In just a matter of weeks, we saw a few Android flagship smartphones come out sporting 10GB of RAM, which seems like overkill for mobile devices. Chinese smartphone makers Xiaomi and OnePlus have such devices, including the Xiaomi Black Shark and Mi Mix 3, and the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition. But forget all about that for a second, as the first smartphone with 12GB of RAM was just unveiled. Spoiler alert, it also comes from China, and you can’t get it right now.
That’s because the Lenovo Z5 Pro with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, a phone version that also rocks Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 chip, is only expected to launch in China at some point in 2019. The phone will cost 4,398 yuan ($638) in China, but availability details for international markets haven’t been revealed. A crazy rumor said a few weeks ago that Samsung will launch a Galaxy S10 version with 12GB of RAM and 1TB of built-in storage next year.
Other RAM and storage configurations will be available for the Z5 Pro, starting at 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, which will sell for 2,698 yuan ($391) in the region. Lenovo will also sell a more affordable version of the handset, according to data on its website, featuring a Snapdragon 710 processor, 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.
The phone features an all-screen design like most 2018 Android flagships. The Z5 Pro, however, doesn’t have a notch at the top, and that’s because Lenovo went for a camera slide-out mechanism similar to what other Chinese handset makers did earlier this year.
That slider hides a dual 16-megapixel selfie camera and an 8-megapixel infrared camera. On the back, meanwhile, there’s a dual camera with 24-megapixel and 16-megapixel sensors.
Other features include a 6.39-inch Samsung OLED screen, Bluetooth 5.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, dual-SIM support, and 3350 mAh battery. A fifth-gen in-display fingerprint sensor will handle authentication. Also, there’s no headphone jack on this device, which is hardly surprising, considering that it features a slide-out mechanism. Wireless charging isn’t supported either. A USB-C port will handle both your audio and charging needs. Finally, the Z5 Pro runs Android 9.0 Pie with Lenovo’s UI on top.
On December 18, 2018, Lenovo released its flagship mobile phone in 2019, using Snapdragon 855 and 12GB of memory. Antutu scored 368,000, but the sales time was 2019. pic.twitter.com/b5UZe4y9Xe
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) December 18, 2018
Images from the phone’s event shared on Twitter by Samsung insider Ice Universe reveal that the Z5 Pro outscores the new iPhone XS and XR in AnTuTu, but it’s likely the extra RAM is to blame.
