Lenovo Vibe Shot in the Flesh
One of the booths that was constantly mobbed at the MWC floor was Lenovo’s. They had a pretty impressive line-up on display that pretty much got tech journalists swarming them. One of their innovative offerings is the new Lenovo Vibe Shot, a pretty specced out smartphone that can also pass off as a competitive point-and-shoot camera.
Based on our short time with the device we have 3 major observations.
The Build Quality and Design is Outstanding
There’s no getting around the fact that the Lenovo Vibe Shot is built very well. Up front we have the 5-inch full HD IPS glass panel. It’s wrapped by metal along the sides which gives it a very premium and elegant feel. At the back we have to layers, one with glass (which is kinda smudgey) and a metal band which houses the camera lens and the flash.
To give you guys a better idea, here’s our short hands-on video with the Lenovo Vibe Shot taken from their booth at the MWC in Barcelona.
Both Front and Rear Cameras have Massive Potential
Lenovo hasn’t been known for their kick ass cameras in their mobile devices but that can potentially change for the better with the Lenovo Vibe Shot. The primary rear 16MP camera was very much able and fast in our testing. We couldn’t export the photos we took with the demo device but based on our initial impressions that quality is comparable to low-mid level point-and-shoot digital cameras. Reminded me a lot of the capabilities of the Canon S100.
We were able to try both shooting modes, Smart and Advanced. The controls were very intuitive and easy-to-understand, especially the Smart mode. For the more photography savvy folks out there, the Advanced mode gives you a lot of options and controls which you would usually find only in point-and-shoot cameras and not in smartphone cameras. In both modes the focus was very fast. Looks like that IR laser focusing feature isn’t just paper spec since it really works!
Lastly, we weren’t able to properly test it in low-light though. The tricolor LED flash is supposed to be a big help in those conditions though so we will definitely test that out once we get our hands on a review unit for an extended period of time.
The Specs are VERY Competitive for the Price
The Lenovo Vibe Shot already runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop, which is a huge help in the over-all user experience (smoother, faster, etc). It also packs the new 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor (1.7GHz Octa-core with LTE support). These specs make for a very compelling offer at the SRP of $349 (roughly Php 15.5k).
So there you have it! Please do make sure you watch the short video that we made for this device that we embedded above. As soon as we get more information that’s relevant to the Philippines (pricing, release date) we’ll let you guys know but this is definitely an innovative product by Lenovo. Looking forward to seeing them come out with even better devices in the coming months!
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