Lenovo k6 note comparison year of release. Lenovo K6 Note review: a large metal smartphone with a capacious battery. Technical capabilities and positioning

Specifications

• Android 6.0.1
• Screen 5.5 inches, FullHD, IPS, 401 ppi, light sensor
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset, 8 Cortex A53 cores up to 1.4 GHz, Adreno 505 graphics chip
• 3 or 4 GB RAM, 32 GB internal memory, memory cards up to 256 GB
• Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery, stated standby time – up to 25 days, talk time – up to 31 hours (4G)
• Front camera 8 megapixels
• Main camera 16 megapixels, PDAF, LED flash with tone correction
• Fingerprint sensor located on the rear panel
• Two nanoSIM cards, the slot is combined with a memory card slot
• FM radio
• Single speaker, Dolby Atmos
• Gravity sensor, proximity sensor, light sensor, vibration sensor, gyroscope
• Case colors – dark gray, gold, silver
• Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• LTE cat.4, FDD LTE Band 1/3/5/7/8/20 | TDD LTE Band 38/40/41
• Dimensions – 151x76x8.4 mm, weight – 169 grams

Contents of delivery

• Smartphone
• Charger with USB cable
• Wired stereo headset
• Screen Protective Film
• Instructions
• "Clip" for SIM tray

Positioning

Lenovo has been experimenting with different products for a long time, but the K line has always acted as a kind of balance in terms of price/quality ratio. Moreover, it was clearly copied from successful products of other Chinese companies; too many little details were the same, from design elements to cost. To some extent, the K6 Note is a typical Chinese phablet, which tried to implement a compromise between operating time, hardware and the quality of implementation of other functions. There are a dozen similar models on the market, some a little better, some a little worse, but we can say with confidence that the K6 Note is a typical representative of its class, it doesn’t have anything outstanding or noticeable that could make it stand out him among his classmates.

This device will be chosen where it is well presented on store shelves or during sales, when the price will decrease, which means the device will become more affordable. And at the current price for a PCT model, it’s not bad at all, but the choice is so huge that you’ll have to rack your brain about whether it’s worth buying Lenovo or whether it’s better to pay attention to something else. Let's try to figure out together what this model offers.

Design, dimensions, control elements

You look at the back panel, and only the Lenovo inscription reveals the manufacturer; from this angle, the device resembles models from Xiaomi, and not only from them. A metal monoblock, a fingerprint sensor on the back surface, plastic inserts at the edges, but they are made so well that it seems that they merge with the main, metal part.

The device is available in three colors – silver, dark gray and gold. The dark gray device has a black front panel, the gold one is also gold, and the silver one is white.

The phone dimensions are 151x76x8.4 mm, weight is 169 grams. It fits well in your hand and fits easily in your pocket. I like the grip of the case due to the small roundings; it has good ergonomics.

On the left side there is a tray for SIM cards and a memory card (either one SIM card and a memory card, or two nanoSIM cards). On the right side there is a paired volume key and an on/off button.

There is one speaker at the bottom end. Don't be confused by the symmetry of the holes, one of them was made for beauty. There is also a microUSB connector and a microphone, the second microphone is located at the top end. And there is also a 3.5 mm headset jack.

The device has a small LED indicator, it is located above the screen on the right. The screen itself has 2.5D glass and is nicely rounded. The oleophobic coating is good, hand marks are almost invisible.

The fact that the fingerprint sensor is located on the back surface is not scary; you can get used to it quickly. It works great, there are no false alarms, it recognizes fingers instantly.

There are touch keys under the screen; they cannot be swapped; they are rigidly fixed. There are no complaints about the build quality of this device; it is very well made.

Display

Screen 5.5 inches, FullHD, IPS, 401 ppi, has a light sensor. In the settings you can choose two color options, you won’t notice much difference between them. The screen quality is typical for this class of products, it is a good IPS matrix, but some phones in this class already have AMOLED screens, so the display in the K6 Note is by no means its strongest point. In the sun, the screen remains readable; the maximum backlight in automatic mode is about 500 nits.

Battery

Li-Ion battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh, the stated standby time is up to 25 days, talk time is up to 31 hours (4G). Unfortunately, the device lacks any form of fast charging, which makes it not as fun as competing smartphones. You will have to charge the battery for about 3.5 hours with the included charger.

Video playback time at maximum brightness is a little more than 10 hours.

