Lenovo, after a long pause, is back with a new smartphone. Dubbed as K8 Note, the phone comes with a price tag of Rs 12,999 for the 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage variant and Rs 13,999 for 4GB RAM and 64GB storage variant. Both the variants will be available from Amazon starting from August 18.
Lenovo has added some nifty addition to this one. The phone comes loaded with a dual-camera setup, which is yet to become a standard feature, especially, at this price point. So, the real question is, whether it has all the arsenal to defeat the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 or not? We spend some time with the device and here is what we think of it.
Design and Display
The first thing you will notice about the device is the slim form factor, which is not only lightweight, but it is also easy to operate with one hand. The smartphone comes loaded with a metal unibody, however, the top and base of the back panel are made of plastic. The phone is available in two colour options: Venom Black and Fine Gold. If you ask us, then Venom Black colour variant looks much classier than the Fine Gold.
Lenovo has added a dedicated music key on the left side, which can be found just below the Dual-SIM slot and a dedicated micro SD card slot. The key allows users to play/pause music and one can also skip tracks as well. Further, it can be configured to take a screenshot, turn on the flash light or open any App that you use on a regular basis. The front houses a 5.5-inch screen, which is protected by a Corning Gorilla Glass and at the base there are physical navigation buttons, which are sadly not backlit in nature. On the right, you will see volume controls and power on/off button.
Moving to the back panel, one will find another major highlight of the smartphone, the dual rear cameras, and dual-tone LED flash. Just beneath it, there is a fingerprint sensor and at the base of the back panel, one will find the Lenovo branding. That said, the smartphone does look good and it surely gives a tough competition to the Redmi Note 4, which is also a stylish-looking smartphone.
Coming to the display, Lenovo K8 Note features a 5.5-inch Full HD IPS display with a screen Resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. There is also an anti-fingerprint coating, which it touts to make it smudge-roof. The display looks a bright enough and it does offer some punchy colours.
Hardware and Software
This is where it gets really interesting. The device is powered by 64 bit MediaTek Helio X23 Chipset with four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHz, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.85GHz, and two Cortex-A72 cores clocked at 2.3GHz. The phone comes in two variants: 3GB RAM and 32GB storage; 4GB RAM and 64GB storage. The storage can be further expanded up to 128 GB micro SD card slot.
The brand has also given a dedicated micro SD card slot, which is, indeed, a welcome move as it will allow users to use two SIMs and microSD card at the time (better than hybrid SIM slots). That said, it is too early to comment on the computing power of the device, however, looking at its sheer specs sheet, the phone has all the muscles to give Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 a run for its money.
Lenovo has already announced that with its latest K8 Note, all future smartphones will come loaded with stock Android experience. This is a great move by the company as it will only allow the brand to roll out faster updates and help in rolling out latest security patches as well. It will make the device more efficient. However, the layout is a tad similar to the interface used by Moto-branded smartphones. The brand has added few third-party apps including Microsoft app suite and more.
Camera
The major highlight of the device is the dual rear cameras. The phone comes with a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel secondary camera for depth sensing. When combined, the camera gives DSLR-like bokeh effect. Interestingly, not many devices come with the dual-camera setup at this price point. We have Honor 6X and Coolpad Cool 1 that takes the leverage of the dual-camera setup.
The company has kept camera UI pretty clean and one can see the live bokeh effects as well. For the front, there is a 13-megapixel sensor with Aperture f/2.0 for selfies and video calling. During our initial review, we found out that the camera took some good photos in broad daylight and the selfie camera works just fine.
Battery and Connectivity
The Lenovo K8 Note is backed by a 4000mAh battery coupled with a 15W rapid charger for fast charging. The company claims to offer up to 24.7 hours of Talk time and 378 hours of standby time, which looks promising but still needs to get verified. On the connectivity front, the smartphone has hybrid dual sim, 4G/LTE, WiFi (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), micro-USB port, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS/A-GPS and 3.5mm audio jack.