Lenovo K9 first impression: A premium-looking device priced at Rs 8,999

After over a year, Lenovo has made a comeback into the smartphone market in India with the launch of two new phones, the Lenovo K9 and the budget Lenovo A5.At the launch event on 16 October, I spent a while with the Lenovo K9, and I must admit, for the Rs 8,999 price tag, the device does look impressive.Build, design and displayThe Lenovo K9 is light but it looks like a premium device. The shiny, 2.5D glass back probably has something to do with this. Surprisingly, it doesn't attract smudges. At least the blue colour variant I played with didn't get a foggy back by just touching it.The K9 does not have the now ubiquitous notch, but it really seems okay without it. The device has a large enough 5.7-inch HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The display colours looked quite crisp and bright. I even played a few videos on YouTube on the device, and I have no complaints on that front.[caption id="attachment_5397481" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Lenovo K9 in Blue. Image: tech2/ Nandini Yadav[/caption]Chipset, storage, and OSUnder the hood, the K9 houses a MediaTek 6762 octa-core processor with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. It's an entry-level chip, and I'll be able to better gauge its capabilities when I spend some more time with the phone.The phone runs ZUI 3.5, which is based on Android 8.1 Oreo. The device I got to use was an unrooted device from China and it was full of bloatware and pre-installed apps. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping that the devices in India won't be this bloated.Camera and BatteryFor photography, the K9 sports a total of 4 cameras. There's a dual-camera setup at the front and at the back as well, and both of which comprise a combination of a 13 MP and a 5 MP sensor.I tried clicking some pics with the phone and to be honest, the colours looked slightly off. The images looked over-saturated and the blues looked a little green and the browns looked more orange-ish. I noticed this issue on both front and back camera. And this is despite all the AI integrated into the camera. This is a budget smartphone and budget smartphones aren't at their best when it comes to indoor lighting, so, hopefully, the cameras are better than they seemed at first blush. But I would probably be able to share more details on the camera once I review the device, which should likely be in the coming few weeks.However, what’s really interesting in the phone is a decently big 3,000 mAh battery, and yet Lenovo managed to keep the phone pretty light. The K9 comes with a USB Type-C charger.ConclusionOverall, the Lenovo K9 looks pretty good, especially given the price range it sits in. And in the price segment, the phone directly competes with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 6, and the Realme 2. While it's too early to say if the Lenovo K9 will surpass its competitors, I am excited to find out how well the device fares against other smartphones in the segment. The chances seem bright, I'd say!