The operating time under load of this smartphone is not bad, you can get three days with 5-6 hours of screen operation (automatic adjustment), data transfer over the mobile network (both 3G and 4G), as well as up to an hour and a half of calls.

I used this device as a mobile router, distributing the Internet to other devices, it worked quietly in this mode for a day, which can be considered an excellent indicator. There is nothing to complain about in terms of operating time; this is due to the chipset and the fact that it is not the most productive.

Chipset, memory, performance

The smartphone is built on Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 (8 Cortex A53 cores up to 1.4 GHz, Adreno 505 graphics chip), this is a budget solution in every sense. Competitors are trying to use either 6xx processors from Qualcomm or solutions from MediaTek, which are also more productive. But Lenovo decided that this was not necessary, since the typical consumer of such a smartphone will not play “heavy” games, but will most likely use standard functions. As a result, the choice fell on this mid-level chipset. For the interface, its performance is enough for the eyes, there are no slowdowns or slow operation.

The smartphone has 3 GB of RAM (there is a 4 GB model), 32 GB of internal memory, and you can also install memory cards up to 256 GB.

In synthetic tests, the smartphone shows relatively modest results.

Communication capabilities

From all points of view, they tried to make the model budget, hence only 802.11 b/g/n in one band, LTE cat.4, that is, the maximum speed is severely limited, there is no frequency aggregation. This is a smartphone for ordinary people who don’t read the numbers - the main thing is that it looks the same as others, and what’s inside doesn’t matter. For those who sit a lot on 4G, not only use social networks, but also transmit and receive large amounts of data, this model is far from optimal.

USB 2.0 version. The fact that they did not install USB Type C, given the audience of the device, can be considered the right step.

There is only one radio module in the device, so the operation of two SIM cards is implemented alternately, this has little effect on the operating time, the effect is almost unnoticeable due to the large battery.

There were no problems with GPS and navigation on the smartphone during the entire period of its use; it correctly shows the road in both pedestrian and automobile modes.

Camera

The front camera has a resolution of 8 megapixels, includes complexion and skin enhancements, and a familiar interface.

In the late 2016 line, Lenovo used a new camera interface; Smart mode is enabled by default, which automatically determines the composition. For example, when the phone sees that you are planning to photograph a landscape and your horizon is blocked, an electronic level appears and you can straighten the picture.

And this is what the camera interface and its settings look like.

In my opinion, the Smart mode shows how much the cameras in phones have stepped forward and are closer to conventional digital point-and-shoot cameras, in which smart modes appeared a long time ago. I like all the possibilities that Lenovo camera software provides, but I don’t like that they often miss and incorrectly determine the exposure, they cannot take the correct metering in light and dark areas of the frame, which results in either very overexposed or too light pictures .

Moreover, this is not a problem of the camera module, it is precisely the image processing algorithm, we see the same thing on all Lenovo devices that use a similar image processing mode. In my opinion, the camera in this phone is of average quality; it is by no means the best representative in this price class. On the other hand, most models have similar capabilities, and the presence of a manual mode allows you to correct the shortcomings of the automation.

Video recording is possible in FullHD (sound is recorded in stereo, AAC codec). You can see video examples below.

Software features

The Lenovo K6 Note runs Android 6.0.1, with Lenovo's shell installed on top, which was previously called Vibe UI. Now it’s just a shell consisting of various separate programs that modify the usual Android. The company’s other devices have exactly the same capabilities. The transition from version 6 to 7 of Android on this device will not be noticeable or will not bring fundamental differences in the interface. I’ll try to describe the main features of the interface, especially since they completely coincide with those of other devices of the company and do not have any special differences.

The main menu is no different from the usual view in Android - it is a screen on which widgets, program icons are located, and you can add desktops. But, unlike regular Android smartphones, they have abandoned the common menu, which often turns into a program dump. Everything is displayed on the main screens, this is where you sort programs into folders and distribute widgets. There is logic in this approach; you very quickly forget to look at the menu in search of a program, especially since it is not there. In many add-ons for Android, this duality of desktops and the main menu is somewhat confusing, but here everything is simple and clear.

The drop-down top curtain has a number of quick switches, they are logical and beautiful, and you can customize the panels to your liking. In the status bar, you can select the icons that will be shown and disable unnecessary ones.

