It was just a last-minute plan when my fellow tech blogger Peter of GeekyPinas allowed me to check Novo 7 Tech's office. I am aware that it was the first day of Lenovo K3 Note and I might gonna have a chance to see it and I am right.
I am thankful that we had a chance to unbox this newest device from the local distributor. The front has 5 MP front camera and 5.5 inch IPS Full HD display plus the soft capacitive Android buttons even that it is already Android 5.0 Lollipop. The back has 13 MP AF rear camera with dual LED flash, single speaker and Lenovo logo.
The top has CTIA compliant 3.5 mm. audio jack and OTG capable micro USB port. The bottom has the pin-hole mic.
Nothing on the left side as you can locate the volume rocker and power/unlock button at the right side.
The package includes instructional manual in Chinese, 2 ampere USB plug and micro USB to USB cord.
The one in the left was the first thing that you'll gonna when you boot this device. Even that this an import device from China, don't worry on the language selection as you can easily select and you can even choose English (Philippines). At the right, the device has already a pre-installed DU Battery Saver. If not sure though if you have an option to uninstall it.
Let's go to some of my screenshots. No surprise that it has no app drawer but it is quite cleaner look than the UI in another bang-for-the-buck Lenovo device, the A7000.
A glimpse of the settings menu. Out of 16 GB ROM, it has over 10 GB for app storage.
The "control center" of the K3 Note at the left is quite impressive like the manual brightmess, power saver mode and flashlight for emergency situations. Good thing that you can swipe down at the middle part of the home screen which is a big help for a device with 5.5 inch display. The right part is a sneak peek of the camera UI.
More on the rear and front camera UI of the device and I love that both 13 MP main and 5 MP selfie cameras can shoot at full screen mode, not only at 4:3 aspect ratio.
And the benchmarks. It got a verified Antutu score of 36722 which is quite low compared to other counterparts with the same SoC (1.7 GHz Mediatek MT6752 octa-core processor). I ran the benchmark a few times but sometimes, it will stuck a little which might be a factor at the score that I got. Expect that you can have accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, gyro, sound and magnetic sensors on this device.
First impressions: My biggest wow factor in this device, the sound quality both on the single speaker and thru earphones (with the help of Peter's RHA earphones) when I had some HD videos for testing. For me, this is the best sound on it's speaker for it's below Php 10,000 price range. Taking pics is fast enough and can really take quality videos. I love the UI on this one over the A7000. The display is very good for me. One thing to check out is the back cover which is kinda on the soft side but I'll not gonna blame it esp. when I'll gonna remember it's SRP.
Lenovo K3 Note is now available in select Novo 7 Tech shops at Php 8,599 or at Novo 7 Tech online store at their website for Php 8,399. The device comes with a free 1 year parts and service warranty.
