Lenovo Announces its First 4G LTE Compatible Smartphone

Lenovo has revealed four new smartphones, with the Vibe Z being the most interesting because it’s the first to feature 4G LTE connectivity from the company.

The Vibe Z is a 5.5-inch device, putting it directly in to the “phablet” category. At 0.31-inches thick, it is slightly thinner than the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and comes with a 1920 x 1080 IPS display. The smartphone will be powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB of RAM and have 16GB of storage. There is a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel one on the front.

This is Lenovo’s offering of a high-end device and certainly delivers the goods on paper. The company claims that the phone has a laser-etched, “fabric-feel” rear cover but the big news is that it will support 4G LTE, which is the first model to offer this.

The Vibe Z will be available from February in Indonesia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines, priced at $549.

At the other end of the price spectrum is the new model for the A series, the A859. For a starting price of $219, you get a 5-inch, 720p display but instead of a fabric-feel casing, the phone has the more standard plastic body.

Lenovo has also added two new models to the S series. First there is the S650, which has a 4.7-inch display and is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek chip. It sports the same laser-etched design as the Vibe Z but comes in slightly cheaper at $229. The second addition to this series is the S930, which is very comparable to the S650 but has a larger 6-inch, 720p display and costs $319.

Lenovo decided to announce these new models ahead of CES 2014, before all the announcements of new smartphones come flooding in. Lenovo phones have become quite popular in China and seeing as China Mobile is in the middle of rolling out LTE, no doubt the Vibe Z will prove a hit.

[Image via Lenovo]

SOURCE: http://blog.lenovo.com/products/vibe-z-smartphone-speed-of-lte