Lenovo is pretty new to smartphone arena. With giants like Samsung, LG, Sony driving the android devices to new heights, Lenovo has tried to make a mark in market with Lenovo K900, android powered device with Intel inside. Let’s see how successful has it been in competing. Read on our Lenovo K900 review to find out.
Design Language
Lenovo has adopted a very unique design sense for K900, following metallic finish for the rear of the device. And needless to say it is the most striking feature of Lenovo K900. Another noticeable design view are the 4 screws on the back, now I am not sure whether it is deliberately left exposed as a part of design language or easier workmanship. Whatever the case maybe, I personally find it bad design but for some people it might be raw and beautiful.
Moving on there is a Micro Sim Card slot on the right side of the device, which can be easily opened with any paper clip since you won’t be getting a pin inside the packaging.
Another thing is the portability aspect. Irrespective of the fact that K900 carries 5.5″ inch screen along-with rectangular hard-edged metallic body, I didn’t feel un-comfortable carrying it around. If you are coming in from a relatively smaller screen size say 3.5″ then the experience might be totally different.
Hardware Specifications
K900 is ‘adventurously’ powered by a dual core Intel processor, clocked at 2 GHz and comes with 2 GB RAM. These may not be the best specifications you might have recently come across with release of Galaxy Note 3, LG G2 but for the price it comes at, there’s lot to offer. No doubts about that.
The internal memory is limited to 16 GB (10 GB available effectively) with no microSD card support. This, for me, is a huge let down. As a user you’ll have to rely on cloud storage and if you are a music maniac or love to watch videos on the go then stay clear of this device.
As for it’s screen, Lenovo has played safe and used IPS LCD panel, which doesn’t produce rich, saturated colors like Samsung Galaxy series phones but still the screen is pretty attractive and produces colors efficiently. And not to forget the display under sunlight is legible. A certain plus point.
Camera
I have always maintained that you don’t buy a phone for camera (41 MP makes no sense at all, if you know what I mean). In Lenovo K900 the camera on the back is a 13 MP shooter with BSI sensor and dual LED’s. Too techy? Well the moot point is that camera is capable enough to shoot better than others low-light shots and laudable macro photos too!
Software – Lenovo’s UI. Eh.
Lenovo has highly literally customized almost every aspect of Android. And the sad part is all of it has been done horribly. The color combination is an eye soar and granted the fact that you can install 3rd party launcher from Google Play store but still there will be numerous places wherein you’ll encounter the ugly UI. Yikes! Lenovo has tried hard, perhaps too hard to distinguish itself from other’s and in turn digressed from the core aspect of Android.
Performance
K900 has praiseworthy hardware, there is no denying this fact. I love the hardware aspect of device. But that’s about it. The UI is a major let down, even 2 GB RAM and dual core Intel processor couldn’t stop it from lagging. And mind you I am saying this without even installing any 3rd party application. Lag occurs soon after you factory reset the device.
Another issue I faced was the heating up of region around the camera. The heating up would be understandable had I played processor intensive games or HD videos but even under regular usage the phone did get warm and once you do get into playing mode then there will be a situation wherein you’ll be putting down the device after 10-15 minutes of device usage. Yep.
I am not sure if this has got to do with Intel inside or poorly tweaked Lenovo’s software atop Android. Whatever the case maybe, its end-user experience, is not one would expect from it.
Wrapping Up
Lenovo K900 is available in Indian market for approximately Rs. 26, 000. At this price the hardware is great, better than most camera, 5.5″ inch screen, 2 GB RAM, dual core processor. But Lenovo has failed to capitalize on such good hardware specs. This is beyond my understanding that if Samsung can manage to run Android version 4.2.1 the same being run by K900 in Galaxy S Duos carrying 768 MB RAM, 1 Ghz Snapdragon (way weaker than what K900 has to offer) then what’s with K900 lagging so much?
Lenovo K900 Image Gallery
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Aye! It should be refined version, a lot has been promised with release of K900 🙂
Lets see what the next k900 looks like huh? Just like the Xperia Z the Z1 is more refined and better!
These are minor software tweaks which Lenovo can easily fix with software update. Do that and you have a possible Nexus killer!
Yes I agree:)
Again, you are referring to hardware aspect of device in major part of your experience, solid build quality, great camera, IPS display. I appreciate these features of K900, I do. But for me, Lenovo launcher, part of UI, has been a let down. For example consider notification panel, the rounded toggle buttons with sliding names. Isn’t that quirky?
Thanks for responding… You know few weeks ago I sold my Sony Xperia Z and than bought this phone. Now to compare these two I have to admit I like the K900 more. The built quality of the K900 is excellent and in my opinion one of the best. This phone is extremely fast and I don’t see any lag period. The IPS screen is the best and watching videos on it is pure pleasure. The K900 has excellent sound which my Sony Xperia was lacking. The camera is equal takes incredible photos equal if not better than my Xperia Z which is strange considering fact, its a Sony shooter. But honestly the K900 isn’t a perfect but what smartphone is?
I am sure you love your device. Who doesn’t?! But just for a moment place it next to a TouchWiz or even Optimus UI, you’ll see the differences. The decaying factor is software NOT hardware.
With only negative comments coming from your mouth about this smartphone doesn’t help. I’ve owned this phone now for three weeks and what I can say is it operates perfectly in every aspect.