Lenovo’s first camera centric phones goes on display at MWC and I got some hands on time with it, keep reading for more information.
Lenovo weren’t able to keep the Vibe Shot a secret. Photos of the phone were leaked well ahead of MWC and renders were shown not so longer after. So the surprise was spoiled but a first camera phone from Lenovo is still an exciting prospect.
On the camera side of things Lenovo have loaded the Vibe shot with all the features you would expect from a camera centric device. To get the photography ball rolling with have a 16 mega-pixel sensor (similar to the Galaxy S6 Edge), then we have OIS to keep photos stable, a dedicated shutter button and a 3 x LED flash.
Being a fan of camera centric phones I was eager to try the Lenovo Vibe Shot to see if it is a possible Vivo Xshot. The first sample I picked up to try was the black version of the phone with red border. Annoyingly this sample would lock the display after the capturing photos taken with the dedicated shutter button so I moved to another version.
The shutter button is a two stage button with the first part of the travel activating focus and the final press capturing the image. Speed of focus is fast and so is the capture and save. I would say it’s not as fast as the Xiaomi MiNote or Galaxy S6, but it’s not too far behind.
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I would certainly like to spend more time with the Vibe Shot to see if it is competitive against the Vivo Xshot or Oppo N3 in terms of camera quality, but I don’t need any more time to come to a conclusion about the design and feel of the phone.
From images the border and rear look to be alloy, and they could well be, but to the touch the whole device feels a little plastic. This is partly doe to the phone I am currently using (the all glass and metal Mi Note) and partly due to the Lenovo’s very lightweight, but overall the impression is that this is not as well made as other devices on the market. The Vivo Xshot, Mi4, Mi Note, MX4 all feel much more premium.
For a camera centric phone it is a small and easy to handle device thanks to the 5-inch 1080 display, space for a 128GB SD card, 2900mAh battery, Android 5.0 and dual SIM which are all great features for a smaller device. Oddly the specs for the phone say there is 3GB RAM where as the phones on display had only 2GB, so either there are two versions of the phone, the specs are wrong or these are sample only machines.
Lenovo have priced the Vibe Shot at $350 which is doesn’t sound too bad if we were treated to a Snapdragon 810, but with a SD615 on board we would have hoped for closer to $299.
Keep posted for more news live from MWC.
Great phone but where is the 3Gb ram? I don’t buy new phone every year so I like something to last some time. Does it have fast charge. I suppose it has…
Like all SD615 equipped-phones this one support the Qualcomm quick charge 2.0 technology up to 3A. It remains to see if Lenovo provides the right charger, if not you have to buy it separately (15$)
Did the Quick Charge work? I have the Vibe Shot and am thinking about getting a quick charger.
MTK 6752 is a good midrange chip but it’s not going to kill of the competition. It cant handle anything above 1080p displays or video and it is limited to a 16mp camera sensor. The Snapdragon 615 can supports 4k and 20mp. The MTK 6795 is the chip that could be the game changer especially for flagship devices.
if only MediaTek was less reluctant to give source code etc… then Qualcomm would really strive to keep up..
Many people don’t like MediaTek only for this reason and for the GPU – but GPU low performance they fixed it… now it’s only left to be more friendly to the dev. world out there and wonders will happen.
thing’s are slowly changing on that front, as the phones with CM & Ubuntu are starting to appear with MTK SoC’s. Their is & new fully supported MTK SoC in Linux kernel 4.0. 😉
I just hope MTK won’t stay def on ears (GPU/FPGA) and continue to act as a cheap bastards (new MT6753/6735).
It really depends who is buying it. I work with Chinese OEM’s as a middle man between them and suppliers. My company deals with negotiating the price of parts for the OEM’s on behalf of the “manufacturers” (think Gionee, Lenovo etc). A company like Xiaomi who will sell millions of devices will get the Snapdragon 810 a lot cheaper than a company like Elephone, who might only sell a few thousands, would. So the $189 could very well be the price for some.
With Qualcomm losing Samsung as a major buyer I think they won’t be as picky who they sell their chips.
Samsung hasn’t ditched Qualcomm all together they still have the S5 and Note 4 and Note Edge which are still in production. But even putting them aside Qualcomm has Xiaomi, Lenovo/Moto, OPPO, Vivo, LG, Sony, ZTE and HTC as major buyers among others. They can still afford to be very picky.
some rumor said Samsung Galaxy S6 will have Snapdragon variation as well
The Galaxy S6 Mini is rumored to have the Snap Dragon 810 and the newly announced A7 has the Snap Dragon 615.
Guys plz suggest me which phone have best camera below $200. It is not important whether it has 4G or not.
You can get the Gionee Elife E7 right now for around $189. It was one of the best smartphone camera’s among last years flagships.
no 4.4 released few days ago
I think its 4.3 at the moment but they said they other day they are updating it to Kit Kat in the coming weeks.
Another option to consider is the THL 5000. It’s a little bit more than $200 but the camera on it is very very good.