Tech Info: Lenovo

MOTOROLA CLAIMS TO HAVE SOLD 10 MILLION SMARTPHONES LAST QUARTER

Motorola Claims to Have Sold 10 Million Smartphones Last Quarter

Lenovo on Tuesday announced its third fiscal quarter report where the company claimed a net profit of $253 million (roughly Rs. 1,559 crores), a slight drop from the year-ago quarter. The Chinese giant also revealed that Motorola, now acquired by Lenovo, sold more than 10 million smartphone, up 118 percent from a year ago in the same quarter. Additionally, Motorola has announced that the Moto X (Gen 2) reached 1 million pre-orders in China since being introduced last week.

Lenovo however did not reveal breakdown of Motorola handsets sold in last quarter. Considering that Motorola's Moto E, Moto G, Moto X, Moto G (Gen 2), and Moto X (Gen 2) received tremendous response in various markets, we can expect these handsets played a major role. Additionally, Google launched the Motorola-made Nexus 6 that must have been a part of the 10 million figures.

Commenting on Motorola's performance, Yuanqing Yang, chairman and CEO of Lenovo said, "Motorola is already a global strength: for the first time it sold more than 10 million units in the quarter and it is now re-entering the China market."

Last week, Motorola India announced that it sold 3 million Moto devices in 10 monthsthat include the Moto E, Moto G, Moto X, Moto G (Gen 2), Moto X (Gen 2), and the Moto 360 smartwatch. The company also revealed plans to set up exclusive customer experience zones in few cities. To recall, Motorola India back in November announced that it sold 2.5 million Moto smartphones in India.

In other news, Motorola China has announced that the Moto X (Gen 2) that was launched last week alongside the Moto G (Gen 2) LTE and Moto X Pro has received 1 million pre-orders. The company in its Weibo post claimed that the figures were as of February 1.

The Moto X (Gen 2) will be available early February at a starting price of CNY 3,299 (roughly Rs. 32,400) for the 16GB variant, the Moto X Pro after Spring Festival aka Chinese New Year (from February 19-25) alongside the Moto G (Gen 2) LTE.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro With 6-inch QHD Display Launched at Rs. 32,999

Lenovo on Tuesday launched the Vibe Z2 Pro in India, priced at Rs. 32,999. The phablet will be made available exclusively via Flipkart on October 6.

The Vibe Z2 Pro was announced last month with an expected availability of September. The Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro sports a 6-inch Quad-HD (1440x2560 pixel) display, which will be up against the likes of the LG G3 and Oppo Find 7, which also sport QHD displays.

It runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box with the company's proprietary Vibe UI 2.0 on top. The Vibe Z2 Pro supports dual-SIM functionality, and is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon (MSM8974AC) 801 processor clocked at 2.5GHz, coupled with 3GB of RAM. Currently, the flagship devices currently in India from HTC, LG, Samsung, and Sony are powered by the same SoC series.

The new Lenovo flagship packs a 16-megapixel rear camera and also houses a 5-megapixel front camera. The Vibe Z2 Pro's rear camera comes with OIS (optical image stabilization), 4K video recording functionality, and dual LED flash.

There is 32GB of inbuilt storage on the Vibe Z2 Pro, which is non-expandable. It also supports NFC connectivity. The smartphone comes with a large 4000mAh battery with no word on talk time and standby time. It was launched in Black, Gold and Titanium colour variants.

When the company had first sent out invites for Tuesday's event last week, Lenovo was expected to also launch the Vibe X2, which was recently unveiled at IFA 2014earlier this month alongside the Vibe Z2, and was claimed to be the 'world's first layered smartphone' with its tri-layered design.

The dual-SIM version of the Vibe X2 features a 5-inch (1080x1920 pixels) IPS display and runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box with Vibe UI 2.0. The Lenovo Vibe X2 is powered by a 2GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6595m processor.

Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro

KEY SPECS

Display

6.00-inch

Processor

2.5GHz

Front Camera

5-megapixel

Resolution

1440x2560 pixels

RAM

3GB

OS

Android 4.4

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

16-megapixel

Battery capacity

4000mAh

See full Lenovo Vibe Z2 Pro specifications

Nokia, Windows Phone to Be Rebranded Microsoft, Windows: Report

A purported confidential document has surfaced online hinting at Microsoft's plans to remove the Nokia branding from its upcoming devices this holiday season, alongside reports of plans to drop the 'Phone' from the Windows Phone name and logo as part of the transition to the unifying 'Threshold' Windows 9 update.

"As part of our phased transition, we will drop the manufacturer name [Nokia] from product references during the Holiday campaign," stated one of the slides (Seen Below) from the leaked document, titled 'Product Naming'.

