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Lenovo K5 Note and A5 are two no-frills budget phones with (thankfully) zero hype
- Lenovo K5 Note (2018) and Lenovo A5 announced at event in Beijing, China.
- Affordable devices sport Full HD+ 18:9 aspect ratio displays, rear-mounted fingerprint readers, and run Android 8.1 Oreo.
- K5 priced at around $125 and A5 at roughly $94, but both devices are currently only confirmed for China.
Lenovo held an event earlier today in Beijing, China where it revealed, with no shortage of disappointment, the Lenovo Z5 — an affordable phone with modest specs that absolutely is not the notch-less, bezel-less dream device the company had previously teased.
The discussion following the event has understandably focused on the Z5’s unfulfilled promises, so much so that you might have missed that Lenovo actually announced two other new smartphones for the Chinese market: the A5 and K5 Note (2018).
Starting off with the larger of the two devices, the K5 Note will retail for 799 yuan (~$125) for the base model and is available in Black, Gold, and Blue.
The phablet features a 6-inch full HD+ IPS display with an 18:9 aspect ratio and is powered by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 450 SoC backed by 3GB/4GB of RAM, 32GB/64GB of storage (expandable up to 256GB), and a 3,760mAh battery.
It also sports a dual-lens camera with a 16MP primary and 2MP sensor combo, an 8MP selfie camera on the front, complete with beauty mode features, and a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor.
The Lenovo A5, meanwhile, packs a MediaTek MT6739 processor, 3GB of RAM, 16GB/32GB storage (expandable up to 256GB), and a 4,000mAh battery. The display is once again an 18:9 Full HD+ panel, only here it is shrunk slightly to 5.45-inches.
The A5 also sports a 13MP main shooter and an 8MP selfie camera, both of which have an f/2.2 aperture, and a fingerprint sensor on the rear. Both the K5 Note and A5 run Lenovo’s ZUI 3.9 skin based on Android 8.1 Oreo.
The A5 is priced at 599 yuan (~$94) and comes in Black, Gold, and Rose Gold colorways (via Gadgets360).
While neither device is going to set the world on fire, both arrive with decent specs, solid designs, modest price tags, and, crucially, no hype whatsoever. If only Lenovo could’ve done the same with the Z5.