Walt Disney was once asked about the secret of his successful ideas. The legendary American entrepreneur replied, "Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it's done right." Smartphone makers - especially in the budget segment - seem to have taken Disney's quote to heart. There seems to be a new smartphone in this category every two weeks and it feels as crowded as a Mumbai local train during rush hour. The latest face in the crowd is Lenovo's K8 Plus. Priced at Rs 10,999, the smartphone seems good on paper. But is it really that good to use too? Read the rest of our review to find out:
Design
Speaking about the design of the Lenovo K8 Plus, the smartphone doesn't stand out of the crowd. The design is very basic. Probably the first thing that you'll notice about the device is that it looks small, unlike most other smartphones which sport big screens.
Armed with a 5.2-inch display, the device was easy to use with one hand at all times. Right below the display are the capacitive navigation buttons and above it the selfie camera and the earpiece are placed.
While the power and volume rocker buttons are sandwiched on the right edge, the left edge of the smartphone has the SIM card slot. A big plus about the SIM tray was that it has slots for two SIM cards as well as a microSD card. So, one doesn't have to choose between a second SIM card and a microSD card.
On flipping over, you'll see the dual rear camera setup of the device. There's also the LED flash, the fingerprint sensor and the Lenovo branding placed on the back. There's a 3.5mm jack on the top and at the bottom edge are the speaker grilles and the micro-USB port.
The smartphone has a sturdy built and surprisingly feels heavy to hold considering its small size. It comes in two colour variants -Venom Black and Rose Gold. The one we got for the review was dressed in black.
The 5.2-inch full HD display of Lenovo K8 Plus comes with a protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The colour reproduction was accurate and the viewing angles are good. The sunlight readability, however, could have been better.
The display had two colour modes - standard and vibrant. As the name suggests, when you select the latter, the colours start appearing brighter. Personally, we liked the contrast better in this mode.
Performance
Lenovo K8 Plus is powered by 2.5GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 processor coupled with 4GB RAM. It offers 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card.
The Lenovo K8 Plus sports a 13MP+5MP dual rear cameras and an 8MP selfie camera. Among the dual rear cameras, one comes with depth effect. In terms of connectivity, the smartphone has two Nano-SIM slots and supports 4G as well as VoLTE on both. Apart from that there is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi b/g/n. It has a 4000mAh battery and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
The performance of the smartphone clearly outscores the looks of the device. Lenovo K8 Plus handled multitasking very easily. There were quite a few times when we were using a number of apps on the smartphone together. But there wasn't a single occasion when we faced a problem.
So, if you like listening to music while driving, you'll face no problem using your favourite music app along with Google Maps on your way to work.
Another big plus in the smartphone was that it doesn't come with too much bloatware. It had the regular Google's suite of apps and some apps by Microsoft. We didn't feel the need to uninstall any of them while we were using the device.
The 4000mAh battery of the device always managed to last more than a day, despite heavy usage of the smartphone. You can totally avoid carrying a power bank as the battery of K8 Plus delivers reliable performance.
Gaming on the device was also reasonably good. We played a number of games on the device like Temple Run, Angry Birds 2 and Asphalt 8. Lenovo K8 Plus could handle it all with ease. The only complaint was that the device did heat up after a long stretch of gaming. The fingerprint sensor if the device is extremely responsive and there wasn't a single time when the smartphone didn't unlock with it.
Now, let's talk about the cameras of the smartphones. The camera app of the device is basic and very user-friendly. It was very easy to understand how to switch between the dual cameras of the device. Apart from the Bokeh effect, you also get Panorama and Professional modes in Lenovo K8 Plus.
The device captured good pictures for us in well-lit as well as in dimly lit areas. The colours were accurate and the quality was mostly good. In night shots, there was no noise in any shots. For a smartphone that falls in the budget range, we weren't expecting a lot from the camera. However, the camera turned out to be much better than other phones' camera in the same range. Credit to Lenovo for packing in an impressive camera in this price bracket.
The images clicked with Bokeh effect were good. Lenovo K8 Plus definitely surpassed Moto G5S Plus' camera in this aspect. Unlike the Moto G5S Plus, there wasn't any problem in focusing on any object with the K8 Plus and only the surroundings got blurred. The dual cameras of the device gave us some nice shots and overall the camera impressed us.
In benchmark tests, Lenovo K8 Plus scored 856 in Single Core and 3203 in Multi Core score of Geekbench 4 and 62032 in Antutu.
Verdict
If there's one thing a consumer looks for in this segment, then it is value-for-money. The Lenovo K8 Plus is a powerful device considering its price tag and is certainly better than a lot of its competitors. It offers smooth performance, amazing battery life and handles multitasking with consummate ease. Add to it, the responsive fingerprint sensor, an impressive camera and solid gaming experience, the K8 Plus checks most boxes. The design and the display could have been better, but they won't put you off from buying the device. Lenovo just might have done what Walt Disney said in his quote -- get it right.
