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Whenever you make the “first” of something, you need to make a real statement when doing so – which is exactly what Lenovo has done with the Phab 2 Pro, the world’s first Tango-powered phone.
Just in case you’re new to the technology, Tango is a Google-developed technology that uses a new range of sensors built into a phone that enable it to sense and map the world around in real time. Lenovo has partnered with Google in order to bring this technology to a smartphone for the first time.
Following the unveiling of the phone at Lenovo Tech World we got our hands on the Phab 2 at the event in San Francisco. These were our first impressions.
The very first thing you find when confronted with the Phab 2 Pro is that this is a very big phone and not just in terms of the tech it’s packing inside it. Thanks to a 6.4-inch display you find yourself holding something that truly fills your hand, almost too much so. The Pro is bigger than an iPhone 6s Plus, a phone already considered too big by some – the Phab 2 has a little more on top of it.
As a result this is not a phone that will ever look subtle and it only just fits in the average trouser pocket – our tests found it will poke out of the top of most.
However, where the Phab 2 Pro is able to balance this out is looks. The metal body is one that will be very familiar to you if you’ve bought a premium smartphone in the last two or three years. This is the standard form-factor now and there’s a reason for that. It might be big in the hand, but it feels premium and well-crafted.
Given that the screen is so large, Lenovo naturally had to make sure it was up to the task. There’s a Quad HD screen here and one that looks vibrant as a result.
Given the sheer size of it, drop the Pro into landscape orientation and suddenly you have a device that looks ready to go as a media player for streaming TV and movies or just swiping through your photos.
It’s sharp too thanks to the Snapdragon 652 processor – a special Tango version that is optimised for the various augmented reality apps you can use with the Pro. Frankly, this is the main reason you would buy this phone.
Virtual dominoes using Tango on the PHAB2 Pro https://t.co/lO5b8vPd9y
— Martyn Landi (@MartynLandi) June 9, 2016
The centrepiece and biggest talking point of the Phab 2 Pro though is of course the Tango technology housed within it. Lenovo has already promised a raft of apps on the Google Play Store that will wield the power of Tango, and we were able to catch a glimpse of a couple of these.
The first involved virtual dominoes – on the lighter side yes – but still an impressive display of technology. Point the Pro at a table-top surface with this app open and it recognises you have the space to build your line of dominoes. Though this level of augmented reality on smartphones has been possible for some time, it normally requires a trigger point such as a QR code or other focus point in order to spark into life. With Tango, it’s now just point and go.
An area where this felt even more potent was the measurements app, which was instantly able to read the edge of surfaces, snapping to them to help you mark them and then measure a gap between them.
The home renovation application for this technology was heavily referenced in the keynote and you can see the viability of that when you use it yourself. It might appear – and probably is to some extent – niche, but you could also argue that this is still early days for Tango.
On a first look, the Phab 2 Pro looks and feels like something Lenovo has never really had before in Europe, and that is a phone that could impact on the market. With the UK price still to be determined and some mystery to Tango no doubt still sitting in the minds of some consumers this is by no means a sure-fire winner, but it is a conversation starter, and just being in the conversation in mobile is a good start for Lenovo.
