Lenovo K80 Review : Lenovo is penetrating the mid-range and budget Anrdoid market with the Lenovo K3 Note (K50), and now with the new and powerful Lenovo K80. The Lenovo K80 is here to impress us with its massive 4000mAh battery and high-end features for an affordable price tag. But will it successfully awe us? Find out in our review.
Table of Contents
Design and build
Potential buyers should consider checking the actual unit before buying the Lenovo K80 as its design is not the best feature.
The front looks typical with capacitive keys below. It houses dedicated volume rocker and power/lock combo keys at the right side with the exclusion of dedicated shutter key for camera. The left side is bare while the microUSB port is located at the bottom. On top, the 3.5mm audio jack can be found.
The only distinctive design feature is the back with those big rounded camera hump aligned to the LED flash and the speaker grill at the bottom. I wonder if where did Lenovo get the idea of the back design.
Despite its polycarbonate (plastic) unibody, it remains a solid phone. The feel is not cheap for a plastic-made device. The K80 is also easy to hold, thickness and weight are just OK. Unfortunately, there is no room for microSD card nor user-replaceable battery, less an issue with its massive 4000mAh battery.
Display
One of the key feature of the Lenovo K80 is the full HD IPS display. This results to a whooping 401ppi, not the sharpest display in the market, but still above the standard in its category.
Throughout our browsing, the screen and capacitive touch keys were responsive, it detected all touch inputs accurately.
The display’s color saturation are very good. We didn’t notice backlighting issue from the LCD or screen gap. We brought the K80 outside, its display remained clear even under direct sunlight. Anyone will definitely appreciate the sharp and clear IPS LCD screen of the Lenovo K80.
Camera
The 13MP shooter on the back paired with dual-tone LED flash of K80 takes decent still images and videos in day time, but it struggles in night shots. I presume most will take pictures in day time and less during night.
Still images colors are rich and close to accurate point-and-shoot cameras. There are occasions that some of the images are over exposed. Overall video and stills from the rear camera are relatively good for a budget smartphone.
Its 5MP selfie could par with the standards of high-end devices similar to LG G4 and Xperia Z3+. It has beautify feature too for vain peeps and selfie addicts. Luckily, the front cam could record video as well up to 720p HD resolution.
Benchmark and performance
Lenovo opted for faster Intel Atom 3560 quadcore chip paired with either 2 or 4GB RAM over the octacore MediaTek 6752 of K3 Note. The Lenovo K80 can handle any demanding tasks we throw and the boot up speed is unbelievably fast. It even offers fast boot up mode which takes less than 20 seconds.
- AnTuTu – 41457
- Geekbench – 754 single core, 2279 multi core
- Basemark OS II – 1089
The K80 benchmark scores are considerably high for a mid-ranger Android. The Intel chip has obviously lifted it up on the top, just below of the high-end Android devices.
Software and experience
Despite running on Android 5.0 Lollipop, the Vibe 2.5 UX is very limited in customization features and it is visually too simple. Our unit came with non-working home launcher (which I am not 100% sure if there is), so the result is all your apps are just cluttered in your home screens along with the widgets you pinned. We also highlighted this area in our K3 Note review which came with the same Vibe and Android version with just enough preloaded apps for starter.
What I like in the Vibe is the keyboard layout which is similar found in the Windows Phone. It is intuitive and the size of the letters and characters are just right.
What I think is that Lenovo should focus on producing an improved and more flexible users experience on their home-brewed UX and upcoming devices.
Speaker
The speaker is positioned at the bottom and occupies a wide portion of the area. It is configured with holes.
The speaker of the Lenovo K80 is mediocre with below average power output and acceptable clarity. I didn’t expect that such a large phone only spit out below average sound, but at least, it is notch better than the Lenovo K3 Note.
Battery life
With a massive 4000mAh juice, the Lenovo K80 could last up to weeks in stand by mode and up to two days of light use while connected to the internet. Our light use includes whole day of SMS, few minutes of voice calls, browsing, auto-sync email and social network accounts.
The device could play up to five 2-hour long HD movies with max volume and brightness in airplane mode. So by numbers, users could enjoy up to 10 hours video playback. This is surely a rare feature from smartphones nowadays.
Verdict
Currently the Lenovo K80 could be purchased for around or under P12,000 for the 2GB version. This price is already a bargain if you’re looking for a device with flagship performance and a decent set of hardware features. The massive battery of the Lenovo K80 is an added feature which makes the phone more reliable to use than its competition.
But if you’re torn between the Lenovo K80, Asus Zenfone 2, or the Lenovo K3 Note. Better check out our in-depth comparisons listed below.
Highlights:
What we like
- Large and sharp IPS LCD screen
- Massive 4000mAh battery
- Decent camera
What we don’t like
- Software/Vibe UX is out dated, very simple
- Boring design
- No user-replaceable battery and microSD card slot
Lenovo K80 specs |
| 5.5-inch FHD IPS display, 401ppi |
| 8.5mm thick, 158g |
| Scratch-resistant glass |
| Intel Atom 3560 1.8GHz quadcore chipset |
| 2/4GB RAM |
| 32/64GB internal, microSD card |
| 13MP camera, HDR, OIS, 1080p video, dual tone LED flash |
| 5MP selfie camera, 720p video |
| 4G LTE Single SIM, WiFi ac, Bt 4.0, FM Radio, GPS |
| Android 5.0 Lollipop |
| 4000mAh battery |
| White, Black color |
| P11,990 for 2GB as of July 6, 2015 |
| White, Black, Red |
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Hi where did you buy the Lenovo K80?
Hi. I ordered online, from widget city 🙂
Does it have google play pre installed?
hi. it has google play app pre-installed.
Werid, I bought it in widgetcity too. but mine got android 4.4 not 5.0.. still a great phone though.
Have you had any updates on the phone yet? Really interested in buying this phone. Also, some reviews said you can insert a micro sd card on the other sim slot. It would be very much appreciated if you can confirm this. Thanks!
Bought from Gearbest the K80 with pre-installed malware by the ton! Avoid, avoid! Why can’t Lenovo make something not riddled with malware? This phone us a genuine K80/with the correct placements of logos, etc. Disgusted. Now a long fight to get some justice from Gearbest. Hope your listening Lenovo! Why are you letting these people sell your handsets and then banging on malware?????? Also, false advertising. This was advertised as having Lollipop: still stuck on kit-kat!