Monday 20 February 2017

Lenovo K5 Note (4GB RAM) Review

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage 

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FEATURE   


  • The 4GB RAM/ 32GB inbuilt storage variant now available at Rs. 12,499
  • The 64GB storage variant will go on sale exclusively via Flipkart
  • Lenovo Vibe K5 Note was initially launched in August last year








Key Specification:

Display

5.50-inch

Processor

1.8GHz octa-core

Front Camera

8-megapixel

Resolution

1080x1920 pixels

RAM

3GB

OS

Android 6.0

Storage

32GB

Rear Camera

13-megapixel

Battery Capacity

3500mAh


DESIGN: 

Lenovo K5 Note that having a metal body in this price range has become a norm nowadays. Not that we are complaining. The Vibe K5 Note has a solid build and feels a bit like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 with its curved metal back. Lenovo has also focused on bringing symmetry to the design and the company mentioned how the distance between the rear camera and LED flash is same as the distance between the LED flash and the fingerprint scanner. Up front you have a 5.5-inch full HD display and has the usual set of sensors, the earpiece and the front camera sitting above it. Below the display you get capacitive Android navigation buttons which are sadly not backlit. Going around the edges, the power and volume keys are on the right, the 3.5mm headphone jack is on the top, the left edge has the dual-SIM card hybrid tray and at the bottom is the microUSB port and the microphone. At the back there is a 13MP camera with a dual LED flash, a fingerprint scanner and a speaker grill at the bottom. 

DISPLAY: 

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note houses a 5.5-inch 1080P display which is up to the standard, but then it is also one of the disappointing parts of the phone. Display is dull, DPI is low as well, and it results in display showing less content when compared to other full HD panels of similar size.

Thankfully, the K5 Note comes with Display Colour Balance feature which allows you to adjust the display’s color temperature to your comfort level. There is also a Smart brightness option which enhances visibility when outside hard light environment. 

Battery:

The Vibe K5 Note comes with a 3,500mAh non-removable battery which is decent, as my primary device for the past seven days I have charged it for about 8-9 times which shows how well the battery is optimized, almost every time the screen on time was around 5 hours. The battery lasted for a whole day with WiFi and 4G enabled in turns. The charger supplied is a 5.2V, 2 amp capacity AC Adapter and there is no Quick or Fast Charging support for the device. The charging time is not as good as fast charging, but I could charge my device from around 105-15 percent to 100% in about 2 hours approximately which is quite good for a device without fast charging support, and it might take around 30 minutes more to charge from 0-100%.

Lenovo has included the much-hyped TheaterMax technology similar to its predecessor which surely help in increasing or bringing you VR and immersive experience at this price range. For those who like to get eh full-fledged VR and immersive experience, the company is offering a specialized TheaterMax Bluetooth controller for Rs. 999 and the Amkette Gamepad Pro 2 controller for Rs. 2,800. For helping in getting a VR-like experience with the phones display which supports TheaterMax technology, you can get an ANT VR headset which gives the split-screen rendering on your smartphone screen, and the ANT VR headset helps in improving it. It can be used with VR supported Games, Apps, and Videos. The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is priced at Rs. 11,999 for the 3GB RAM variant and the 4GB RAM variant is priced at Rs. 13,499. 

CAMERA AND STORAGE: 

The 13-megapixel camera with dual-tone LED flash, phase-detection auto-focus (PDAF) and f/2.2 aperture is decent. The camera UI is simple with toggles for flash, front camera and HDR. The menu option lets you choose Panorama and also has several Effects (Mono, Sepia, Negative, Memory, Gorgeous, Elegant and Cool). Settings option lets you choose aspect ratio (16:9, 4:3 and 1:1), adjust white balance, ISO (100 to 1600), enable geo location, option to use volume button as a shutter key and more.

