Lenovo Vibe K5 Note Review

May 1, 2020

The Chinese Tech Giants Lenovo recently launched the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note. The smartphone is said to be the successor the Vibe K4 Note smartphone that was launched earlier by the company. The smartphone is almost identical to the previous smartphones such as Vibe K3 and K4 Note, but this time, the K5 Note features a metal uni-body design and comes in new 4 GB RAM variant. The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note smartphones is priced at INR 11,999 for its 3 GB RAM variant and INR 13,499 for its 4 GB RAM variant. Here is our review to check if the smartphone does worth the price or not.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note

Design

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note has an uni-body with brushed metal finish that feels good to hold. Above the display, there is a earpiece on the top, front facing camera along with the usual set of proximity and ambient light sensors next to it. It also has a tiny notification LED on the right corner, which glows in blue for notification and in red when it is charging. The capacitive touch buttons are present below the display. These are backlit, but it is hardly visible under bright light. These also offer haptic feedback when pressed.

Image Source: YouTube.com

On the back of the smartphone, you will find the rear facing camera, the dual-tone LED flash just below the camera. A tiny secondary microphone hole is present above the camera sensor. The fingerprint sensor is present below the camera. The Lenovo branding and the loudspeaker grill are present on the bottom part of the back. You can also use the bundled clear cover for protecting the metal body from getting scratches.

Image Source: The247tech.com

The volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side. The 3.5 mm audio jack is present on the top and the micro USB slot is present on the bottom along with the microphone hole. The smartphone weighs just 165 grams and measures 152×75.7×8.49 mm in dimensions. The smartphone is available in Gold, Silver and Grey color options.

Display

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note features a 5.5-inch Full-HD (1080p) display with pixel density of 400 ppi (pixels per inch). Now, this display is same as that of the K3 Note and K4 Note smartphones. With the maximum brightness of 450 nits, the smartphone is bright enough to work perfectly in bright sunlight. Even though the smartphone has glossy display, it doesn’t attracts fingerprints quite easily and also gives a good 178-degree viewing angle.

Image Source: Technogadyet.com

To a bit disappointing note, the display of the smartphone doesn’t have Gorilla Glass protection, instead, it has a scratch resistant to prevent the display from scratches. The smartphone has 73 percent screen-to-body ratio, which is slightly better than the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note.

Software

The Vibe K5 Note Smartphone runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Lenovo’s own Vibe UI on top. Quick settings has Secure Zone, Flashlight, Cast Screen, Super Power and lots more features. It also has brightness adjustment slider. You can edit these notification bar icons easily. You can launch the dial pad or the camera directly from the lockscreen. There are a very few built-in apps which you can uninstall or hide as per your requirements.

Image Source: Indianexpress.com

The smartphone comes with a lots of smart gestures. You can enable ‘Knock to light’ option from the settings to enable double tap to wake the screen up when it’s locked. Quick snap lets you press volume keys to quickly capture the picture when the screen is off. There are also fingerprint gestures to take a picture by pressing the fingerprint sensor, tapping it once to go back or back to the home screen and press and hold the fingerprint sensor for launching multitasking screen or go back to homes screen.

Image Source: Lenovo.com

The smartphone also has has built-in split-screen mode that lets you view the whole UI using the VR glasses, similar to the K4 Note. To enable this feature, just press and hold the power button. Lenovo sells ANT VR headset separately, after it was sold as a bundle at the launch and is priced at INR 1299.

Hardware and Performance

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is powered by MediaTek’s 64-bit Helio P10 (MT6755) octa-core processor clocked at 1.8 GHz that comes with 3 GB and 4 GB RAM options. The device also has Mali-T860 GPU and comes with 32 GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 128 GB via micro-SD card. In terms of performance, the device works smoothly with out any lags. Thanks to the 4 GB RAM which is enough to provide enough room for multi tasking.

Image Source: Indianexpress.com

Placement of the sensor on the back is perfect, since it is where your index finger rests when you are holding the phone. It is quick to unlock the phone most of the times, immediately after you place your finger on the sensor and also unlocks the screen. It gives haptic feedback only when it doesn’t recognize your fingerprint.

Image Source: Lenovo.com

Gaming performance is also good. It gets a bit warm, but we did not face any heating issues during gaming or 4G use. As per the Fone Arena, the device scored 49,442 points in the AnTuTu Benchmark 6 and 3,037 points in the Geekbench 3 Multi-Core benchmark. The smartphone scored 10,703 points in the 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited GPU benchmark.

Camera

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note sports a 13 mega-pixel rear camera with phase detection auto-focus (PDAF), an f/2.2 aperture and dual-tone LED flash and an 8 mega-pixel front-facing camera. The camera UI is simple with toggles for flash, front camera and HDR. Settings option lets you choose aspect ratio, adjust white balance, ISO, enable geo location, option to use volume button as a shutter key and more.

Image Source: Digit.in

The rear camera gives you some impressive shots when taken in bright light as well as low light. The PDAF feature works very quickly, thus giving you some excellent shots. The rear camera can record full-HD 1080p videos. You can find the images taken in low light a bit dull, but the dual-tone flash helps to bring natural tone and and less noise in images.

Image Source: Techroid.in

The 8 mega-pixel front-facing camera is good for selfies and video chats. Colors are vibrant and the images are sharp as well. It also has beautify mode. The front camera can also record HD videos. Even though the front camera has been improved, the rear camera is not the best for capturing images in low-lighting conditions.

Battery Life and Connectivity Options

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is backed with a 3,500 mAh battery. The battery is enough to let your smartphone last for a full day with 4G and both the SIM cards on. It has power saver mode that reduces the screen and GPU power consumption. It also has ultimate power saver mode that enables only calling and messaging for several days of standby. The smartphone takes about 2 hours to get full charged from 0 to 100 percent.

The smartphone has 4G support with support of 4G LTE bands. Both the SIM supports 4G, but you can enable 4G only in one SIM at a time, while the other goes to 2G. The device also has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS and USB OTG support.

Verdict

Image Source: Androidauthority.com

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is a good smartphone in terms of performance, camera, and its battery life. The 1080p display of the smartphone is also perfect at this price range. You are getting the latest Android Marshmallow 6.0 OS and solid build quality. We didn’t mentioned earlier, but the sound of the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note is also very good and comes with Dolby Atmos Surround system. There are a few down points of the smartphone, such as the hybrid dual SIM tray, that can either sport two SIM at a time or a SIM and a micro-SD card. So, you can not use two SIM and a micro-SD card at the same time. But that’s not something deal breaking, as the smartphone gives you 32 GB internal storage.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Note

Check out our list of Top 5 Smartphones in India under Rs 15,000 for September 2016

8.5 Total Score
Summary

A beautiful metal unibody construction, impressive performance, and excellent battery life highlight the solid smartphone experience that is available with the Lenovo Vibe K5 Note.

Design
8.5
Display
8.5
Software
9
Hardware and Performance
8.5
Camera
8
Battery Life
8.5
PROS
  • Solid metal unibody design
  • Good performance
  • Great battery life
  • Clean software package
  • Affordable
CONS
  • Lackluster camera
  • Audio is a letdown
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