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Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is the latest budget smartphone from the Chinese smartphone player

The smartphone industry is undoubtedly the most difficult one to be in right now, primarily due to the level of competition. There are too many devices and too many players often competing in the same price band, offering similar specs on devices that pretty much look the same.

In India, the recent entry of LeEco especially has made this market a lot more difficult to crack for even the most popular brands.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus

Lenovo had the toughest time when LeEco announced its Le 1s in India. The Le 1s stole Lenovo K4 Note’s thunder. It was more evident when Lenovo decided to launch a successor to the K4 Note, in matter of two months.

But Lenovo’s brand identity can always win it customers. The company has had a good amount of success in the smartphone space, and with Vibe K5 Plus, it is trying to redefine experience in the sub-Rs 9k space.

So is the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus, aka successor to A6000 series good enough for a budget smartphone buyer? Read on our review

Specs: 5.0-inch Full HD display | 1.5GHz octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor | 2GB RAM | 16GB storage space (expandable to 32GB) | 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera | 2750mAh battery | Android 5.1 Lollipop

Price: Rs 8,499

What is good?

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is the successor to A6000 series which is one of the most successful device for Lenovo

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus’ biggest differentiator is its design and build quality. It doesn’t shout cheap in any way. It echoes the design language we have seen from Lenovo before, with nice shiny metallic silver finish and the redesigned Lenovo logo sitting slightly above the halfway mark on the back.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus’ performance is also better than most budget smartphones. Thanks to Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 and 2GB RAM, Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus can easily handle multiple apps. The overall performance is really fluid.

Lenovo smartphones have been known for great sound. The company’s close tie-up with Dolby really helps, and that comes down as a ritual to Vibe K5 Plus too. The dual speakers work extremely well, but just don’t keep the smartphone face down and play music, (speakers are located at the back) else the audio becomes shadowy.

A sample picture shot with Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus in broad daylight

A smartphone of any price has to get one thing absolutely right – camera. Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus doesn’t have a camera that will win you an Instagram ‘Hall of Fame’, but it will definitely give you decent shots to post on the photo sharing site. The image sensor is as quick as one should expect for the price, and mostly manages to get the colours fine. Considering the price, there aren’t many smartphone cameras that do extremely better than Vibe K5 Plus.

Another sample shot with Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus shows nice details and textures

Also, all the selfies lovers out there will find the front facing 5MP camera adequately good. It is good enough for your next profile picture.

What is not good?

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus’ display is good but it is definitely not the brightest in the price range

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus comes with a 5-inch Full HD display, but it is not the brightest I’ve seen. The colour profile of the screen is good but I kept wanting more brightness. Lenovo could have added more nits to this panel.

The battery is definitely decent (lasted around a day), but other devices like Huawei Honor Holly 2 Plus which is in the same price range lasts for two days on a single charge. So that totally depends on individual use case.

Should you buy?

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is the smartphone that should help Chinese company propel in this ever competitive market. It will appeal to all those people who wanted a decent budget performance device that doesn’t look too old school. I further believe Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is the smartphone the company should have launched long back.

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