Lenovo Vibe Shot is in a mix of both worlds in terms of camera and smartphone, it's very sleek, exciting and powerful at the same time. This is the release of Lenovo where the phone focuses more on the camera itself and at the same time it is not compromising the other phone features. The Lenovo Vibe Shot sports a 16MP rear IR auto-focus camera, 8MP front camera, 64-bit Snapdragon octa-core CPU, a dual nano SIM with LTE, Android Lollipop and comes with its aluminum chassis. Camera enthusiasts and selfie lovers will surely love this phone (who doesn't like vivid & crystal clear shots on phones?)
What's inside the box?
The whole package box of the Lenovo Vibe Shot contains the following:
Build & Design
The Lenovo Vibe Shot has a very sexy and premium look and feel when seen and hold into the hand. It perfectly fits into the hand and there are no problems reaching phone buttons or screen buttons with just one hand. The phone just weights 145 grams which is not heavy and feels like much features are packed into it. I really liked the aluminum quality feeling on the sides and the glossy glass finish at the back which is not slippery on the hand.
The upper front contains the sensors, ear speaker and the front 8MP camera.
The upper right side of the phone have the volume rocker and the power button.
The lower right side contains the built-in Auto & Pro button mode option and the camera button which is very handy for quick shots or taking pictures professionally.
The top has the 3.5 mm audio jack.
The bottom of the phone contains the speaker grille, mic and the USB port. Also the phone has physical buttons for the recent apps, home and back which has a LED light lit when used.
Display
Hands down to the very crisp and vivid display, there's nothing more I can say but the screen display is really good to look at and combo with their eye candy UI and icons.
The 5-inch screen is in a Full HD with the IPS display technology which there will be no issue in viewing the phone's screen in every angle. It has a great resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels in 441ppi in which pixels dots were so compressed and tiny, you will not see any pixels or you can see very crisp and clear images and text even with small text modes. The screen performs well outdoors with a bit of Sun's glare when outside but you can use the max brightness or the Proximity sensor to turn the auto brightness feature.
Playing games, reading text, viewing images or any type of multimedia will be viewed good and you may be hooked with its screen and may compare other phones in their screen quality after you see and used it.
OS, UI & Apps
The UI of the Lenovo Vibe Shot is quite similar to MIUI or iOS, no main app drawer and sliding apps on the side only but if your already using an Android Lollipop there will be no problem in using it as it feels like close to the stock UI with icons replaced and enhanced system apps UI. So far I liked the UI, aside from you can feel the Lollipop UI is that it's easy to navigate and easy to be used to. The main screen when unlock contains the iconic time and weather widget that makes it unique and good to look at. By the way there is an app called Theme center and you can replace the whole look of the phone's UI by applying the theme that you liked from it.
There are already pre-installed apps aside from the standard apps that can be found in the stock Android where Google Apps were already installed, they have included useful apps such as Evernote, WPS Office, Guvera Music, Navigator (offline free map navigator), File browser and some tool apps but they've just limit it in a two page app to lessen the use of storage space and avoided being labelled for too much of having bloatware apps.
Camera
As for the most expected features of the phone which is the 16MP camera at the back, there is an Automatic Mode (Auto) for amateurs, beginners, or casual photographers, what is advance is that it has manual mode options like setting the brightness & contrast, ISO, aperture, lightning balance and more which is great for those who are experience photographers who wanted their phone to feature such things like in their SLR cameras.
More camera samples
Video
The video is great and it is very clear. The camera software focuses well in shooting and balances the lightning even in low light. The video above was taken in a performance of the Urbandub, it was taken in a low light, laser and lights coming from the stage were only the visible lights. The video is 2x zoomed in the video yet when you watch it in 1080P mode it's still good and quite detailed. The video is a bit shaky but not like the other smartphone videos, the Vibeshot has a built in stabilizer so that the picture or video is not too much shaky specially when capturing moments like this where you hands can be shaky while shooting your favorite artist/s.
