Astutely jumping on the Windows phone bandwagon at exactly the right time, Lenovo will release a business-focused Windows phone handset in Japan via the SoftBank wireless carrier.
The SoftBank 503LV, as its known, will ship sometime after October 2016 and marks Lenovo’s first phone release specifically for the Japanese market.
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The device appears to be a mid-range handset, with its Continuum-capable 1.5 GHz Snapdragon 617 processor, 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB storage (expandable via microSD), and 5-inch 720p display. The cameras appear unimpressive, with 8 MP on the rear and 5 MP on the front.
Lenovo, Microsoft, and SoftBank are naturally pushing the device’s Continuum capabilities, plus other business features like Skype for Business, Office Mobile, and even Microsoft Intune compatibility. But it doesn’t appear that the firms will be offering a Lenovo-specific Continuum dock as Microsoft has done, and HP will do with its Elite x3.
In a nice bit of Internet-translated fun, the announcementnotes that the SoftBank 503LV “achieves a feeling of luxury” thanks to its glass front and back.
So, yeah. A new Windows phone. All the cool kids are doing it.
Lenovo said back in 2011 that it was working on a Windows phone handset, but it’s fairly obvious this isn’t a continuation of that canceled effort and is in fact a more recent, and more modern, design. In mid-2015, Lenovo asserted that Microsoft’s cross-platform app and services efforts less relevant, suggesting it would never release such a device. So that, and Windows phone’s failure in the market, makes this release all the more curious.
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