Lenovo is trying to make a comeback in the Indian Smartphone Market and recently they launched three new devices in India. The Lenovo K10 Note was one of the smartphones that was launched by Lenovo and the other two were A6 Note and the Z6 Pro. The Lenovo K10 Note flaunts a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 93 percent screen-to-body ratio. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 AIE octa-core processor. It is available in two variants – 4 GB RAM with 64 GB internal storage and 6 GB RAM having 128 GB internal storage. Is the device as good as it looks on paper? Read our review to find out.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJnb_FP31X0]
Specifications
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 AIE processor
- GPU: Adreno 616 GPU
- RAM: 4/6 GB
- Operating System: Android 9 Pie with ZUI 11
- Display: 6.3-inch Full HD+ with 2340 x 1080 pixels resolution, 19.5:9 aspect ratio and 93 percent screen-to-body ratio
- Rear Camera: Triple camera — 16 MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, Dual LED flash, 8 MP telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture for 2x loss-less and 8x hybrid zoom, 5 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture for portrait shots
- Front Camera: 16 MP
- Internal Storage: 64/128 GB
- Connectivity: Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS (L1 + L5 dual band) + GLONASS, and USB Type-C
- Other: Fingerprint Sensor, Dolby Audio
- Colors: Knight Black
- Battery: 4050 mAh with 18W fast charging
Design, Display, & Ergonomics
There is nothing special about the Lenovo K10 Note when it comes to the design. The device comes with a glossy plastic body with the camera module placed in the top left corner. You get a small camera bump that makes the phone wobble when it is lying on a flat surface. The fingerprint scanner is placed in the middle along with the Lenovo branding on the bottom left corner. You get the SIM Tray on the left along with the Power and Volume Keys on the right. In addition to this, the device also comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack along with a USB Type-C charging port and speakers placed in the bottom.
The plastic back is a fingerprint magnet and it attracts fingerprints every time you touch the device. The back panel is also prone to scratches so we’d recommend you to get a case if you buy the device. It would have been better if Lenovo avoided cost-cutting and gave a glass body on the device.
On the front, you get a 6.3-inch Full HD+ Display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The Lenovo K10 Note comes with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 93 percent screen-to-body ratio. You get a dewdrop notch on the top that features a 16 MP camera for your selfies. The display is bright and we didn’t face any issues while using the device outdoors. The viewing angles on the Lenovo K10 Note are also good and you won’t face any problems while playing games or watching videos.
Unfortunately, the display on the Lenovo K10 Note doesn’t come with any type of protection on the top which means that there’s no Corning Gorilla Glass present on the device. You’ll have to take special care of this device because if this smartphone falls out from your hand, there are chances that you may get a broken screen.
User Interface and Software
Lenovo K10 Note runs on Android 9 Pie based on ZUI 11 with a security patch dated May 1, 2019. ZUI 11 is Lenovo’s own operating system that comes with a very few customizations and offers a stock Android-like experience. With the ZUI 11, Lenovo has tweaked the Notification Panel and the Settings menu. It comes with features like 4D U-Touch that allows users to replace the on-screen navigation buttons with gesture-based controls offering more screen space.
Lenovo has optimized the ZUI 11 for India and hence the device comes with minimal bloatware. You get preinstalled Apps and Games like Opera, Truecaller, Paytm, Spiderman and Asphalt Nitro on the device. While most of them can be uninstalled, the Truecaller App can’t be removed. It also has a dedicated app for System Updates which wasn’t really needed because you can do that directly from the “Settings” menu. Lenovo K10 Note also comes with support for FM Radio and you can enjoy that by connecting your earphones.
Overall the ZUI 11 on the Lenovo K10 Note is good and you’ll definitely love it if you are a stock-android fan.
Hardware Performance, Benchmarks, and Gaming
Lenovo K10 Note is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 AIE processor that is paired with the Adreno 616 GPU. The device is available in two variants – 4 GB RAM / 64 GB Storage and 6 GB RAM / 128 GB Storage. These specs look good on paper but before we discuss the real-life performance there’s an issue with the Lenovo K10 Note that needs to be discussed.
