The handset will be available starting in February in select Asian countries

Jan 2, 2014 22:05 GMT  ·  By

Chinese handset maker Lenovo has just announced its first LTE smartphone that will be available for purchase beginning next month, the Vibe Z.

Although LTE smartphones have become quite common in the last couple of months, Lenovo will debut its first 4G handset only in February.

Nevertheless, Lenovo's fans will be pleased to know the Vibe Z has been especially designed to be launched outside China.

According to the company, Lenovo Vibe Z will be available for purchase starting in February in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines.

Customers interested in this LTE-enabled handset will be able to pick it up for about $550 (€400) off contract, which is not that high considering the smartphone's specs sheet.

Connectivity-wise, Lenovo’s first smartphone featuring LTE capabilities, the Vibe Z offers the usual 4G technology that allows for data upload at up to 50 Mbit/s and downloading at up to 150 Mbit/s.

In addition, Lenovo Vibe Z comes with support for GSM / UMTS networks up to 2100 MHz and also features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity.

“We created the new Vibe Z with its elegant design, high performance and custom software so that people can truly have the best smartphone experience now at the speed of LTE,” said Liu Jun, senior vice president, Lenovo Business Group, Lenovo.

The smartphone is powered by Android 4.3 Jelly Bean operating system out of the box, it's only 7.9mm thin and weighs 147 grams (battery included).

Another strong points of the Vibe Z would be its 5.5-in full high definition (1920 x 1080) IPS wide angle viewing capacitive touchscreen display.

On the inside, the smartphone comes equipped with a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.2GHz, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory.

There's also an impressive 13-megapixel main camera on the back, which features a large f1.8 aperture lens, as well as a secondary 5-megapixel camera in the front.

Lenovo’s Super Camera and Super Gallery apps let users add fun effects to their photos easily. Additionally Vibe Z offers Lenovo-specific software supporting motion and gestures for better one-handed usage on large screen devices.

“We are proud to collaborate with Lenovo to enable the company’s first LTE smartphone. The new Vibe Z utilizes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor with integrated LTE technology to deliver superfast web browsing and unmatched multimedia features for an outstanding user experience,” concluded Raj Talluri, senior vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.