Is the Lenovo P2 a Wise Choice for a UK Buyer?

[cds80]

I was very interested in this phone, but it seems to have a lot of issues. Some of which concern me more than others, such as delayed notifications and poor signal strength. UK prices seem inflated currently, leaving the best deals with Chinese sellers, and apparently we don't get the official Nougat upgrade, either.

What are your opinions? Is it still a wise purchase for a UK buyer?

 

[medwatt]

I was very interested in this phone, but it seems to have a lot of issues. Some of which concern me more than others, such as delayed notifications and poor signal strength. UK prices seem inflated currently, leaving the best deals with Chinese sellers, and apparently we don't get the official Nougat upgrade, either.

What are your opinions? Is it still a wise purchase for a UK buyer?

I think this question should have gone under the "Questions" section. However, I'll still answer your questions.

1. In terms of delayed notifications, I can say the only app I've observed to display any notification pushing issue is Whatsapp. TBH, I had a similar issue on my previous phone and I know for sure many people have issues with Whatsapp because so many times you try to call someone and the call doesn't go through. I don't observe this issue with imo or Viber. I use AquaMail for all my emails and I get emails instantly.

2. As for signal strength, this phone is a bit on the weaker side. Not by much compared to others, but it is noticeable in areas with terrible reception.

3. I bought the Chinese model (c72) from China for $220 + $15 DHL shipping from Alibaba (I contacted the seller directly on whatsapp and negotiated). You will get 32GB more of storage space but you will lose Band 20 (if your service provider uses LTE Band 20). As for me, I don't care for 4G because 3G is already fast enough for normal usage and it really doesn't make sense that you get a very fast connection when you're capped at 2GB per month. 4G will only make sense, to me at least, when you're allowed something like 100GB of data per month. It's like paying for fiber internet and you're allowed to download only 50GB per month.

4. Everything else about the phone is very good. The screen is gorgeous, the speaker is loud but suffers from some distortion (I am some sort of an audiophile). The battery life is fantastic and the phone is built very well. The stock ROM is very close to stock Android with some useful features added such as call recording.

 

[philje123]

Depends what network you're on, which variant you can get hold of and for what price.

For me on the Three network buying the UK variant for £199 made perfect sense.

Works on both their 4G bands and supports their super voice (VOLTE).

Nougat can be installed using an official update file (a further OTA has also just been released).

It's a great phone and I love it. Camera is not amazing but not bad. But as a daily use phone it's great and the battery life if a massive plus for me.

 

[sam00561]

I bought it for £199 because i am already a 3 uk customer. regarding signal and notifications i didnt find any signal problems and for notifications to come through properly their are a couple of settings after which they work perfectly.

The 3 shops which were the only provider in the UK selling the p2 are not selling it anymore and the only place to buy it is from ebay where it is £50 more expensive and i think it is the chinese version but the software can be changed but please be aware iff buying it from gearbest although they are selling it alot cheaper after you purchase they will email you and inform you that their will be extra tax to pay when you recieve the item and it is hard to get a refund from them.

.

 

[cds80]

Oops, maybe a mod can move this to the correct forum.

Thanks for the replies, guys. I'm on giffgaff, which uses O2's network on Band 20 apparently, so I would lose 4G. I was under the impression that 4G gave better voice quality too, so that would be a bit of a bummer to lose. Is it possible to gain that frequency band via a software mod? I've heard of it on other phones. Although, I was thinking of switching to EE which covers three different 4G bands apparently.

I was thinking of Gearbest, actually. I've ordered random stuff from them before and found them okay, although I worry that I'll get stung for VAT, import duty and a courier/RM admin fee which would bring it close to UK eBay-seller prices.

Also, are we screwed when it comes to warranty claims?

 

[JayVerhofstadt]

Just get the proper version for Europe from Amazon. If Amazon.co.uk doesn't offer this device, get it from Amazon.de, you can use that website in English anyways. Don't bother ordering from Chinese websites and run into trouble with 4G bands (which can not be modified by software so far) and warranty.

 

[pranavateja99]

Its a waste phone to buy.
1).weak signal reception in low signal areas.
2). Complete Fastboot flashing is not possible, bootloader voids warranty and can't be locked,
3). Hardware is good, but not developer friendly like REDMI NOTE 4, MOTO G5 plus.
4). Its already too late to buy that. Wait for 630 or 660 phones.
5). I bought bcz of battery, and rest of the hardware. Just bcz owner is lenovo they made this a worst. They must open their devices open to developer community. You check posts in XDA, people with bootloader unlocked, suffer with signal issues. Cant flash full stock using fastboot. It not developer friendly. I don't recommend this and any lenovo phone ever..beware of P2 if you were thinking for better developer community builds.,just bcz it has good hardware. This device Fastboot and bootloader operation is a curse to dev community. Now I find no way to get proper signal in my phone as many on XDA. P2sucks for devs.

