Gadgetory

Lenovo's k3 note is a mid-range smartphone with an affordable price tag although it makes a great first impression on paper how well is it really fair in day-to-day use this is Bailey Stein with Android authority and this is my full review of the Lenovo k3 note the k3 note offers a relatively basic design with the somewhat boxy feel in the hand the edges are easy to grip though the matte plastic rear resist both fingerprints and scratches well and the tactile feeling buttons are positioned perfectly for one-handed use at 8 millimeters and 150 grams it's fair to say that the k3 note is an average sized smartphone the back cover is easy to remove and lets you access the user-replaceable 3000 milliamp hour battery microSD card slot and dual micro SIM slots unlike many smartphones the k3 Notes microUSB port is located at the top of the device near the headphone jack whether you like this will depend on your personal preference but I found myself preferring it since it actually makes it easier to charge the device while listening to music also the rear speaker is located near the top on the back of the phone which makes it easier to hold the phone without destroying the audio with that said it's undoubtedly still inferior to front-facing speakers the three capacitive keys on the front of the k3 note menu home and back sadly do not illuminate although some may be disappointed by this there was never a time when I had trouble finding each button in addition to a five megapixel front facing camera there's also a notification LED at the top-right which illuminates red for charging and green for missed calls the 5.5 inch 1080p display on the k3 note looks great and has good viewing angles color reproduction is accurate and while the phone does have better sunlight readability than the Asus zenfone 2 it's still lacking when compared to other devices like the meizu m2 note it can be difficult to read while outdoors but otherwise provides a great viewing experience well it is coated in dragon trail protection I did notice a few minor scratches on my unit after just a few days of use powered by the octa-core 64-bit mediatek mt6752 processor clocked at 1.7 gigahertz the k3 note is very powerful for price although the benchmark scores are relatively high the phone did lock up a few times during my testing it's far from a major issue but it can still be pretty annoying when watching a YouTube video or scrolling through a web page in chrome luckily the device would restore twits responsive state within about five to ten seconds but again it can be kind of frustrating there's also two gigabytes of RAM for basic multitasking as well as the mali t760 GPU the k3 note was able to handle gaming very well and I don't have any issues to report with support for 802 11 and Wi-Fi GPS and Bluetooth 4.1 the k3 note has all of the connectivity options you'd expect the Wi-Fi signal is very strong and the GPS signal is also pretty good it's actually providing more than double the range that I had with the new mobiles the eight and I can get a reliable Wi-Fi connection with the k3 note in areas where my Dell XPS 13 can't cellular network support will vary based on the model you purchase although I was able to receive HSPA+ on 80 in the United States although there is single sim support for 4G LTE you won't be able to receive those speeds within the US regardless of the model the speaker on the k3 note is surprisingly good when it comes to clarity but it could use a bump in volume it's much better than the speaker on the zenfone 2 and while it isn't as loud as the m2 note speaker it doesn't include nearly as much Distortion backed by a 3000 milliamp hour user replaceable battery the k3 note is pretty much expected to provide excellent battery life fortunately it delivers I started my day at 7 a.m. with brightness set to 100% for most of the day and Wi-Fi on for about half I washed about a half hour of YouTube videos played a few games and also ran a couple of benchmarking applications the phone did call it a day slightly earlier than I did at around 10 p.m. with just over 4 hours of screen on time I think the battery life is on par with the meizu m2 note and you do have to remember that a k3 note offers the option to swap out the battery if needed in addition to that lenovo has also included a couple of power saving modes for even better battery life the 13 megapixel rear camera captured mostly nice-looking images although there were times when it had trouble focusing images appear to be fairly sharp and detailed and the dual LED flash is very bright low-light images taken without the flash didn't turn out so well as expected but overall I think it takes some very good pictures when you factor in the cost of the phone Lenovo's camera app lets you change white balance and ISO as well as select specific scenes it offers a bit more control than average and I would say that it's definitely an improvement over media Tech's camera app the k3 note runs 5 UI 2.5 on top of Android 5.0 lollipop out of the box vibe UI has matured quite a bit over the past year but I still think that it could use a bit more polish the general user interface is mediocre and I'm far from a fan of the default system app icons with that said you can use lenovo's built-in theme center to change the general look and feel of the software experience it's fairly robust although I do wish that we could see English text previews for different font types also the stock launcher is missing an app drawer the lockscreen doesn't display our notifications and there are just certain areas of vibe UI feela Ted unpolished that doesn't mean the software experience is all bad however I actually prefer the notification shade overstock androids and I do appreciate the extra software features and gestures that Lenovo has added there have been a few other reviews posted which criticized the phone for having annoying blow wear but your experience will vary depending on who you purchase the phone from the stock rom does not include Google Apps so many resellers are adding them before shipping the devices out however some of those resellers may also be adding some additional blow air which may compromise the overall software experience if you're looking to purchase this phone officially in India you won't have to worry about this at all since lenovo's stock rom ships without the insane level of bloatware and also includes Google Apps the moral of the story here is to do your own research before buying from a specific reseller and be aware that you may have to flash a different ROM to get a more desirable software experience the Lenovo k3 note is available officially in India for ten thousand rupees and can be imported in the US for about $160 if you're not a fan of the golden yellow color you can always pick up a white or black model instead also if the single sixteen gigabyte partition isn't enough you can always expand the storage by using a microSD card up to 64 gigabytes the Lenovo k3 note is one of the best smartphones available for under $200 with a good display excellent performance in a large battery to keep it going the k3 note gets the essentials right however the design could be considered too simplistic for some the display offers poor sunlight readability and the speaker could use a bump in volume those drawbacks are all relatively minor though when considering the phone's very competitive price point I would say that it's a better value than the base model Asus zenfone 2 if you can get LTE and maybe even the meizu m2 note depending on your preferences do keep in mind that the m2 note shines more in design and display quality while the k3 note focuses more on performance and speaker quality in conclusion the k3 note is yet another great option in the budget smartphone space thank you for watching this vid and please make sure to give it a thumbs up below if you enjoyed it also please make sure to subscribe to the channel if 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