Lenovo K10 Note is a direct competitor in this price segment in the market. Realme 5 Pro, Vivo Z1 Pro ,review) And Xiaomi Mi A3 ,review) like from the handset. Lenovo K10 Note has a large battery, high-resolution display and powerful processor, let us know in detail about Lenovo K10 Note…
Lenovo K10 Note design
We talked about the simplistic design of the handset in our first impressions of the Lenovo K10 Note. Its design is good but it is not going to attract everyone’s attention. The body is made of plastic which is of good quality and the phone feels sturdy. We liked that the back and sides are made from a single piece of plastic, which made the phone feel good in the hands.
We have the Night Black color variant of the Lenovo K10 Note for review, although it was difficult to keep it clean. The smudges on the plastic back panel were not easy to clean. At present only one color variant of the phone has been launched. The volume and power buttons are placed on the right side of the phone while the dual-SIM slot is placed on the left side of the phone.
Both slots come with 4G VoLTE support, while a fingerprint sensor has been placed in the back of the phone for security. MicroSD card can be used to increase the internal storage but the thing to note is that for this you will have to remove the second SIM. Meaning, only one SIM and one microSD card can be used in this phone.
All the ports are on 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 be easily blocked as it is placed above the USB Type-C port. Lenovo K10 Note has a 6.3-inch full-HD + LCD display on which colors are clearly visible.
The phone doesn’t have Gorilla Glass, but according to Lenovo, the K10 Note uses Panda Glass. Viewing angles are also good, the display comes with dewdrop-notch but the bezels are neither very thin nor very thick. The notification LED has found a place in the earpiece. The fingerprint sensor given in the back of the phone also identifies correctly.
There is also a Fen Unlock feature but Android Pie’s default Smart Lock feature is slow and does not work well in low light. In the retail box, the 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 a 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 with 10 mm fabrication process. Lenovo K10 Note price in India starts from Rs 13,999. 4 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant will be sold at this price.
We have the 4 GB RAM variant of Lenovo K10 Note for review. On the other hand, the price of 6 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant of this handset is 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 a custom version of Android 9 Pie, but the customization is not too heavy so the overall 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.
Other buttons require you to swipe left instead of a second swipe-down action. The order of 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.
The Settings app also has some additional features like the 4D U-Touch menu, which lets you swap three-button navigation for gestures. Our review unit is running on May 2019 Android security patch which is quite old. We also liked features like the screenshot editor or in-built screen recording. There is not much bloatware in Lenovo K10 Note, you will get Lenovo curated app store App Daily in the phone which is nothing special. Games like Asphalt Nitro, Puzzle Pets and Spider-Man: Ultimate Power will be pre-installed on the phone, but if you want, you can also uninstall these games.
Lenovo K10 Note performance and battery life
Despite the large display of Lenovo K10 Note, it looks compact. The phone was easy to use due to the slim body and light weight of the device. 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 in our 4 GB RAM variant. Apps loaded fast and even heavy games ran smoothly.
The phone did not get hot during normal use, but it did get a little hot while playing games. We played PUBG Mobile on the High preset and the phone didn’t heat up much even after 30 minutes of gameplay. The Lenovo K10 Note handles media playback well. High-resolution videos look good on the display and due to Dolby Atmos, the sound from the single speaker in the phone is also good.
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 4050 mAh battery lasted for 13 hours and 14 minutes. Common uses include chat apps, music streaming, camera usage and gaming. Lenovo K10 Note comes with 18 watt fast charging support. The battery drains only 63 percent in one hour, whereas the phone takes two and a half hours to be fully charged.
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. An 8-megapixel telephoto camera with 2x optical zoom is provided 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 a while to lock focus.
The primary sensor of Lenovo K10 Note captures details well when shooting in landscape. Colors didn’t appear oversaturated and white balance was generally good. We also liked that there was not much sharpness in the pictures. Details were sharp in the center of the frame. The phone performed well even in close-up shots but we had to tap the viewfinder frequently 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 did not have the same sharpness as the primary sensor but in sufficient light the shots were good. The phone’s camera was a little slow to focus, making it a little difficult to capture fast-moving objects. In low-light the camera relies on digital zoom instead of switching to the sensor. Image quality was good.
The Lenovo K10 Note has a portrait mode called Dual, which lets you add some extra background blur. The level of blur cannot be adjusted before or after taking a photo. 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 DNG RAW file.
Even in low-light indoors, the Lenovo K10 Note clicked good pictures without much noise. Where there was very little light, the camera had some trouble capturing the details well. The picture looked good in the phone’s display but when zoomed, blurred texture and grains were visible. Night shooting mode has also been provided for the primary camera, with the help of which good pictures were taken indoors but it is not very good in low light outdoors.
The quality of photos captured with the 16-megapixel selfie camera on the Lenovo K10 Note was average. Even with the beauty filter turned off, the sharpness and colors of the skin texture 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 custom beauty filters for your face.
The Lenovo K10 Note is capable of shooting videos up to 4K resolution. Picture quality was also average, especially when shooting in landscapes. The quality was slightly better when shooting at 1080 resolution but the phone lacks stabilization which may disappoint you. But the camera works well in low-light.
our decision
On paper, the Lenovo K10 Note is a good phone from Lenovo in the budget segment. It’s light and app performance is good, the display is vivid and battery life is strong. The rear cameras on the back of the phone are also good and having a telephoto camera in this price segment is also quite good. Now let’s talk about the things in which Lenovo K10 Note could have been better and this includes the finish of the body.
The plastic back panel was difficult to keep clean. The camera is not very good in low-light. There is no electronic stabilization in the phone, the selfie camera was also nothing special. Overall Lenovo K10 Note is acceptable but in this price segment Realme 5 Pro and Xiaomi Mi A3 ,review) may also prove to be a better option.