Apart from Xiaomi and LeEco, if we talk about Lenovo, today we are going to review Vibe K4 Note. After the success of K3 Note, this phone of Lenovo is also attracting customers a lot. Initially Lenovo sold this smartphone in flash sale but now this smartphone can be purchased without flash sale. Does Lenovo Vibe K4 Note have all the features that can make it a place in the top budget smartphone of 2016? Know what our review says
Look and design
While the Redmi Note 3 and LE 1S are metal body smartphones, the Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has a plastic body. Plastic has been used to make everything from the back panel to the edges of the device, but it is lighter than the metal body of the Redmi Note 3 and LE 1S. Despite having a plastic body, it looks decent.
The camera, fingerprint sensor and flash and Lenovo and Dolby Atmos logos are given on the back panel. Our matte finish black color review unit looked good. Apart from this, it is also available in white color variant. The back panel can be easily removed to change the SIM card and microSD card. The good thing is that the phone has a separate microSD card slot to increase storage along with two SIM slots.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has power and volume buttons on the right side while the USB port is on the bottom and the 3.5mm audio jack is on the top. The front of the phone is almost similar to Lenovo Vibe K3 Note. The front of the phone has dual speaker layout, capacitive keys equipped with extended Gorilla Glass, front camera, sensors and LED indicators.
The phone comes with a plastic protective case, screen protector film and a 10 watt charger. This charger charges the 3300 mAh battery given in the phone very fast. Although the protective case makes the phone a bit bulky, it is a good way to protect it from scratches and damage to the edges.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has a 5.5-inch full-HD IPS LCD panel. The phone also gets a bit warm sometimes. The screen of the smartphone is bright, sharp and full of detail. The screen of this phone is good as per the price.
Specifications and software
The Lenovo Vibe K4 handset uses a 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6753 chipset. This is similar to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 615 processor but it has started to feel outdated in just three months. The LE 1S has a more powerful MediaTek Helio X10 processor while the Redmi Note 3 also runs on a more powerful Snapdragon 650 processor. But if you want better performance then both of these are better smartphones than the Vibe K4 Note.
3 GB RAM makes multitasking easy in the phone. The inbuilt storage of the phone is 16 GB which can be expanded up to 128 GB with the help of a microSD card. The phone has Wi-Fi B/G/N/AC and 4G connectivity on both SIMs. However, at a time you can use 4G on only one SIM and 3G on the other SIM. Compared to the 32 GB storage provided in LE 1S and Redmi Note 3, Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has only 16 GB storage. But while the storage in LE 1S is not expandable, in Redmi Note 3 it can be increased only up to 32 GB.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note comes with ANT VR headset which can be purchased at an additional cost of Rs 1,299. The phone is quick to create content for any VR application. For VR use, you can switch the phone to VR mode through the power menu and use the headset in the slot. Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is extremely affordable among all the devices that come with VR feature, which makes it unique and special.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note will run on Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system on which the company has used Vibe UI skin. The most useful change in the phone is its dual layered mode. You can also choose single layered mode as per your convenience.
There is a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) IPS display and it is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The pixel density of the screen is 401 ppi and the user will also get control of color balance.
The biggest improvement in the phone is the customization option of its user interface. From the phone’s home screen and interface to the quick setting menu, everything can now be easily customized and you can set your phone as you want. The notification log feature given in Vibe X3 is also given in Vibe K4 Note, so that you can see the notifications that you have deleted later. Many other apps like Amazon, WeChat come pre-installed in the phone but if you want to free up your phone by uninstalling them, then you are free to do so.
Double-tap to activate the screen, flip phone cover to lock or double-press the volume button to take a quick photo. The fingerprint sensor can store and recognise up to two fingerprints which can be used to unlock the phone. The fingerprint sensor works quickly and smoothly and unlocks the phone without any hassle.
Camera
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera. Both the cameras can record videos at 1080p. All the basic features like panorama, filter, self-timer, HDR and multi-shot are provided in the camera.
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The camera app is basic. While recording videos, there is a two-step process and you can only choose between panorama mode or filters from the mode menu. You can manually control the settings by going to the settings menu. There are settings for photo resolution and ratio, video resolution and other features like touch shutter, smile detection and self-timer. Photos taken with the phone’s primary camera are sharp and detailed in focus, but there is a bit of blur in the bright parts of the image. We had no problem clicking close-ups, indoor shots and even in low light, and the quality of the images was quite good. (Tap to see full image) However, blur is a big problem when there are bright colours in the image. But the photos taken by the Vibe K4 Note are not too bad, but the quality of the images taken by this smartphone can be said to be good compared to phones coming in this price range. But if camera quality is a big and important thing for you, then Asus Zenfone Max is a much better option for you.
Performance
Lenovo Vibe K4 handset uses 64-bit octa-core MediaTek MT6753 chipset with Mali T720MP3 GPU. The phone has 3GB RAM. With this software, the handset runs smoothly without any problem and you hardly see any problem in the performance of the phone. There is no problem while playing games on the phone, although the phone gets a little hot while playing Dead Trigger 2 and the battery also runs out quickly during this time.
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note delivers a great performance and outperforms its rivals like LE 1S and Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. During the video loop test, the 3300mAh battery in the phone lasted for 8 hours and 54 minutes. On the other hand, the battery lasted much better than expected with normal usage throughout the day. The phone’s screen consumes a lot of battery, so the less you use the screen, the longer your battery will last.
The phone delivers great sound with the help of dual stereo speakers in the front. The audio of the phone is loud, clear and sharp, along with this the sound is good even with headphones. Vibe K4 Note has Dolby Atmos support.
Our verdict
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note’s results were mixed for us. It worked well in some areas (like screen, fingerprint sensor, sonic capability and great software). VR can also be used well in the phone. Apart from this, it is worth noting that with two SIMs, you can increase the expandable storage up to 128 GB with a microSD card. 3 GB RAM also plays a big role in running the phone without any problem.
But Lenovo Vibe K4 Note has a few shortcomings as well, when it comes to construction material, internal storage, performance and camera quality, Lenovo Vibe K4 lags a bit behind its competitors.
But Lenovo Vibe K4 Note launched in early 2016 is a great smartphone which is now facing tough competition from Xiaomi and LeEco. The competition is quite tough and we have to say that Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 is a better phone than Lenovo Vibe K4 Note in every aspect. However, if VR and software, brand value matters to you then you can definitely buy Lenovo Vibe K4 without thinking twice.
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