Lenovo IdeaPhone K900: First Impressions
Lenovo today added a whopping six smartphones running Android to their portfolio. We spent some time with their flagship device, the Lenovo K900. Here are our first impressions.
This isn’t Lenovo’s first venture in the smartphone market in India. We have seen the launch of a few smartphones in India such as the Lenovo IdeaPhone S890, the Lenovo IdeaPhone S560 and the Lenovo IdeaPhone K860 to name a few.
Today, Lenovo has announced six smartphones in the price range of Rs. 8,600 up to Rs. 33,000, catering to a wide segment of audience. All the smartphones run on the Android OS but one device that really stood out was the Lenovo IdeaPhone K900. The smartphone is Lenovo’s flagship device and shows off some impressive specifications under the hood.
To start with, the smartphone features a 5.5-inch full HD IPS display with 1920×1080 pixels resolution, giving it a 419 ppi pixel density. The K900 is powered by a 2GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2580 processor with Intel Hyper-Threading technology. It runs Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and has 2GB RAM. It sports 16GB built-in storage, 13MP rear camera with a Sony Exmor RS lens and 2MP front-facing camera and 2,500mAh battery.
For its connectivity options, the K900 supports 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth and GPS. The Lenovo IdeaPhone K900 has a price tag of Rs. 32,999.
So how did the phone perform? Well, to start with the build of the device is top notch giving it a very premium feel. Considering that the device has a 5.5-inch display it is big, as big as the Samsung Galaxy Note II. The smartphone is really slim at 6.9mm in thickness. The rear of the device has a brushed metal finish, which is w welcome change from the plastic smartphones we are used to seeing these days. The design of the K900 isn’t unibody but you don’t have easy access to the battery as the rear of the smartphones is screwed on. The slimness of the device makes it comfortable to hold and it won’t bulge out of your pocket. On the downside, we felt that one-hand operations on the smartphone were a tad difficult. You will use both your hands especially when typing on the smartphones keyboard.
Coming to its real world usage, the K900’s display is beautiful to look at. We saw a bunch of videos on it and the viewing angles are great and so is the representation of colours. There is a single speaker that rests at the back of the smartphone and it got the job done for the most part. We also saw the device side by side against a Galaxy Note II. Its safe to say that the display on both the smartphones is beautiful but the videos we saw on the K900 were really impressive.
The OS has a skin overlaying and you will feel right at home with this if you have used a Lenovo smartphone in the past. It isn’t as detailed as TouchWiz or Sense UI but it isn’t close to stock Android either.
The rear of the smartphone has the 13MP shooter, which has the Sony Exmore BSI sensor with an F1.8 lens, which means that can get some great wide-angle shots. We will however put the camera of the smartphone through its paces once we have the smartphone in for review. The front of the K900 has a 2MP FF 88-degree wide-angle lens for video calling.
The K900 has a 2500mAh battery which the company claims will last users for 15 hours of 2G talk time and 12 hours of 3G talk time along with giving you 300 hours of standby time.
We didn’t have connectivity at the launch event to download and run benchmarks, but there are sources on the Internet which have the benchmark scores of the smartphone. If the benchmark scores available online are to be believed, then in the AnTuTu benchmark test, the smartphone scores more than the Samsung Galaxy S4 and that’s saying something. (Benchmark Score Source: GSMArena)
We recently reviewed the S4 and in its performance it’s a brilliant device. Since the S4 is beaten by the K900 in AnTuTu means that we have an impressive flagship smartphone amongst us. On the other hand, one benchmark isn’t enough to put the K900 at the pivot of the flagship smartphone market. There are a bunch of other areas where the K900 needs to excel to win our affection!
Overall, we thought that the Lenovo IdeaPhone K900 was quite impressive with the features that it brings to the tablet. We will however reserve our final verdict for when we have the smartphone with us for review.