REVIEW - Lenovo Vibe Shot
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The Vibe series from Lenovo
has constantly impressed in terms of design and performance. The latest
phone in the series is the Vibe Shot, the company's first camera focused
smartphone. In terms of specs, the Vibe Shot has a 16MP camera with a
16:9 back illuminated sensor, optical image stabilisation, IR autofocus
and tri-color flash. All this results in the best camera phone in the
sub-`30,000 price bracket. The Vibe shot captures amazing photographs in
daylight as well as indoors.We were instantly impressed with the sharp
details, rich colours, shallow depth of field and low noise in the
photos.Moreover, the focus time is almost instant thanks to the IR
sensor. The only thing that felt lacking in such a superior camera was
the substantial shot-toshot delay (time taken to save the image and be
ready for the next one). Low light images suffered from noise but with
use of flash they were good enough for sharing on social media. You
get a dedicated hardware shutter button on the side of the phone as well
as a hardware button to switch between auto and pro mode. Lenovo has
worked on the user interface for the camera to quite an extent.Apart
from the usual settings for ISO, exposure, shutter speed and aperture,
there are various shooting modes that you can experiment with. Special
mention goes to the long shutter modes -including a bulb mode for
capturing star trails. You don't normally get these modes on a phone. We
wish that Lenovo had paid more attention video recording though. Modes
like slow-motion or time-lapse would have been welcome. Also, the phone
does not do 4k video recording which is kind of strange at this price.
Lenovo did not just focus entirely on providing a good camera experience. They also worked a lot on the design of the phone to make it look like a hybrid of a camera and phone.While the front has a gorgeous 5-inch full HD display , the rear looks quite like a compact camera. The brushed metal finish, machine drilled speakers at the bottom and metal buttons add to the overall premium look and feel of the phone. With a majority of premium phones under `30,000 going for the phablet (5.5inch screen and above) form factor, the Vibe Shot is a welcome compact device that fits comfortably in the hand.
It's no slouch in performance either. Thanks to the Snapdragon 615 processor and 3GB RAM, the phone functions smoothly irrespective of the number of apps running in the background. It had no issues running games like Asphalt 8 as well as full HD videos. What impressed more was that we did not face any heating issues even after lots of gaming. There is 32GB internal storage and the option to expand it with another 128GB via microSD slot -great if you shoot a lot of photos and like to save them. The 3,000mAh battery usually lasted a full day with heavy usage, which is pretty impressive.
There are a few small issues --not dealbreakers. For instance, the single speaker is not loud enough. There is loads of bloatware which takes up unnecessary space. Finally , vibration alert for notifications is too weak. We often missed incoming calls when the phone was in a pocket on vibrate mode.
Overall, the Vibe Shot redefines camera performance in its price range without compromising on other features. The only other phone that matches the camera performance is the OnePlus 2, but it lacks the feature set offered by Lenovo's user interface. If you are looking for a mid-range Android smartphone with a top-notch camera, premium design and great performance, the Vibe Shot is highly recommended.
Lenovo did not just focus entirely on providing a good camera experience. They also worked a lot on the design of the phone to make it look like a hybrid of a camera and phone.While the front has a gorgeous 5-inch full HD display , the rear looks quite like a compact camera. The brushed metal finish, machine drilled speakers at the bottom and metal buttons add to the overall premium look and feel of the phone. With a majority of premium phones under `30,000 going for the phablet (5.5inch screen and above) form factor, the Vibe Shot is a welcome compact device that fits comfortably in the hand.
It's no slouch in performance either. Thanks to the Snapdragon 615 processor and 3GB RAM, the phone functions smoothly irrespective of the number of apps running in the background. It had no issues running games like Asphalt 8 as well as full HD videos. What impressed more was that we did not face any heating issues even after lots of gaming. There is 32GB internal storage and the option to expand it with another 128GB via microSD slot -great if you shoot a lot of photos and like to save them. The 3,000mAh battery usually lasted a full day with heavy usage, which is pretty impressive.
There are a few small issues --not dealbreakers. For instance, the single speaker is not loud enough. There is loads of bloatware which takes up unnecessary space. Finally , vibration alert for notifications is too weak. We often missed incoming calls when the phone was in a pocket on vibrate mode.
Overall, the Vibe Shot redefines camera performance in its price range without compromising on other features. The only other phone that matches the camera performance is the OnePlus 2, but it lacks the feature set offered by Lenovo's user interface. If you are looking for a mid-range Android smartphone with a top-notch camera, premium design and great performance, the Vibe Shot is highly recommended.
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