencing annoying app restarts. Additionally, the device comes with 256 GB of internal storage, allowing users to comfortably store personal documents or favorite movies and games for entertainment anytime.

Lenovo ThinkPhone's 50 MP camera ensures sharp photo capture

In terms of photography capabilities, Lenovo ThinkPhone is equipped with a triple rear camera system and a selfie camera with the following specifications:

• Main camera: 50 MP resolution, f/1.8 aperture, PDAF autofocus, OIS stabilization.
• Ultra-wide camera: 13 MP resolution, f/2.2 aperture, AF autofocus.
• Depth-sensing camera: 2 MP resolution, f/2.4 aperture.
• Selfie camera: 32 MP + 16 MP resolution.

With these standout specifications, can Lenovo ThinkPhone's camera meet the diverse photography needs of users today? Let's take a look at the photo results captured by Lenovo ThinkPhone's camera, as conducted by GSMArena!

• Photos taken by Lenovo ThinkPhone in sufficient lighting conditions

Firstly, let's explore the photo-taking capabilities of the main 50 MP camera on Lenovo ThinkPhone. This lens utilizes Quad Bayer pixel binning technology capable of capturing still images with a default resolution of 12.5 MP. The photos taken with this camera exhibit good detail and pleasing colors. Additionally, the wide dynamic range highlights details in the photos.

Furthermore, Lenovo ThinkPhone also provides a 50 MP resolution shooting mode, which means that the size and file size of the photos will be larger compared to automatic mode. In terms of quality, if compared to regular 12.5 MP photos, the 50 MP photos appear softer in color and finer in detail. However, the 50 MP shooting mode has a drawback in noise reduction density, HDR processing, and dynamic range slightly inferior to automatic mode.

Although Lenovo ThinkPhone is not equipped with a dedicated telephoto camera, the device still features digital zoom capability, allowing users to capture the best photos at the ideal zoom level of 2x. At this zoom level, the photos remain clear and detailed, with colors not significantly different from those taken at 1x. However, Lenovo ThinkPhone does not integrate quick toggle buttons for the 2x mode in the camera user interface. Therefore, users need to manually adjust the zoom level when needed.

Additionally, Lenovo ThinkPhone offers three different portrait zoom levels for us to capture portrait photos. While the device can autofocus using both the main camera and the ultra-wide-angle camera, portrait photos are always taken with the main camera. Although the autofocus of Lenovo ThinkPhone's camera is not very sensitive, the resulting photos are beautiful thanks to the accurate subject detection, precise object separation, and well-simulated bokeh effect. This is still feasible in cases where users use Lenovo ThinkPhone to capture objects in portrait mode.

Next is the 13 MP ultra-wide-angle camera of Lenovo ThinkPhone. This lens also supports shooting at 12.5 MP resolution similar to the main camera, and the resulting images are relatively impressive with good detail, beautiful color representation, and wide dynamic range. At the same time, the autofocus feature rarely fails, and most regular photos appear to be perfectly focused.

Moreover, Lenovo ThinkPhone also provides users with a macro shooting mode, capable of delivering sharp, low-noise, and color-stable images. However, the macro shooting feature is quite challenging to use optimally because users cannot place the camera lens directly close to the subject but must adjust the distance to capture a good macro photo.

Exploring the front-facing selfie camera, Lenovo ThinkPhone utilizes Quad Bayer technology allowing the device to capture still photos at 8 MP by default. Overall, the quality showcases ample details, beautiful, and natural colors, accentuating the subject's skin tone.

• Photos captured by Lenovo ThinkPhone in low-light conditions

In nighttime conditions, the photography capability of Lenovo ThinkPhone isn't highly regarded by the author as photos often appear quite dark, lacking sharpness leading to blurriness, and notably experiencing 'overexposure' when capturing light sources like lamps. However, this will be significantly rectified when users activate the night mode.

Moreover, when using Lenovo ThinkPhone's ultra-wide-angle camera for capturing, the device will automatically activate night mode more frequently compared to the main camera. This is perhaps partly why the results from this lens appear better when compared to the main camera. The captured photos exhibit adequate details, vibrant colors, well-handled light sources, and even details in the darkness.

Lenovo ThinkPhone with a 5,000 mAh battery for long-lasting use

In addition to its beautiful design, powerful performance, and excellent camera, battery life is also a crucial aspect that many users consider when purchasing a flagship device. Therefore, Lenovo has equipped the Lenovo ThinkPhone with a 5,000 mAh battery to provide users with the longest possible usage time.

The author conducted various basic tasks using the device, and the 5,000 mAh battery of the Lenovo ThinkPhone performed relatively well as expected. Specifically, the device can operate continuously for 41 hours and 40 minutes for 3G calling, 15 hours and 40 minutes for continuous web browsing, and 20 hours and 50 minutes for offline video playback. Compared to competitors with similar specifications like the OnePlus 11 or Galaxy S23+, the Lenovo ThinkPhone has a slight edge.

Furthermore, the Lenovo ThinkPhone also features fast charging capabilities with a 68 W power output, allowing you to quickly recharge your device. According to GSMArena, when the Lenovo ThinkPhone is charged for about 30 minutes, the device's battery reaches 86%, and it takes just 56 minutes to fully charge. Therefore, you can use your phone comfortably without worrying about sudden battery drain interrupting your work.

Conclusion

Overall, the Lenovo ThinkPhone is an impressive smartphone with a design inherited from the ThinkPad laptop series and powerful performance provided by the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip. Although the device still has some shortcomings in the camera department, if you appreciate the design and features consistency between the Lenovo ThinkPhone and the ThinkPad, ThinkBook laptop models, then I think the device is still worth owning!

What are your thoughts on the Lenovo ThinkPhone? Leave your comments below! Thank you for reading our article. Besides the Lenovo ThinkPhone, you can also check out some other powerful configuration smartphones officially available at Mytour with extremely attractive prices and deals by clicking the button below!

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