Lenovo K3 Note detailed review

The Lenovo K3 Note has gained considerable popularity in the smartphone market. The K3 Note comes in a neat, standard packaging. Lenovo didn’t try to make his device look attractive, but it did work for him. The outstanding front-end allows the K3 Note to become a well-functioning device that specializes in doing what is meant for the smartphone, without any fuss. Does it live up to its initial impression?

Build and design
As mentioned earlier, the design of the Lenovo K3 Note is no exception. It doesn’t carry the extra size of a 5.5-inch screen, it’s reasonably thin at 8mm, has a 3.5mm audio port and microUSB / charging port on top, and volume rocker and power / unlock buttons on the right. There is no metal in the outer casing, but it does not look cheap in terms of overall construction and the quality of the plastic used.

Build of Lenovo K3 Note: Not the toughest, but good

The only major problem you will have with the physical aspect of the device is the lack of backlight in the touch function keys. Unless you are very used to using the device, it can be difficult to operate in dim light or dark environments. Yes, the arrangement of function keys is standard grouping of multifunction – home – return (left to right), which would be a relative help if you have used a cellphone with this key system before. Otherwise, it is a considerable hazard.

There are no hot-replaceable SIM slots, and both the SIM slot and the microSD expansion slot need to be accessed by opening the back cover. With more smartphones with a sealed back panel build, the detached back panel of the Lenovo K3 Note can fit well with many people who would like to have the ability to access the battery pack.

Back panel: dual-SIM slot, battery pack and microSD expansion slot

The build is decent, though other competing smartphones like the Meizu M2 Note have an outer shell that is tougher and better looking. The Lenovo K3 Note misses glass protection, and although you can make it through a few drops with it, we wouldn’t feel comfortable letting our smartphone face the world without screen protection.

Overall, the exterior of the Lenovo K3 Note can be said to be at best decent. The simpler method may work for users who focus on core functionality, and while it works for us, it misses the added bonus that other devices offer a better look and stronger build.

Display and UI
The Lenovo K3 Note has a high score on display quality, and its color originality. The display is bright enough, with a wide viewing angle that does not change color at a rough angle near the 180-degree mark. The only flaw we can point out with the K3 Note’s display is the reflective outer covering, which makes it quite difficult to see the contents of the phone in direct sunlight. Still, the bright display prevents it from being unusable, but you can find the reflection of your own head shaking.

Lenovo K3 Note Display: Bright, crisp, but reflective

For indoor viewing, the Lenovo K3 Note is as good as you might expect. We played a few 1080p films in it and enjoyed the experience. There is never an indication of interpolation, the colors are true with the source and the bright screen manages the intensity of the backlight well so as not to be too sharp on the eyes. The 5.5-inch, IPS-panel LCD screen is large enough to watch movies on the go, and 1080p resolution ensures smooth playback. The screen occupies 72% of the space of the front panel and the bezels are not irresistible. In addition, the touch response is very accurate. We didn’t feel any missed taps and swipes, and Uber-Response makes it a very handy tool when typing fast or playing games.

LR: Alarm, home screen, notification panel

LR: Camera, Dialer, Audio Control Panel

Lenovo has loaded its custom Vibe UI v2.5 on top of Android Lollipop v5.0. There are no separate home page / app drawers, and custom icons are almost as good to look at. However, it comes with a plethora of pre-loaded applications, including Lenovo’s own theme center, SYNCit and SHAREit, as well as Evernote, Asphalt 8, Guvera Music, Skype and Flipkart. Although a number of these applications can be deleted, many remain locked. With the amount of pre-loaded apps and free-flowing graphic animations, there is a heavy load on resources, which is why you rarely see more than 1100MB of free memory. Custom icons are decent to look at, and despite loads on memory resources, most applications run without any lag or stutter.

Performance and battery
It is here that the Lenovo K3 Note makes most of its money and it almost loses. The K3 Note sets benchmark test scores for its division, delivering higher results than other devices by a significant margin. In light of this, looking at its performance in terms of daily applications and services, the K3 Note survives according to its score. Smooth calling, messaging, browsing, music / video streaming and light gaming. With widespread use, games like Subway Surfers and Jetpack Joyride took some pressure to play, but there were no other gaps between its score and actual performance.

