I purchased this mobile LENOVO Vibe K5 during the Great Indian Festival using my HDFC credit card and I am eligible to get 15% cashback. Hope I get it too
Okay Let’s move on to the review-
The phone was delivered in a nice package and that too 3 days before the expected arrival. I just love the Amazon service. They are the best online shopping chain in India
Now I would like to answer most of the questions that might come into one’s mind when thinking to buy the phone.
Q 1. Why should I go for this phone when there’s better known and loved Xiaomi Redmi 3 for the same price?
Ans- Uhh.Uhh.Uhhh. I would like to share my own experience with the most popular and best selling smartphone of 2016 - Redmi Note 3. I agree it has really cool features and good specs and all. The MIUI user interface is pretty great too, well let me tell you the version I bought was the 2 GB variant and it’s running good till now expect the really low available RAM and really really bad device optimization. In my phone regularly I get available RAM as low as 200 MB without any running application and some lite background apps. I have to keep restarting the phone every now and then to get more available RAM and max it goes is 750 MB. Well this is it. Now about the Vibe K5 the RAM available is 1.1 GB as far now with the same background apps running. MIUI has many bugs that I encountered with the Redmi Note 3 and I expect the same to be the case with Redmi 3.
Q 2. Why am I posting only negative views about Redmi 3?
Ans- Well this question will certainly arise in your mind if you read the above answer. Okay, I will answer to that too. Actually I am giving an unbiased review of the phone and I am sharing my own experience. I clearly mean to convey LENOVO is better on the software and optimization front.
Q 3. Why not go for COOLPAD Note 3?
Ans- Actually both COOLPAD and LENOVO are chinnese companies and they both are now well known in India expect LENOVO is by far better in both terms of product quality and after sales service. You should anytime go for LENOVO when you have a option those two. I haven’t used the COOLPAD Note 3 so I cannot just tell about it.
Now for the real review -
Build:
I would like to start by the Build quality. It is just Superb. I find the device nice to hold in the hand and literally its better than Redmi Note 3. The phone has a good grip but be sure to buy a back cover as you never know what might happen.
Hardware & Software:
This phone is powered by a Snapdragon 616 Octa Core 1.5 GHz processor and runs on 2 GB of RAM. Also you get 16 GB internal storage(standard now a days) out of which 8.2 is available which not quite sufficient if you are a heavy user, so might consider getting the K5 Plus which more RAM and Storage.
On the software front the phone runs Android Lollipop 5.1.1 with Vibe UI on top. You can anytime change to stock android launcher if you want. The screen is well lit and bright as well as responsive too. As I said before the hardware is really good and one of the best you can get in this price.
One more thing you get Dolby Atmos speakers which pretty good and really loud(really).
Camera:
This is the part where this phone lags and most other in this price range lag too. By lag I mean the picture quality is that good as one would want but anyways one should expect DSLR like quality in a Smartphone. The is on par with Redmi Note 3 I compared myself and found the color production was slightly better in the Note 3. And about the video quality is fine too. Recording is by default set to 720p if you want you can change it to 1080p.
Connectivity:
Having a removable battery this phone can accommodate 2 4G sims as well as a MicroSD card which is one reason it’s better than Redmi 3. I don’t like the Hybrid slot stuff. Sadly you don’t get VoLTE.
Gaming:
Many people must be thing about this too. Well let me tell you, I tried some casual and hardcore games. The casual ones like Angry Birds 2, Subway Surfers and most games out there work really well. But continuous gaming cannot be done on this phone due to the battery capacity. About the Hardcore and graphic demanding games, well they don’t run that good. I am not much of the mobile gamer, so this isn’t a problem.
Heating:
The most annoying thing that I face is heating with the Redmi Note 3 it goes upto 45 degree Celsius during charging and IDK why during normal usage too. I too a ton of relief when I found out this wasn’t the case with Vibe K5.
Battery:
The phone’s battery is of 2750 mAh capacity which is not that impressive but lasts for a day easily if you are a moderate user. Continuous YouTube and Gaming drains the battery very fast.
Conclusion:
My final thoughts are - This Phone Is a Marvelous Piece of Hardware has a good design, hardware and features. And overall this phone is in my opinion the best you can get in this range. Better go for it. You will really love the phone as I do.