With the entry of K3 Note, Lenovo marked its sway by bringing a high-end phablet at anenticing price bracket.The finest beast from the company broke all records and created some serious troubles for players like Redmi Note 4G and Yu Yureka.In fact, even today, with more than 5,00,000 units sold, it sits perfectly as an ideal budget phone under 10k.
Butthe question is, where’s the fun without a healthy competition? K3 Note has been facing potential competitors since months, but till date, no smartphone has ever managed to defeat the big-screen phablet comprehensively.The new Galaxy J7 is also standing in the in the list of top competitors, but it still remains to be seen whether spending a few more bucks on J7 is worthy or not. So, let’s compare their key specs, and find which phablet is the best under-Sub 15,000 price bracket!
Design
If you’re expecting a crafty metal finish from K3 Note or Galaxy J7, you’re probably in the wrong price category. The two budget phablets feature a decent language and are crafted ideally from glossy plastic. Lenovo, at the first place, comes in black, white, and yellow color options, and boasts the same polycarbonate finish as seen on its younger siblings. It feels pretty sturdy and tips around a decent 8mm as well.
The Galaxy J7, on the other hand, features the same old school design for which the company has been facing a lot of criticism. The new handset is .5mm thinner than K3 Note, but from the back, it’s the same boring Samsung! The rear camera is placed at the center, and there are no major design upgrades to count on! Plus, it’s pretty hefty to hold as well.
Display
As for display, there is no real competition between K3 Note and Galaxy J7. The humongous phablet from Lenovo flaunts a 5.5-inch full-HD display, and features a whopping pixel density of 401ppi.It looks extremely dense in broad daylight, and packs a vivid visual experience with rich colors and better contrasts.On whole, the finely crafted display of this device can be described as a major element making it so perfect for a price just below 10k.
The display of Galaxy J7, on the other side, features a nice visual trip but is not as powerful as the one on K3 Note.The Super-AMOLED panel of this device carries the same screen-size, but is enriched with a lower resolution of 720x1280pixels.On whole, it looks fairly impressive, but when compared to K3 Note, some major set-backs can be seen clearly.
Hardware
Lenovo, focusing more on power, has equipped K3 Note with a MediaTek processor paired with 2GB of RAM and Mali-T760MP2 GPU. TheMT6752 chipset equipped with this device clocksat a frequency of 1.7GHz, andhandles heavy apps without any lags or glitches.It takes performance to a whole new, and gives true phablet experience with buttery smooth performance.
However, the case with Galaxy J7 is quite different. The latest beauty from Samsung powers up by company’s own Exynos 7580octa-core chip clocked at a frequency of 1.5GHz, paired with 1.5GB of RAM.The device brings 64-bit capabilities, but cuts down-RAM by 0.5GB.So, if you’re big gaming freak, we’ll suggest you to go with the more powerful Lenovo K3 Note.
Software
On the software front, K3 Note and Galaxy J7 both run the latest iteration of Android with their own custom skins. The power of stock Android has always beenunique, but with these two phones, you’ll be falling in love customizations as well.
K3 Note runs Android 5.0-based Vibe UI 2.0 and brings a bunch of custom themes, while Galaxy J7brings Ultra power saving mode and many more features with Android 5.1-based TouchWiz interface.
Camera
If you love photography, you can pick any of the two smartphones. Galaxy J7, at the first place,features a 13-megapixel rear camera with f.2.0 aperture and LED flash, and a 5-megapixel shooter with another LED flash. It delivers bright selfies, and gives incredible lowlight-performance with no pixilation or color shifts at all.
Lenovo K3 Note, on the other hand, offers an ideal package for photography, especially considering its competitive price tag.The device flaunts the same camera setup as Galaxy J7, but lacks an additional LED flash with its secondary camera!
Storage
As for storage,Galaxy J7 andK3 Notepack 16GB, and offer sufficient room for non-stop work and play.They both are fairly impressive, butin case you’re a big movie-buff, we’ll suggest Galaxy J7 as the better choice. The device not only packs improved performance but also brings support for memory expansion up to 128 gigs via micro-SD card.K3 Note, on the other side, can be expanded only up to 32 gigs.
Connectivity
Along with LTE, both phones pack options like Wi-Fi, 3G, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth, A-GPS and micro-USB 2.0. They offer support for LTE bands in India, and feature dual micro-SIM card slots for best user-experience.Web-browsing is slickon both phones, but Galaxy J7 with advanced Cat.4 LTE technology delivers faster download and upload speeds.
Battery
Both phones bear the same 3000mAh Li-Ion& 2900mAhbattery, and promise 18 to 20 hours of talktimeon 3G network. They both perform fairly well, and can easily last for an entire day on standard usage. However, if you’re using Galaxy J7, you’ll enjoy the efficiency of thePower Saving Mode integrated by Samsung. This feature disablesunnecessary functions, and increases battery backup by a significant margin.
Price
Samsung Galaxy J7 is hitting the shelves at Rs. 14,999, while Lenovo has priced K3 Note at a much lower Rs. 9,999. They both are available on Flipkart, and are bundled with a bunch of offers from Airtel and Hungama.But, K3 Note is a product of Flipkart’s flash sale model while Galaxy J7 is on open sale.
Final Verdict
In our opinion, unless you’re a big selfie lover, spending 15k on Samsung Galaxy J7 is a total waste of money.The device has been designed for Selfie-pro owners, but its display and build quality is something which not even close to K3 Note. However, things could have been really different if this phone was coming somewhere around 12 or even 13k!