Lenovo’s smartphone market position has changed since the acquisition of the Motorola brand. Industry reports indicate that the company is among the top 5 smartphone manufacturers in India. During the launch of the K8 Note in India, the company also claimed that it has managed to sell 85 lakh K-series handsets in India so far.
With Lenovo K8 Note, the company has taken a step towards the stock Android experience. The company has ditched its old UI Vibe Pure UI. On paper, the specifications and features of Lenovo K8 Note are good. But the challenge is also big. Will this phone be able to strike a balance between price and features? Let’s find out…
Lenovo K8 Note design
Lenovo K8 Note has a strong metal body. The aluminium 6000 gives it a premium feel. There is no doubt that K8 Note is one of the better looking phones in this price range. But there is nothing new in it. The phone will remind you of Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 again and again. The front panel has 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Lenovo has used anti-fingerprint coating on the screen. This means that you will not have to worry about removing your fingerprints again and again.
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Lenovo K8 Note has capacitive buttons on the front panel which are not backlit. We had trouble using them in the dark. The front camera has its own LED flash. Lenovo says that the demand for this feature has increased in recent times. There are two rear cameras on the rear panel which are located above and below each other. Dual LED flash is provided with this. The fingerprint sensor is placed below the camera. There was never any problem in reaching it. The physical buttons are easy to use. The power and volume buttons were at the place we liked. It was easy to reach them with thumb or fingerprint.
You will see the familiar antenna band on the back of the handset. The colour of the band is such that it easily gets lost in the colour of the phone. Lenovo K8 Note is available in Fine Gold and Venom Black colours. We got the black variant for review. Lenovo has not made a big deal of K8 Note branding on the phone, which is good. The logo has been placed on the back.
There is a music button on the left panel which can be customized for other purposes as well. You will be able to customize the music button by going to user settings. It can be used to play/pause audio or video, turn on/off the flashlight, launch the camera app, capture a screenshot or open a specific app. The music button has a light red color which gives it a distinct identity. The company has provided separate slots for two SIM cards and a microSD card. The micro-USB port is at the bottom. The speaker grills are on both sides of it. Unfortunately, there is only one functional speaker. But this phone has Dolby Atmos audio enhancement. The second grill is just for show, like other budget phones. There is a 3.5mm audio jack on the top.
We had no problem using the Lenovo K8 Note with one hand. Its dimensions are 154.5×75.9×8.5 mm and the curved edges make it fit comfortably in the palm. Weighing 180 grams, the phone feels a little warm. In comparison, its main rival Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 weighs 175 grams. The Lenovo K8 Note comes with water splash protection.
Lenovo K8 Note has a lot of improvements in design compared to Lenovo K6 Note. Due to this, it feels more premium than its price. In the box, you will get a transparent plastic cover, USB cable, 15 watt rapid charger, SIM ejector and instruction manual. Lenovo K8 Note is the company’s first smartphone to come with a rapid charger. However, you will not get any earphones. This may disappoint you.
Lenovo K8 Note specifications and software
Lenovo K8 Note has a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) display. It uses a deca-core MediaTek Helio X23 (MT6797) chipset. K8 Note has been launched in India in two storage and RAM variants: 3 GB RAM and 32 GB and 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. We got the 4 GB RAM variant for review. You will be able to use a microSD card up to 128 GB.
Lenovo has praised the dual rear camera of its K8 Note smartphone. There is a 13-megapixel primary camera on the rear. Along with this, there is a 5-megapixel depth sensor for bokeh effect. For selfie lovers, a 13-megapixel sensor has been provided on the front panel. The battery is 4000 mAh and this phone supports rapid charging. Lenovo K8 Note comes with 4G VoLTE support. Other connectivity features include Wi-Fi 802.11 AC and Bluetooth 4.1.
Lenovo has made another big change in the software department. The Chinese company first told Gadgets 360 that all future Lenovo phones will run stock Android out of the box. The Lenovo K8 Note runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat. This means that the Vibe Pure UI is gone.
Android 7.1.1 Nougat means that you will get app shortcut technology like 3D Touch in this Lenovo phone. K8 Note users will now be able to perform various functions by pressing an app for a short time. Our review unit immediately received the July security patch. Lenovo has assured that updates will be received regularly in the future. This phone has important features of Android 7.1.1 Nougat like GIF support in the keyboard. Features like Google Assistant and split screen will also be available.
You will find Google apps like Duo, Play Movies and Play Music pre-installed. The phone comes with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint which are removable. The interface is smooth. The phone does not become laggy even when using multiple apps. The Google Photos app is now the default gallery which is good according to us.
The software has also been overhauled. You will be able to use the pre-installed Dolby Atmos app. The phone also has TheaterMax VR support which was introduced with the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note.
Interestingly, Lenovo has assured that the K8 Note will get the Android O update by the end of the year. This could be a major reason to buy the phone.
