Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus Review

Review of Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus 3 Gb Ram+16 Gb Rom Silver Color Variant ! 

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Location:New Delhi India [Bharatha] Dated:04-March-2017 23:06 Hrs IST [GMT+0530 Hrs]

This was my first smartphone purchase & upgrading from a Simple 2G Samsung Guru GT-E1200 Y/Z Feature Phone of 2015 !

This phone was destined to come to me on the 3rd Oct 2016 as exactly, 14 years ago, same date & day, I had bought my first Monochrome Screen Panasonic EB-GD 75 Feature Phone which I still have which worked solid for 12 years with 3 Battery Replacements. 

I got this Lenovo Vibe K5+ [3+16 Gb] Silver Color for Rs 6,749 on BB Days Offer via SBI Card through my cousin, who had come home from Office & was trying to book the same model for his Aunt when I called him & he booked 2 Pcs 1 for me @ discount ! His SBI Dr Card was also activated online for the first time for this purchase after SBI Staff Helped him !

This was the best option available for this price. However I will not advise anyone to buy this at Rs 8,500/- as better options are available now that K6 Power has come ! This Phone is worth only Rs 7,000/- I will list it's pros & cons below. 

Before this I will highlight my uses for the phone. I am a Vedantist & a Witnessing Meditator, NIL Gamer, NIL Earphone, NIL Music/Video Entertainment Seeking Person, NIL Camera User, After buying the phone I have even forgotten there is a Camera as I used it just to scan QR Code of  PayTM at Shops !

I needed just a Phone for Long Hours of Wi-Fi Internet, 3G/4G Internet Access on the Go via MTNL 3G Dolphin/4G Vodafone Network, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook Lite, E-Mails, Youtube Videos and productive work and especially typing via Wireless Keyboard Mouse & basically for honouring tech & it's inventors. For this the phone suited me perfectly.

Pros:

1-Full HD Screen 441 PPI No ghosting no shadow excellent viewing angles but full hd screen drinks more battery !

2-USB OTG support, works perfectly with Logitech USB Wireless Keyboard K230+Wireless Mouse M235+ USB OTG Drive ! Bought KB+Mouse with this Phone on Amazon Festival Sales @ Discounted Price of Rs 650+600=Rs 1250 !

3-Removable/User Replaceable 2750 mAh Battery which is less !

4-Dedicated Micro SIM Slots & Memory Card Not Hybrid One's & not on top of 1 another !

5-Multi Apps upto 7-8 do not hang or slow down the phone, At all times 2 Gb Ram is Free for user. Snapdragon 616 Octacore CPU can handle all basic apps without any problem or Lagg !

6-No Hanging or loss of connectivity on long hours on Wi-Fi Internet or 3G/4G even once till now !

7-Upon 1st Boot there was a system update of 57 Mb after which there was no heating or hanging problem faced even once since 6th October 2016 when phone was received !

8-No Heating on regular use or battery charging. The phone always stays cool between 27-38'c

9-Very Quick Battery charging from 5% to 100% in 90 Minutes via DU Battery Saver Smart charge App.

10-Excellent Quality Dolby ATMOS sound which if enabled gives another dimension to music & videos.

11-Very Good Quality Plastic screen guard & Back cover given than a cheap headphone. In the market only tempered glass is available !

12-No problems on call Quality Front & the Vibe UI + Basic Android Interface are excellent !

13-The Wi-Fi Hot Spot Feature is splendid. Once Configured via Password the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus works as a Wi-Fi Link and using the Data in the SIM other smartphones can access the Lenovo for Internet as a Wi-Fi Hot Spot. Tested it with Samsung J1 4G VoLTE and it worked. The SS was able to access the 4G Data in the Vodafone SIM on the Lenovo using the Lenovo as Wi-Fi Hot Spot. 

Cons:

1-The Battery for the first three charges was draining rapidly despite the fact that I uninstalled useless apps and installed DU Battery Saver App & DU Speed Booster & Cleaner from Playstore. 

2-On 1st boot itself I uninstalled McAfee Security which was a huge Ram+Battery Drainer. But certain built in Apps  like Chrome, Google Hangouts, Music, Pictures and other useless apps cannot be uninstalled only disabled. They continue to hogg space.

3-Now after this Battery lasts for 8 hours on continuous usage, of Wi-Fi and on standby 18-20 hrs.

4-USB OTG Pen Drive can be read only via Smartphone formatted file system. It does not read NTFS Pen Drives which work on PC's & Old Tablets. So one OTG dedicated pen drive is needed to copy files from phone to PC.

5-No double tap to wake up screen, but I downloaded & installed a Android APK from www.techdiscussion.in and solved this problem. If u need the APK click here !

6-No Volume Control Widget, but a APK is available and if installed works fine and volume can be controlled on screen than the physical button which becomes a pain to access if a flipcover is installed.

7-I think this phone will not get updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow as Lenovo has no plans to do so. Till now no update received !

8-No VoLTE update planned anytime soon ! So Reliance Jio users don't buy this phone ! When I use 4G Vodafone Internet people cannot call me !

9-Like my old Teracom 2013 Tablet I would have been very happy had this phone had a separate Charging Pin Port & Separate OTG Data Port but this was not available.

10-There are 2  Biggest bugbears of this phone. 1- is that u can use 4G on any of the SIM's but when one slot is using 4G or 3G the other will switch to 2G only. So No 4G/3G + 3G. My problem is Dolphin Voice/SMS NW works fine only in 3G but then Vodafone will be 2G. But Internet Packs of Vodafone are 4G of very high speed & quality so if I keep Vodafone @ 4G Dolphin Switches to 2G & tower is 0 many times. 

2-No Backlight on touch capacitive home,back,history keys ! This is a pain at night in dark !

11-In November 2016 a 59 Mb Update has come but despite downloading it many times it failed to install & so I gave up ! 

12-The phone with Goosperry Diary Fancy Cover installed become slightly heavy in the pocket because of Full HD 5" Screen and needs to be carried in the Cross Side Bag !

So overall it was an excellent and splendid purchase for Rs 6,749/- and I have no regrets as it is serving my purpose without any problem. I use the smartphone for all purpose like Calls, Wi-Fi, Little Videos, Little Music.

I would ask all to opt for this if battery life, camera and gaming are not main considerations & for those interested in buying a superior product @ correct price of Less than Rs 7,000 Not worth for Rs 8500

I had ordered, another Golden Color, for the White Gir Lion, for Rs 7,299, via my Cousin in the December 2016 Christmas Sale, as he also ordered the same Golden Color for his use, but his order was delivered & mine cancelled & Refunded after which I gave up. 

After the above incident I bought the Samsung Galaxy J1 4G VoLTE for the Lion on 23-Feb-2017 ! In a way this was much better for Lion's purpose of simple calls, SMS Long battery life etc!

Swami Aniruddha !