In this price segment, Lenovo K10 Note will compete directly with handsets like Realme 5 Pro, Vivo Z1 Pro (Review) and Xiaomi Mi A3 (Review). Lenovo K10 Note has a big battery, high-resolution display and powerful processor, let’s know about Lenovo K10 Note in detail…
Design of Lenovo K10 Note
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In our first impressions of the Lenovo K10 Note, we talked about the simplistic design of the handset. The design is good but not eye-catching. The body is made of plastic of good quality and the phone feels sturdy. We liked that the back and sides are made of a single piece of plastic, which made the phone grip quite well in the hands.
We have the Lenovo K10 Note Night Black colour variant for review, but it was difficult to keep it clean. It was not easy to clean the stains on the plastic back panel. Currently, only one colour variant of the phone has been launched. The volume and power buttons are on the right side of the phone, while the dual-SIM slot is on the left side of the phone.
Both the slots come with 4G VoLTE support, while the fingerprint sensor has been placed on the back of the phone for security. A microSD card can be used to increase the internal storage, but it is worth noting that for this you will have to remove the second SIM. This means that only one SIM and one microSD card can be used in this phone.
All the ports are at the bottom of the Lenovo K10 Note. While playing games with wired headphones, the 3.5mm headphone jack will get in the way if you hold the phone in landscape mode. The speaker will not get blocked easily as it is placed above the USB Type-C port. The Lenovo K10 Note has a 6.3-inch full-HD+ LCD display that shows colours well.
The phone does not have Gorilla Glass, but according to Lenovo, Panda Glass has been used in the K10 Note. Viewing angles are also good, the display comes with a dewdrop-notch but the bezels are neither too thin nor too thick. The notification LED is housed in the earpiece. The fingerprint sensor at the back of the phone also identifies correctly.
There is also a fan unlock feature, but Android Pie’s default smart lock feature is slow and does not work properly in low light. In the retail box, Lenovo K10 Note will come with an 18-watt fast charger, Type-C cable, SIM eject tool and some manuals. For your information, let us tell you that the case will not be available with the phone.
Lenovo K10 Note specifications and software
Lenovo K10 Note has a powerful processor, the handset is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC. This octa-core chip is made using a 10mm fabrication process. The price of Lenovo K10 Note starts at Rs 13,999 in India. The 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant will be sold at this price.
We have the 4GB RAM variant of Lenovo K10 Note for review. On the other hand, the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant of this handset is priced at Rs 15,999. Both versions include dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5, USB OTG, FM radio, GPS and Dolby Atmos support for speakers and headphones.
Accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, compass and proximity sensor are part of this phone. Lenovo K10 Note runs on a custom version of Android 9 Pie, but the customization is not very heavy so overall its look and feel is close to stock Android. The notification shade is designed in such a way that you will see only two rows of toggle switches in it.
For other buttons, instead of the second swipe-down action, you have to swipe to the left. The order of the switches can be customized. A big clock will appear as a widget on the home screen of Lenovo K10 Note, which will also give you information about weather etc. Swiping up from the home screen will open the app drawer.
There are also some additional features in the Settings app like 4D U-Touch menu, which lets you swap the three-button navigation for gestures. Our review unit was running on the May 2019 Android security patch which is quite old. We also liked features like the screenshot editor or the in-built screen recording. There isn’t much bloatware on the Lenovo K10 Note, and you get Lenovo’s curated app store called App Daily which isn’t anything special. Games like Asphalt Nitro, Puzzle Pets, and Spider-Man: Ultimate Power come pre-installed, but you can uninstall them if you want.
Lenovo K10 Note performance and battery life
Lenovo K10 Note feels compact despite having a large display. The slim body and light weight of the device made the phone easy to use. It is possible to use the phone with one hand to some extent but it is still difficult to reach the upper corners of the screen. Android ran well on our 4GB RAM variant. Apps loaded quickly and heavy games also ran smoothly.
The phone did not heat up during normal usage, but it did get a little warm while playing games. We played PUBG Mobile on the high preset and the phone did not heat up much even after 30 minutes of gameplay. The Lenovo K10 Note handles media playback quite well. High-resolution videos look good on the display and thanks to Dolby Atmos, the sound quality is good even from the single speaker on the phone.
You can choose from three presets, Dynamic, Music and Movie. The battery life of the phone is also good. In our battery loop test, the 4050mAh battery lasted for 13 hours and 14 minutes. Normal usage includes chat apps, music streaming, camera usage and gaming. Lenovo K10 Note comes with 18W fast charging support. The phone charges only 63 percent battery in one hour while it takes two and a half hours to fully charge.
Lenovo K10 Note cameras
Lenovo K10 Note has three rear cameras. There will be a 16-megapixel primary camera with F/1.8 aperture on the rear. There is an 8-megapixel telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom and the third is a 5-megapixel depth sensor. The primary sensor comes with PDAF, due to which the focus speed is fast. The telephoto sensor takes some time to lock focus.
When shooting landscapes, the Lenovo K10 Note’s primary sensor captures a good amount of detail. Colours didn’t look oversaturated and white balance was generally good. We also liked that there wasn’t much sharpening in the images. Details in the centre of the frame were sharp. The phone also performed well in close-up shots, but we often had to tap the viewfinder to get the right exposure.
The telephoto camera comes with 2x optical zoom, details were captured well in adequate light. The edges around the object were not as sharp as the primary sensor, but shots came out well in adequate light. The phone’s camera was a little slow in focusing, so it was a bit difficult to take pictures of fast moving objects. In low light, the camera relies on digital zoom instead of switching to the sensor. Image quality was good.
The portrait mode on the Lenovo K10 Note is called dual, with the help of which you can add some extra background blur. The level of blur cannot be adjusted before or after taking the picture. Apart from this, it saves the picture within a few seconds of pressing the shutter button. Edge detection was good, you also get Panorama and Pro mode, with the help of which the shutter speed can be set and it also gives the option to save a DNG RAW file.
Even in low light indoors, Lenovo K10 Note clicked good pictures without much noise. Where the light was very low, the camera did have some trouble capturing the details properly. The picture looked good on the phone’s display but on zooming, blurred texture and grain were visible. Night shooting mode is also provided for the primary camera, with the help of which good pictures were taken indoors but it is not very good during low light outdoors.
The quality of photos taken with the 16-megapixel selfie camera of Lenovo K10 Note was average. Even with the beauty filter turned off, the sharpness of skin texture and colours were not very accurate. Apart from this, there is also a beauty mode which comes with preset beauty effects. If you want, you can also create a custom beauty filter for your face.
The Lenovo K10 Note is capable of shooting videos at up to 4K resolution. Picture quality was also average, especially when shooting in landscape. The quality was slightly better when shooting at 1080p resolution but the phone does not have stabilisation which might disappoint you. But the camera does a good job in low-light.
Our verdict
On paper, the Lenovo K10 Note is a good phone from Lenovo in the budget segment. It is lightweight and app performance is good, the display is vivid and battery life is strong. The rear cameras are decent and having a telephoto camera is also good in this price segment. Now let’s talk about the things where the Lenovo K10 Note could have been better and this includes the body finish.
The plastic back panel was difficult to keep clean. The camera is not very good in low light. The phone also does not have electronic stabilization, the selfie camera was also not great. Overall Lenovo K10 Note is acceptable but in this price segment, Realme 5 Pro and Xiaomi Mi A3 (Review) can also prove to be better options.
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