Lenovo K9 And Lenovo A5: First Impressions

Lenovo has been one of those brands that has stayed comparatively quiet for the past one year or so. The last major launch we witnessed by the Chinese tech firm in the Indian smartphone market was for the arrival of Lenovo K8. Now, the firm has once again made headlines for its recently launched Lenovo K9 and the A5 smartphones. Both of these are priced under Rs 10,000, targeting the likes of Xiaomi and even Nokia for that matter. Since the K9 and A5 are budget smartphones, you can’t expect unique features or competitive specifications per se.

While the Lenovo K9 is priced at Rs 8,999, the Lenovo A5 comes in two variants based on 2GB RAM + 16GB inbuilt storage and 3GB RAM + 32GB inbuilt storage at Rs 5,999 and Rs 6,999. This time the company has tied up with Flipkart as their third-party exclusive online retailers so you can get your hands on them from the e-commerce website. But before you do that, it is important to get an idea of what these smartphones have to offer. We spend some time with both the K9 and the A5 smartphones right after the launch and here are our initial impressions of them.

With the two smartphones, Lenovo is not just back in the market but has also indicated a sense of ‘revival’ in India with a new strategy. It plans to pitch Lenovo K9 as the smartphone that could at least deliver a mid-range smartphone-grade performance at a budget price. The device is not the thinnest nor it is the most powerful but it sure seems like a good proposition if you take the price-to-spec factor into consideration.

It has a 5.7-inch HD+ screen that looks just about fine. Don’t expect a good viewing angle or a canvas on which you can binge watch shows. But then it’s not bad either for the price and at the end of the day should get the job done. The A5 has a tad bit smaller 5.4-inch HD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio, which is expected to essentially deliver the same viewing experience.

The performance of the duo may be satisfactory at the best if you are a light user. Playing light-weight and less graphic-intensive games or performing basic functions like mailing, calling or texting should be fine. While the Lenovo K9 has an octa-core MT6762 processor clubbed with 3GB RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage, the A5 is powered by MT6739 processor along with 2GB or 3GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB inbuilt storage. One of the plus points A5 has over K9 is the triple slot for dual SIM cards and a microSD card.

These are decent processor, RAM and storage combinations, it might not seem that powerful on paper. We can only test it thoroughly and jump to any conclusions. However, thankfully there’s hardly a bloatware so the fluency should be more than those carrying a separate UI.

At the time of the launch, Lenovo stressed on the cameras of the Lenovo K9. This is also being said as the highlight of the smartphone. It has a 13MP+5MP front camera setup and a 13MP+5MP rear camera setup, something that makes it one of the firsts to feature four cameras in the given price point. We are yet to see how well the cameras fare but they do look promising enough to let other sub-Rs 10,000 smartphones down. However, the A5 is not as powerful as K9 as it has a single 13MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing camera.

Both are expected to deliver impressive battery life as they run on stock Android and are powered by less power-hogging processors. The display and cameras too won’t be consuming much of the 3000mAh (Lenovo K9) and 4000mAh (Lenovo A5) batteries. We expect the A5 to deliver better battery performance. It might also give Xiaomi a run for its smartphone in the particular section.

So now that Lenovo has somewhat made a comeback in the Indian market, it will be interesting to see the firm launching new budget smartphones and maybe targeting the sub-Rs 20,000 segment that is currently the most competitive segment in the industry. – Gadgets Now