Lenovo K8 Note performance and camera
We enjoyed using the Lenovo K8 Note. Stock Android is a welcome addition. We had 12 apps running in the background but the performance didn’t suffer. Credit for this goes to Android’s memory management. The K8 Note comes in two variants but we would recommend you to buy the one with 4GB of RAM.
We found that the phone heats up very quickly. If the camera app is open for a while or GPS navigation is on for a short while, you will feel the phone getting hot. Something similar happened while playing games. While playing games for 20 minutes continuously, the phone got so hot that it was not easy to hold it in hands.
The gaming experience on Lenovo K8 Note was great. Games with powerful graphics like Need for Speed ran smoothly. Call quality was also good. Due to VoLTE support, we were able to make calls from Jio SIM. The phone works well even in areas with weak network. The speaker present at the bottom produces adequate sound, but do not expect stereo speaker performance from it. The sound quality can be improved using the Dolby Atmos app, but it also has a limit. Lenovo has marketed K8 Note as a multimedia device, so stereo speakers would have been better.
Due to the deca-core processor, the phone performed well in benchmark tests. The benchmark scores were better than other handsets in this price range. The 5.5-inch screen has a resolution of 1080×1920 pixels. It is crisp and bright enough. Viewing angles are also decent and there is no problem in reading the screen in sunlight. Regarding the display of Lenovo K8 Note, we would say that it is the best display in any Lenovo handset in this price range. Our experience of watching videos and playing games on Lenovo K8 Note was great.
Compared to the Lenovo K6 Note (Review), the K8 Note’s camera department has been significantly improved. It has a 13-megapixel PureCel sensor and a 5-megapixel Samsung BSI sensor. The primary 13-megapixel sensor captures photos. At the same time, the 5-megapixel sensor is responsible for gathering depth of field information. The K8 Note’s camera app is very simple. You won’t get many options to customize. Users can choose between Normal mode or Depth-enabled mode. Photos taken in Normal mode came out with detail. These photos had natural colors with less noise. The camera locks focus on the subject quickly. Landscape and macro shots also came out well. In our opinion, photos taken outdoors with its camera had more detail than other smartphones in this category.
Talking about depth of field shots, we felt that the camera of K8 Note did a good job. But the camera had to struggle to get the perfect shot. There were times when the pictures came out as desired without any problem. But on most occasions the pictures came out blurred the first time. To blur the background, you have to choose an aperture between f/1.2 to f/2.8. We felt that the camera of K8 Note was a bit harsh. At times the edges looked a bit unnatural. At times the difference between the subject and the background was not established. Some parts of the subject also came out blurred. We hope that Lenovo will fix these shortcomings through software updates. Especially keeping in mind that Lenovo K8 Note is the company’s first dual rear camera phone.
Photos taken in low light came out with a lot of noise, especially when there was less lighting around. We tried using the camera app to take landscape shots at night. The results were washed out. The lack of detail was clearly visible in the indoor samples.
The 13-megapixel front camera does a good job with selfies. The LED flash proves its usefulness. With the help of beauty mode, you will be able to improve the shot. The front camera captured the color tone. And there was no complaint about the detail either.
Lenovo K8 Note Battery Life
The 4000mAh battery lasted for about 20 hours of heavy usage. During the review, WhatsApp, Outlook, Gmail, Facebook, Instagram, Google Maps, Telegram and Twitter apps kept running in the background. We also used the dual camera a lot and the same happened with gaming. On light usage, the battery easily lasted a day. However, Lenovo K8 Note lags behind Redmi Note 4 in this regard.
In our standard video loop test, the Lenovo K8 Note battery lasted for 14 hours and 20 minutes. This is sufficient for a battery of this capacity. The Lenovo K8 Note comes with a rapid charger. This means that you will be able to charge the phone quickly. We found that the phone’s battery was charged up to 40 percent in just 20 minutes of charging. It will take about two hours to fully charge the battery.
Our verdict
The price of Lenovo K8 Note starts at Rs 12,999. At this price, you will get the variant with 3 GB RAM. For the variant we reviewed (4 GB RAM), you will have to spend Rs 13,999. At this price, Lenovo K8 Note is an all-rounder handset. You will get stock Android, two rear cameras, Theater Max and strong build quality. However, there are some shortcomings too. Battery life is not the best in this segment. The phone getting heated is a problem. Camera performance in low light is also less than expected. The good thing is that the dual rear camera is effective.
For Lenovo fans, the Lenovo K8 Note is a huge upgrade over the Lenovo K6 Note. There is nothing wrong in spending money on it. We believe that the Lenovo K8 Note will compete directly with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Review), which is extremely popular. However, Xiaomi is also preparing to bring its first dual rear camera phone in the Indian market. So we should be prepared for a new contender as well.
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