You can also customize the pop-up menu to quickly launch the camera, calculator, list of running applications, music, and add your own programs there. Many people may not like the translucent key that always hangs on the screen, so you can remove it. Then it will be enough to click on the free space, where there are no controls, and this menu will appear. Convenient and simple.

As usual with Android, you can choose which apps to receive notifications for, but you can also specify which apps should be given the highest priority. Among the pleasant little things, I’ll note the ability to display the speed of the current connection (Kb/s, Mb/s) in the status line. The battery can be shown either as a percentage or only in a graphical display.

The settings hide a whole set of functions that are unique to Lenovo and are not included in the standard set on other Android smartphones. For example, for Wi-Fi networks there is a display of the frequency at which the network operates, this is quite convenient.

For contacts, you can set a full-screen photo when calling (both incoming and outgoing).

The phone can turn on and off according to a schedule.

There is Lenovo ID, when enabled, you automatically get the opportunity to archive your settings in the cloud, your passwords from other social networks are also saved, and new synchronization capabilities are added. There is no need to use Lenovo ID, it is an additional option.

Power Manager is a utility for managing the battery - you can enable maximum power saving mode, smart saving for the screen and GPU, and a number of other settings. Here you can see which applications consume more energy than others, as well as which device components are responsible for the increased energy consumption. Sometimes the information in this section is not updated immediately, which is confusing. But overall, this is a good replacement for the standard feature in Android, although not 100% convenient, one of the few cases where I like the default display better.

Themes allow you to customize both the display of screensavers when loading and shutting down the device, as well as almost all interface elements. There are quite a lot of topics, you can download new ones, they are very diverse.

Among the unusual aspects, I would like to note a utility that came from Motorola phones; it is setting up operating scenarios depending on the location or Wi-Fi network. You can change the operation of SIM cards, the availability of mobile Internet, ringtones and other parameters. All this is regulated by scenarios that you configure yourself.

On-screen keys, as well as touch ones, can be swapped, and gestures can be enabled for the fingerprint sensor (holding your finger opens the multitasking menu).

A safe zone is additional space in which you can store your files and applications. They may correspond to the open area, or they may be completely different. So, you can set up two accesses to the Play Market on one phone, which will allow you to install applications from a different account. However, the second Play Market option may be available without a safe zone, in normal mode.

Smart Lock lets you unlock your device when there are other devices nearby, but you can also add voice or face unlocking.

Phone, contacts, messages, calendar

Working with contacts is extremely simple - you enter all the data you need, and by default this is one phone number and one email address, plus a choice of a personal ringtone. But you can select an arbitrary number of additional fields, both preset and your own. When viewing an existing contact, the call history and messages from that contact are shown in separate tabs. Convenient, simple and clear.

Among the additional features, I would like to note the “Yellow Pages”, this is a search for information about various establishments, for example, restaurants and the like. Why is this menu in contacts? Don't know.

But what’s much more interesting is that the phone supports call recording; you can set it up both for specific numbers and for any phones; the resulting recordings can be listened to later. For lawyers, journalists and representatives of other similar professions, this function is indispensable.

The call log has the same grouping by number, that is, it does not have to be in the address book, sometimes this can be very convenient.

At first glance, everything in the “Messages” section is familiar, but there are some nuances. Thus, messages can be sorted not only by time, but also by known contacts, unknown contacts, favorites, or you can display only unread ones. Otherwise there are no special features.

In the dialer, you just need to enter numbers or part of the name to search in the address book, there is a traditional “Favorites”, the display is slightly different from what is in bare Android.

In the calendar you see the current month, below are events for the selected day, and the weather for the selected location can also be displayed. The nicely designed calendar, which is in no way inferior to that from Google, has exactly the same capabilities.

Additional programs

Lenovo has a number of additional programs and services that may be interesting and useful; I will try to briefly describe the main ones.

Explorer is a regular file manager that supports all standard operations.

Voice recorder – allows you to record a conversation (it works out of the box without any shamanism).

Security is a proprietary antivirus from McAfee, a firewall and also an application analyzer. The solution is free and therefore attractive. I can’t judge its quality, but few people provide this kind of application in the package. Either they are not needed, or the manufacturers do not have them.

ShareIt – applications for synchronizing various content between phones (uses both BT and Wi-Fi Direct). Quite simple and understandable, it hides these technologies from the user behind a clear and simple interface.

SyncIt is a proprietary application for archiving contacts, SMS, call lists, you can protect them with a password.

