Lenovo K-3 Note- Giant Slayer or Paper Tiger ??
The Lenovo K-3 Note @ Rs.10,000 was widely advertised as a slayer of many an expensive Smartphones against which it gives a run for their money. It has an impressive Specs and consistent Antutu scores of above 46,000 and ranking above it's more expensive peers like One Plus One and HTC One M8.
The Specs too are impressive, with the most important ones, as below:
1. Full HD Display
2. 13 MP Rear Shooter
3. 1.7 GHz 8-core Cortex-A53 (MediaTek MT6752 64-bit 4G LTE)
4. 4G Connectivity
5. Android Lollipop
6. 3000 mAh battery
Seduced by these specs, my brother and me both participated in the July 8th Flipkart sales. I wanted to replace my aging Blackberry and he was angry at being shortchanged by Lenovo in making him buy a Lenovo A7000 @ Rs.9000 when they were about to launch the K-3 at Rs.10000 ( I guess it takes all kinds, to make this world !!).
We got our phones on the 13th of July and had been in the past 2 days trying to find out whether the brouhaha is worth it or not. Please do not get me wrong. At Rs. 10,000 the K-3 hits all the right spots, but is it a game changer, is what we were interested in. We compared the K-3 note with the A 7000 and our friend's Asus Zenfone 2 ZE550ML and here are our observations.
1. Full HD Display- We couldn't make out any difference between the K-3 Note and A 7000 ( 720 x 1280) even at a distance of 3 inches from our eyes. There were no pixelation in either of the phones. Both had insipid dull displays as compared to the brighter Zenfone 2 ( 720 x 1280)display. The Zenfone 2 also did not display any pixelation. Wonder whether all this excitement on Full HD is worth it on Android phones ??
2. Camera- The cameras on both the Lenovo phones are mediocre at best- susceptible to the slightest tremor, dull photos captured, poor white balance and absolutely pathetic dim light pictures. The Zenfone 2 is marginally better in this department, but not much. But the most important drawback noticed on the K-3 is the stuttering and freezing while taking a picture which requires the camera to be relaunched. One possibility is that even with a faster processor, the phone is not able to handle the Full HD display and intensive apps like a camera, together. In this respect, the A 7000 was very smooth
3. Music Player - The Dolby Atmos really screws up both the A7000 and the K-3 Note. It really is unstable and keeps on changing the volume levels. The sound output ( without a earphone ) is pathetic. The Zenfone 2 does a much better job in handling music. In both the Lenovo phones, there is something screwed up as far as the earphone socket is concerned. Many a times it does not register an earphone being plugged in ( forget the useless earphones supplied by Lenovo, they are atrocious. But this happened with even Sennheiser and JBL earphones). And when the phone registers the earphone, it reduces the volume settings which then refuses to slide up. Also the player stops immediately you put the phone in the pocket or cover its display panel. This happened with both the K-3 Note and also the A 7000.
4. Battery- Lenovo says that it supplies a 3000 mAh battery for the K-3 Note. But what we got were a 2900 mAh battery. Calling up Lenovo Customer Care, we were told that 2900 mAh is the minimum capacity and that 3000 mAh is the typical capacity. Confused ? Even we are !! In any case, the battery drains out much faster than even the A7000 battery, probably because the Full HD display is power hungry
5. Gaming- Here too the strain of the Full HD display on the GPU is evident. Asphalt 8 suffers from serious lagging and freezing. Furthermore, the effect of the game on the battery was very evident in the case of K-3 note, with the battery running out very fast
6. Other features like 16GB memory, Vibe Skin, etc. etc. were pretty much useless for us. We had to immediately change the 16GB micro SD Card for a 32 GB and the Lenovo Launcher and Vibe UI are more a hindrance than advantages.
To summarise, we do not think that the K-3 note is a game changer. There are several issues to be addressed like the dull display, the patchy camera, the gaming experience and the battery life. In real everyday use, the specs of the K-3 Note does not make it better than the Lenovo A7000 But if you want flaunt your ego by displaying better specs on paper, by all means go ahead and buy one !! In any case, the phone is excellent value for money at the Rs. 10,000 it retails. But do look at the A7000 which despite its lesser specs is more reliable for day to day use.
Ravi & Satish Vasantham