Future Lenovo Smartphones to Ship with Stock Android, Lenovo Vibe UI Discarded

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The Android community has a love/hate relationship with the UI of ROMs that Lenovo and other OEMs put on their smartphones. Most enthusiasts would prefer a stock Android experience but some would admit that there can be useful features put into an OEM ROM. For instance, Samsung devices have had floating windows and split screen multitasking for years. These types of unique features features are things some average customers specifically look for when buying a new phone.

Thankfully, a lot of these features have surfaced to the top and are/will be included in upcoming versions of Android. Still, there are a number of enthusiasts who are happy to live without them if it means they get a smooth user experience with optimal battery life, and a cleaner user interface. It looks like Lenovo is thankfully starting to see this trend and has officially confirmed all future smartphones from the company (starting with the K8 Note) will ship with stock Android.

This is an interesting announcement as it was just earlier this year when Lenovo said they wanted to replace the stock Android experience on Motorola phones with ZUI (the OEM skin from Lenovo sub brand, ZUK) in some regions. It’s unclear if Lenovo will continue with Motorola’s approach to a stock Android experience in their upcoming smartphones, or if things are too late in development for that. Either way, we love hearing news like this and think it will help the company (and the community) out in a lot of different ways.

Lenovo’s UI is known as Vibe UI/Vibe Pure UI and Anuj Sharma, Head of Product Marketing, Smartphones at Lenovo MBG India, has officially confirmed that their signature ROM will no longer be used. Mr Sharma continued and said this is a huge transition for the company but it’s something they feel is best for them. Along with this news, the company also confirmed that all 2017 Lenovo K series devices will receive an update to Android O.