Lenovo

Lenovo has launched the hotly-anticipated Lenovo Z5 in China.

The handset doesn’t arrive with a bezel-less display as previously speculated, or 4TB of storage.

The Lenovo Z5 will go on sale starting at 1,299 yuan (~$200) from June 12 in China.

Lenovo has announced the Lenovo Z5 at the China Film Director Centre in Beijing. The smartphone, which was anticipated to deliver some world-beating features, has fallen some way short of expectations.

Lenovo had teased a “truly” bezel-less phone in a sketch and some renders, but as you can see, the Z5 includes both a notch and a chin. It looks like it has a well-optimized screen-to-body ratio — heck, it’s probably up there with the best. The problem is, it’s not what Lenovo VP Chang Cheng had teased, which may leave a sour taste in the mouths of some consumers.

Weibo

The device comes with a 6.2-inch, 19:9 1080p display, unnamed octa-core Qualcomm processor, 6GB RAM and up to 128GB storage. This is also less than the speculated 4TB storage — that actually turned out to be the capacity of Hard Disc Drive that Lenovo revealed for PCs. As for the 3,300 mAh battery, I highly doubt it will deliver on the previously hinted at 45 days of standby time (perhaps Lenovo is launching a calculator that can achieve that feat instead?).

Lenovo

The handset also features a 16MP + 8MP dual rear camera setup that’s said to feature HDR and AI capabilities, while we are waiting on more information regarding the front-facing camera. The Lenovo Z5 will go on sale for 1,299 yuan (~$200) for the 64GB model and 1,799 yuan (~$280) for the 128GB version from June 12. We don’t yet know where it will go on sale besides China.

As it happens, this is the same day that Vivo will launch its Apex device which we saw as a prototype earlier this year. That phone is far closer to the bezel-less dream.

Lenovo

What were the rumors about?

Lenovo’s Chang Cheng had been leaving hints about the company’s upcoming product announcements on Chinese social media website Weibo. He’d done so for several weeks, but, as we noted in a previous article, it was never completely clear what was being suggested. Not least because Chang was “teasing” information, but also because of the inaccuracies inherent in machine translations. When “New national flagship declaration,” “4TB,” “particle technology,” and “Lenovo Z5” all appear in the same post, it can create a certain impression.

With that being said, the images depicting the Z5, if nothing else, were misleading. There are no bezels or notches on any of them.

Weibo

I’ve been championing the Z5 for some time; told rightfully skeptical commenters how they weren’t going to kill my buzz about the phone. ‘No, not this time,’ I said.

So, who’s the fool? Well me, obviously, for getting my hopes up about a new Lenovo phone. But what about Lenovo itself? Sure, anyone who encounters the phone in stores will simply see an attractive, low-cost handset. Fans who’ve been reading about the Z5 online, however, may not forget the way this played out.