One of the biggest selling points of the Lenovo K3 Note is its high specs-to-price ratio. It runs on a 1.7GHz clocked MediaTek MT6752 octa-core chipset with Mali T760-MP2 GPU, 2GB LPDDR3 RAM, 16GB internal storage, and a 3000mAh battery. It has a 13-megapixel OmniVision PureCel OV13850 sensor primary camera with a f / 2.0 lens and dual-tone LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front camera. Theoretically, Lenovo has presented the K3 Note as a powerful package, strong enough to make feathers in its own section, and even above the 10k price market. In terms of specs-to-price ratio, the Lenovo K3 Note is among the best, with companies like the Meizu M2 Note, Yu Yureka Plus and Xiaomi Mi 4i.

Network retention quality is good – there was no drop in calls, data or WiFi network. In-call audio is primitive, and there is no distortion in incoming audio via earpiece and main microphone. While the secondary microphone on the back isn’t the best for sound cancellation and recorded audio clarity, it’s enough when you need to record that emergency, and really decent in a closed, indoor environment.

The performance of the Lenovo K3 Note is one of the best in its class in terms of everyday application. Messaging, internet-based social media applications and services, lightweight games, music streaming, YouTube and likes all work flawlessly. Simultaneous surfing of Facebook and Twitter timelines with music playback via Guevara and updating apps in the background did not cause any hassle and running multiple applications at the same time, even with relatively less RAM available, did not cause any problems with the terms. Regular use. So far, the K3 Note has been really impressive.

Death occurred within the opening of the pre-installed Asphalt 8. The K3 Note is meant to get the things you need properly, and in the process, is deprived of optimizing gaming performance. About five minutes into the first race, the Asphalt 8 became so stagnant that it made it unplayable. The same thing happened with Marvel: Contest of Champions, which performed worse if possible. Heavy gaming on the Lenovo K3 Note is virtually impossible. Asphalt 8 was eligible to play for a maximum of 15 minutes, and also with plenty of stuttering. With Adobe Photoshop Express you can do the best with gaming or continuous photo editing, for 15 minutes. Photoshop slows down drastically, takes longer to apply filters, and saves photos to the device. The K3 Note, unfortunately, is not only for heavy use.

It doesn’t pick up with the audio, though. The Lenovo K3 Note packs a Dolby Atmos audio chip, which delivers Starler audio quality in its budget segment. The audio quality through the headphones is excellent – keep your favorite pair of headphones, and you won’t have an ounce of frustration. The rear speaker is loud and surprisingly clear for the cellphone’s native speakers. We played a variety of tracks, from online streaming at 64Kbps to high fidelity 320Kbps audio tracks from Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Well done, Lenovo. Well done, Dolby.

While the battery life of the K3 Note isn’t really commendable, it’s not bad either. Used on average every day for calls, messaging, occasional music playback, and about an hour of white tile play, the K3 Note returns home with about 15% charge left. It does what every smartphone around it does – lasts all day. Our battery test returns 8 hours and 20 minutes of battery life – standard performance. Continuous gaming was difficult, but the battery drain was low. The K3 Note drains 11% of the battery in 30 minutes of gaming – decent, considering that most phones discharge the first 20% quite quickly. As mentioned earlier, the Lenovo K3 Note is all about getting the essentials right. It misses high-octane performance, but the main focus is on users of a utility-centric approach, the K3 Note works just fine.

The camera
In broad daylight, the Lenovo K3 Note makes decent pictures. Low light photography isn’t great around here – images often appear blurry and pixelated. The main problem with low light photography is the image stabilization of the K3 Note, which is poor. The shutter with camera application is fast, light and responsive. Video recording is reasonably smooth, and there’s little interpolation unless you shoot fast moving objects or pan the camera fast. The front camera is very good in well-lit environments, and decent even in dim-light conditions. Video recording is also decent with the front camera, which makes the overall camera unit of the Lenovo K3 Note a well-performing camera for its price.

The K3 Note’s camera performs well in certain situations, but fails in low light photography

Check out the pictures taken by the Lenovo K3 Note camera in the album below:

The last row
The Lenovo K3 Note is one of those devices that really does get the things it needs right. In terms of daily use, its efficiency is unquestionable. It has a good display, very good audio output, a decent camera unit and probably the best performance in terms of light weight usage that any smartphone in the sub-10k budget segment offers. The only place it misses is the bottom-up gaming performance. If your preference is for a smooth-working Android smartphone that doesn’t require you to sweat all day and save some battery, then the Lenovo K3 Note is your phone. Alternatively, the Meizu M2 Note makes better devices at the same price, gives the same or better performance, along with better displays and cameras.