Lenovo first entered the smartphone market back in 2012, but it’s been a fairly limited release with the majority of their phones released in Asia. This strategy has been fairly successful so far with Lenovo currently the largest vendor of smartphones in Mainland China. But they’ve been looking to expand their market to western countries – as evidenced by their purchase of Motorola back in January – and Australia could be one of the markets they try to expand into.
Last night Lenovo posted a picture of the Lenovo Vibe X smartphone to a number of their social media channels including the Lenovo Australia Twitter account :
QUESTION OF THE DAY: What 3 apps do you use most often? pic.twitter.com/O5qp8DqtAB
— Lenovo ANZ 💻 (@LenovoANZ) March 6, 2014
@phroghollow We may have some plans in the making, but can't confirm anything just yet 😉 Stay tuned!
— Lenovo ANZ 💻 (@LenovoANZ) March 7, 2014
As you can see, I asked if they had plans for an Australian launch and the reply actually seems that this is something they are looking into.
As the largest PC manufacturer in the world, Lenovo knows all about scale, they have the ability to produce good quality products at excellent pricing and it’s this ability that could translate into the Smartphone market. Lenovo launched three new S-series smartphones during Mobile World Congress the S660, S850 and S860 which will launch in June, they’re not the highest end phones, but going with their ability to price competitively the S860 will be priced at US$349, the S850 at US$269 and the S660 at US$229.
S660 |
S850 |
S860 |
| 4.7” qHD (960 X 540) IPS; Capacitive touchscreen with 5-point multitouch | 5.0” HD (1280 X 720) wide-view Capacitive touchscreen with 5-point multi-touch | 5.3” HD (1280 X 720) IPS Capacitive touchscreen with 5-point multi-touch |
| MediaTek 6582m 1.3 GHz Quad Core | MediaTek 6582 1.3 GHz Quad-core PowerVR SGX544 | |
| 1GB RAM | 2GB RAM | |
| 8GB ROM, up to 32GB Micro SD | 16GB On-board Storage | |
| 8MP Auto-Focus Rear Camera with LED and flash with 0.3MP Front-Facing fixed-focus Camera | 13MP Auto-focus Rear Camera with flash and 5MP Fixed-focus wide Front-Facing Camera | 8MP Auto-Focus Rear Camera with LED and flash and 1.5MP Fixed-focus Front-Facing Camera |
| Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0 | Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n,; Bluetooth 3.0 HS | |
| UMTS 850/1900, UMTS 900/2100 (3G), GSM 850/1800/1900; GSM 900/1800/1900 (2G) HSPA+ 21Mbps(DL) / 5.76Mbps(UL) |
WCDMA 900/2100; WCDMA 850/1900 HSPA+ 21Mbps(DL) / 5.76Mbps(UL) |
WCDMA 2100/900 (3G), GSM 900/1800/1900 (2G) GSM 900/1800/1900 (2G) HSPA+ 21Mbps(DL) / 5.76Mbps(UL) |
| Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) | ||
| 3000 mAh replaceable Li-Po Battery | 2000 mAh non-removable Li-Po Battery | 4000 mAh non-removable Li-Po Battery |
| 137×68.8×9.95mm @ 151grams | 141x71x8.2mm @ 140grams | 149.5x77x10.3mm @ 190grams |
If you’ve ever looked into the Lenovo range of phones and found yourself admiring them then perhaps we may see these phones in Australia in the coming months.