Daylight shots are decent, but some images seem dull if the environment is not bright. Thanks to PDAF, auto focus is quick. Macro shots are good and HDF shots came out well, but some images are too bright. The phone doesn’t have a manual mode. Low-light shots have a lot of noise. Images with flash are decent. The dual-tone flash helps to bring natural tone and is not over powering.The 8MP front-facing camera is good for selfies and video chats. Colors are vibrant and the images are sharp as well. It also has beautify mode. Even though the front camera has been improved, the rear camera is not the best for capturing images in low-lighting conditions.It can record videos at 1080p full HD resolution at 30 fps. Video is decent. Audio is crisp since it has a secondary microphone. Sadly it doesn’t have slow motion recording. 

Performance:

Now comes the specification part, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note got a metal body with curved edges giving it a premium look and also fit comfortably in your hand. The smartphone flaunts a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display with a 178-degree wide viewing angle and 401ppi offering crisp images during day and night.
For that extra performance, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note comes with 1.8Ghz MediaTek Helio P10 64-bit octa-core processor paired with Mali T860 MP2 that gives up to 550MHz 3D graphics accelerator. As we said earlier, the smartphone comes in two RAM variants the 3GB RAM and 4GB LP DDR3 RAM. We always suggest to go for the higher 4GB RAM variant as there is only a minor price difference but offers a significant performance boost.

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note packs 32GB internal storage that can be easily expanded up to 128GB using microSD card. For photography, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note got a 13-megapixel autofocus rear camera with 5-piece composite lens, dual-tone LED flash, and PDAF support. On the front for selfie lovers, the mobile got an 8-megapixel camera. Last coming to the connectivity, the dual-SIM Lenovo Vibe K5 Note comes with high-speed 4G LTE network that supports all Indian 4G bands along with VoLTE. Other connectivity option includes 3G and 2G network support, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.1 and USB OTG. The smartphones run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system wrapped under Vibe UI. 

For extra security, the smartphone comes with the fingerprint scanner built right below the back camera. For that enhanced audio, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note got the Dolby Atmos along with the 3-mic system and cutting-edge Wolfson audio technology. This is like a second profile in the same phone that can be used to separate out work and personal profile, and still make sure to keep the data safe. Rings a bell? Yes this is similar to Second Space that was recently introduced in MIUI 8, but you would be surprised to know that Secure Zone made its appearance on K4 Note first.

The features are similar. You can copy apps from one profile to another profile, have a dedicated Google Store Account, Copy Contacts, Messages, and share pictures, videos etc between profiles.

Power Manager:

While this is an Android Marshmallow feature, it is still worth a mention. Power Manager lets you optimize apps for battery by choosing which apps gets into Doze and App Standby and which do not. If you choose to optimize, it prevents apps from unnecessarily running in the background i.e. it puts them in a low power mode. However, some apps can have issues with this mode so they are left unoptimized, and left to the users to handle manually. Apart from this, you have options for Battery Saver, Background App Management, and Ultimate Power Saver.

Fingerprint Sensor:

The phone houses a fingerprint sensor which comes in very handy when it comes to unlocking the phone, and it’s pretty addictive as well. Apart from this, it allows you to customize it to take pictures, and that’s about it. No more gesture support is available as of now. We really wish Lenovo takes cue from the likes of Honor and provide additional functionality for fingerprint scanner. Coming to the performance, it’s pretty fast, however, adding fingerprint is still cumbersome. One thing that Pure UI allows is to choose between Tap to unlock or Press and Hold to unlock the phone.

Pros:
  • 4 GB RAM 
  • Metal Design 
  • 5.5 inch display 
  • Full HD resolution 
  • Good Camera 
  • 3500 mAh battery 
  • Android Marshmallow 
  • Fingerprint sensor 
  • 4G LTE support 
Cons:
  • Non removable battery 
  • No fast charging

Miscellaneous:

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is a good value for money device with good performance, decent camera performance and great design and build. But it lets you down with the bloatware and low light camera performance. Gaming is not a thing to be proud of, with the amount of competition in the market Lenovo has introduced a decent device but it lacks in some aspects to it competition like the Moto G4 has a much better camera while the Redmi Note 3 and LeEco Le 2 have a better display at offer. If you are someone interested in the VR experience which is a plus in this device thanks to the TheaterMax technology, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is a capable device in this price range which is an option to consider.


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