 

[Siva Mk]

Its a waste phone to buy.
1).weak signal reception in low signal areas.
2). Complete Fastboot flashing is not possible, bootloader voids warranty and can't be locked,
3). Hardware is good, but not developer friendly like REDMI NOTE 4, MOTO G5 plus.
4). Its already too late to buy that. Wait for 630 or 660 phones.
5). I bought bcz of battery, and rest of the hardware. Just bcz owner is lenovo they made this a worst. They must open their devices open to developer community. You check posts in XDA, people with bootloader unlocked, suffer with signal issues. Cant flash full stock using fastboot. It not developer friendly. I don't recommend this and any lenovo phone ever..beware of P2 if you were thinking for better developer community builds.,just bcz it has good hardware. This device Fastboot and bootloader operation is a curse to dev community. Now I find no way to get proper signal in my phone as many on XDA. P2sucks for devs.

Just because you saw someone with low signal, doesn't mean it sucks in Dev!
The stock deodexed one is very close to stock and that's the reason why it's bug free. While others are ported ROMs. Without a ROM from scratch it's difficult to find a base ROM for a successful port. Which is why we have a lot of custom ROMs with minor bugs.

You cannot simply say the Dev sucks just because you read just one thread. I've been here for quite sometime and I've seen many bugs resolved, Thanks to some determined devs.

There are devs who're still working on this device. Mike for instance, is working on a complete ROM from scratch. Please don't discourage the work done or being done.
Yes I agree P2's development is slow but certainly DOEA NOT SUCK!

Edit: unlocking the bootloader to root is what I believe, the best way to root. If you don't believe me head over to Redmi Note 3 forum and see the extra steps unofficially rooted (fastboot method) RN3 users have to do to flash a ROM. If they fail , they'll have serious network fluctuations.

The Lenovo P2 is the most underrated phone. It's hardware specs are top class. Camera in daylight is top-class. The screen quality is kick-ass!
For buyers rest is up to your desired use.

 

[jetwing111]

Its an underrated phone, the specs they offer at the price is good, it's just the software has some bugs here and there. They updated to nougat and didn't release a bug fix update after that only a security patch update. Hopefully in the future they release because Lenovo switched to stock Android. Fortunately we have devs trying their best to make progress.

 

[pranavateja99]

Just because you saw someone with low signal, doesn't mean it sucks in Dev!
The stock deodexed one is very close to stock and that's the reason why it's bug free. While others are ported ROMs. Without a ROM from scratch it's difficult to find a base ROM for a successful port. Which is why we have a lot of custom ROMs with minor bugs.

You cannot simply say the Dev sucks just because you read just one thread. I've been here for quite sometime and I've seen many bugs resolved, Thanks to some determined devs.

There are devs who're still working on this device. Mike for instance, is working on a complete ROM from scratch. Please don't discourage the work done or being done.
Yes I agree P2's development is slow but certainly DOEA NOT SUCK!

Edit: unlocking the bootloader to root is what I believe, the best way to root. If you don't believe me head over to Redmi Note 3 forum and see the extra steps unofficially rooted (fastboot method) RN3 users have to do to flash a ROM. If they fail , they'll have serious network fluctuations.

The Lenovo P2 is the most underrated phone. It's hardware specs are top class. Camera in daylight is top-class. The screen quality is kick-ass!
For buyers rest is up to your desired use.

Yes under rated, that's why I bought it, but Lenovo being the owner of killed every USP of it, that's why Moto m outsold p2 in India, and launch 16999-17999, now selling as low as (12499-11999)+10 percent bank off+ exchange. Selling as if it need to Clear on warehousing costs. Once every stock is over, they don't even bother to release even a security patch. Ya It's under rated and over priced when [email protected],lack of 64gb. But Lenovo phones are worst for developer community and get poor support. Bcz most don't buy these Lenovo.

Why do you think to root without bootloader unlock? On RN3,RN4 fastboot full flash works all time, unlike p2, user can't flash important modem files and thing happens with everyone is baseband missmatch is the reason for signal errors and network bugs. With this work around needed, only way to get it done is through QPST files, which are not available right now. I doubt this can ever get a custom ROM with volte for India. Ya Mike is working, still I had doubts on its radio baseband support. When you can go back to stock irrespective of condition make more devs to try trail and error testing, but here is only 1 way, messup and shut up. Lenovo should make p2 capable of flashing complete fastboot file without any bootloader unlocked restriction. When this happens, phone gets more Mikes to support this.

P2 is Only for stock users who don't unlock bootloader, need extra ordinary battery, average camera. With intention for development community Roms I never recommend Lenovo phones just bcz it is extremely good on paper, incase of p2. Or just launched k8 note.

 

[realista87]

4. Everything else about the phone is very good. The screen is gorgeous, the speaker is loud but suffers from some distortion (I am some sort of an audiophile). The battery life is fantastic and the phone is built very well. The stock ROM is very close to stock Android with some useful features added such as call recording.

i can only complay with the WHITE color of the display that is not pure white but a very warm white.... too much warm below 40% of brightness.... it is not a great white and it ruins a little of contrast i think.

and for the speaker yeah it is very clear, with BASS, but on the last 2 steps it has some distortion but it is a great thing because you can increase the volume of the song/film that are recorded very low..... and at 100% volume sound very great! you just have to not use the max volume for everyday music/videos because its volume is very high and can cause distortion.
if lenovo would had put 2 of these speakers in STEREO configuration....... WOW it would have sounded like a real hi-fi :laugh: