lenovo k3 note discussion

Dhruvhat

Right off the assembly line
Hi, guys I created this thread for Lenovo k3 note.. Let me know about this phone problems, tips tricks.. Let's share..
 

ravivasantham

Right off the assembly line
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
 

kevz22

crazy techie
Lenovo K-3 Note- Giant Slayer or Paper Tiger ??

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.

Just outta curiosity, are you saying that "it's worth it" and "it's not worth it" at the same time? :-D
 

ravivasantham

Right off the assembly line
Just outta curiosity, are you saying that "it's worth it" and "it's not worth it" at the same time? :-D

Hi Kevz22,

Sorry for the delay in responding. What I meant was that the K-3 Note is worth every paise of the Rs. 10000 because of its great specs. But in terms of actual user performance- especially-battery,gaming and smoothness of camera ( i.e not getting frozen) I found that the A-7000+ (@ Rs.9000) is better. But then you don't get the " mine is bigger and so better " ego kick of having a Full HD, Higher An-Tu-Tu scores, faster processor,higher pixel camera which the K-3 Note ( and not the A-7000) provides especially when you compare only specs and not performance with a friend. It all depends on the user. A typical example is my brother Satish who likes to compare phone specs and for whom the K-3 might trump other higher priced phones of his friends. I prefer a hassle free performance.

The " split personality" like comments which you referred to could be because we wrote the post together !!
 

Vyom

The Power of x480
Staff member
Admin
I happened to buy this phone for my dad after a lot of research. He will be migrating from Lumia 520 (and from its restrictions). Moving onto an open platform would be interesting to watch.

I dropped the idea of getting this because of high SAR value: 1.59 SAR, also no gorilla glass protection.

Well, I read that this high SAR values were taken turning on every sensor, including wifi, bluetooth, 4G etc, etc. But in actual its way below that SAR value. You might want to do more research.
About no gorilla glass protection, well that was a bummer. But at this price point, I didn't mind that. A tempered glass is a need of the age, even it had a protection. So I bought one along with the phone.

I would also be interesting to read [MENTION=317804]ravivasantham[/MENTION] views after software updates. I think most of the issue that he faced was before software updates, especially camera.
 

MANOfJosh

QA Professional
For AOSP roms, try the ones at www.needrom.com Rooting and TWRP recovery details are available at XDA. Cheers!
 

sankar789

Broken In
My friend has been using K3 Note and never shared a complaint with me... he says the phone is too good and performing well.. The only drawback is that it doesn't come with a gorilla glass.
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
I bought this phone for my mom :) Liked how light the device was. deleted all the pre-installed games that were trojans for gameloft and developers. Removed all the random permissions from the apps, which is cool, did not expect droids to have modular control of app permissions. the haptic feedback on the buttons don't pack too much punch. Vibe UI is ok. Seeing motorola as the manufacturer on the back pleased my Dad. Like the cardboard boombox, have to experiment with that so sitting down with it today. Also going to try Google Cardboard and Cardboard Camera.
there was some stuttering and lags, and missed taps, but had expected that much.
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
Lenovo k3 note music edition only, on the packaging back, the manufacturer name is Motorola (Wuhan) Mobility Technologies with a note after the address that it was manufactured for Lenovo PC HK Limited
 

Vyom

The Power of x480
Staff member
Admin
I will have to look for such note on the Lenovo K3 Note I bought for my dad.
 
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