Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus Review: Specifications, Pros & Cons

Lenovo seems like trying to make budget friendly phones under 10K INR with the success of K3 Note in the market. The release of Vibe K5 Plus proves so after P1M. The K4 Note which was released to be a biggie under 15K INR hadn’t go much into the public as expected. The only phone that rocked is the Vibe X3 which is worth buying for its price. 

The game of phones is calculated with the phone under 10K INR budget. Users don’t think much to buy the middle range phones because some models will be specifically benefitted over other models. There are a lot of budget phones under 10K at the same or similar price tags. It is a bit tough decision for an average mobile phone buyer to choose one among such phones.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is available in the market at the price of Rs.8,499. It gives a touch competition to those devices of same or near-same price tag. Let us see if this smartphone is to be considered into the competition and is worth buying for that price.

lenovo-vibe-k5-plus-black-back       lenovo-vibe-k5-plus-gold       lenovo-vibe-k5-plus-white-back

What’s in the box?

We get the handset, screen guard, quick start guide, battery, USB cable and power adapter.

Design

K5 Plus is not fully metallic but on the back. It feels lighter weighing 142gms on the whole. It has dual speakers on the bottom back of the phone and the top left of the back panel has a camera with LED flash. At the center, it has Lenovo logo and do not expect a finger print scanner at the price range it is available for. The whole back panel reminds me of the LeEco Le1S design.

On the top it has 3.5mm headphone jack and microUSB port for charging and USB connections. It has the volume buttons and power button. On the bottom, it has microphone and the left side is left clean. The front side has a camera on the top along with the speaker and touch capacitive buttons on the bottom of it.

The device is built 8.2mm thin and fits good in hand. The metallic matte material on the back might slip the grip sometimes and it can be avoided by adding any back cover to it.

The phone is available in 3 colors, gold, black and silver which adds an option to choose one as per the taste.

Verdict: Design wise, Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is well built and looks good. If you are looking to buy a device with good design under Rs.9,000, this is it.


Display

Lenovo packed a Full HD 1080p IPS display for K5 Plus. It can render graphics and display multimedia content beautifully. The Full HD display adds flair to the processing and GPU configuration while playing HD games.

The display is 450 nits 178 degree viewing angle display that can render 16M colors on the screen perfectly.

Verdict: Display is good and you don’t give a second thought if you are looking to buy a phone for a full HD display to run multimedia content like videos and games in this price point.


Processing

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is powered with Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor supported by 2GB of RAM and Adreno 405 GPU. The heating issue with the processor will be fixed with an software update that pops up right after the first boot of the device.

The 2GB RAM and 405 GPU are pretty decent at this price point. It can even play heavy games like dead trigger and mortal combat very well with a minor lags during the level loading time no frame drops while playing. It exhibits minor frame drops while playing games like Asphalt 8 with high graphics settings. That’s impressive being a budget device under 10K INR.

Verdict: Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus seems like don’t compromise in terms of performance and gaming. If you are looking out for a phone that performs well in multi-tasking and gaming, this is it.


Operating system

The K5 Plus runs on Android 5.1.1  based Vibe UI and might get an Marshmallow update in future (which is not yet promised by the company).

Verdict: This is better than many other budget handsets which are not able to provide the Lollipop 5.1 update so far.


Storage

Lenovo K5 Plus comes with 16GB internal memory on board and it can be expanded up to 32GB through a microSD card. The memory expandability is a bit disappointing but yet good enough.

Verdict: This phone is not for those who want more than 32GB expandable memory. Everything else is fair and beautiful.

Camera

K5 Plus comes with a 13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture and has the auto focus, HDR, Omnivision OV13850, 5 Piece Lens. The front camera is a 5MP shooter with f/2.8 aperture and is good enough to take selfies.

Verdict: Both the cameras are good enough to take photos according the to on-paper specifications. The hands on tests are yet to be done.

Connectivity

Vibe K5 Plus is a dual SIM phone that supports 4G in one slot and 3G in another. It has the Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Tethering and micro USB and OTG connectivity options.

Verdict: The craving for the more memory than 32GB will be satisfied with the OTG support. It is not dual 4G and is little disappointing.

Sensors

K5 Plus has the al basic sensors. They include Light Sensor, Orientation Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Gravitation Sensor and eCompass.

SAR

The SAR values as mentioned in the quick start guide for the Indian version are as follows,

At head – 0.884 W/Kg
At body – 0.994 W/Kg

Verdict: The SAR values are little bit higher for Indian version of the phones. Compared to the last year’s A6000 Plus and A7000, it is low.

Battery

Lenovo K5 Plus comes with removable Li-ion 2,750 mAh battery. The battery can last long a day if data and Wi-Fi are not used. The 1080p screen might drain the battery quickly while playing videos and gaming.

Verdict: The battery might not not perform as it looks like. Better note this point if you are expecting more from battery on this device.

Pros

+ Good design
+ Good display
+ Good processing capability
+ Good graphics rendering capability

Cons

- No new design
- No dual 4G
- No NFC
- Little high SAR values
- Above average battery

Final verdict

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is one the best budget devices under 10K INR and is the best device in 8K and 8.5K INR category. If you don’t want to spend a rupee more on Rs.8,500 on a smartphone and still need a powerful phone at that price, you can go or Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus without any second thought.

Better buy Lenovo K5 Plus(gold) on Flipkart before it goes out of stock.

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