Performance & Benchmark Tests
Antutu Benchmark: 39,973 points
Geekybench: Single Core: 731 Multi Score: 2,615
Quadrant Benchmark: 2,5543 points
GPU Benchmark: 11,781 points
Nenamark: 59.1fps
Multi-touch tester: 10
To explain further of the results of the benchmark apps, it means that the overall performance of the phone is good and according to the Antutu app with its benchmark database, the Lenovo Vibe Shot surpasses 99% of other devices tested to it. It has also a score of a high game performance surpassing 60% of other devices. I've tried gaming and so far I have seen no lags from the games like Asphalt & Modern Combat. The Battery life is average, surpassing 50% of all other devices. The overall scores from the benchmark apps also indicates that this is a very powerful phone in terms of hardware and specs.
Battery life
In terms of battery life the Lenovo Vibe Shot can last a day or two with light to moderate use. It has a power capacity of 2,900mAh so there's not much to worry about of out of battery juice within the day. As you can see in the picture there is a breakdown of hardware and apps usage displayed via settings, so far in my test the CPU is the one most of the time using the power then the signal, screen and WiFi. There is a battery saver option if you like to turn it on and screen and GPU power saver in which the phone will intelligently turn them on and off to save battery or even the Ultimate power saver in which can extend the battery life of the phone but you can only use text and calls during this mode.
Lenovo Vibe Shot Specifications
Pros
Cons
Verdict
As we have used and tested the phone throughout, it proves that it can serve as a good smartphone and a great camera that you can carry anywhere. It has a very sexy design and good quality with irresistible crisp & clear screen display resolution. It is powerful enough to handle heavy games and playing of various media files. The camera is great too, but it cannot really replace your professional DSLR camera but with its very advance in its manual features which can produce great images. The camera produces very clear and focused shots, also it makes it easy to use as there is an Auto mode for beginners or casual photographers and the Pro mode for advance users. If you want a mix of both having a powerful smartphone and a very good camera in your pocket, this really a recommended smartphone of choice with a good pricing of Php16,999.
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
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| The very sexy back of the Lenovo Vibe Shot with the Androids! |
What's inside the box?
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| Free Lenovo Vibe Shot crystal case and screen protector! |
- 1x Lenovo Vibe Shot Unit
- 1x Earphone
- 1x USB Cable & Charger
- 1x Screen protector
- 1x Crystal case protector
- 1x nano SIM eject pin
- 1x Warranty Card
- 1x User Manual
Build & Design
The Lenovo Vibe Shot has a very sexy and premium look and feel when seen and hold into the hand. It perfectly fits into the hand and there are no problems reaching phone buttons or screen buttons with just one hand. The phone just weights 145 grams which is not heavy and feels like much features are packed into it. I really liked the aluminum quality feeling on the sides and the glossy glass finish at the back which is not slippery on the hand.
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| 8MP front camera, sensors & speaker |
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Display
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| Front display view of the Lenovo Vibe Shot |
The 5-inch screen is in a Full HD with the IPS display technology which there will be no issue in viewing the phone's screen in every angle. It has a great resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels in 441ppi in which pixels dots were so compressed and tiny, you will not see any pixels or you can see very crisp and clear images and text even with small text modes. The screen performs well outdoors with a bit of Sun's glare when outside but you can use the max brightness or the Proximity sensor to turn the auto brightness feature.
Playing games, reading text, viewing images or any type of multimedia will be viewed good and you may be hooked with its screen and may compare other phones in their screen quality after you see and used it.
OS, UI & Apps
The UI of the Lenovo Vibe Shot is quite similar to MIUI or iOS, no main app drawer and sliding apps on the side only but if your already using an Android Lollipop there will be no problem in using it as it feels like close to the stock UI with icons replaced and enhanced system apps UI. So far I liked the UI, aside from you can feel the Lollipop UI is that it's easy to navigate and easy to be used to. The main screen when unlock contains the iconic time and weather widget that makes it unique and good to look at. By the way there is an app called Theme center and you can replace the whole look of the phone's UI by applying the theme that you liked from it.
