You need to under promise, over deliver – not the other way around

We’ve been excited for Lenovo’s Z5 smartphone ever since it was continually teased by its VP. Who wouldn’t be? vivo’s upcoming Apex smartphone aside, there aren’t any bezel-less phones that’s available in the market, at least ones that don’t have a notch in front.

Lenovo VP Chang Cheng promised a phone that had “four technological breakthroughs” and “18 patented technologies” and even shared a photo of the front of the phone in Chinese social site Weibo, sporting a 95% screen-to-body ratio.

AI powered lies.#LenovoZ5 #Z5 pic.twitter.com/lMuiHRChVC

— Beebom (@beebomco) June 5, 2018

That’s why we were so utterly disappointed to learn that the actual Z5 smartphone wasn’t exactly what was promised. It wasn’t the all-screen phone we were waiting for. It had a notch, just like a majority of Android smartphones announced this year. It didn’t even have a bezel-less panel, as it had the typical bezels of modern Android phones, along with a chin at the bottom.

Now the Z5 is probably a perfectly acceptable Android phone. With a price of RMB 1,299 (around Php 10.7K) for the 6GB/64GB variant, the 6.2-inch, notch-sporting phone is aggressively priced, but it’s not something we haven’t seen before. That’s probably the whole point of the misleading teasers – to build hype over a phone that’s tragically ordinary.

The problem there is that people don’t like being fooled by anyone. Let’s not kid ourselves – Lenovo isn’t as popular as their competitors outside of China, and are in serious need of a headline product to differentiate themselves from the competition. Intentionally misleading potential customers isn’t a great way to build hype and brand loyalty, but it’s a great way to be known as the company that’s all talk and no show.

There’s a chance that there will be a better spec’d version of the Z5 (maybe a Z5 Pro or something to that effect) launched at a later date that actually has an all-screen display that was promised in the teasers, but why wouldn’t you release that first and avoid all the kerfuffle?

After everything that’s happened with the Z5, it’s going to be harder to trust whatever information Lenovo shares and teases prior to an actual product release. Fool me once, shame on you and all that jazz.