MWC: Lenovo Vibe Shot first impressions and hands on


lenovo vibe shot

Lenovo’s first camera centric phones goes on display at MWC and I got some hands on time with it, keep reading for more information.

Lenovo weren’t able to keep the Vibe Shot a secret. Photos of the phone were leaked well ahead of MWC and renders were shown not so longer after. So the surprise was spoiled but a first camera phone from Lenovo is still an exciting prospect.

On the camera side of things Lenovo have loaded the Vibe shot with all the features you would expect from a camera centric device. To get the photography ball rolling with have a 16 mega-pixel sensor (similar to the Galaxy S6 Edge), then we have OIS to keep photos stable, a dedicated shutter button and a 3 x LED flash.

lenovo vibe shot

Being a fan of camera centric phones I was eager to try the Lenovo Vibe Shot to see if it is a possible Vivo Xshot. The first sample I picked up to try was the black version of the phone with red border. Annoyingly this sample would lock the display after the capturing photos taken with the dedicated shutter button so I moved to another version.

lenovo vibe shot

Gizchina News of the week


The shutter button is a two stage button with the first part of the travel activating focus and the final press capturing the image. Speed of focus is fast and so is the capture and save. I would say it’s not as fast as the Xiaomi MiNote or Galaxy S6, but it’s not too far behind.

I would certainly like to spend more time with the Vibe Shot to see if it is competitive against the Vivo Xshot or Oppo N3 in terms of camera quality, but I don’t need any more time to come to a conclusion about the design and feel of the phone.

Read Also:  It's Official, The Google Pixel Fold Is Finally Coming Next Year

lenovo vibe shot

From images the border and rear look to be alloy, and they could well be, but to the touch the whole device feels a little plastic. This is partly doe to the phone I am currently using (the all glass and metal Mi Note) and partly due to the Lenovo’s very lightweight, but overall the impression is that this is not as well made as other devices on the market. The Vivo Xshot, Mi4, Mi Note, MX4 all feel much more premium.

For a camera centric phone it is a small and easy to handle device thanks to the 5-inch 1080 display, space for a 128GB SD card, 2900mAh battery, Android 5.0 and dual SIM which are all great features for a smaller device. Oddly the specs for the phone say there is 3GB RAM where as the phones on display had only 2GB, so either there are two versions of the phone, the specs are wrong or these are sample only machines.

Lenovo have priced the Vibe Shot at $350 which is doesn’t sound too bad if we were treated to a Snapdragon 810, but with a SD615 on board we would have hoped for closer to $299.

Keep posted for more news live from MWC.

Previous Xiaomi power banks, headphones and more to be sold officially in Europe via Mi.com
Next So the OnePlus One is finally going to be available in all EU countries!

26 Comments

  1. Manos
    March 4, 2015

    Great phone but where is the 3Gb ram? I don’t buy new phone every year so I like something to last some time. Does it have fast charge. I suppose it has…

    • MaxPower
      March 4, 2015

      Like all SD615 equipped-phones this one support the Qualcomm quick charge 2.0 technology up to 3A. It remains to see if Lenovo provides the right charger, if not you have to buy it separately (15$)

      • Manos
        March 4, 2015

        Oh nice! Thanks! I have one 2A Nillkin that will not be a problem!

        • r3sonant
          October 14, 2015

          Did the Quick Charge work? I have the Vibe Shot and am thinking about getting a quick charger.

  2. joe
    March 4, 2015

    I heard that qualcomm is charging $189 for a snapdragon 810 soc.

    • Muhammad Yasir
      March 4, 2015

      thats outrageous!
      MTK 6752 will kill off all competition in no time !

      • balcobomber25
        March 5, 2015

        MTK 6752 is a good midrange chip but it’s not going to kill of the competition. It cant handle anything above 1080p displays or video and it is limited to a 16mp camera sensor. The Snapdragon 615 can supports 4k and 20mp. The MTK 6795 is the chip that could be the game changer especially for flagship devices.

        • Muhammad Yasir
          March 5, 2015

          ohk… i was just arguing about the price in truth.
          thanks for the spec info tho!

    • Miko
      March 4, 2015

      if only MediaTek was less reluctant to give source code etc… then Qualcomm would really strive to keep up..
      Many people don’t like MediaTek only for this reason and for the GPU – but GPU low performance they fixed it… now it’s only left to be more friendly to the dev. world out there and wonders will happen.

      • Lazar Prodanovic
        March 5, 2015

        thing’s are slowly changing on that front, as the phones with CM & Ubuntu are starting to appear with MTK SoC’s. Their is & new fully supported MTK SoC in Linux kernel 4.0. 😉
        I just hope MTK won’t stay def on ears (GPU/FPGA) and continue to act as a cheap bastards (new MT6753/6735).

    • David Košič
      March 4, 2015

      haha probably not, I think it’s closer to 50-70 dollars.

      • balcobomber25
        March 4, 2015

        It really depends who is buying it. I work with Chinese OEM’s as a middle man between them and suppliers. My company deals with negotiating the price of parts for the OEM’s on behalf of the “manufacturers” (think Gionee, Lenovo etc). A company like Xiaomi who will sell millions of devices will get the Snapdragon 810 a lot cheaper than a company like Elephone, who might only sell a few thousands, would. So the $189 could very well be the price for some.

        • David Košič
          March 5, 2015

          With Qualcomm losing Samsung as a major buyer I think they won’t be as picky who they sell their chips.

          • balcobomber25
            March 5, 2015

            Samsung hasn’t ditched Qualcomm all together they still have the S5 and Note 4 and Note Edge which are still in production. But even putting them aside Qualcomm has Xiaomi, Lenovo/Moto, OPPO, Vivo, LG, Sony, ZTE and HTC as major buyers among others. They can still afford to be very picky.

            • asdasd
              March 6, 2015

              and also Microsoft.

              some rumor said Samsung Galaxy S6 will have Snapdragon variation as well

            • balcobomber25
              March 6, 2015

              The Galaxy S6 Mini is rumored to have the Snap Dragon 810 and the newly announced A7 has the Snap Dragon 615.

  3. Prem
    March 4, 2015

    Guys plz suggest me which phone have best camera below $200. It is not important whether it has 4G or not.

    • balcobomber25
      March 4, 2015

      You can get the Gionee Elife E7 right now for around $189. It was one of the best smartphone camera’s among last years flagships.

      • stan
        March 4, 2015

        is E7 stuck at android 4.2?

        • Alexandru
          March 4, 2015

          no 4.4 released few days ago

        • balcobomber25
          March 4, 2015

          I think its 4.3 at the moment but they said they other day they are updating it to Kit Kat in the coming weeks.

          Another option to consider is the THL 5000. It’s a little bit more than $200 but the camera on it is very very good.

    • Nicola
      March 4, 2015

      Go with Jiayu s3

    • suggestor
      March 6, 2015

      recommended:iuni u2
      gioone elife e7

    • Kallo444
      March 7, 2015
  4. balcobomber25
    March 4, 2015

    IMO this is one of the best looking phones coming out. Reminds me of the older digital cameras. If the camera performance can match that of the Xshot or Gionee E7 (two phones i refuse to buy for a number of reasons), I may have to leave Xiaomi for a new brand.

  5. Rahul Gomes
    October 16, 2015

    I was looking for a camera smartphone for photography and
    gaming purpose and Lenovo Vibe Shot matched perfectly. I searched it on
    flipkart and other stores and finally found it on http://www.thedostore.com, one of Lenovo’s website. Really happy with the camera performance of this phone.