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| Lenovo Vibe Shot OS, UI & Apps |
Camera
As for the most expected features of the phone which is the 16MP camera at the back, there is an Automatic Mode (Auto) for amateurs, beginners, or casual photographers, what is advance is that it has manual mode options like setting the brightness & contrast, ISO, aperture, lightning balance and more which is great for those who are experience photographers who wanted their phone to feature such things like in their SLR cameras.
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| The different manual mode options that you can use |
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| Different camera shots / modes, no editing done (1st three pics were shot outdoors) |
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| Artistic HDR mode with Still Life option (no flash, indoor) |
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| Super near capture of the keyboard and yet it can focus this clear! (no flash, indoor) |
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| A little bit near shot of the Android toy (no flash, indoor) |
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| Automatic mode, indoor shot |
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| Super clear & vivid shot! (HDR Mode, indoor shot, center focused) |
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| Automatic mode, Outdoor shot |
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| Low light, Artistic HDR Mode, No Flash (a bit saturated, but it looks better than the auto mode, thanks to it's adjusting light capture functionality) |
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| You can only see some objects, very dim (Low light, Automatic Mode, No Flash) |
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| Automatic Mode, No Flash, Dark Surrounding during the concert (Urbandub!) |
Video
Performance & Benchmark Tests
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| Lenovo Vibe Shot benchmark apps scores |
Geekybench: Single Core: 731 Multi Score: 2,615
Quadrant Benchmark: 2,5543 points
GPU Benchmark: 11,781 points
Nenamark: 59.1fps
Multi-touch tester: 10
To explain further of the results of the benchmark apps, it means that the overall performance of the phone is good and according to the Antutu app with its benchmark database, the Lenovo Vibe Shot surpasses 99% of other devices tested to it. It has also a score of a high game performance surpassing 60% of other devices. I've tried gaming and so far I have seen no lags from the games like Asphalt & Modern Combat. The Battery life is average, surpassing 50% of all other devices. The overall scores from the benchmark apps also indicates that this is a very powerful phone in terms of hardware and specs.
Battery life
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| Lenovo Vibe Shot battery |
Lenovo Vibe Shot Specifications
- Screen: 5-inch Full HD IPS display, 441ppi
- Processor: 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 64-bit octa-core CPU
- RAM: 3GB
- Storage: 32GB internal storage up to 128GB via microSD
- Rear camera: 16 megapixel camera w/ BSI Sensor, IR AF, OIS and Tricolor flash
- Front Camera: 8 megapixel front camera
- SIM: Dual Nano SIM
- Networks: 4G LTE, 3G HSPA+
- Bluetooth 4.1 LE
- WiFi
- GPS, A-GPS
- OS: Android 5.0 Lollipop
- Battery: 2,900mAh
- Dimensions: 142 x 70 x 7.3mm
- Weight: 145g
- Colors Available: Crimson, Pearl White, Graphite Grey
- Price: Php16,999 via Lazada, you can buy here, Php17,999 when bought via offline stores.
Pros
- Great front & back cameras
- Fast IR autofocus in capturing images
- Good camera low light performance
- Very vibrant display
- Loud speakers
- Dual-LTE
- Good lasting battery life
- Expandable storage
- Good haptic vibration feedback
- Eye candy and Android Lollipop UI base
- A very impressive aluminum build & glass body
Cons
- Battery not removable
- HDR mode sometimes produces over-saturated images
- No live preview in some camera modes
Verdict
As we have used and tested the phone throughout, it proves that it can serve as a good smartphone and a great camera that you can carry anywhere. It has a very sexy design and good quality with irresistible crisp & clear screen display resolution. It is powerful enough to handle heavy games and playing of various media files. The camera is great too, but it cannot really replace your professional DSLR camera but with its very advance in its manual features which can produce great images. The camera produces very clear and focused shots, also it makes it easy to use as there is an Auto mode for beginners or casual photographers and the Pro mode for advance users. If you want a mix of both having a powerful smartphone and a very good camera in your pocket, this really a recommended smartphone of choice with a good pricing of Php16,999.
Rating: 8.8 out of 10