Multimedia

The built-in FM radio only works with a headset and supports broadcast recording.

The phone does not have its own program for playing music; it uses one from Google, which not everyone will like. On the other hand, why bother and try to reinvent the wheel? The sound quality is typical, there is nothing outstanding or any problems - most people will like it.

Impression

The call quality is above average, one speaker copes with this task perfectly, the melodies are not bad, and in hands-free mode the device is simply good. The vibration alert is average in strength and does not cause any complaints.

Now we have come to the final assessment of this smartphone, and I thought that if it had appeared a couple of years ago, the delight would have been absolute. Nothing like this existed then, but at the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 there were a lot of such models, and against their background, the Lenovo K6 Note is typical and somewhat lost. We published a “Buyer’s Guide”, which compared classmates of this model; all the pros and cons were described in detail, I would not like to repeat myself.

In my opinion, this model, at a cost of 17,990 rubles (about 12 thousand rubles in China), is not interesting for those who are looking for not just a balanced device, but a phone with maximum performance for their money. Lenovo was unable to create such a device, or rather, did not want to. On the other hand, this model is interesting for ordinary consumers, as it has a long battery life and a pleasant and typical design. If you don’t have any special requests, and of all the models that were listed in the comparison, this is the only one for sale, then why not?

If you look at a slightly cheaper device, it will be the Lenovo K6 Power, the difference is 2,000 rubles and the screen diagonal is smaller, it is only 5 inches. If you look higher, it will be the Lenovo P2, which wins in all respects, it has a longer operating time, an AMOLED screen, and better implementation of LTE and other standards.

The bottom line is I will say the following. Lenovo K6 Note does not stand out from the crowd of classmates, and this is its minus. It may simply not be noticed.

The appearance of the Lenovo K6 Note does not evoke any emotions; it is strict and boring. There is an immediate resemblance to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.

Well, okay, many manufacturers are not shy about copying the design of Apple smartphones, what’s wrong with borrowing the appearance from Xiaomi?

Unlike Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, the device under review is made of higher quality metal. It is denser, not so soft, seems more reliable and stronger. And the rest of the K6 Note is made perfectly - the assembly is perfect, nothing creaks or plays. The base of the smartphone is metal; there are plastic inserts on the bottom and top, which contain antennas. The dimensions are usual for such a device - 151x76x8.4 mm, weight 169 g.

The camera module protrudes slightly from the body, but there are no problems with this - the camera is protected by a metal frame. Over the course of a month of testing the device, the glass covering the camera eye remained perfect, with no micro-scratches. And this is with not the most careful use, without a cover.

There is a fingerprint scanner under the camera. It doesn’t always work perfectly, on average it recognizes 4 out of 5 touches. There is only one main speaker, it was installed in the most convenient place - on the lower right end of the device.

The front has a large screen with curved glass. There are three touch buttons at the bottom, standard for Android. They are not illuminated in any way, but it will be difficult to miss in the dark - the buttons are quite large.

Three colors should appear on sale - silver, gold and gray.

Two days without recharging

A budget processor from Qualcomm and a powerful 4000 mAh battery will not let you use your smartphone even in a day. There are many other smartphones on sale with a large screen and such a battery, but not all of them can boast of a long operating time. The processor probably plays a big role here - similar Mediatek devices discharge noticeably faster than Qualcomm devices.

The autonomy of the Lenovo K6 Note is pleasantly surprising - for the whole day I managed to get the smartphone to only 50%. Believe me, this is an excellent result - with my mode of use, not all gadgets even survive until lunchtime. If you don’t play games, its charge will easily last for 1.5-2 days even for the most active users.

To compare battery life with competitors, we conducted a series of standard tests - we launched the game Subway Surfers and FullHD video at maximum brightness.

As can be seen from the graph, the smartphone plays video at maximum brightness for almost 10 hours, which is significantly more than similar smartphones. Subway Surfers can be played for just over four hours - not the most impressive result. By the way, heavy games like Asphalt 8 and Dead Trigger 2 run about the same.

Fast charging is not supported; the included charger charges the smartphone for more than three hours.

Can't find fault with the screen

The smartphone has a 5.5-inch IPS matrix with FullHD resolution. The display is protected by scratch-resistant glass, slightly curved using 2.5D technology. There is also an oleophobic coating, thanks to which fewer marks remain on the screen.

