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The Vibe K4 Note, the K3 Note's successor, has all the ingredients to emulate the earlier success, says Himanshu Juneja.
Lenovo has had an impressive growth in India, especially since it acquired Motorola's mobility segment. As Lenovo's expertise with low cost margin gains combined with Motorola's brand and prowess, users were treated especially with some superb budget options like the Moto G series of mobile phones.
Pushing for a make over of the Lenovo branded mobile phones now, the company released Lenovo K3 Note which garnered an impressive response in the market. The handset managed to etch out a name for itself in a tightly fought category with very few blemishes to complain about.
Let us take a closer look at the latest from the Lenovo camp.
Construction
The Vibe K4 Note is made primarily of plastic, while carrying a metal frame. Thankfully, the plastic is matte variant, and the curved rear saves the phone from falling into the bland category. While the overall construction just about makes the cut, it could have been sturdier.
This is a big handset right here, as it measures 153.6 x 76.5 x 9.2 mm in dimensions and weighs a good 156 gms. The curved rear allows for better ergonomics, and allows the handset to sit comfortably in the palm. One gets the feeling that the screen to body ratio could have been better.
The striking feature is the presence of dual speakers right at the front. The handset also features three touch buttons, and somehow Lenovo forgot to make them with backlit. This was a disappointing discovery to say the least. As for other button placements, the right edge carries the power button and the volume rocker. The top edge sports the 3.5 mm audio jack, while the bottom edge has the microUSB port. No Type C port supplied and perfectly expected from a budget category phone.
In order to access the two SIM and the memory card slots, one needs to remove the back panel. It was good to see Lenovo not opting for a hybrid SIM slot. The battery remains sealed in, while the finger print scanner at the rear looked ergonomically placed.
Display
The handset comes with a 5.5-inch LCD display. The IPS variety panel ensures that the viewing angles are superb, while the 1080 x 1920p resolution means that there is an impressive ~401 ppi pixel density.
The display looked sharp and vibrant. Colours were near accurate, but could have been better. The slight saturation is definitely not a deal breaker. Bigger disappointment was the lack of brightness levels. The handset could have done with some extra level of nits and this was amply clear while using the phone under direct sunlight. Lenovo has included some viewing modes to tinker around with the brightness levels, and thankfully the users get something to make the display look according to their preference.
The display is not class leading, but the sharpness cannot be denied. Gorilla Glass 3 protection has been supplied for added protection against minor nicks and bumps.
Specifications
K4 Note comes packed with a Mediatek MT6753 SoC. The Octacore Cortex A53 CPU is clocked at 1.3 Ghz, while being supported with a Mali T720MP3 GPU. While the configuration looks about par for the budget segment, a generous dose of 3 GB of RAM makes things look better.
Lenovo decided to supply 16 GB of on board storage memory and it can be further expanded by another 128 GB via a microSD card.
Connectivity
The dual SIM handset comes with a good number of connectivity options. Both the SIM slots being LTE enabled is a huge plus. There are also the regular features like Bluetooth (v 4.0), WiFi, and NFC. For navigational assistance, there is the GPS (with AGPS) option around as well.
The inclusion of FM radio with recording capabilities should go down well with many users, boosting K4 Note's chances.
Operating system
The K4 Note comes running on the Android Lollipop (ver 5.1) OS, with Vibe's UI on top. Lenovo has kept things close to stock android, and it is a relief to see the same.
The penchant of Chinese vendors not to supply the app drawer is observed here as well, but there is the option to switch over to Android launcher, complete with its app drawer option. Once inside, the users will find a chance to be spoilt silly with all the customisation options around.
Users get to control notifications for each apps, and also the ability to arrange the shortcuts on display in the notification bar. There is the theming option as well via the theme centre to customise the look. A big plus is the option to view the notification which user may have dismissed accidentally.
There are some pre-installed apps like Skype, Amazon, ShareIT, Lenovo Suite etc. Lenovo has been considerate to keep the non-removable to a handful, and they are actually useful. Some of them include WPS Office, Skype and WeChat.
