MWC 2015: Hands On With Lenovo Vibe Shot

This particular product was originally believed to be Lenovo’s next flagship smartphone but when it was officially announced at Mobile World Congress last week, the rumour turns out to be false. Not only that, it also has a different purpose altogether as the new Lenovo Vibe Shot is the company’s attempt to deliver the “ultimate smartphone for photos”.

In order to do that, the Vibe Shot relies on a 16-megapixels BSI sensor for its rear camera which is paired together with an optical image stabilization system, six elements lens, and a tri-colour flash that adjusts automatically according to the lighting conditions. Interestingly, the sensor on Vibe Shot is a 16:9 sensor although Lenovo didn’t reveal its actual size.

The camera also features an infrared-based autofocus capability that is apparently faster that standard autofocus implementation although we not able to test it properly due to the unit above running pre-production software and the ever changing lighting at Lenovo’s booth. At the same time, Lenovo didn’t forget to cater to the needs of selfie lovers too through Vibe Shot’s 8-megapixels front camera which also supports Vibe Xtension Selfie Flash that was announced alongside Vibe X2 Pro at CES 2015 earlier this year.

The company has also included a physical 2-stage camera button and mode selector on Vibe Shot which are certainly convenient for users. Speaking about camera modes, the Vibe Shot features two different group of modes including the Smart mode that puts the device in charge of all camera settings and the Pro mode (shown below) which is made for users who prefer manual camera control.

As you can see above, the interface of Vibe Shot’s Pro Mode is similar to the manual mode on Microsoft’s Lumia Camera app which is rather amusing. Not only that, it is also hard to ignore how similar the Vibe Shot looks like to a Sony T Series Cyber-shot camera. Nevertheless, the Vibe Shot’s build quality is rather excellent and looks pretty sleek thanks to its 7.3mm aluminium chassis.

Not enough with that, the device’s 5-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS display looks quite vibrant and sharp. In terms of processing power, the Vibe Shot comes with a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core 64-bit processor that is complemented by 3GB of RAM and 32GB worth of internal storage.

Pre-installed with Lenovo’s own VIBE UI on top of its Android 5.0 operating system, users are able to expand Vibe Storge’s storage with microSD card of up to 128GB. The device is also able to support dual Nano SIM cards as well as LTE speed of up to 150Mbps for download and 50Mbps for upload. Last but not least, a non-removable 2900mAh battery provides the necessary juice to keep the Vibe Shot operational.

While Lenovo has yet to reveal the launch date and pricing for Vibe Shot in Malaysia, the company did mentioned that the new device will be released throughout the world starting from June 2015 onwards. It will come with a price tag of USD 349 (around RM 1,295) which is not too bad considering what Lenovo has packed into the device.