Lenovo K3 Note Review Specifications and Price

Over the past few years, many phablets have being released with the Mediatek MT6752 SoC processor. Some of the world’s finest yet cheapest mobile devices are designed with this processor. Don’t consider this unknown processor as crap. This is because famous phablet manufacturers like Lenovo tend to rely on Mediatek while designing smartphones and phablets. With this being said, Lenovo K3 Note comprises of this SoC. The insanely good phone comes under a price tag of 149 USD. It is built and fine-tuned to meet up with the needs of budget conscious buyers, who are searching for feature-rich smartphones. When compared against many other expensive devices, Lenovo K3 Note is a performer. It is an impressive device that adheres to a good price-performance ratio.

So, are you ready to learn more about this phablet? This Lenovo K3 Note Review will give you a comprehensive insight about this phone.

This is How it would Arrive!

Like every other Lenovo phone, K3 Note comes in a typical Lenovo box. The box has a brown outer covering and the actual box is black in color. As you lift the top lid, you will have access to many interesting accessories and the phone-itself. Inside the box you will see a wall charger, instruction booklet and a micro USB data transfer cable.

Lenovo K3 Note Review – Design

The Look – A Plastic Bomb

According to experienced techies, the phone looks like a real plastic bomb. Luckily, this hasn’t created a negative impression among potential buyers. Lenovo makes use of high quality polycarbonates in its phones. In general, polycarbonate is a solid material that can bend but stand upright too! A little bit of force will not change the shape or outlook of your phone. This is a major upselling point of Lenovo K3 Note. Another benefit in owning polycarbonate phones would be its lightweight. Lenovo K3 Note is only 150 grams and is extremely light for a 5.5 incher. But not so light if we take a look at Lenovo K3 Note vs Mi4i comparison.

The Design – Yellow Magic

Lenovo K3 Note is often distributed in a standard shade, which is “Yellow”. Most techies identify it as codename “Lemon”. If you find the shade ugly, you can opt for other shades like black and white. However, K3 Note’s standard shade doesn’t represent discreet yellow. Instead, it has an undertone of orange and some gold in it. The actual shade of your phablet depends on how much light shines over it. The device will look different when you place it in different environments with varying amounts of light! While ordering K3 Note, you can request for a cover replacement.

Buttons – The Dark Side

A small issue faced by most Lenovo K3 Note users would be the touch buttons. These buttons don’t have reflective coating or back illumination. This clearly proves that you will not be able to see these buttons in the dark. And, if you are using K3 Note for the first time, you will need some time to get used to the buttons. Apart from this glitch, there aren’t many issues to complain about. Overall, the phablet has a decent build without any caps, sharp edges or squeaking parts.

Lenovo K3 Note Review – Performance

Structure – Full Definition & Superior Color Reproduction

As mentioned previously, the smartphone has a 5.5 inch full definition 1080p screen. This is quite unusual for such a low price tag. Generally, a normal phone with a screen resolution of 720p will cost you a minimum of 160 USD. Luckily, Lenovo delights budget conscious buyers with Lenovo K3 Note. The phone doesn’t worry buyers with reduced sharpness or blurred displays. That is because the brand uses a different technology to ensure quality. Plus, it has a superior color reproduction system that manages contrast and brightness levels properly. For instance, Lenovo K3 Note uses adaptive control to work flawlessly. Meanwhile, Lenovo K3 Note makes use of a smooth touch panel with AGC Dragon tail glass for better color outcomes.

Hardware – Unleashing Performance

When it comes to hardware, K3 Note exploits through the use of Mediatek MT6752 SoC. It adheres to the features of the 64 bit A53 ARM Cortex Architecture with octa cores. The phablet’s clock is programmed to run at 1.7 GHz and it has a dual core Mali T760 Graphics Processing Unit. Paired with an amazing 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM, the phone’s bandwidth reaches 5 gigabytes per second. This is fairly sufficient to satisfy the needs of average customers. In terms of performance, K3 Note falls in line with Snapdragon 801.

If you are doubtful about K3 Note’s 2GB RAM, fear not. In general, you will not notice a massive change or improvement in performance while shifting from 2 GB to 4 GB RAMs. The actual improvement in performance is noticed when you open several applications. With Lenovo’s 2 GB RAM you can run between seven to twenty applications & widgets without any hassles. And, when you opt for devices with a 4 GB RAM, you can load 40 apps or more! Of course, common users don’t require so much space. This is why K3 Note’s 2 GB RAM proves to be adequate.

Storage – Ample Space, Ample Resources

Unlike many other smartphones in the market, Lenovo K3 Note doesn’t split its internal memory in several partitions. This clearly means that most of the memory would be used for data and applications. By default, you will receive 12 GB of memory for day to day usage. This memory can be extended using micro SD cards. During benchmark analysis, Lenovo K3 Note performed much better than many other existing phablets at the same price. This can be attributed to its mix of high quality hardware components and optimized software programs.

