Lenovo announces first phone with 12GB of RAM

MANILA, Philippines – Lenovo has announced the first phone to have 12 gigabytes (GB) of RAM at an event in Beijing, China on Tuesday, December 18, Engadget reports. 

Called the Z5 Pro GT, the phone is a premium variant of the Z5 Pro announced back in November. It sets a new record for RAM in a phone with 12GB, beating the likes of the Oppo Find X, a variant of which was officially the first to have 10GB of RAM back in September. Other phones with 10GB of RAM include the Xiaomi Black Shark Helo, Xiaomi Mi Mix 3, and the Red Magic Mars from another Chinese maker, Nubia. 

The Z5 Pro GT will also be the second phone announced to have Qualcomm’s new flagship chip, the Snapdragon 855, following OnePlus’ announcement at a Qualcomm developers’ summit in early December. OnePlus’ phone, however, hasn’t been given a name yet, so Lenovo’s phone is currently looking like the first phone to head to market packing the new Qualcomm flagship. The Pro GT is looking at January 24 release in certain markets, with pre-orders beginning on January 15. 

The Pro GT, unlike the unnamed OnePlus phone, however will not have 5G radio, Engadget added. 

Another interesting design choice of the Pro GT is its slider form. Like the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 and the Honor Magic 2, the body slides down to reveal the selfie cameras up top. The standard Z5 has this design, and it appears the Pro version will have it too. 

The Z5 Pro GT will also have a 6.39-inch, 2,340 x 1,080 AMOLED display, 16MP+24MP dual rear cameras, 16MP+8MP (infrared) front cameras, 3,350 mAh battery, and dual SIM slots. It won’t have a headphone jack, and will instead come with a dongle for the USB-C port. The 12GB RAM + 512GB storage variant is expected to go for around $640 while the entry-level 6GB RAM+128GB storage version is expected at $390.

A budget Z5s variant was also announced, equipped with a Snapdragon 710 chip and up to 6GB of RAM. – Rappler.com