Introduction
The Vibe series often breathes fresh air into the stale smartphone design segment and the Lenovo Vibe Shot wants to serve double duty by trying to break into the difficult high-end smartphone photography market as well.
We still fondly remember the Vibe X2 design and while the Vibe Shot is different, we think we'll remember it for a while too. It features a metal strip on the back to hold the camera and all its friends, which makes it look more like a compact camera thanThe camera is indeed the main focus of the feature sheet. It has a 16:9 BSI sensor with 16MP resolution and optical image stabilization. It's augmented by a triple-LED flash and laser autofocus. You get a couple of hardware controls too - a two-stage shutter key, an Auto/Pro mode switch, the volume rocker turns into a zoom control to boot.
The Vibe Shot design is based on the aluminum frame and glass sandwich that rules the Android high class, but the camera strip on the back really breaks up the monotony. We especially like the Carmine Red version, which paints the metal frame in sports car red.
Despite its premium design, this Lenovo is a mid-ranger at heart. Its 1080p screen and Snapdragon 615 chipset put it in the same mid-premium segment that the HTC One A9, Moto X Play and others occupy.
Lenovo Vibe Shot key features
Aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass 3 on the front and back
Dual-SIM dual-standby capability
5" 1080p IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 441ppi
Octa-core Cortex-A53 CPU (4x 1.7GHz plus 4x 1.0GHz), 3GB of RAM, Adreno 405 GPU; Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 chipset
32GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot (up to 128GB)
Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
16MP laser autofocus camera, triple-LED flash; HDR, Pro mode, Panorama
1080@30fps video
8MP front camera, 1080p video recording; wide selfie
Cat. 4 LTE (150/50Mbps); dual-band Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, hotspot, Wi-Fi direct; Bluetooth 4.1 LE; GPS/GLONASS; microUSB
3,000mAh Li-Po battery capacity
3.5mm headphone jack, active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
Main disadvantages
No 4K video capture
Midrange chipset in a pricy handset
No fingerprint sensor
No NFC a smartphone.