This device comes with some serious heating problems. The normal temperature of the device stays near 33 degrees Celsius but as soon as you start gaming or multitasking the phone starts heating. After gaming on this device for an hour, we noticed that the temperature went up to 46 to 48 Degrees. The same is the case with Multitasking if you throw 7-8 apps on the Lenovo K10 Note the device will start getting warm.
That being said, the heating doesn’t affect the device performance and you can multitask with ease. PUBG runs smooth and you can run it maximum in HD Graphics with High Frame Rate. It also handles games like Asphalt 9 and Dead Trigger 2 without any problems. The gaming experience on the Lenovo K10 Note is decent but competitors like Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, Vivo Z1x and Realme 5 Pro offer much better performance.
Talking about the Benchmarks, Lenovo K10 Note gets a score of 161707 on AnTuTu Benchmark which is less than most of its competitors. On Geekbench 5 the device manages to get a Single-Core score of 340 and a Multi-core score of 1250. We also ran the Androbench Benchmark for storage and the Lenovo K10 Note got a Sequential Read speed of 290MB/s whereas the Sequential Write speed was up to 237MB/s. You can have a look at the Benchmark results below.
Lenovo K10 Note packs a 4050 mAh that comes with support for 18W fast charging. The battery easily lasts up to a day for normal users and gamers can get 5 to 6 hours of power for gaming on this device. However, the charging speed on the device is slow and it takes more than 2 hours for the device to fuel up the battery power. On the connectivity part, this device comes with support for Dual 4G VoLTE. Furthermore, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 GHz + 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5.0, GPS (L1 + L5 dual band) + GLONASS, and USB Type-C are also supported.
The Lenovo K10 Note also comes with support for MicroSD Card via Hybrid Slot which means that you can expand your storage if you are using a single SIM Card on your device.
Camera
Lenovo K10 Note comes with a triple camera setup that consists of a 16 MP rear camera with f/1.8 aperture, an 8 MP telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture and a 5 MP camera with f/2.2 aperture for portrait shots. It comes with Dual LED Flash and Lenovo has given a 16 MP camera on the front for selfies.
Surprisingly the camera setup on the Lenovo K10 Note takes good daylight shots. The pictures we took with the 16 MP primary snapper produced natural colors and captured a good amount of details. The images have a high amount of sharpness and the dynamic range is also decent.
We also took some shots with the Portrait mode on the device and the results we got were good. However, when it comes to the Night shots the images have a high amount of noise and the results aren’t that great. The 16MP Selfie snapper on the front doesn’t come with any Beautify features but still, it does a good job when it comes to selfies.
Moving on to the video capabilities the Lenovo K10 Note doesn’t support EIS but it can still shoot videos in 4K, 1080p and 720p. The camera app doesn’t come with HDR and it isn’t the best out there. There are hardly any customization options and the camera modes are also very limited.
Overall, the camera is not the best in the range but you won’t be disappointed with the results if you are shooting in daylight conditions. Have a look at the Camera Samples below.
Lenovo K10 Note Camera Samples
Verdict
As you guys already know, Winter is Coming and if you are looking for a good Smart Heater for your hands than Lenovo K10 Note can be your perfect companion. Just play PUBG or any other games for an hour and it’ll start heating and as a result, your hands will be kept warm. With the Lenovo K10 Note, you can also get rid of those annoying kids who take your smartphone to play games on it. The device heats up so much that most of those kids will get scared and as a result, they’ll automatically return you the device.
On a serious note, if you are a heavy user you should avoid this device as it heats up a lot. Lenovo K10 Note starts at Rs.13,999 but still, Lenovo did a lot of cost-cutting on the device. The only thing which I personally loved was the ZUI 11 as it offers a stock Android-like experience. Smartphones like Realme 5 Pro, Vivo Z1x and Redmi Note 7 Pro offer much better performance are available in the same price range. We hope that Lenovo solves the heating issue in the future with a software update or something but for now, you should avoid getting this device.
Pros
- Lightweight – Weighs only 164 g
- ZUI 11 – Offers a stock android like experience
- Minimal Bloatware
Cons
- Heating Issues
- Plastic Body
- Charging Time