The matrix has good color reproduction with maximum viewing angles. In the sun the screen behaves perfectly, all information remains readable. Additionally, in the settings you can select the color balance - standard, with the most natural color rendition, and a high brightness mode, in which maximum contrast is set.

Software with a huge number of settings

Lenovo K6 Note runs Android 6.0.1, on top of which the proprietary Vibe UI shell is installed.

Out of the box everything looks very strange. You take out a large, brutal smartphone, turn it on and see a clumsy and childish interface. Luckily, Vibe UI allows you to change and customize almost every little detail.

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Probably the nicest feature of Lenovo's shell is the ability to choose a bare Android interface. To do this you will have to tinker with the settings, but it's worth it. I liked the huge number of settings, there are even more of them than in MIUI from Xiaomi! True, the average user can easily get confused in such a variety of functions.

The smartphone has many useful built-in functions. For example, you can create “clones” of applications - copies of instant messengers and social network clients in order to use several accounts on them. A similar function is available in Samsung and Xiaomi smartphones. But I haven’t seen the “Smart Scenarios” function before. Using it, you can configure certain settings to turn on at a specified time or when connected to a selected Wi-Fi network. For many, this feature will be useful.

I caught a funny bug while using the K6 Note. A notification appeared from the Play Market, which reported that the Topic Center application was malicious. And it deleted it! The problem is that this is a native application from Lenovo and only in it it was possible to change themes. There you could change these themes, change the lock screen and much more.

It's not very fast, but games run fine

The processor is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430, well known to geeks. In conjunction with 3 GB of RAM, this solution has proven itself to be quite fast and stable for everyday use in simple applications.

Synthetic tests show a complete failure in performance. Lenovo K6 Note loses to all its current competitors.

But in games it's not so bad. The graphics are handled by the relatively powerful Adreno 505 video accelerator, thanks to which most heavy games launch and run even at the highest settings. The same Dead Trigger 2 and Asphalt: Extreme run at maximum settings, but it’s better to run “Tanks” at medium settings - it will be more comfortable to play. Under heavy load, Lenovo K6 Note does not overheat and remains barely warm

The interface itself works with noticeable slowdowns, applications sometimes launch with jerks. For undemanding users, microlags are not very noticeable, but if you have used a powerful flagship before, immediately pay attention to it. Most likely, this is the fault of the poorly optimized and heavy Vibe UI shell, which the weak processor cannot cope with.

Great photos during the day, bad at night

The main camera in the Lenovo K6 Note uses a 16 megapixel module with phase detection autofocus and a dual-tone LED flash. Front camera 8 MP, without autofocus.

By default, the camera interface has the “Smart” function enabled - an advanced automatic mode that understands what you are shooting and sets the necessary parameters for shooting depending on the lighting and scene. In addition, the settings have many modes - manual, HDR, video slow motion, time lapse and much more.

The smartphone takes good photographs during the day, the pictures are bright, rich and well detailed. But sometimes the camera software misses and incorrectly determines the exposure, which results in overexposed photos.

But in difficult shooting conditions, especially in the dark, the lack of stabilization in the camera affects it - noise appears and details are blurred. Everything here is standard for smartphones from the mid-price segment - competitors take photos about the same.

Objects in the background have turned into mush and there is a lot of noise in the photo.

In our opinion, the Lenovo K6 Note looks somewhat contradictory - its back has a recognizable design, but from the front the phone looks faceless.

If it were not for the touch buttons under the display, it would be difficult to distinguish it, for example, from the Honor 5C - the same shape, rounded corners and speakers with a sensor above the display. But the back panel looks unusual, but only thanks to the lens. Firstly, it is round, like the fingerprint scanner underneath, and secondly, it protrudes from the body. If not for the last circumstance, the back of the new product would be almost no different from Xiaomi Redmi 4.

The stated dimensions of the Lenovo K6 Note are 151x76x8.4 mm, weight - 169 grams. Thus, it is slightly more compact than its predecessor, but slightly larger and heavier than smartphones such as Huawei Honor 5X or Asus Zenfone 3 ZE552KL. In fact, this is forgivable, since the battery capacity of the K6 Note is much higher. The main material is metal, as a result we have a non-separable body and a non-removable battery. It feels like plastic smartphones are already on the verge of extinction.

The Lenovo K6 Note will be available in three colors: dark gray, gold and silver. It’s a bit of a pity that the yellow colorway, which was quite popular on the Lenovo K3 Note, has disappeared from this list.