The leaked internal document suggests that Microsoft will be removing the Nokia branding altogether, leaving Lumia as the only brand name for its upcoming smartphones. In addition, the recently launched Nokia Lumia 730 Dual SIM, Lumia 830 and Lumia 735 are also said to be the final devices carrying the 'Nokia' brand name.

Contradicting what the newly leaked document suggests, a report from June hinted Microsoft would rebrand the Nokia Lumia smartphones to 'Nokia by Microsoft'.

Geek On Gadgets, the website that procured the purported confidential document, added that Microsoft is also planning to gradually remove the 'Phone' from its 'Windows Phone' brand name until it fades away completely. This fits in well with the company's announced plans for its upcoming 'Threshold' update (expected to be called Windows 9) that will merge the phone, tablet and desktop platforms into a unified operating system.

On a related note, last month Nokia was spotted hiring engineers, designers and camera specialists for upcoming devices, on LinkedIn job-listings. Nokia's Senior Vice President of Strategy, Sebastian Nystrom, later confirmed it was hiring for "new products businesses."

Interestingly, when Nokia completed the sale of its mobile business to Microsoft earlier this year, the announcement detailed that the Finnish giant would not manufacture mobile phones for a while, and concentrate on its telecommunications and services business in the interim.

Microsoft in July announced the biggest job cuts in its 39-year old history - with some 18,000 jobs being axed, of which 12,500 were from the Nokia acquisition. The Redmond giant further dumped its Android experiment and also announced that the Nokia X series of phones would be making the transition to Windows Phone as Lumia devices.

Lenovo S5000 Tablet With 7-Inch IPS Display Launched at Rs. 10,999

Lenovo on Friday announced that its S5000 tablet will be available in India. The Chinese manufacturer has tied up with Amazon.in for the launch and said the tablet will be available in India exclusively via the e-commerce giant from Friday.

Although Lenovo had unveiled the tablet at IFA 2013 in Berlin, it has arrived in India only now. The S5000 tablet has a 7-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. It weighs 246 grams and is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core MediaTek 8389 processor coupled with 1GB of RAM.

This S5000 has a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.6-megapixel front camera. The tablet runs on the now-dated Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. Lenovo has promised that the tablet will be updated to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean however.

The Lenovo S5000 comes with a 3450mAh battery, which is rated to last for over 8 hours of Wi-Fi Web browsing. Featuring 16GB of built-in storage, the S5000 offers Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth and USB OTG connectivity options.

Rohit Midha, Director, Tablet Business Unit, Lenovo India, said, "In keeping with our commitment to design, the S5000 represents a new league of Tablets that are ultra-sleek and ultra-slim. Partnering with a trusted, global e-commerce giant like Amazon, will make our products more accessible and easier to purchase."

Amazon India's Director Category Management, Samir Kumar, said, "We are excited to be the partner of choice for Lenovo and introduce our customers to the new Lenovo S5000 Tablet close to the festive season. This aligns with our vision of offering customers in India the widest selection at low prices, fast and reliable delivery and a trustworthy shopping experience."

Lenovo A536 With 5-Inch Display, Android 4.4 KitKat Launched at Rs. 8,999

Lenovo has launched the Android KitKat-based A536 budget smartphone in India, priced at Rs. 8,999.

The company has announced that the Lenovo A536 will be available starting Tuesday via the company's online Do Store and from physical retail stores.

The Lenovo A536 is a dual-SIM device and runs the recent Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box. It features a 5-inch FWVGA (480x854 pixels) IPS display. The smartphone is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek (MT6582) processor coupled with 1GB of RAM. It comes with 8GB inbuilt storage which is further expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB).

The smartphone features a 5-megapixel rear autofocus camera with LED flash, while it also houses a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The rear camera on the Lenovo A536 includes features such as scene detection, tuning, high dynamic, HDR, face recognition, Panorama and geo tagging.

The A536 from Lenovo also includes a 2000mAh Li-ion battery that is rated to deliver up to 15 hours of usage time and up to 300 hours of standby time. The smartphone will be available Black and White colour variants only. It comes with dimensions 139.5x72x9.95mm and weighs 148 grams.

Lenovo has lately been pushing Android 4.4 KitKat update for several of its mid-range smartphones, specifically 5 of its S series smartphones - S930, S650, S820, S920,S660 - and the P780. Chinese handset maker announced that Android 4.4. KitKat updates for the six mid-range smartphones would be made available in a phased manner ending with the roll-out of the S660's update in September.

Lenovo will be also launching a new smartphone at this year's IFA, called the Vibe X2. The smartphone is thought to run Android L, with the company sending lollipop-featuring invites for its September 4 pre-IFA 2014 event.

Earlier, Lenovo launched the S850 for the Indian market at Rs. 15,499.