Lenovo K80 hands-on, first impressions

Unveiled last April, Lenovo is putting out its own version of a 4GB smartphone with the Lenovo K80 (K80M in other regions) and paired it with an Intel Atom Z-series processor.

The Lenovo K80 is a close cousin of the earlier Lenovo K3 Note in terms of design and build quality but it is obvious the company is took a page from Asus’ strategy with the Zenfone 2 and adding some more convincing features.

If you look at the hardware configuration, everything is spot on and almost exactly like the Zenfone 2, except for one important detail. The K80 comes with 25% more battery capacity at 4,000mAh so we expect much better battery life (we’ll find out in our standard battery test during the full review).

Of course, there are variantions in the model — the base configuration comes with 2GB of RAM and 32GB storage while the high-end configuration has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

Lenovo K80M specs:
5.5-inch full HD IPS LCD display @ 1920 x 1080 pixels, 403ppi
Intel Atom Z3560 1.8GHz quad-core processor
PowerVR G6400 GPU
2GB/4GB RAM
4G LTE, 3G, HSPA+
WiFi 802.11ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct
Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
NFC
32GB/64GB internal storage
13MP rear camera with OIS
5MP front-facing camera
GPS with aGPS support
FM Radio tuner
Android Kitkat 4.4.4 (upgradeable to Android 5 Lollipop)
Li-Ion 4000mAh battery

The downside is that the Lenovo K80 has a non-removable back cover and does not support microSD card expansion. Our review unit is the 2GB/32GB variant with a single LTE SIM capability (other variants support dual-SIM, LTE features). This direction allowed the K80 to have a lighter footprint and slimmer form factor (8.5mm) which makes it still comfortable to hold with one hand despite the flat design.

The 13-megapixel rear camera at the back is flanked by the noise-canceling mic and the LED flash and slightly protrudes from the surface. It can take HDR stills and 1080p videos. A special Focus Mode allows you to record videos with Infinite focus or Continuous focus with triaxial leveling.

Performance is at par with the Zenfone 2 ZE551ML which shows in our standard benchmarks. Quadrant Standard score is 19,565 while Antutu Benchmark tops the score at 41,598.

It’s curious to note that Lenovo states it will have Android 5.0 Lollipop out of the box but the unit we got still runs on Android 4.4.4 Kitkat.

The Lenovo K80 is not yet officiually released in the Philippines but you can grab one over at Widget City for Php11,990USD 204INR 17,321EUR 195CNY 1,488 {see listing here}.