Lenovo taking on the international market with new high-end Vibe line-up

Most of you probably know Lenovo as one of the top dogs in the personal computing business, and that's fair considering that the Chinese company wasn't doing so hot in the smarpthone space just two years ago. The reality today, however, is that the company has made an enormous leap in market share since and is now the second largest manufacturer in China, and the fourth largest in the world according to a May report by the IDC.

This admittedly impressive progress has had its price, however – Lenovo is still losing money from its smartphone division. That's largely because of the low-margin, bottom end smartphone lines it has been pushing (successfully) in China. Unfortunately, while these have secured a market share for Lenovo second only to Samsung, a perception of lower quality is certainly up in the air, and Lenovo will no longer have it. To that effect, the company has now officially unveiled the new high-end Vibe brand during a press conference in Beijing on Saturday. Two models are going to be made available – the Vibe Z (K910) and the Vibe X (S960) – and both will be targeting the post-80s generation, according to Lenovo.

As the Vibe Z will be a tad more relevant to you if you live in the Western hemisphere, it's probably worth starting with it. A successor to the Lenovo K900, the K910 is not too far of in terms of design language – it's metal-plated, sleek and thin (unofficial: around 7mm). It sports a phablety 1080p 5.5-inch (~400 ppi) of a screen with the added bonus of having no software keys that eat up precious real estate. Unlike the K900, however, the Vibe Z will come packing a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset, instead of an Intel one. The remaining details are kind of sparse, though we do know that the device will come with 2GB of RAM and feature a 13-megapixel rear snapper, with a 5-megapixel unit taking the front. A hands-on from the folks over at Chinese CNMO also shows that the Vibe Z will run on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean out of the box, though that's about it – price and release date are currently unknown, though Lenovo has, in the past, vowed to begin shipping to the US by the end of 2013.


As for the Vibe X, things are slightly different. First off, we do know the price of the device (RMB 2,899 or $474) and its October 20 release date for the Chinese market, with more markets expected to see the device gradually. Touted as the more stylish of the two, the Vibe X features a sleek body that is only 6.9mm thin and weighs 121 grams. With the Vibe X, however, Lenovo has opted for the significantly cheaper 1.5GHz MediaTek MT6589T quad-core chipset, though it still comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD card. The screen is a 5-inch 1080p panel that, again, features no software keys, though the exact make remains unknown for the time being. Like the Vibe Z, the rear shooter is a 13-megapixel unit, with an identical (we assume) 5-megapixel camera at the front, and it comes running Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. You can check our hands-on with the Vibe X here.

Whether you're a fan of the work that is being done over at the resourceful China or not, it's undeniable that Lenovo has come up with two compelling devices. If Lenovo doesn't go overboard with the price, the Vibe Z, in particular, could prove a compelling offer for those on the lookout for a high-end, but affordable (and different) smartphone.


source: CNMO [1], [2]; GSM Insider