Test: Lenovo Thinkphone – safe and serious mobile phone

Tested product: Lenovo Thinkphone by Motorola
Taken: SEK 9,990 at Lenovo

Among PCs, there is a clear division between computers for consumers and businesses. Own models with special features and technology, own version of Windows, and often sold with service plans. On the mobile side, it’s more rare. Samsung has Enterprise Edition version of selected models, with extra security software and service services. But they are basically the same mobiles. The new Thinkphone sold by Lenovo is a more ambitious attempt to build a business mobile.

It is unclear what the phone is actually called and who is the official supplier. It is often referred to as the Lenovo Thinkphone and has been presented by Lenovo as a Lenovo product. But it is co-developed with Lenovo-owned Motorola.

In any case, it is sold to Swedish customers so far only via Lenovo’s web shop, even if it is on its way to stores. This is primarily a mobile that larger companies are supposed to purchase and equip all their employees with. Employees who then probably also have Thinkpad, Thinkbook or Thinkstation computers at work. But individual customers can also buy it, both for work and private use.

Lenovo style in more ways than one

The design has elements directly taken from Lenovo’s laptops, with a carbon fiber-like surface on the back instead of plastic or glass as in most other mobiles. I really appreciate the comfortably smooth surface, which both gives it a good grip and reduces the worry of dropping and cracking it. On the front, it has Gorilla Glass Victus, so even there it is approved durable. The construction has been tested for free fall according to the standard mil-std-810h and must withstand being dropped from 1.25 meters. It is also ip68 rated for good water resistance.

The phone even has the same pattern as many of Lenovo’s laptops and a logo with the same design. On the side, in addition to the usual on button and volume control, there is also a red button that can be set to open an app of your choice, or start a voice recording, for example.

It’s a lavish and powerful smartphone, but not ultra-expensive. The price is SEK 9,990, and for that you get most of what you can expect from a premium class mobile phone. However, it doesn’t quite compete with the top-of-the-line models released in the past, but is rather at the 2022 level. The chipset is the Snapdragon 8+ gen 1 instead of the latest gen 2, and the display isn’t as extremely bright as some of the latest ones, although it can still shine at well over 1,000 cd/m²which should suffice in almost all situations.

The screen also has up to 144 Hz frame rate, though in its automatic auto mode it switches itself between 60 and 120 Hz as needed. I have no idea who then needs to manually push the frequency up to 144 Hz and draw extra battery. 120 Hz is already excellent. You can choose between “natural” and “saturated” color palette, which seems to roughly correspond to srgb and dci-p3, and you can adjust the color temperature manually. You don’t get more advanced functions such as color temperature adapted to ambient light.

It’s a good screen for most things, sharp text in documents, detailed and generally correctly reproduced photos, vibrant colors and hdr in movies and games. You also get well-balanced stereo speakers, with the right fullness in the midrange and bass. Dolby Atmos support and the possibility of detailed custom sound settings are available.

Good battery, decent camera

With a 5,000 milliampere-hour battery, the possibility of both fast USB charging and wireless charging, it ticks off most of what can be asked for in terms of battery. And you can use the Thinkphone for a long time. I stream YouTube videos almost 24/7 nonstop. Under mixed use, it lasts me from early morning to late evening with enough left over to not have to plug it in for overnight charging. However, individual apps and the camera can eat up the battery faster.

The camera is the weakest part of the phone. It’s more of an upper-mid range camera than what I expect from a premium mobile. You get a proven good 50-megapixel sensor in the main camera, which takes consistently good photos in daylight, but as dusk falls, both focus and color balance start to become more uneven than I think is okay in a phone this expensive. Then you get a 13-megapixel wide-angle that loses even more in quality when it gets dark. In any case, it has autofocus and can therefore also be used for perfectly fine macro photography. The third lens on the back houses a depth sensor to help with portrait shots.

The selfie camera is a more positive experience. Sharp, easy to handle and with good light intake, it is excellent for video calls. That and good built-in microphones allow you to give a professional impression on Skype, Teams and Zoom even on mobile. If you have a Thinkpad computer, you should be able to use the camera as a webcam for the computer in a simple way. You should also be able to easily set up Wi-Fi hotspot between them, share clipboards and much more. However, I did not have a Thinkpad available for my test.