Software – Using Vibe UI

Lenovo K3 Note makes use of Vibe UI. In the beginning, Vibe UI was considered as an annoying entity since it threw lots of information towards the user. The complicated interface was filled with lots of bloatware and tacky routines. Nevertheless, Lenovo has learnt from its flaws and created a better software platform for users. The current version of Vibe UI is a real delight. It has made picky developers and novice phablet users love customized ROM.

K3 Note runs with Android 5.0 Lollipop. The developer version Android 5.1 is made available too! According to critics, Lenovo has drafted the right operating system for K3 Note. The MT6752 device is optimized to run on Android 5.0 Lollipop. Almost all essential parts of the operating system is tweaked and sorted out to present a bug-free environment for users. Also, the brand has worked hard to get rid of every other performance drop in the device. In fact, you will be astounded to note that K3 Note performs just like the iPhone at times. Regardless of whether it is Apple or not, you cannot deny the fact that K3 Note has a very smooth UI.

Add on – Very Many Settings

Things don’t stop here! Lenovo K3 Note comprises of a wide range of features that are usually found in devices that cost more than 300 USD. But this mid-ranged phablet offers a hefty collection of settings like app management, power management, screen maintenance and off-screen gestures. The smartphone will let you create scintillating smart scenes too! These scenes can be used to load specific configurations that happen at a specific place or time. For instance, you can trigger a specific scene when you are at work. If required you can shift apps into the phone’s external SD card. This is a feature offered by very few Lollipop devices (only 10% of lollipop devices support this feature).

When it comes to bugs and mistakes, there are very few to find! One of the most prominent issues with Vibe UI would be its ability to launch Google Play services only in English and Chinese. Some users tend to use customized ROMs to support other languages.

Audio – A Divine Sound Experience!

Would you believe if someone told you that an amazing hi-fi device is sold at 149 USD? Well, no one would till they get hold of Lenovo K3 Note. This is not an exaggeration but the device does sound wonderful. This can be attributed to its MaxxAudio system and high quality internal speaker. The foremost combination is found in devices from Oppo and OnePlus. Even without headphones, K3 Note will give you an amazing music experience. Thanks to its well balanced and non-existent distortion output. May it be the intense basses or soft tunes; K3 Note defines the highs and lows clearly. You can customize music to any taste with the help of Note’s MaxxAudio equalizer settings. The list of audio features doesn’t stop here! Lenovo K3 Note will let you make clear calls with the help of a decent noise cancellation mechanism. The cancellation is done with the help of two powerful, high quality microphones. Additionally, the receiver is capable of receiving sounds perfectly for a wonderful call experience.

If you are an audio lover and an ardent video recorded, K3 Note will certainly please you. This is another outstanding feature of this phablet. As mentioned previously, the device features two high quality microphones for amazing video recordings. The only problem with video recording is that you cannot set the focus manually. And, auto focus can be very slow at times! No one clearly knows if this is an intentional feature or a small bug in the camera app!

Network – A Key Strength!

At the first glance, you might find Lenovo K3 Note’s audio reception weak and unreliable. This is because most cheap phones out there don’t have exquisite antennas for fine-tuned audio reception. Surprisingly, K3 Note delights users with perfect, spotless reception. It works well with all types of networks. The only flaw in this phone would be its incompatibility with FDD-LTE of Band 20 800 MHz.

The phone manages GPS pretty well too! It is capable of grabbing strong signals in a hassle free order. However, a software bug in Lollipop 5.0 prevents K3 Note from receiving GLONASS signals. Data or media exchanges with this satellite can cause it to crash randomly.

Camera – Close to Perfection

One of the most interesting parts in Lenovo K3 Note would be its “Camera”. The phablet has the town’s best camera for 160 USD. You will be surprised to know that the device’s camera is not advertised extensively. The rear camera has 13 megapixels and an aperture of f/2.0. The front camera clicks pictures at 5 megapixels. The front camera is capable of generating wonderful results. May it be fast focus, amazing colors, sharpness or details everything about K3 Note’s front camera is simply amazing. Even clicks of fast moving objects appear sharp and crisp.

If you wish to take photographs in low light, K3 Note might be of some use. There is very little to complain about for a camera that comes at 160 USD. Regardless of whether you click images during sunset or in HDR mode with the LED flash on, you will get nominal noise. In fact, K3 Note’s LED flash is bright enough to stress on the intensity of colors and light up an entire room.

On the other hand, the camera clicks wonderful daylight shots. However, remember that it will be very difficult to capture images that are 100% sharp and void of noise.

Battery – The Downfall

A key selling point of Lenovo K3 Note would be its battery. The phablet is advertised with a 3000 mAh cell. It looks very thin and is extremely light. However, the battery doesn’t promise endless life. When performance rich programs run in the background, it can last from 5 to 7 hours. Luckily, the battery life is likely to get better with every charge. Without any games or intense apps, Lenovo K3 Note would last for 29 continuous hours (with screen dim and auto brightness disabled).

The Verdict

On the whole, Lenovo K3 Note is an ideal budget friendly phablet. It gives a tough competition to many other phones and tablet computers. With a bundle of impressive features and specs that cannot be obtained at 149 USD, K3 Note is a delight to be owned.