Lenovo K3 Note review: Note for less

Custom phonebook

The Lenovo K3 Note has a fully custom phonebook. It is laid out across four tabs: dialer, call log, contacts, and YellowPage, which may only be of use if you're in China. The contacts tab is further split between All, Groups and Favorites, which are selected from a drop-down menu up top. You can also search for contacts or filter them by their first letter.

The phonebook

Viewing and editing a single contact is straightforward. As on most Android launchers, you can assign a plethora of contact information including custom ringtones and images, and you can enter a practically unlimited number of fields per contact. You can link contacts too, if you've added the same person on multiple services.

Editing a contact

Good telephony

We didn't experience any issues with the quality of the calls we placed with the K3 Note. The volume control allows for a wide range of settings and you'd rarely be forced to go for maximum. Reception was just fine, we didn't experience dropped calls or interuptions.

Call settings

The K3 Note is a dual SIM device (both micro SIMs) and as such has settings for SIM handling. Each card can be assigned a name and a number, and cards can be disabled from the menu, so you don't have to physically remove them, if for some reason you don't want to use one.

You can select default cards to use for voice calls, messaging and data, or have the phone ask you eacu time.

Dual SIM settings

The dialer displays an aggregate list of recent calls, for a categorized view you need to go to the call log. Smart dialing is supported too.

Dialer

The Lenovo K3 Note posted a Good score in our customary loudspeaker test. That's much better thatn the Galaxy J7's below average rating and also ahead of the Meizu m2 note. The Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 is on par. Here's how the numbers stack up:

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Samsung Galaxy J7	63.0	62.1	66.6	Below Average
LG G2	65.7	62.2	66.2	Below Average
Xiaomi Mi 4i	63.7	65.7	68.0	Below Average
HTD Desire 816	66.6	65.7	66.6	Below Average
Meizu m2 note	65.2	62.1	75.7	Average
Samsung Galaxy A7	64.8	66.3	73.5	Average
Lenovo Vibe X2	66.0	67.7	71.8	Average
Sony Xperia C4	65.0	65.8	75.7	Average
Samsung Galaxy E7	66.2	66.2	74.1	Average
Xiaomi Redmi Note 2	66.1	66.0	76.0	Good
Lenovo K3 Note	65.7	66.6	76.5	Good
Meizu m1 note	67.7	66.2	75.7	Good
Sony Xperia C5 Ultra	69.8	66.6	82.7	Very Good
Xiaomi Redmi 2	70.8	70.9	77.4	Very Good
Oppo R7 Plus	73.7	72.8	79.9	Very Good
OnePlus One	74.8	73.5	80.2	Excellent
OnePlus 2	75.7	73.5	80.7	Excellent
Motorola Moto G 4G	77.1	76.0	83.3	Excellent
Meizu MX4	81.3	75.8	83.6	Excellent

Messaging

The messaging section is business as usual with all SMS/MMS communication is organized into threads. Attaching a photo, video, audio recording or the like automatically turns your message into an MMS.

The messaging app supports MMS

For email, there's a built-in generic app, which can sync with a whole bunch of Chinese mail services, but also Gmail and POP or IMAP inboxes, which is useful for when you want to keep track of multiple accounts from one place.

Generic email client

The Lenovo K3 Note employs the stock Android keyboard, which many users like. You can enhance it even further by turning on the Gesture typing. A cool little feature is that you can use the volume rocker to move the cursor left or right when you're in a text box.