Screen

Lenovo K6 Note has a 5.5-inch Full HD screen (1920×1080 pixels) with an IPS matrix. The pixel density with these characteristics is high, 401 per inch, on par with the iPhone 7 Plus. There is no other data, but the manufacturer boldly calls the screen bright and the viewing angles wide. Judging by the fact that the phone comes with a special film, the screen does not have protective glass.

Camera

Lenovo K6 Note received 16 and 8 MP cameras. Usually, companies don’t care much about the shooting quality of their smartphones, but apparently not in this case. There is no information about the sensor used, but phase detection autofocus and dual flash with a color temperature correlation system are announced. It is quite possible that the Lenovo K6 Note is capable of producing above-average photos. The front camera has a resolution of 8 MP, there is no additional information about it.

Communications

The Lenovo K6 Note has a standard set of communications:

• simple Wi-Fi b/g/n with the ability to distribute Internet
• relatively fast LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbit/s)
• economical Bluetooth 4.2 with A2DP profile support
• A-GPS
• FM radio.

Nothing remarkable, although with such a price tag there are smartphones with an NFC chip or an infrared port. The phone has both single-SIM and dual-SIM versions (one or two nanoSIM cards).

Battery

Lenovo K6 Note is equipped with a non-removable battery with a capacity of 4000 mAh - this is a good indicator for a phone with such a diagonal. For comparison, Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 has a 4050 mAh battery, and Asus Zenfone Laser 3 has a 3000 mAh battery. Such a battery will definitely last for a day of work, and maybe even longer. The manufacturer promises up to 31 hours of talk time on LTE networks and up to 46 hours on 2G networks. Theoretically, the new chipset supports fast charging, but Lenovo does not announce such a function for the phone.

Performance

Lenovo K6 Note has average performance. The smartphone received a Qualcomm MSM8937 Snapdragon 430 chipset (eight Cortex-A53 cores at 1.4 GHz) with Adreno 505 graphics. The same is used in the inexpensive Xiaomi Redmi 3s and Xiaomi Redmi 4. Formally, this line of processors is considered budget and is installed in entry-level devices, but judging by the characteristics, the chipset used is closer to mid-level solutions. So, together with 3 GB of RAM, this should be enough for the interface to work smoothly and solve most telephone problems. At the same time, it is curious that Lenovo switched from more powerful and power-hungry MediaTek Helio processors to expensive but energy-efficient Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Memory

Lenovo K6 Note has 32 GB of permanent memory. This is quite enough for a mid-range model, but if you wish, you can add up to 128 GB using a MicroSD memory card.

Peculiarities

Lenovo K5 Note runs Android 6. There is no information about a possible transition to Android 7 yet; we can only note that Lenovo often “abandons” and leaves phones without updates. Among the features of the model, we highlight the high battery capacity and 16 MP camera. A fingerprint scanner and a metal case could be added here, but today every second new product has them, if not more.

Price

The recommended price for Lenovo K6 Note is 18,990 rubles, which is even a little expensive. Such a price tag can only be justified by very high autonomy and high-quality cameras, but this can only be assessed after direct testing.

Since Xiaomi released a metal mid-range note device, many manufacturers have decided to follow the same path. So, after Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 we saw the metal phone Meizu m3 note, and now Lenovo K6 Note. The competition is obvious, although Samsung also has a couple of phablets of a similar class in its bins, despite the progenitor of the Galaxy Note.

Appearance

In general, it’s quite strange that Lenovo decided to release this series: it seems that there is already a Lenovo K5 Note smartphone with good characteristics. And the series itself somehow looks very suspiciously like the Redmi series from Xiaomi. In any case, we have another new product that deserves attention. As in Notes from Xiaomi, we see an identical body with a back that curves directly to the front panel. All the same volume rockers, the same location of the camera module and flash, under which we see a fingerprint scanner. So it can be argued that Lenovo k6 note Even if you look closely at the display case, you can inadvertently confuse it with Redmi Note 3.

Technical capabilities and positioning

Another issue is positioning and this is very unusual. Just look at the technical specifications and the question will arise: if the five-inch Lenovo K6 is quite competitive with the Xiaomi Redmi 3s, how should the older 5.5-inch gadget from this review be positioned? After all, unlike other notes, this is not a beast that can cope with demanding games, but the same 430 Snapdragon, which reaches the mid-segment only thanks to its freshness and optimization. With all this, we have access to 3 or 4 gigabytes of RAM, as well as 32GB of internal memory.

