Lenovo is taking this smartphone competition seriously. After its recent acquisition of Motorola, the Chinese tech company is looking to tell the world about its upcoming Vibe Z3 Pro as teased by a graphic on its social media that lists March 23 as a significant date.
The graphic, as shown on Lenovo's Weibo page, displays a graffiti font with the word 'VIBE' and a date of 3-23-2015. No other information is available, but many believe this to be Lenovo's unveiling of the Vibe Z3 Pro that was originally rumored to be detailed during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this month.
The Vibe Z3 Pro's specs haven't been officially detailed just yet, but many rumors point to a 5.5-inch IPS LCD touchscreen running at 1440 x 2560 pixel resolution with an impressive 534 ppi density.
A Qualcomm quad-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon 810 processor is also expected to power the Vibe Z3 Pro, along with an Adreno 430 graphics chip. Memory comes in at a whopping 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal storage that is expandable to 128 GB through microSD.
A 16-megapixel rear camera with dual LED flash and optical image stabilization is also expected, along with an 8-megapixel camera in the front. But with the Vibe Shot handset currently sporting a tri-LED flash set-up, that may also be a possibility on the Vine Z3 Pro.
The battery is a 3,400 mAh non-removable Li-Po model for extended use on the go. And rounding out the impressive spec list is microUSB 2.0 connectivity, an accelerometer, a gyro, proximity sensor, and compass built in.
And since the Vibe Z3 Pro is part of the sleek Vike series, it's a good bet that Lenovo will give it a stylish design, complete with metal case and chrome accent.
Now you may notice some distinct difference here from the Vibe Z2 Pro. Most notably, the screen is expected to be a whole half an inch smaller than the Z2, but some believe that this is just to keep up with the modern trends. As 2013 and 2014 saw smartphone screens grow, 2015 may see a return to a more compact smartphone as the "mini" versions of many popular flagships are showing favor among customers.
The battery is also a bit smaller than the Vibe Z2's 4,000 mAh powerhouse. This has more to do with the new more-compact design and smaller screen than anything else, but battery technology in the last year has increased significantly, so it may not make that much of a difference anyway. The Samsung Galaxy S6 and HTC One M9, believed to be the closest competitors to the Vibe Z3 Pro, will both have significantly smaller batteries anyway at 2,550 mAh and 2,840 mAh, respectively.
But we look forward to the March 23 event and announcement to see if these rumored specs are true. If a release date is also announce, as expected, we could see the device hit stores very soon after in what's already turning out to be an exciting spring for smartphones.
