Leaked ‘Lemon X’ could be a first glimpse into Motorola-designed Lenovo phones

A short while ago, @upleaks showed off a press render of what they claim is the Lenovo ‘Lemon X’, and it could be our first look at a Lenovo handset at least partially designed by Motorola’s hardware team. Although specifications and availability plans are thin on the ground, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the Motorola division is behind the upcoming phone’s design…

In its recent 1st quarter results, Lenovo stated that it would be using Motorola‘s hardware design know-how to build its upcoming phones in an effort to simplify and streamline the mobile business structure.

Restructuring the Mobile Business Group (MBG) to align smartphone development, production and manufacturing and better leverage the complementary strengths of Lenovo and Motorola. There will be a more-simple, streamlined product portfolio, with fewer, more clearly-differentiated models.  A faster, leaner business model will better leverage Lenovo’s global sales force and accelerate the efficiency actions already underway in its global supply chain. MBG will continue to drive the overall mobile business, but will now rely on Motorola to design, develop and manufacture smartphone products.

What’s more, there are a few visual clues in the leak itself to suggest Motorola had something to do with the design. Most obvious is the Moto-esque metal frame with the antenna bands on the top and bottom edges, very similar to the Nexus 6 and Moto X smartphones. Continuing the design similarities, the camera and LED flash are placed inside a metal pill-shaped panel on the back, almost like the new Moto lineup. The shape is slightly different, and there’s the notable inclusion of a fingerprint sensor, but the likeness is there.

[tweet https://twitter.com/upleaks/status/644520691186794497/photo/1 align=’center’]

There are some key differences — as you’d expect from a separate brand name — and they reside mostly on the front. First off, there seems to be a row of capacitive home, back, and multi-tasking buttons beneath the display. None of the current Moto phones have capacitive buttons, but rather use virtual onscreen controls. The other notable difference is the design of the speaker grilles, covered by a number of individually machined holes and — judging from the branding on the back — they’re Dolby powered.

Apart from that, we can’t assume too much. We suspect the device will be mid-range, as is almost anything that isn’t Sony, Samsung, or HTC these days. The fact it has a fingerprint sensor could suggest it’ll take advantage of Android M’s native fingerprint support, but that’s pure speculation on my part. Of course, there’s a chance this device isn’t even real, although given the quality of the render and past reliability of the source, that seems unlikely.