After much speculation Chinese electronics giant, Lenovo has launched the Z5 smartphone with a notch on top of the display, a Snapdragon 636 chipset, and a dual camera setup at the back with Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities. The company has priced the the 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM version of the phone at 1,299 yuan (approximately Rs 13,500), while the 6GB/128GB variant will cost around 1,799 yuan (approximately Rs 19,000).
The phone is available in black, blue and aurora colours that shift under different lighting. It was teased without having the iPhone X-like notch at the top of the screen, but the phone does sport a notch at final launch. The display measures 6.2-inch and has a tall 19:9 aspect ratio.
When it comes to the hardware, the Z5 is powered by the Octa-core Snapdragon 636 SoC clocked at 1.8 GHz. For graphics, Lenovo has coupled the processor with an Adreno 509 GPU. The Lenovo Z5 runs Android 8.0 Oreo with ZUI 4.0 atop the OS. Lenovo Vice President Chang Cheng has promised an update to Android P once the OS is released.
In the camera department, Lenovo has incorporated a 16MP + 8 MP dual camera system at the back and an 8MP camera sensor up front. The cameras have AI and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities.
Further, the Lenovo Z5 packs a 3,300 mAh battery with 18W fast charging support through a USB-C port.
The company also announced two affordable phones called Lenovo A5 and Lenovo K5 Note. The A5 has 4,000 mAh battery and costs 599 yuan (approximately Rs 6,000). The K5 Note has a dual camera setup and is priced at 799 yuan (approximately Rs 8,400) for 3GB/32GB variant and 999 yuan (approximately Rs 10,500) for the 4GB/64GB version.
According to market research firm Counterpoint Research, the China smartphone market declined in the first quarter of 2018 and affected the overall growth of some of the key Chinese brands, including Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo.
Lenovo (including Motorola) captured the 8th spot with two percent market share. While the Motorola brand did well, it was Lenovo smartphones that registered a decline during the quarter. Lenovo's smartphone shipments in India were just short of a million units, falling by more than 60 per cent (year-on-year) in the first quarter of 2018, the firm said.
The last Lenovo-branded smartphone that arrived in India was the Lenovo K8 Plus in September 2017. Since then, there has not been any Lenovo-branded device in sight.