Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus 3GB RAM

Display

The K5 Plus is equipped with a 13MP primary camera with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash, as well as a 5MP front shooter. The camera app is standard Vibe UI fare, with the shutter button, and shortcuts to access the video mode, gallery, shooting modes, front camera, flash, HDR, timer and settings scattered haphazardly around the viewfinder. The only shooting modes apart from HDR and Panorama are a range of filters you can apply in real time. Dig deeper into settings and you’ll find the usual suspects like white balance, scene modes, ISO, metering, etc. When it comes to image quality, the camera offers surprisingly decent results. It’s quick to focus and offers plenty of detail, especially for macro shots. Landscape shots are hit and miss when it comes to exposure, but the HDR does a good job of improving images. Low light shots are quite dark and grainy, and the single LED flash doesn't do much more than bathe subjects in a harsh white light. The front camera is nothing to write home about. You can capture a decent selfie in ample lighting, but indoors or in artifical lighting, you're likely to end up with hazy, noisy shots. Here are some image samples taken from the primary camera. Open the thumbnails in a new tab to view them in full resolution. 

The K5 Plus runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop as a base, layered with Vibe UI. We’ve talked about Vibe UI at length in previous Lenovo reviews, so there’s nothing new to talk about. We’re not great fans of Vibe UI, with its cartoony icons and awful selection of wallpapers. There’s also a ton of bloatware on the device, including UC Browser, Evernote, Truecaller, Facebook, Flipkart, Myntra, ROUTE 66 Navigate, GameStore, Skype, WeChat, Tap the Frog HD and McAfee Security, to name a few. Fortunately, most of these apps can be uninstalled. You also get the usual selection of Lenovo apps, including SHAREit, SYNCit and Theme Center, the last of which offers a grand total of six tacky themes. There's also a Dolby Atmos equaliser app pre-loaded. One of our biggest gripes with Vibe UI on the K5 Plus is the outdated menu button. There's no way to switch it to a recent apps key, requiring a long press to bring up the multi-tasking menu.  

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor, paired with 2GB of RAM. On its own, the Snapdragon 616 is a reliable chipset, powering more premium devices like the Honor 5X, but we wish Lenovo had opted for a newer and more powerful processor like the Snapdragon 650. The K5 Plus sports a decent 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD. A littke over 10GB is available to use out of the box. The performance of the K5 Plus is nothing to write home about. It’s smooth enough initially, but once you start installing a bunch of apps, multitasking and gaming, a few lags and freezes start to creep in. Unlike the K4 Note (review), which was plagued by freezes during gaming, the K5 Plus chugs along quite happily for even intensive titles like Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8. The phone does heat up within minutes when watching videos or gaming, which is annoying, but the saving grace is that the temperature never gets too hot to handle.  There is one area where the K5 Plus excels though, and that’s the audio quality. The stereo Dolby Atmos speakers produce crisp, clear sound that surpasses even higher-priced competition, making it great for music lovers or users who watch a ton of videos on their smartphone. In terms of connectivity, the K5 Plus features dual-SIM, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and USB OTG.In the age of unibody smartphones, the K5 Plus stands out with its removable battery. The 2,750mAh unit is pretty disappointing, requiring a recharge before the end of the day with regular use. Our video loop battery drain test confirmed this, lasting for just 5 hours and 46 minutes, which is a very poor result, even for a budget device.