Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus review: Positive vibes

Custom phonebook

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus has a fully custom phonebook. It is laid out across four tabs: dialer, call log, contacts, and favorites. There's smart dial support, as well as speed dial.

Dialer

Contacts is self explanatory - you get an alphabetized list of them, which you can search or filter them by first letter.

Contacts

The Vibe K5 Plus 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 each time.

Dual-SIM settings

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus did a very good job in our loudspeaker test, thanks to its two powerful speakers. The Xiaomi Redmi 3 is noticeably quieter, and while the Moto G 3rd gen has the same "Very good" rating as the Vibe, old-school ringtones come out louder from the Lenovo phone.

Speakerphone test	Voice, dB	Pink noise/ Music, dB	Ringing phone, dB	Overall score
Sony Xperia E4	61.9	58.0	64.7	Below Average
Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime	63.0	60.3	68.3	Below Average
Xiaomi Redmi 3	66.1	65.5	70.6	Average
OnePlus X	65.9	66.3	70.7	Average
Meizu m2 note	65.2	62.1	75.7	Average
Meizu m1 metal	68.3	66.6	73.7	Good
Lenovo K3 Note	65.7	66.6	76.5	Good
Meizu m1 note	67.7	66.2	75.7	Good
Lenovo Vibe K4 Note	74.7	66.6	72.3	Good
Xiaomi Redmi 2	70.8	70.9	77.4	Very Good
Motorola Moto G 3rd Gen	75.7	69.6	75.9	Very Good
Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus	72.8	71.3	81.9	Very Good
OnePlus 2	75.7	73.5	80.7	Excellent
Motorola Moto G	81.6	75.7	82.7	Excellent

Messaging and text input

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

The Lenovo K3 Note employs the stock Android keyboard, which many users like. It doesn't have a dedicated number row, but numbers do come out upon a long press. You can choose between Material and Holo color themes.

Messaging and text input