Lenovo K3 Note

The Lenovo K3 Note provides a dazzling display with a Full HD screen, an immersive audio experience with Dolby Atmos and blazing fast performance with a 64 bit Octa-core processor. What’s better, packed with a 13 MP rear and 5 MP selfie camera, 4G connectivity and a 2900mAh battery, The K3 Note is nothing less than killer.

Every image comes alive in 2 million pixels, on this stunning screen. With its 401 ppi OGS IPS display, you will see visuals in their truest colours and finest details, from all angles.

Put on your headset and you will feel the sound flowing not just around you, but above you too. Now that’s an incredible 360 degree sound experience.

The 8 ARM Cortex A-53 processors, coupled with the ultra-fast 2GB DDR3 RAM makes sure the phone reacts to every swipe at the speed of light, and shows no hesitation to run the most graphic-intensive 3D games.

Swipe through the interface fast and smooth, and access your favourite apps and games at the Google Play Store.

With f/2.0 aperture, intelligent dual-led flash and the unique beautification feature, you will always have the perfect click, be it a sunset or your selfie.

The phone comes with a vast storage space, so you can carry 3D games, all your favourite apps and the entire season of your favourite TV show in HD.

Enjoy seamless connectivity that lets you watch videos without buffer, or download an entire movie in a snap. You can switch between sim cards to stay connected with your friends and family.

Talk for 36 hours nonstop. Or play that latest games at length, watch your favourite movie trilogy back – to – back or stay connected on social media, even when you are nowhere close to a charging point.

The phone comes with OTG, so you can access data from other devices like your camera and MP3 player.

Hardware

The Lenovo K3 Note specifications are close to many other smartphones produced by Chinese companies in recent months. Inside we find, in fact, a MediaTek MT6752 octa-core (8-core Cortex-A53) processor operating at a frequency of 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage expandable via microSD, 13-megapixel camera (back) and 5 megapixel (front), and a 3000mAh battery.

As is always the case for devices with MediaTek MT6752 processors, the heat is really high so much so that sometimes it gets to the point that the device becomes impossible to hold in your hand or pocket. Luckily we have a neat tutorial to help with this issue. You can read: Fix: Lenovo K3 Note Battery Drain/Overheating

The Lenovo K3 Note has quite good reception in almost all conditions of normal use. The audio component is of good quality and has  great volume, as well as that coming from the main microphone. The reception of WiFi and Bluetooth is average. (Read: Fix: Lenovo K3 Note Not Connecting to Wi-Fi) You can opt to connect headphones or speakers for added performance.

Design

The design of the Lenovo K3 Note is typically Lenovo: back colored (yellow, in this case), even rounded corners, soft buttons on the front with traditional Lenovo symbols (from left to right: menu, home and back)… Overall the design is very nice and spot on.

The rear/back of the device is made of poly-carbonate and can be removed very easily. It has a good feel to it in the hand and it is of good quality and durable materials: the cover bends and returns to its original shape without problems. Lenovo gives the polycarbonate an exclusive feel, strange but pleasant: it is a cross between smooth and rough. The result is  good grip, while retaining  good smoothness.

The dimensions are generous: even compared to other Lenovo smartphones with screens of similar sizes, the Lenovo K3 Note does not come off as a device with optimized frames. A rather clumsy size (152.6 x 76.2 x 8 mm) which is quite high and what’s worse is the presence of rather large frames on the sides and above and below the screen.

Display

The Lenovo K3 Note panel adopts a 5.5-inch IPS display with FullHD resolution (1920 × 1080). This is not a high-end display, but it offers  good brightness, bright colors enough while remaining realistic.

The minimum brightness is great as it allows you to use the phone even in low light without excessive problems for the eyes, but the maximum brightness is only so-so and poses a problem to those who want to use your smartphone in bright sun-lit areas.

Audio

The audio quality is discreet and has no distortion or significant noise, although the maximum volume is not very high. As said above, you can improve the audio by using headphones or speakers.

Camera

The Lenovo K3 Note camera is of good quality, on par or perhaps slightly higher than other similar smartphones. The colors are rendered naturally, although they are perhaps a bit ‘too hot; the picture noise is sufficiently low. There are significant problems in focusing on close objects or under difficult conditions due to the fact that the camera is not able to be put in focus.

Video: Lenovo K3 Note Camera Test

Lenovo K3 Note Camera test with Image & Video samples.

Photo software is quite rich and complete: it integrates HDR and various filters, as well as a QR code reader and the “beauty mode” for selfies (which can even recognize age and degree of happiness of the person – with widely varying results.

Battery

The integrated battery on the Lenovo K3 Note is, on paper, excellent: the capacity is 3000mAh, which are theoretically capable of ensuring excellent durability. In practice, however, things are a little ‘different.

The battery life of the Lenovo K3 Note is unfortunately in line with that of other smartphones like proven in the past (Ecoo Aurora E04 Plus and Ulefone Be Touch, for example) which means that intensive use of the smartphone maxes out the battery at the end of the day, with a little more than 3 hours of actual use of the device with the screen turned on. The battery life is not one of the strengths of this smartphone, despite the generous capacity of the battery.

Software

We come to the sore spot of the Lenovo K3 Note: software. The operating system is Android 5.0 Lollipop, modified by Lenovo with its proprietary interface Lenovo VIBE UI all too reminiscent of iOS ( the icons and multitasking interface are almost identical).

The biggest problem, however, is not so much in the interface, as is the pre-installed applications: Lenovo has filled the K3 Note with bloatware that is not only unnecessary, but also extremely annoying. It seems to take a leap in the past four or five years, when pre-installed applications were “systemic” and not uninstallable. Not only that, there are also advertising that open in the browser, as well as pop-ups of pre-installed applications that open the unlock screen.

The list of preinstalled software is long:

• DU Battery Saver, which is enabled by default and continues to reactivate even after stopping and deleting data of the app;
• DU Speed ​​Booster, which is determined to show annoying and inconvenient popups;
• MopoPlay, which serves as a theoretical alternative to the Play Store, but that, in practice, is filled with spam notifications;
• AVG Antivirus, absolutely not required and moreover useless if you install only apps from the Play Store;
• Mobile Assistant, useful to share content with PCs but not required and therefore cumbersome.

It is not clear if the applications are installed directly from Lenovo or from sellers who have modified the ROM, but in any case the user experience is, overall, frustrating.  On the bright side, you can custmize the device using Lenovo Vibe UI themes.

Review

The Lenovo K3 Note is a neat smartphone, undermined by unnecessary installations- whether due to actual manufacturer or mobile carrier. The hardware is of good quality and, although it has some problems, this is common with such devices. Overall, therefore, my view is not to buy this smartphone if you’re not going to change the operating system and install a “clean” version of the software. You might want to consider the Lenovo Vibe Sot.

Images/Soruced Via| Lenovo K3 Note GSM Arena, Lenovo K3 Note Amazon, Lenovo K3 Note India Official Website

Images

Price

The Lenovo K3 Note price is around $154.60 and  $247.33 on Amazon.

Specs

The Lenovo K3 Note specifications are as follow: