Ahead of the CES 2016, Chinese smartphone maker Lenovo has unveiled the VIBE S1 Lite, a smartphone with decent specs and an affordable price tag.
Released in India towards the end of the year, Lenovo launched the VIBE S1 at the 2015 IFA in Berlin. Now the company has announced a new variant of the phone called VIBE S1 Lite, which has slightly downgraded specs in comparison to the VIBE S1.
The VIBE S1 Lite does share some features with the VIBE S1, such as the 5-inch IPS LCD multi-touch display with a resolution of 1,080 x 1,920 pixels and 441ppi.
However, several other features of the VIBE S1 Lite are inferior when compared to the VIBE S1. The latest Lenovo offering runs on an octa-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz in comparison to the 1.7GHz octa-core processor that powers the VIBE S1.
The VIBE S1 also has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internet storage that can be increased to a further 128GB with a microSD card. However, the VIBE S1 Lite comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage that users can expand to 32GB with a microSD card.
The Lenovo VIBE S1 includes a 2,420mAh battery that offers up to 11 days of standby time on 2G and up to 10 days on 3G or 4G networks. The talk time of the phone is up to 26 hours on 2G and up to 12 hours on 3G and 4G networks. The VIBE S1 Lite will come with a bigger 2,700mAh battery, which will hopefully offer improved standby time and talk time to users.
One of the standout features of the VIBE S1 was a dual front-facing camera: an 8MP and another 2MP camera with LED flash. Lenovo got rid of dual front cameras and the VIBE S1 Lite sports an 8MP selfie camera. Both the VIBE S1 and the VIBE S1 Lite are equipped with a 13MP primary camera.
Smartphone customers are increasingly using their handsets for taking selfies to be shared on social media. For this, a front-facing camera always comes in handy and this is something Lenovo kept in mind.
"Not all photo ops happen in bright light and sometimes the perfect selfie suffers in dim lighting. So we gave Lenovo VIBE S1 Lite an 8MP front camera with a 5-piece lens for zero-distortion, a Sony image sensor, and a built-in selfie flash to increase the amount of light captured," noted the Lenovo press release (via Phone Arena).
Taking group pictures with a smartphone's camera can sometimes be difficult. However, the panorama selfie feature of the VIBE S1 Lite ensures that no one in a group is missed while taking a groupie.
The VIBE S1 comes running on Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box. While Google has launched Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Lenovo has not yet confirmed whether the VIBE S1 Lite will come with the new operating system or with Android 5.1 Lollipop like the VIBE S1.
The smartphone maker has not confirmed an exact release date but Lenovo has confirmed that the new VIBE S1 Lite will be available starting early 2016 in countries where Lenovo smartphones are already available.
The VIBE S1 Lite will have a price tag of $199, but it may vary from country to country.
