First Impressions: Lenovo Vibe K4 Note

It has been less than a year since the launch of K3 Note and Lenovo is back with its successor – The Lenovo Vibe K4 Note. Though the device is not a major upgrade over the last year’s handset in terms of specifications but the company aims to deliver an excellent user experience along with building a good hardware. The K4 Note takes multimedia experience up to the next level by integrating Dolby Atmos powered dual front speakers and TheaterMax cinematic experience along with two affordable accessories – ANT VR headset and Skullcandy Ando earphones.
We spent a while learning about these new additions and here we have our first impressions of the device below.

Design

The device looks remarkably similar to the Vibe X3 which was recently unveiled in China. On comparing the K4 Note with its predecessor, the K3 Note which sported a blocky design and all-plastic build, the iteration features a curved back panel and metal edges. The back panel of the device is removable (with a range of wooden and leather back covers to be sold separately at a later undisclosed time frame) but the quality of plastic used is sadly on the inferior side.
At front the device features a Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coated-display panel and a pair of front-firing stereo speakers coupled with Dolby’s Atmos sound technology. It’s nice to see Lenovo throwing in a fingerprint scanner at the back of the device which is fast becoming an industry standard. Do give it a read on our first impressions of the device below.

Whats under the Hood?

The K4 Note features a 5.5-inch FHD IPS display with a 1080 x 1920 pixels resolution and 441 ppi pixel density. And we are still not exactly sure why Lenovo was boasting about a ‘killer display’ prior to the launch as the K4 Note has the same exact display specifications as that of K3 Note. The K4 Note is powered by a 1.3GHz octa-core MediaTek MT6753 processor, Mali T720-MP3 GPU coupled with 3GB LP DDR3 RAM and is backed by a 3300mAh battery. The Vibe K4 Note bears a 13-megapixel rear camera with PDAF autofocus, an f/2.2 aperture and dual-tone LED flash, apart from a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

Software & Performance

The K4 Note runs Android 5.1 Lollipop-based Vibe UI and will be upgradable to Android 6.0 Marshmallow very soon. Instead of all the apps on the home screen (like MIUI) you get an app drawer similar to one which was first tested on Vibe P1 smartphone. The company’s affection for unwanted apps or bloatware continues with the K4 Note. One more interesting yet annoying feature we discovered on the device was that if you touch the fingerprint sensor while using any app then it will bring you straight to the home screen.

In our limited time spent with the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note, we noticed that it handled all the multitasking and switching from one app to another pretty easily without any lag. The rear shooter on the Vibe K4 Note clicked images in normal to low indoor lighting and the images where quite decent with proper colours showing up. Low light shots also seemed above average. As for the pictures itself, they were a mixed bag with noise quite evident in low-lighting.

The Virtual Reality Experience

The main highlight of the device is TheaterMax VR software and the ANTVR gear. The VR box has a plastic body with pads that fit comfortably on the forehead. The smartphone can be simply inserted into the headset just like Google Cardboard to enhance cinematic experience. The Ant VR headset combined with Lenovo’s new TheaterMax technology looked refreshing and basically changed any multimedia content into a virtual reality experience offering a 100-degree diagonal field of view. The Ant VR headset packs an aspherical lens and sports a folding design. The headset will be sold separately at INR 1,299.

Pricing and Availability

The K4 Note is priced at INR 11,999 and will be available in matte black variant only exclusively on Amazon India. However, the ANT VR headset bundle will be available for INR 12,499. The device will be available via flash sale model. Registrations for the same is now open. For those who want to buy the K4 Note only for Rs 11,999, they will have to wait.

Our First Impressions

The Vibe K4 Note in terms of specifications is a minor upgrade over the K3 Note with an additional gigabyte of RAM. The device has a poor processor choice for a mid range phone as it is actually a downgrade from the MT 6752 used in the K3 Note. We would have loved if Lenovo had powered this device with MT 6795 processor as the rumours indicated. Its predecessor the K3 Note struggled a lot in terms of performance and by using a downgraded version of processor we are quite not sure how this device can be dubbed as a “killer” device. We would still hold our final verdict for detailed review.