Be that as it may, the battery in the device is pleasing: it has 4,000 mAh. The camera, which has a sixteen-megapixel sensor, is also pleasing. As for the sound, there is an active noise reduction system, as well as support for Dolby Atmos.

If you don’t look at all the “buts”, it will become clear that this is a budget option that can be a good analogue of Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. And given the processor, consumption should be optimized as much as possible. Yes, we won’t see super-productive power here, but there’s the same Lenovo K5 Note for that. And with a good pricing policy, many who dreamed of a balanced phablet will be interested in the device. After all, in the end, large diagonals and powerful processors have always led to increased consumption in the mid-segment, but this shouldn’t be a problem here.

There's nothing special. These are quite large Android devices with a fingerprint scanner that run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

However, everything is not as simple as it looks at first glance.

Testing and using these smartphones for some time has revealed some interesting features. This review of Lenovo K6 and Lenovo K6 Note will tell you about them.

Design

The Lenovo K6 and K6 Note taken for review have a similar appearance:

• Slightly full and heavy body;
• Metal back with silver accent around camera;
• Fingerprint scanner on the back.

These are great options for 2016, but this year there are some well-made competitive budget smartphones.

For example, representatives of the Galaxy A series are worked almost to perfection, although they are more expensive. The same can be said for smartphones, which have a more elegant design.

The Lenovo K6 line still does not fully meet the high standards set and the appearance of the devices is not so sophisticated.

What's wrong with these smartphones?

• The three capacitive buttons below the screen look too big on the K6 (but normal on the K6 Note);
• When you press keys on the on-screen keyboard, you get a feeling of emptiness;
• There are plastic antenna strips on the metal back surface;
• The design lacks curves and is not ergonomic.

All this is superimposed on one another and the result is far from outstanding.

You can also note the use of a microUSB connector for charging in the K6. But it is not at the bottom as usual, but at the top of the body. At the same time, in the K6 Note the connector is located at the bottom.

Screen

More positive aspects on both smartphones include the speed and accuracy of the fingerprint scanner.

Both devices have IPS LCD screens, 5 inches and 5.5 inches for the K6 and K6 Note, respectively.

The resolution of both screens is Full HD, the clarity is high, but the color balance leaves much to be desired. There are two color modes to choose from, the first gives bright, fresh flowers, the other more neutral. Unfortunately, in both cases, the white color has a blue tint, the color accuracy is not the best, so the colors come out unrealistic.

In both cases there is automatic brightness adjustment. The adjustment doesn't always do its job accurately, so sometimes you have to adjust the brightness manually. Its maximum value is 495 and 521 nits. There is also a night mode for the screen, which darkens the screen even further.

Interface and functionality

Lenovo is not the most popular smartphone manufacturer in Western markets.

The main thing to remember is that cheap smartphones do not receive Android updates.

These two devices run Android 6.0 Marshmallow and there is no guarantee that they will be updated to Android Nougat. This situation repeats itself on Android every year, with users and reviewers constantly complaining but nothing changing. We need to find some way to ensure that budget Android smartphones are not outdated at the time of purchase.

Aside from this sad point, Lenovo's interface on top of Android 6 isn't the best. There are graphic themes to choose from, some of which look quite tolerable.

The icon style and various menu items seem quirky and outdated, taking us back a few years in Android history.

One of the most important aspects of modern smartphones is typing on the on-screen keyboard.

It is this aspect that often fails on budget smartphones and is not mentioned in reviews. But it is precisely this that can be a very annoying factor in everyday work with the device. The Lenovo K6 and K6 Note are no better in this regard: the keyboard buttons have weak vibration when pressed, resulting in a feeling of emptiness, and this increases the number of misses when typing.

You can also note the rather poor translation of interface elements into English, although Russian-speaking users are of little concern about this problem. You can also highlight a few annoying functions, like the numeric keypad in the dialer that always pops up at the wrong time.

But we can praise the weather, calendar and clock widgets that Lenovo has developed: they provide important information and application shortcuts with one click. However, the stock apps themselves aren't very detailed, especially Weather, which is limited and doesn't provide hourly forecasts.

