It appears Lenovo may have won the race to be the first major OEM to release a device onto the market that features a punch-hole design for the front-facing selfie camera. According to a promotional picture uploaded to Weibo, a launch event can be expected on December 6. This beats out the apparent release dates for Samsung’s A8s (December 10) and Huawei’s Nova 4 (December 17).
The punch-hole solution is one of the latest design ideas to try to solve the problem of a smartphone's screen-to-body ratio being adversely affected by the selfie camera and other front-facing sensors. Samsung’s new Infinity-O panel incorporates a punch-hole and Huawei has demonstrated a similar format with the upcoming Nova 4. Lenovo has decided to center its punch hole, which according to one source gives the Z5s a calculated screen-to-body ratio of 85.57%.
Hardware specifications for the 6-3 inch Z5s are expected to include either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 or 675, up to 4 GB RAM, 64 GB storage (expandable to 256 GB), 3,210 or 3,400 mAh battery (depending on the source), and a 13 MP+5 MP+2 MP rear-facing triple camera system. Regardless of the finalized details for the Z5s, it seems Lenovo may have beaten Samsung and Huawei to the punch (hole).