Lenovo K6 Note review: Noteworthy

Performance

The Lenovo K6 Note is a budget device and as such, you can't realistically expect any benchmark-breaking performance out of its modest internals. That being said, however, entry-level chipsets from both the likes of Qualcomm and MediaTek have come a long way, especially in terms of real-world performance.

The Lenovo K6 Note provides a smooth overall user experience. We noticed no stutters, lags or slowdowns under everyday loads. Of course, you can easily choke the Snapdragon 430 chipset with any CPU intensive task, like unpacking an archive. But other than that, even casual gaming performance appears tolerable, since most titles tend to scale down nicely on their own.

As far as the specific internals go, the aforementioned Snapdragon 430 has a total of eight Cortex-A53 cores to work with. They are clocked at the modest 1.4 GHz. This is generally good for battery life, but performance is definitely scarce.

Picking suitable contenders to pit the Lenovo K6 Note against in our benchmark runs wasn't exactly easy. Its aggressive pricing leaves little wiggle room.

Xiaomi is a sure go-to. The Chinese manufacturer has been making great strides to establish itself and there is some level of success to be noted.

Meizu made its way onto the selection with the m3 Note. Soon the refreshed m5 Note will likely be joining its ranks as well. But, the latter is still in the process of making its way to stores.

Huawei has a couple of suitable budget options also noted and so do Coolpad and LeEco. The only other player that can currently make the price cut seems to be Motorola and particularly the Moto G family.

Kicking things off with the all-round AnTuTu benchmark, we see the Lenovo K6 Note hold its own amid the described crowd. However, we can't deny that Xiaomi is flexing some real muscle across the board. This is a trend that carries over to other benchmarks as well.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  85162
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  77442
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  76186
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  74488
• Huawei Honor 5c
  51220
• Lenovo Moto G4
  46949
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  45190
• Lenovo K6 Note
  44972
• Meizu m3 note
  44898
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  40976
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  28025
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  27487

Basemark OS II, another compound benchmark, seems to be even kinder to the K6 Note. We'll just leave it at that, but it is worth mentioning that some newer offers, like the Redmi Note 4 are missing from the list. The Redmi Note 3 still offers class-leading performance in the budget 5.5-inch segment.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1914
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  1648
• Lenovo K6 Note
  967
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  951
• Meizu m3 note
  930
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  882
• Huawei P8lite
  600
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  576

Breaking things down a bit, we can look at GeekBench 3, which is meant to evaluate CPU performance alone. The Cortex-A53 cores are typically the norm in this price segment, so most variances aren't really all that big. Again, however, a few Xiaomi handsets reign supreme.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  5166
• Huawei Honor 5c
  3933
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  3861
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  3695
• Lenovo Moto G4
  3182
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  3085
• Lenovo K6 Note
  3044
• Meizu m3 note
  3028
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  2876
• Huawei P8lite
  2813
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1437
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  1435

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  1596
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  1543
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  1536
• Huawei Honor 5c
  898
• Meizu m3 note
  807
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  722
• Lenovo Moto G4
  713
• Lenovo K6 Note
  672
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  665
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  472
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  471

In the graphics department, the story is pretty much identical. The Mali-T880 MP4, found in both the Redmi Note 4 and Redmi Pro, as well as the Adreno 510 in the Mi Max and Redmi Note 3 seem to be doing a noticeably better job at pushing pixels than the Adreno 505 in the K6 Note.

Still, some of the competition appears to be even less equipped, for instance - the Adreno 405 in the Moto G lineup. But then again, a frame here and there won't really make that much of a difference in this particular performance segment, where you can only realistically expect to play games only when dialed down in detail.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Huawei Honor 5c
  7.8
• Lenovo K6 Note
  7
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.5
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6.4
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  1.8
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  1.8

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  15
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  14
• Huawei Honor 5c
  8.3
• Lenovo K6 Note
  7
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6.8
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6.6
• Meizu m3 note
  5.4
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  3.8
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  3.8

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  9.5
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Huawei Honor 5c
  4.5
• Lenovo K6 Note
  4.4
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  4.4
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.2
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  4.1
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  10
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  9.5
• Xiaomi Mi Max
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  9.4
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  9
• Huawei Honor 5c
  4.8
• Lenovo Moto G4
  4.5
• Lenovo K6 Note
  4.4
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  4.4
• Meizu m3 note
  2.5

Still, it is worth noting that OpenGL ES 3.1 is supported by the Adreno 505 and that is one of the requirements for running Android Nougat. So, at least from a hardware standpoint, the Lenovo K6 Note's update path appears plausible.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi Max
  15487
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 (S650)
  14717
• Xiaomi Redmi Note 4
  13666
• Xiaomi Redmi Pro
  12190
• Huawei Honor 5c
  7735
• Lenovo K6 Note
  7480
• Xiaomi Redmi 3S
  7263
• Lenovo Moto G4
  6932
• Motorola Moto G4 Plus
  6380
• Meizu m3 note
  4567
• Huawei P8lite
  3648
• Samsung Galaxy J5 (2016)
  2180
• Samsung Galaxy On7 Pro
  2162