(ThyBlackMan.com) The Lenovo Z5 release in China instantly turned the phone from most-loved to most hated. There’s no 4TB ROM on the phone and there’s no all-screen display everyone was waiting for. It seems that Lenovo created the hype it wanted to with a series of deceptive Z5 teasers.
Even the company’s VP Chang Cheng teased a truly bezel-less phone when he shared a sketch on his Weibo account. But the end result is very different. People are criticizing Lenovo for shamelessly lying and misleading people.
What Lenovo delivered: Expectations vs reality
The Lenovo Z5 is available in China from June 12 for 1,299 Yuan (approx. $200). Currently, it is not available in the global market, but it will likely get an official release announcement soon. The smartphone was anticipated to include some of the best features. But it disappointed fans by not including anything they had been waiting for.
Lenovo’s Z5 smartphone sports a 6.2-inch display with a screen-to-body ratio of 83.6 percent. The screen offers 1080 x 2246 display resolution with 18.7:9 aspect ratio. To keep the pricing low, the phone runs on Snapdragon 636 processor and offers 6GB of RAM.
Before the official release of the Lenovo Z5, the company was talking about 4TB ROM on a smartphone. It was unbelievable and very unrealistic. Sadly, it led many fans to believe that Lenovo will launch the Z5 with 4TB internal memory.
The phone comes in two variants, 64GB and 128GB ROM and both the models include the same 6GB RAM. Fans are angry because Lenovo teased its new products in a strange way. The 4TB ROM on a phone everyone was waiting for turned out to be a Hard Disk Drive Lenovo launched for PCs.
In the same way, the company hinted at the battery life of the phone. The indications by the company led fans to believe that the Lenovo Z5’s battery will offer 45 days of standby time. Soon after the mobile’s official launch in China, hopes were crushed badly as the phone comes equipped with a non-removable 3300mAh battery. With this much battery power, even the average users should not expect the phone to last for more than a day after a single charge.
And how the company misled people
Things went wrong when Lenovo’s Chang Cheng started sharing details about the company’s upcoming products. On the Chinese social media platform Weibo, he shared many things for many days. None of the details or sketches and images he shared were completely clear and it led people to believe what they were seeing.
Cheng teased information in a way that it led people to create their own theories about the Lenovo Z5 release, specs, and features. In his posts, he used terms “Lenovo Z5,” “4TB,” “95% screen-to-body ratio” and shared images of phones with the all-screen display. When all this appeared in the same post, it created very different impressions.
And they lied again
Even if for a second we assume that it was just a marketing mistake and it happened because the social media posts were auto-translated from Weibo, it’s hard to find a valid reason why Lenovo’s VP was sharing those misleading images. On top of that, the company even lied to its customers.
The actual product looks different from the product shown in the press images shared by Lenovo. A Twitter user shared a picture comparing the actual phone with the one shown in the press images. It looks like the bezels are wider than what Lenovo is showing and that too from all the sides.
And Lenovo is losing credibility
At the said price point, the Lenovo Z5 is a good phone with decent hardware. It would cost more in the US if Lenovo plans a worldwide launch, but it will be under the $300 price range. Lenovo was successful in building the hype, but this is not exactly how to build hype around a new product. Would you trust Lenovo’s product teasers again or pre-order something from the company?
Staff Writer; Corey Shaw
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