Design
Speaking about the design of the Lenovo K8 Plus, the smartphone doesn't stand out of the crowd. The design is very basic. Probably the first thing that you'll notice about the device is that it looks small, unlike most other smartphones which sport big screens.
Armed with a 5.2-inch display, the device was easy to use with one hand at all times. Right below the display are the capacitive navigation buttons and above it the selfie camera and the earpiece are placed.
While the power and volume rocker buttons are sandwiched on the right edge, the left edge of the smartphone has the SIM card slot. A big plus about the SIM tray was that it has slots for two SIM cards as well as a microSD card. So, one doesn't have to choose between a second SIM card and a microSD card.
On flipping over, you'll see the dual rear camera setup of the device. There's also the LED flash, the fingerprint sensor and the Lenovo branding placed on the back. There's a 3.5mm jack on the top and at the bottom edge are the speaker grilles and the micro-USB port.
The smartphone has a sturdy built and surprisingly feels heavy to hold considering its small size. It comes in two colour variants -Venom Black and Rose Gold. The one we got for the review was dressed in black.
The 5.2-inch full HD display of Lenovo K8 Plus comes with a protection of Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The colour reproduction was accurate and the viewing angles are good. The sunlight readability, however, could have been better.
The display had two colour modes - standard and vibrant. As the name suggests, when you select the latter, the colours start appearing brighter. Personally, we liked the contrast better in this mode.
Performance
Lenovo K8 Plus is powered by 2.5GHz octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 processor coupled with 4GB RAM. It offers 32GB of internal storage that can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card.
The Lenovo K8 Plus sports a 13MP+5MP dual rear cameras and an 8MP selfie camera. Among the dual rear cameras, one comes with depth effect. In terms of connectivity, the smartphone has two Nano-SIM slots and supports 4G as well as VoLTE on both. Apart from that there is Bluetooth and Wi-Fi b/g/n. It has a 4000mAh battery and runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
The performance of the smartphone clearly outscores the looks of the device. Lenovo K8 Plus handled multitasking very easily. There were quite a few times when we were using a number of apps on the smartphone together. But there wasn't a single occasion when we faced a problem.
So, if you like listening to music while driving, you'll face no problem using your favourite music app along with Google Maps on your way to work.
Another big plus in the smartphone was that it doesn't come with too much bloatware. It had the regular Google's suite of apps and some apps by Microsoft. We didn't feel the need to uninstall any of them while we were using the device.
The 4000mAh battery of the device always managed to last more than a day, despite heavy usage of the smartphone. You can totally avoid carrying a power bank as the battery of K8 Plus delivers reliable performance.
Gaming on the device was also reasonably good. We played a number of games on the device like Temple Run, Angry Birds 2 and Asphalt 8. Lenovo K8 Plus could handle it all with ease. The only complaint was that the device did heat up after a long stretch of gaming. The fingerprint sensor if the device is extremely responsive and there wasn't a single time when the smartphone didn't unlock with it.
Now, let's talk about the cameras of the smartphones. The camera app of the device is basic and very user-friendly. It was very easy to understand how to switch between the dual cameras of the device. Apart from the Bokeh effect, you also get Panorama and Professional modes in Lenovo K8 Plus.
The device captured good pictures for us in well-lit as well as in dimly lit areas. The colours were accurate and the quality was mostly good. In night shots, there was no noise in any shots. For a smartphone that falls in the budget range, we weren't expecting a lot from the camera. However, the camera turned out to be much better than other phones' camera in the same range. Credit to Lenovo for packing in an impressive camera in this price bracket.
The images clicked with Bokeh effect were good. Lenovo K8 Plus definitely surpassed Moto G5S Plus' camera in this aspect. Unlike the Moto G5S Plus, there wasn't any problem in focusing on any object with the K8 Plus and only the surroundings got blurred. The dual cameras of the device gave us some nice shots and overall the camera impressed us.
In benchmark tests, Lenovo K8 Plus scored 856 in Single Core and 3203 in Multi Core score of Geekbench 4 and 62032 in Antutu.
Verdict
If there's one thing a consumer looks for in this segment, then it is value-for-money. The Lenovo K8 Plus is a powerful device considering its price tag and is certainly better than a lot of its competitors. It offers smooth performance, amazing battery life and handles multitasking with consummate ease. Add to it, the responsive fingerprint sensor, an impressive camera and solid gaming experience, the K8 Plus checks most boxes. The design and the display could have been better, but they won't put you off from buying the device. Lenovo just might have done what Walt Disney said in his quote -- get it right.
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