Lenovo K3 Note – The Unbiased Review

Nowadays smartphone companies thrive on the fact that customers enjoy useful features at a good great price. Gone are the days when specifications varied between high-end and low-end devices. The price wars has created the opportunity for the customers to rejoice. After the launch of phones like A6000, A6000 plus and A7000, Lenovo has introduced another budget phone – The K3 Note. The company limits the reach of the phone, as it is exclusively available on Flipkart through a flash sale. The specs of the phone look fantabulous on paper, considering the price. Find out our experience about the phone :-

Design

The phone follows the now very common rectangular design and does not offer anything out of the box. The phone is very slim and light. The back of the phone is plastic and has a matte finish that gives a yellowish tint when tilted. It is not sturdy enough but still manages to protect the phone from scratches and fingerprints. The phone replicates the features of many smartphones within the same budget. From the button placement to many other slots, the phone is very similar to Huawei Honor 4x.

Box Contents

The phone includes the regular stuff like the user manuals, guide and warranty cards. The travel charger is also included. However, the phone does not come with an earphone piece. The phone comes neatly packed in plastic and also includes a screen film for protection.

Display

Lenovo K3 Note is the only phone out there with full HD display and still remaining under Rs.10, 000 range. The large 5.5-inch display however uses an IPS display instead of the common Gorilla Glass protection. The pixel density is 401 ppi which results in clear and crisp viewing angles, which takes the experience of watching movie and playing game to another level. The phone worked well under the sun and we were able to read perfectly even under direct sunlight.

Hardware

The phablet is very slim and light and easily fits in the hand. The button placement is very convenient. The device looks and feels good in hands despite the use of plastic. The phone comes with 16GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded to 64GB. The phone comes with 2 GB of RAM coupled with 1.7 GHz octa-core processor. The body is rectangular mimics the same rectangular design which most of the phablets offer these days.

Software

Lenovo uses Vibe 2.5 on this device. The new, improved version definitely feels better. It runs android Lollipop 5.0. The modern trend these days which eliminates the app drawer kind of gets under the skin, but Lenovo has made that feature good by introducing an excellent and very smooth interface on the home screen which helps people who are new to the concept. The theme centers offers many different themes and mix and match with wallpapers and lock screens which makes the phone very customizable.

Like any other Lenovo smartphone it comes pre-loaded with goodies. From a range of Lenovo utility apps like  SYNCit, CLONEit and SHAREit. To 3rd Party apps like Truecaller, Guvera Music, UC Browser, Route 66 Navigate and Evernote. Users’ favourite apps like Flipkart, Facebook, WeChat, Twitter and Skype are also preloaded. Not just that, user also gets full versions of popular Ubisoft games. Just to be clear, these apps are not be mistaken as bloatware as a user can easily remover them if not needed.

The UI in this phone is the smoothest that we have seen in an under 10K and provides fluent touch response.

Performance

Gaming

The phone performed well under extreme pressure of Asphalt 8 that comes pre-installed but without game data. It also played Dead Trigger 2 and N.O.V.A 3 without a hiccup . GTA San Andreas saw some lag though.

Heating

The phone does not heat up fast but when it does the screen gets considerably warm. The plastic back however remains cool. It took about 20 minutes of hardcore gaming took heat the phone even a little bit.

Battery

The K3 Note comes with a 3,000 mAh removable battery which does provide a good full day usage under medium use. Gaming and benchmarking did finish the juice in 10 hours, but it was pretty good. The phone charged up very fast as well.

Benchmark

The phone gave excellent benchmarking results. The test was run under Antutu for 64 bit processor.

Antutu – 45091

Geekbench 3: Single Core – 809 Multi Core – 3912

Sound Quality

The best thing we found about the phone, is the Dolby Atmos sound quality really delivers better sound than we expect from a smartphone for this price. It is loud, clear and has a crisp sound that makes this phone a must have for music lovers. The fact that earphones are not provided with the set does pinch a little, but use any other earphone piece and you will find that the sound is just as great as the speaker. As the speaker is placed on the top right corner, it is very difficult to block it while playing games or watching videos.

Camera

The 13 megapixel delivers more than what is expected from it. The budget phone offers good camera angles and the pictures are clear and crisp even at full 4x zoom. The Low light photography is just alright, considering the fact that the phone costs only Rs. 10,000!

The Unbiased Verdict

K3 Note offers more in less and thus fulfills what most of the people want. It will surely cause some rumble in the targeted budget segment. The processing and sound quality of the phone will definitely steal some hearts. The 5.5 inch display, 401 ppi pixel density, Dolby Atmos, 2 GB RAM and Lenovo customer service all point to one thing -The K3 Note is a much more lucrative offer than any other device under 10K. Especially if you have burnt your fingers with a brand like Xiaomi in the past.