"Notification log"

Lenovo's interface hides an interesting feature not previously seen on smartphones from other manufacturers, which should appeal to experienced users. It's called "Notification Log".

“Notification log” is a chronologically located list of all notifications on the smartphone. This includes installing applications, making phone calls, connecting a smartphone to a computer, and everything else. Entries can be cleared, searched for using a filter, and all activity during the day can be viewed.

The average user may not need this, but it will be useful for someone.

Processor, performance and memory

Both smartphones run on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with eight processing cores. Already here it becomes obvious that these are not smartphones for gamers, but will they be able to cope well with the everyday routine?

The answer to this question is yes.

Some applications experience slight stuttering and the browser does not start quickly. In general, the interface works smoothly by the standards of budget smartphones.

Of course, the benchmarks clearly show the budget nature of the Snapdragon 430 processor, which is far from being in the first place.

As for data storage, the base version of the Lenovo K6 received 16 GB of memory, while the K6 Note starts at 32 GB.

Both devices have a slot for a microSD memory card.

Internet and communications

These two smartphones are sold in Europe and Asia and support the 4G LTE standard: FDD bands 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, TDD bands 38, 40 and 41.

There is also Wi-Fi b/g/n with support for a single 2.4 GHz channel, which is not very good for densely populated cities, where, by the way, there would also be a 5 GHz channel.

There is also GPS and Bluetooth 4.2, but there is no NFC standard.

Camera

The Lenovo K6 has a 13MP rear camera, the K6 Note has a 16MP camera, and both record video at up to 1080p. As it turns out, the quality of photos and videos from these cameras is far from the best, although it can certainly be worse.

The camera app has a lot of smart options.

For example, smart scene recognition, when a sign appears on the screen indicating photographing landscapes, portraits or something else. In this case, the camera settings can be switched to the optimal position for a particular scene.

This doesn't do much to improve the quality of the images and almost all of the photos had some kind of problem. Many were underexposed and too dark, others were very washed out. There was a lack of sharpness and detail. The colors were muted and rather nondescript.

Only occasionally will a camera take good photos in ideal lighting, but don't expect this to happen often.

The front camera performs a little better, capturing high-quality selfies with good detail and colors.

Although the maximum video resolution is 1080p, it lacks detail and looks more like 720p.

The problems with video are the same as with photos, namely the image is underexposed, and when the exposure is set correctly, the bright areas are cut off.

Any slight change in lighting will have a major impact on exposure. Without any stabilization, video clips come out shaky and not very pleasant to look at.

Sound quality

The Lenovo K6 and K6 Note smartphones have something special: powerful speakers at the bottom. There are two of them, so it is impossible to accidentally cover them with your hand.

The quality of these speakers is at a very high level. The sound cannot be called perfect, like in any other smartphone.

There are metallic whistling tones and you can forget about the presence of bass and depth of sound, but the volume is very high. Lenovo has taken optimizing volume levels seriously so users have fine control over it. This control is especially important when surrounded by other people, in which case the smartphone can be very loud and very quiet.

Call quality

There are no problems with the sound quality during phone calls on the Lenovo K6 and K6 Note. The caller is heard clearly and loudly, and at the other end of the line your voice is also heard clearly.

You can note the good movement and convenient location of the volume control, which allows you to change the volume during a telephone conversation.

Autonomous operation

It has become commonplace these days for budget smartphones to offer impressive battery life.

The devices under consideration were no exception, which is their second big advantage.

Lenovo K6 has a 3000 mAh battery, K6 Note received 4000 mAh. Together with the not-so-fast Snapdragon 430 processor and operating system optimizations, smartphones can last two days on average. With more modest use, you can last three days.

As for the tests, with the screen turned on, both devices approached the 11 o'clock mark, while smartphones work for about 7 hours at the same brightness level.

Lenovo K6 price

Below we have selected stores where you can buy this smartphone:

Lenovo K6

Conclusion

Pros:

• Battery life;
• Loud dual speakers;
• Fast and accurate fingerprint scanner;
• Affordable price;
• Good performance.

Minuses:

• Poor camera quality when shooting photos and videos;
• Outdated operating system;
• Lenovo's clunky user interface;
• Not the most beautiful design and heavy body.

They have excellent battery life, fast fingerprint scanners, and impressively loud dual speakers. At the same time, they cannot be called beautiful and their cameras certainly cannot be praised.

Finally, you need to analyze the cost of the devices.