It seems like Lenovo is all set to ship its upcoming smartphones with a nearly stock Android UI. According to a report by Gadgets 360, it will be abandoning its Vibe Pure UI, which ran atop all its smartphones. This will commence with the company’s upcoming offering, the Lenovo K8 Note. The phone is expected to be the first smartphone from the company to ship with Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
Anuj Sharma, Head of Product Marketing, Smartphones, Lenovo MBG India told the website, “What we have done in last 11 months is, we looked at what we had in terms of software perspective. We have been close to the consumers and we saw what they were asking for. There was a certain trend and we have now decided to cut the Vibe Pure UI off from our phones. So you will now get the stock Android which consumers have been asking for.” He further added that Vibe Pure UI is officially dropped and they are moving to a complete stock Android for all their future Lenovo phones.
The company’s devices will still contain a few enhancements to take advantage of features such as Dolby Atmos and TheaterMax. Except for those two, it will be a complete Android stock-like experience. Being on stock Android probably means a faster and more cleaner experience for users. Further, it will ensure that users receive Android updates faster.
Lenovo has been selling smartphones in India since 2013, and Android smartphones ran atop Vibe UI, which was gradually improved over time. With the launch of the Lenovo K6 Power last year, Vibe UI was rebranded as Vibe Pure UI. This was possibly done as an attempt highlight the reduced bloatware. Heeding customer’s feedback, the company has now decided to move to stock Android. Sharma also talked about how stock Android uses far less resources as compared to a custom-layered UI.
Lenovo also confirmed that all the smartphones launched this year under the 'K series' will receive the Android O update. Sharma, however, explained that the timelines will vary depending upon chip manufacturer support, internal development and testing requirements. The Lenovo K8 Note is set to launch on August 9. It is rumoured to be powered by a deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 chipset clocked at 1.38Ghz with 4GB of RAM.