Lenovo at MWC 2015: VIBE Shot SmartPhone/Camera Crossover Announced
by Ian Cutress & Andrei Frumusanu on March 2, 2015 7:52 AM EST
As part of our booth tour at Lenovo during Mobile World Congress, on display was the recently announced Lenovo VIBE Shot and we managed to get some hands-on time. The VIBE Shot is described by Lenovo as a ‘2-in-1 camera smartphone’ attempting to bridge a gap between smartphones and point-and-click cameras. The device attempts this by placing buttons on the sides of the smartphone similar to how a point-and-click would do so, as well as having a full-frame 16:9 16MP low light sensor and a tri-color flash.
The 5-inch full HD device includes optical image stabilization as well as providing simple and pro modes with a button adjustment on the top. Simple mode is equivalent to the auto mode on most cameras, whereas the pro-mode offers manual adjustments such as exposure, white balance, focus mode, saturation and more. Hardware under the hood includes an eight-core Snapdragon 615 (A57/A57) at a 1.7 GHz peak on the fast cluster with 3GB DRAM and 32GB of internal storage.
Battery capacity comes in at 2900 mAh, with LTE Cat-4 and Android 5.0. The device will be offered in a dual Nano-SIM arrangement, weighs 145g and comes in at 7.3mm thin. Storage is expandable, with guaranteed support of up to 128GB via a microSD.
The phone felt pretty solid in hand, and the thinness is remarkable. What wasn't remarkable was the aluminium band on the back along the camera side, as it attracted fingerprints. The display unit had seen a lot of use, and it was quite hard to clean it.
The VIBE Shot will be available in red, white and grey, and come to Lenovo’s regular markets in June starting at $349.
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jjj - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Funny how they double the price vs competing China devices for the fancier camera and an extra 16GB of NAND. No idea if they'll price it better in China , 200$ would have been ok there.If that price doesn't include taxes ,this device could compete with some of last year's flaghips soon and that's a tough sell..
quiksilvr - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
This is not a simple smartphone camera lens. This is a full frame camera lens, which means a larger sensor and MUCH better photo quailty. The fact that this is also a smartphone is incredibly remarkable. At $349, this is a steal.quiksilvr - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Or you know, the article lies and this is actually overpriced.DarkSleip - Tuesday, March 3, 2015 - link
I would hardly ever believe that what is shown on that picture is a 35mm format sensor, unless the phone and hand seen in it were gigantic.boredsysadmin - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
This is a very nice smartphone and a great value. I would pick this one over Galaxy s6.But One thing it's does NOT have is full frame sensor
Johnmcl7 - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
I had a chuckle at that as well, sadly the device would have to be a heck of a lot bigger to accommodate a full frame sensor.SirPerro - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
Yeah, not having a full frame sensor is surprising and dissapointing :-Omkozakewich - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
I saw that and was looking for mention of that new technology that allows flat lenses, but nope! Probably 1/6" like in most other Androids.Something to mention on reviews! The iPhone has a 1/3" sensor, apparently, which is why it's so much better.
gobaers - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
The Z3 has a 1/2.3", GS5 is at 1/2.6", both larger than iPhone 6's 1/3". However, it's properly tuned at 8MP, so the iPhone6 takes better pictures.olivaw - Monday, March 2, 2015 - link
I think "full frame" in this context means that the sensor is 16:9 and not 4:3 cropped to 16:9.