In 2015, the company claimed that it had a 30 percent share in the 4G smartphone market in the country. However, since then Lenovo has faced tremendous challenges from other companies. Lenovo is facing the biggest challenge from other Chinese companies like Xiaomi. It is worth noting that Xiaomi has recently managed to become a part of the top 5.
With Lenovo K6 Power, the company has tried to strengthen its claim in the price range of Rs 10,000. The company already has Lenovo Vibe K5 (Review), Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus Lenovo has already launched phones like Lenovo K6 Power (Review) and Lenovo Vibe K4 Note (Review). The new Lenovo K6 Power comes with a full metal body and fingerprint sensor. Another important feature of this phone is its 4000 mAh battery which supports reverse charging. This means that you will be able to charge other devices by connecting them to the battery of this Lenovo phone.
There are many other smartphones in this price range that come with similar specifications. These include the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime (Review), Coolpad Note 5 and Asus Zenfone Max (2106) (Review). At first glance, we felt that the Lenovo K6 Power would prove to be a strong competitor in this price segment. Did it live up to our expectations? Let’s find out through the review.
Lenovo K6 Power design and build
At first glance, Lenovo K6 Power looks very similar to Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime. The similarity between the two is more visible when the phone is viewed from the front. There are slight differences in the camera placement and antenna bands on the rear. The camera is present in the middle. LED flash and fingerprint scanner are provided with it. A similar setup was seen in Xiaomi Redmi Note 3.
Lenovo’s branding is present at the bottom of the back of the phone. There is also a speaker grill along with it. This phone is available in dark grey, gold and silver colors. The display of K6 Power is 5 inches. Capacitive buttons are provided below the display for navigation. Unfortunately, these buttons are not backlit. We had trouble using them in the dark.
At 9.3mm thick, the Lenovo K6 Power handset is thicker than the Redmi 3S Prime. The difference in weight is just 1 gram. The power and volume buttons are on the right side. The SIM slot is on the left edge. The 3.5mm headphone socket and micro-USB charging port are on the top. And the notification LED is hidden in the earpiece grill.
The fingerprint scanner is sensitive and unlocks the phone quickly. Lenovo has also provided an app lock function. With its help, it is possible to set up the fingerprint sensor.
The full-metal body gives the K6 Power a premium feel. However, this also makes the phone slippery in your hands, so you have to be cautious. On the other hand, it is easy to use with one hand, thanks to the 5-inch screen. We also liked some useful tricks that Lenovo has incorporated in the user interface, such as launching the camera app by pressing the volume button twice. This works even when the phone is locked.
Lenovo’s 5-inch screen has a full-HD resolution. Its pixel density is 441 ppi. Due to this, the text looks quite sharp. The brightness is good and the colors are also quite punchy. Viewing angles and sun legibility are also decent. The display is the most important feature of the K6 Power. Along with the retail box of Lenovo K6 Power, you will get a regular charger, SIM ejector tool and instruction manual.
Lenovo K6 Power specifications and features
Like Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime, Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor has been used in Lenovo K6 Power. With this processor, you will get a clock speed of 1.4 GHz and 3 GB RAM is present along with it. The inbuilt storage is 32 GB and if needed, you will be able to use a microSD card up to 128 GB. Unfortunately, it has a hybrid SIM slot. In such a situation, the user will have the option of using two SIM cards simultaneously or a microSD card with one SIM. Connectivity features include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.2, FM radio, Micro-USB and GPS / A-GPS.
Lenovo K6 Power runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow. The company’s Vibe Pure UI is present on top of it. The company has tried to keep its user interface as clean as possible. We found it to be very smooth. You will get two default home screens. Let us tell you that there is no default gallery app in K6 Power. This will confuse many new users. Google Photos is already installed on the phone. But it is not the default photo app. However, Lenovo has provided a file manager app to access all types of files.
The dropdown shade has notification options along with several quick settings. The pre-installed theme center gives you customization options for wallpapers, icons, lock screen settings.
We liked two software features in Lenovo K6 Power – App Lock function and Dual Apps. With the help of App Lock function, users will be able to lock any app through fingerprint sensor. Dual Apps mode means that users will be able to run selected apps with two different IDs on the same phone at the same time. We tested both the features and they performed their role well.
The K6 Power’s Settings app has a Features section that comes with some useful customizations from the company. Quick Snap lets you launch the camera app by double-clicking the volume button.
We found that several third-party apps came pre-installed on the K6 Power. These include Evernote, Flipkart, McCafe Security, Skype, SHAREit, Truecaller, SyncIt, and UC Browser.
Lenovo K6 Power Performance
Lenovo K6 Power handled common tasks with ease. We had no complaints with the octa-core processor. Powerful games like ‘Need for Speed’ also ran smoothly. K6 Power also did a good job in multitasking. Apps launched quickly. Usually 1 GB of memory remains while using the device. During the review, we had no complaints with system performance. There was also no complaint of the phone overheating.
The display of Lenovo K6 Power is excellent for entertainment. It is a great handset for watching videos and playing games. The dual speakers at the back give a suitable sound for a small room. The audio quality is also good. The phone supports Dolby Atmos, with the help of which you will be able to change the audio settings. However, the quality of the earphones provided with the phone was very poor.
The Lenovo K6 Power has the same Snapdragon 430 processor as the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime. But its benchmark results were slightly lower in comparison.
Lenovo K6 Power has a 13-megapixel rear camera. It is equipped with Sony IMX258 sensor, phase detection autofocus and LED flash. The 8-megapixel front camera uses Sony IMX219 sensor. Due to PDAF, the rear camera of K6 Power focuses quickly. The camera took decent close-up shots. However, noise was clearly visible at the edges when zoomed in.
(Click to see camera samples of Lenovo K6 Power)
The biggest drawback of Lenovo K6 Power is that it always needs proper lighting. Photos taken in low light had a lot of noise. Unfortunately, even the smart composition tool cannot overcome this drawback. It was not easy to take pictures of moving objects with the rear camera of K6 Power. We also faced this drawback with Lenovo Vibe K5. With K6 Power, you will be able to record videos in full-HD resolution. Their quality was good. There was no problem in taking pictures with the front camera in proper lighting conditions.
The phone also supports Voice over LTE along with 4G. The call quality was good. In areas with poor connectivity, K6 Power did not face any problem in connecting to the network.
The K6 Power’s 4000mAh battery lasted 14 hours and 30 minutes in our video loop test. This is not bad. The Redmi 3S Prime’s 4100mAh battery lasted 14 hours and 50 minutes in the test. It is worth noting that the K6 Power comes with a full-HD screen. On the other hand, the Redmi 3S Prime has an HD screen.
The battery of Lenovo K6 Power easily lasted for a day even with heavy usage, which is good. You also get a power saver mode with which you can extend the battery life. The ability to use K6 Power as a power bank is great. However, we wish that this device had fast charging facility. Because the phone’s battery took about three hours to fully charge.
Our verdict
Priced at Rs 9,999, the Lenovo K6 Power comes with a lot of reliable features. We appreciate Lenovo for paying attention to the little details. The metal body feels premium and the fingerprint scanner is a bonus. The Vibe UI was very smooth during the review. The Snapdragon 430 processor is perfectly capable of daily use. However, the camera on the Lenovo K6 Power is a little weak considering the challenge. This will disappoint many people. There is no doubt that the battery life and display are the best features of the phone.
There are many popular smartphones available for Rs 10,000. In such a situation, it will be very interesting to see how Lenovo K6 Power will be able to challenge. As an alternative, Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime can be considered, if camera is important for you and you like MIUI more than Vibe UI.