There are some handy gestures on hand as well coming to user's aid, like launching of the camera via double click of the volume button. A double tap on the screen, or flipping of the phone to lock it instantly.
Some extras have been included in the form of Diagnostics section, and a companion app, which not only is a way to check for app update info, but also provides access to forums for interaction.
Overall, the experience is zippy, and the effort to keep things closer to stock makes things much easier to handle.
Camera
The handset sports a 13MP main camera, and a 5MP front facing unit. The rear camera captures detailed and sharp looking images, but the vividness of the colours is not very impressive.
There is a visible lack of punchy or even accurate colours, and this was while operating out in the open, with ample brightness around. The photographs taken indoor had better results, but the grains made their presence felt with colours being slightly off the target again. The pictures are not unusable, but the category has seen better snappers. Lenovo definitely missed the camera trick here.
The front facing camera fares better than its counterpart, and clicks some good looking selfies.
While both the camera units can snap 1080p resolution videos, the performance of the rear camera is just about passable. The colours again looked washed out, but not to the point to make the videos look horrible.
The camera app's interface has been kept simplistic, and ditto for the options present inside. Thankfully HDR, Panorama and filters are included. Users also get to choose resolution for the photo and videos. The app could have been richer, but thankfully, the PlayStore route is always open for the users.
Performance
While the K4 Note looks amply beefed up, the performance was not exactly smooth. The day to day performance is really not an issue, but the launching of the apps presents a slight delay. The same was noticed while switching between the apps, and heavier the load, more apparent it became. Thankfully, the normal operations were not hampered.
Gaming is an area which disappointed in a more visible manner. Heavier games, especially HD kinds, showed lags and stutters while switching screens or accessing game menus. This took away the joy of the gaming sessions, and left a sour taste. The more regular games like Subway Surfer, Temple Run or even a stellar game like Jelly Defense ran smoothly. Thankfully, the phone did not heat up immensely while dealing with HD games and that counts as a plus.
AntVR , fingerprint scanner and speaker
The VR headsets have been gaining some traction, and K4 Note being compatible with the AntVR headset gives it a huge shot in the arm. Users can turn any of their video into VR content by just sliding in their K4 Notes.
While the application and scope of the VR content at the moment are more gimmicky than genuinely good, this little advantage surely is a fun way for the family and friends to gather around. The headset costs Rs 1,299 and is a good novelty add on along with the K4 Note.
The finger print scanner works as expected and is well placed. The ability to configure the scanner for different tasks gives it an extra edge. The scanner not only unlocks, but can be used for launching the most frequented operations too. The smooth recognition of the finger prints made the experience blissful.
The front facing dual speaker set up is one of the big USP of the handset. The Dolby Atmos sound fills up a small room adequately and enables the user to enjoy the media files on a different level altogether.
The high resolution audio is not just limited to the speakers, as even the headphones deliver an above average sound. This definitely is the area where Lenovo has concentrated, and combined with a crisp display, one can expect a rich multimedia experience for the users.
Battery
The Vibe K4 Note comes with a 3300 mAh Lithium polymer battery pack, and even though the handset does not come with a unibody design, the battery is not user replaceable.
Lenovo made sure that the budget offering is not going to disappoint the users, and the phone can chug along easily for a day on a moderate usage pattern. Considering the budget segment, this is perfectly acceptable.
Verdict
Lenovo's Vibe K4 Note is a mixed bag of sorts, and this should make it easier for the users in making up their minds. The handset offers great experience with the multimedia files, but the camera and the user interface are not as polished as one would have liked. Thankfully, a decent battery performance ensures that the handset will not be lost into oblivion upon release.
At Rs 11,999, it is not a compelling package for an all round performer, but factor in the VR headset compatibility, and there is that extra bit of sheen added to the overall package. Those looking to try the technology soon along with an above average experience with their media files should pick this up.