Run the mobile as a computer

The integration with the computer is one of the things that will make the Thinkphone a better work mobile. Another is Motorola’s Ready For interface, which allows you to convert the phone into a desktop computer by plugging in a display via usb-c, alternatively wirelessly.

There you get a full Windows-like interface with free window management and mouse pointer. You can use the mobile to control it, either with the phone as motion control, or as a mouse pad. But it’s noisy, it’s best to have a separate mouse and keyboard connected via Bluetooth. If you have a screen with a built-in USB hub, you can connect a wired mouse and keyboard to them, and suddenly you are one hundred percent docked and ready.

It is not unique to the Thinkphone, but is found in most of Motorola’s more powerful mobiles. But it might be the best fit for a business mobile. It can be nice to write emails on a “real” computer without having to dig out your laptop. Or working on a presentation in Powerpoint, Microsoft Office 365 for mobile in particular has received clearly better mouse support recently.

The interface and performance of the Ready For feature have improved significantly since it was first introduced a couple of years ago. But Motorola still needs to work on the app support before it can be seen as a full-fledged replacement for an office PC. For single users without high requirements it may work, but not for everyone.

Extra safe

The phone also features Moto Secure, a collection of enhanced security features. Among other things, you get protection when connecting to open networks, so you can either avoid them or block certain apps from them, a protected folder that you can’t access without logging in, and some more options for how the phone handles the lock screen.

It should be secure at the system level as well, with the right certifications for businesses and authorities, support for secure remote management and much more. But it is not something that you as an individual user enjoy. And certainly something that makes the phone cost more than it would have otherwise. Even so, there are definitely things that make it worth considering even for private customers.

The extra durability is attractive, because it does not make the mobile phone thick and heavy. Most of it is of high quality, the battery life is very good, and it is just as good for surfing, emailing and making calls as it is for streaming movies and playing games. And yes, some of the work-oriented features can be useful outside the office as well. What’s missing is the camera, which is acceptable, but not as good as it should be in a top model, and that it has last-generation hardware; second fastest processor and second fastest storage. But it also doesn’t cost as much as a worst thing from Apple or Samsung.

Specifications

Product name: Lenovo Thinkphone by Motorola
Tested: February 2023
Manufacturer: Lenovo / Motorola
Systemkrets: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ gen 1
Processor: Kryo Prime 3,36 GHz, 4 st Kryo Gold 2,8 GHz, 3st Kryo Silver 2 GHz
Chart: Adreno 730
Remind: 8 GB
Storage: 256 GB
Screen: 6.6 inches, p-oled, 1080×2400 pixels, 144 Hz
Cameras: 50 megapixel + 13 megapixel wide angle + depth sensor with LED, 32 megapixel front
Connections: Usb 3.1 type c with display port
Communication: 2g, 3g, 4g, 5g, wifi 6e, bluetooth 5.2, gps, galileo, nfc
Operating system: Android 13 with My UX, 3 years of system updates
Miscellaneous: Dual SIM, in-screen fingerprint reader, water resistant (ip68), shock resistant (MIL-STD-810H)
Bacteria: 5,000 mAh, approx. 23 hours 30 min online video (wifi, high brightness, 60 Hz), approx. 18 hours of mixed use (4g, low brightness, 144Hz), approx. 31 hours of calls
Battery charging: 68 W usb (TurboPower), 15 W wireless (qi)
Size: 15,9 x 7,4 x 0,83 cm
Weight: 189 gram
Taken: SEK 9,990 at Lenovo

Performance

Geekbench updated in February from version 5 to version 6. Scores between versions are not 100% comparable. Therefore, during a transition period, I report both Geekbench 5 and Geekbench 6 scores, so that you can more easily compare with previously tested models that only Geekbench 5 measurements were made on.

Antutu Benchmark*: 1,098,042 points
Geekbench 5: 4,157 points
Geekbench 5 a core: 1,316 points
Geekbench 5 compute: 6,255 points
Geekbench 6: 4,707 points
Geekbench 6 a core: 1,785 points
Geekbench 6 compute: 4,921 points
3dmark Wild Life Unlimited: 11,132 points
3dmark Wild Life Extreme: 2,827 points
Storage, reading: 1 791,6 MB/s
Storage, writing: 1 351,6 MB/s

*Only comparable to other Android mobiles, not Antutu for IOS