Lenovo K8 Note was launched in India last month starting for ₹12,999. The handset has been well received by the audience with quite a lot of attraction in the sub-15k price segment. After quite a long break, Lenovo launched a new smartphone in India. Skipping the Lenovo K7 Note, the K8 Note has been pushed out to fill in the gap of an affordable killer handset. But is it any good? We have been reviewing the handset for two weeks now, and here is what we think.
Design
Lenovo K8 Note has a design which might look pretty common in hands. With a very similar look as of Redmi Note 3, the Lenovo K8 Note comes in a metal unibody build. Being from the Note series, the handset comes with a 5.5-inch display with a 2.5D curved glass design along with Corning Gorilla Glass Protection. The front has a secondary camera, proximity sensor and LED flash on the top with earpiece placed in between the two. Below the display, there are three capacitive touch buttons, which are mapped to perform their respective tasks.
The back houses the fingerprint sensor and the dual rear camera combo along with the dual-tone LED flash. There is Lenovo branding at the rear bottom with antenna lines running below.
The volume rocker and power button are on the right edge of the handset, whereas the SIM card tray and the microSD card tray is on the left edge. There is a special convenience key on the left edge which can be mapped to any application installed on the smartphone. This key by default controls music playback but it can also be used for a few other utilities like flashlight etc.
The top side has a 3.5mm audio port while the bottom has micro-USB port and speaker grille.
The Lenovo K8 Note comes with the splash-proof P2i nano-coating which enables the smartphone to withstand rain or normal water sprinkles.
Lenovo K8 Note Hardware
Lenovo K8 Note comes with a MediaTek Deca-core chipset which is a first on any smartphone till date in India. Apart from this, it also features 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage / 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage. The handset comes in Venom Black and Fine Gold color variants, Venom Black being matte is undoubtedly our favorite. Here is its specification listed below.
- 5.5-inch Full HD 2.5D curved glass display protected by Corning Gorilla Glass
- MediaTek Helio X23 Deca-core processor
- 3GB/4GB RAM, 32GB/64GB internal storage respectively expandable with microSD card
- Android 7.1.1 Nougat
- 13MP + 5MP rear camera combo with dual LED Flash
- 13MP front-facing camera with front-facing LED flash
- 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS
- Fingerprint sensor
- 4000mAh battery with 15W rapid charging
Lenovo K8 Note comes with a dedicated sim card and microSD card tray which makes it support both dual SIM cards and a microSD card up to 128GB at the same time. Manufacturers these days are considering to remove hybrid sim slots in order to support both on standby because in a market like India people have such requirements.
Camera
The Lenovo K8 Note camera comes with a dual rear camera combination of 13MP + 5MP. This combination works together to produce an artificial blur effect which is called as Bokeh. The front-facing camera is also a 13MP sensor assisted by an LED flash called as the Party Flash to help you take selfies in low light.
We have written a complete camera review earlier, which can be read here – http://installornot.com/reviews/lenovo-k8-note-camera-review/
Performance
The best aspect of Lenovo K8 Note is that it runs on stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat. Ditching Lenovo’s home-grown UI skins which were never updated, either way, Lenovo themselves have taken the Moto routine of running their smartphones. Lenovo now a parent company of Motorola Mobility has similar tweaks done on their branded handsets as well. They have bundled a proprietary TheaterMax VR mode and Dolby ATMOS support which adds-on to its multimedia ranking.
The combination of killer hardware with pure software works seamlessly in harmony and so is well depicted here. Multitasking was a breeze with multiple apps running in the background. There was no lag or slowdown yet but if we find anything in long term we shall definitely report it in future. Gaming performance on Lenovo K8 Note was pretty good with no frame drops etc, although the phone started to heat up a little. This heating issue can be expected from any smartphone at any price segment because the use of multiple cores for graphics rendering pushes its resource usage and eventually core temperature rise up.
On the connectivity front, we had no issues during our review period. Using Vodafone 4G and Jio as our network provider, the results were absolutely perfect. There were no connection drops on WiFi either. Powered by a 4,000mAh battery and supported by Turbo Charging technology we could survive most part of the day. This charging tech won’t refill 50 percent of your smartphone in 30 mins but it will do so by 40-45mins. Overall, a quality product with high performance from Lenovo.
ION Verdict
Lenovo as a smartphone brand is not new in the market. Sure they have been quiet for a while figuring out how to place both Lenovo and Moto against each other, but as far we can observe Lenovo is doing pretty well. Moto handsets come with Snapdragon Mobile Platform whereas Lenovo runs on MediaTek chipsets. Both of them have their target users, but at times this may result in a better cost-effectiveness with Lenovo handsets because they might turn out to be a good value for money.
Lenovo K8 Note is one such example with the new strategy along with Lenovo K8 Plus and Lenovo K8. Priced competitively at ₹12,999 for 3GB/32GB variant and ₹13,999 for 4GB/64GB variant, the smartphone is an excellent value for money deal. The handset is in a direct face-off with Redmi Note 4 in the same price segment offering a product that is available for purchase. Unlike the flash sale model, the Lenovo K8 Note is ready to purchase from Amazon.in in two different color variations, Venom Black and Fine Gold.
Pros:
- Design
- Display
- Battery
- Price
Cons:
- Gets warm quickly
Buy Lenovo K8 Note on Amazon.in
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