Lenovo and Microsoft made an agreement that will see the former preinstall some of the latter’s apps on its Android devices.
A deal that took place just last month, it is now up and rolling, with the first beneficiary set to be the Moto M, an Android Marshmallow smartphone that is expected to be launched in the coming days. The deal between Microsoft and Lenovo allows the latter to install a number of productivity apps on select Android devices and apparently, one model of the Moto M will carry these apps.
The Motorola Moto M will reportedly come with two models. Where one model will only be released in China, the company will also push another international variant to the rest of Asia. It is this international variant that will reportedly come preinstalled with Microsoft apps. These apps include Skype, Microsoft Office, as well as Microsoft OneDrive. As for the unit that will remain in China, there is no word on whether it will also be preinstalled with these productivity apps from the Windows OS maker.
While the talk of an international variant (XT1663) of the Moto M is somehow new, that of the standard model, which is expected to come with model number XT1662, has been around for a while now. In some leaked photos of the handset, details show that Lenovo went for a 5.5-inch display screen with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Under the hood, the Moto M will come with a RAM of 4GB and onboard storage of 32GB, which should be expandable via a microSD card.
The processor of the phone has not been determined yet, but a MediaTek SoC is expected. There are also some details on the cameras. Apparently, there will be a 16MP snapper on the back of the phone and an 8MP snapper on the front for selfies and video calls.
The rest of the details of the Moto M remain scarce, including the pricing and the official release date. Still, we don’t expect the two to take too long in the factories, rather, they should be out soon. We’ll keep glued to the matter and bring you more fresh details as they emerge.