Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus hands-on, first impressions

A member of the three smartphone models under the Vibe K5 series, the Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is an upgraded version of its smaller sibling. What has changed? Read on our initial impressions to find out.

To start, the Vibe K5 Plus has a higher resolution display but still at 5-inches. It’s an IPS LCD panel with a Full HD resolution or 1920 x 1080 pixels. Since the size of the display itself hasn’t changed, the K5 Plus has a crisper 441ppi of pixel density. The front-facing camera is a 5MP fixed-focus shooter to answer the call of vanity. There’s also the earpiece, and a few sensors just beside it. Sadly, the three capacitive keys for Recent, Home, and Back don’t have backlighting.

Checking out the sides, we have two buttons on the right, the power/lock button and the volume rocker, which are built-in to the back cover.

The left-hand side doesn’t have anything going on. Nothing interesting here.

The bottom end of the phone is pretty bare as well with only the primary microphone pinhole quietly sitting on the left.

This leaves the top of the device to have the micro-USB port for wired connectivity and charging, and the 3.5mm jack for headphones.

The back is pretty basic with the 13MP camera together with its LED flash  placed on the top-left corner, and a pair of speakers down below that’s branded with Dolby Atmos. Inside there’s a 2750mAh replaceable battery beneath the removable back cover which is made out of two materials — aluminum and plastic.

If you have noticed, the Vibe K5 and Vibe K5 Plus are very similar in design but don’t let it’s similar looks fool you as the latter has a faster 1.5GHz Snapdragon 616 octa-core processor and bigger 3GB RAM to work with.  It’s also LTE-equipped along with the usual like Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS, and FM Radio.

Lenovo is bundling their upgrade VR headset bundle for the latest Vibe K5 series. This time around, a remote control is included in the package thus leveling up your basic VR experience. The additional remote is similar to the VR headset kit of Cherry’s but with a slicker and more favorable matte black coating.

Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus specs:
5-inch Full HD IPS display, 441ppi
1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 octa-core CPU
Adreno 405 GPU
3GB RAM
16GB internal storage
Expandable via microSD card, up to 32GB
13MP rear autofocus camera w/ LED flash
5MP front-facing camera
Dual-SIM
4G LTE
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth 4.1
GPS, A-GPS
FM Radio
Dolby Atmos
USB OTG
2,750mAh battery
Android 5.1 Lollipop w/ VIBE UI (upgradeable to Android 6.0)
142 x 71 x 8.2 mm
150 g

The Lenovo Vibe K5 Plus is now available in three colors — Platinum Silver, Champagne Gold, and Graphite Gray. It has an SRP of Php 8,999 that already includes the VR headset and controller plus a complimentary clear case and screen protector.