Lenovo Vibe Z, S930, S650 and A859 hands-on

As we were making our trip around the CES 2014 grounds we stopped at the Lenovo booth to check out the latest offerings by the Chinese company.

The Vibe Z was the real star there, featuring a robust 5.5-inch display and bringing Lenovo into the LTE phablet game. Powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset, the handset is a real powerhouse too. Also present were three new competitively priced midrangers, ranging from 4.7 to 6 inches.

Lenovo Vibe Z hands-on

Lenovo has outed its first LTE smartphone with the new Vibe Z. It operates on LTE bands up to 2100, and is powered by a Snapdragon 800 chipset, which has its quad-core Krait processor clocked at 2.2GHz. It features a 5.5-inch FullHD IPS display that results in a pixel density of almost exactly 400ppi. The Vibe Z features an impressively elegant design that’s only 7.9mm thick, while weighing just 147 grams. Inside, there’s 2 GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a 3,000 mAh battery. Android 4.3 Jelly Bean is the OS version of choice.

The 13 MP primary shooter has an f1.8 aperture, and it’s accompanied by a 5 MP front-facer. It sits in a square-ish window on the back of the device alongside the LED flash and the secondary microphone.

The Vibe Z is fairly wide in order to incorporate the 5.5-inch screen, but features a textured back panel that helps handling quite a lot. It’s available in both Silver and (darker) Titanium color options, with the glossy metal band on the bottom being more visible on the Silver units.

Lenovo S930 and S650 hands-on

Also introduced were a pair of midrangers in the Lenovo S930 and Lenovo S650. The S930 is the larger-screen’d of the two, with a 6-inch 720p display, and features a heftier 3000 mAh battery and slightly better 1.6MP front-facing camera. The S650 has a 4.7-inch qHD display, a 0.3MP front-facer, and 2,000 mAh battery.

On the inside, both devices are identical with quad-core 1.3GHz CPUs on MediaTek chipsets, 8MP primary cameras, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. Both are powered by Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The S930 has the added benefit of having dual front-facing speakers powered by Dolby Digital Plus DS1, while the S650 comes with dual-SIM support.

Both new S models follow the design scheme introduced by the Vibe Z, including the “laser-etched fabric-feel” rear cover and silver band along the bottom and are available only in Silver.

Lenovo A859 hands-on

Finally, Lenovo has added to its A series of smartphones with the new A859. It features the same quad-core 1.3GHz CPU on MediaTek 6582 SoC as the two new S devices, and also runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.

The A859 smartphone sports a 5-inch 720p display, and has 1GB of RAM and 8GB of expandable storage. Like the S650, it also has dual-SIM support, but comes with the 1.6MP front-facing shooter of the S930. Under the hood is a 2250 mAh battery.

The A859 doesn’t have the new textured back panel and metal band design of the other new Lenovo devices, instead features a rather disappointing slick glossy polycarbonate back that’s rather prone to fingerprints. At 9.2mm it’s also not the thinnest 5-incher around, but if priced right it could make a name for itself in the budget market segment.

Speaking of pricing, the Lenovo A859 comes in at $219, and goes on sale today in all markets where Lenovo smartphones are sold. The same applies to the S930 and S650, which will be priced at $319 and $229, respectively. The new Vibe Z flagship will be priced at $549, and will see a limited initial release in parts of Southeast Asia and the Middle East, although it should go global eventually.