https://youtu.be/ghBoRN1_qW4 for full review
The Indian smartphone market largely comprises of phones
under the budget of Rs 15,000, and one doesn’t need to really explain why. The
competition in this segment is fierce. The phones available in this segment
offer everything one might ask for, including metal body, dual cameras, large
battery packs, 4G VoLTE, 1080p displays, copious amount of RAM and storage, you
name it. However, most reviewers (me included) agree that phone makers are not
playing enough attention to design. In fact, I would say that all these budget
smartphones look rather dull and boring. The reasons for that can be many but
the fact of the matter is, all phones majorly look the same.
Amidst this horde of identicals LG has brought the Q6 to
India, which I believe is amongst the best looking budget smartphone of all
time. It carries the same Full Vision display we enjoyed on the LG G6, that
made it a conversation starter every time I took the phone out of my pocket.
However, as they say, “looks aren't everything”. To find out more about the
phone, I dug deeper and here is what I found.
Display and Design
First and foremost I must address the display on this
device. I believe most of you would agree with me that the LG Q6 is a looker.
Kudos to LG for bringing their flagship tech to the budget segment, reaching a
wider audience range than flagships do. As you must have heard, LG calls this a
Full Vision display. Essentially, the display is a little taller than the
standard 1080p resolution. It rocks a 2160 x 1080p resolution, which takes the
aspect ratio from the standard 16:9 to 18:9. In tandem, the top and bottom
bezels have been drastically minimised, which adds to the phone’s unique look.
Moreover, the Full Vision display not only makes the phone look good, but makes
the whole footprint smaller.
This means, the LG Q6 with its 5.5-inch display, is just aAs
for the display quality, it is a top notch panel and can easily be regarded as
one of the best in the category. Viewing angles are very good and the colour
saturation, though a bit warm, is favourable for viewing all kinds of content.
It is easily viewable outdoors and under direct sunlight, and with luminance
readings of 605 lux, offers ample brightness as well. The display has Gorilla
Glass 3 protection on top for scratch protection and the touch response is
quite good. hair bigger than the 5-inch Lenovo Z2 Plus.
What I did find a little disappointing is the fact that not
a lot of apps can make use of the extra screen space made available on this
phone. However, LG is a still an early adopter of the screen resolution and as
more phones join the bunch, developers will also start implementing the screen
resolution in their respective apps.
Complementing the display is the overall design of the
device, which makes the Q6 look like a miniaturised version of the G6. the
metal side rails, along with the glossy plastic back give the phone an upmarket
look. It is well weighted and quite ergonomic for the screen size it offers.
While the display makes the phone enticing, it also adds a
sense of fragility. LG claims that its H-beam chassis is more than capable of
handling those occasional bumps and drops. The frame itself is made out of 7000
series aluminium, which marketing jargon will tell you is an aerospace grade
material. Although, to put it relatively, that has been used in smartphones for
ages.
Claims aside, I have been using the phone for a few days now
and it does feel quite sturdy in hand. The edges are metallic and rounded,
which makes the phone easier to grip. While Gorilla Glass 3 protects the
display from scratches, the plastic back gets scratched quite easily. The
Gorilla Glass 3 display is also flat and not curved. LG says that it has done
so to “reduce annoying accidental touches”, you get in a phone with a curved
display. However, I don't agree with that argument.
UI and features
LG hasn't changed its UI significantly in terms of design
and functionality since the LG G6. So, you still get a very colourful interface
with no app drawer. LG tries to ease the user into the UI from the very
beginning, with tutorials and pop-cards for almost all aspects and functions of
the device. It will give you pop-ups to explain what you should do if your
phone becomes unresponsive by chance or how you can add a fourth shortcut in
the navigation panel at the bottom.
In addition, LG has duplicate apps for almost all Google
apps, which seems unnecessary. These apps not only take up space, but will slow
down the update process in the long run. This is due to the fact that like any
other company, LG will bring Android O to its flagships first and then to other
phones.
Coming back to the phone at hand, I am disappointed to see
that the device does not feature a fingerprint scanner. However, the Q6 comes
with a “face unlock” feature, that works, but is a little slow for my liking.
Performance
While the face unlock is slow, the performance of the phone
itself is slower. Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC and 3GB of RAM,
the LG Q6 can barely keep up with the competition on synthetic benchmarks. That
being said, if you are not into heavy gaming or don’t use processor intensive
tasks, such as video editing apps, then you would find the overall experience
of the phone good enough. You can have multiple (more than 20) apps in the task
manager, download videos on Amazon Prime in the background and watch or stream
YouTube videos at the same time, without the phone stuttering.
The only time I had issues with the performance was when I
played games like Injustice 2 and Vainglory on it. The phone kept stuttering
and one could see noticeable frame drops throughout the gameplay. At the same
time, you can try games like Daddy Long Legs and Card Thief, which just about
work fine.
4G connectivity is also good and the Q6 supports dual VoLTE
SIM cards slots. It also features a dedicated external memory card slot in
extension to the 32GB internal storage. The speaker on the back side could have
been louder, but I do find the audio quality via headphones decent.
Battery life
The LG Q6 brings a 3000mAh battery to the table, which is
good enough for normal users. Using the phone as a daily driver I found that
its battery is highly efficient and maintains its battery life quite well, even
if you indulge in watching YouTube videos a lot. There is even a “game battery
saver” mode, which adjusts the battery consumption and extend battery life.
Although, that is something you won't need, as you can’t really game on the
phone. The device scored 5 hours and 1 minutes on the PCMark benchmark, which
isn't exceptional, but still workable, as the phone lasts a day easily even if
you’re a heavy user.
Like the battery life, the rear 13MP camera on the LG Q6 is
also just about good enough. Images taken in all lighting conditions look rather
subdued, but have ample details and sharpness. Images do tend to be grainy, as
you move to low light settings, but most images do look usable. I believe the
camera could have achieved more with a manual mode, but LG has kept the camera
app very lackluster. Apart from panorama and food mode, the phone doesn't
really let you tweak settings further.
Bottomline
This brings us to our conclusion of the LG Q6 review, which
makes me both happy and sad. I am happy that LG finally took it upon itself to
change how budget segment smartphones should look. The Q6 now sets the
precedent for how a sub-15K smartphone or anything around this price should be
designed. At the same time, I am somewhat disappointed that the performance of
the Q6 is somewhat disappointing and sub-par compared to our recommended
choices. The phones especially lacks the gaming prowess we have now accustomed
ourselves to in the sub-15K smartphone category.
As to answer the burning question, yes, the LG Q6 is
recommendable phone if and only if you are not a very heavy user. The phone
offers a brilliant display, a usable camera, is well built and has decent
battery life as well.
How it compares?
The LG Q6 goes against the likes of Moto G5 Plus, Xiaomi
Redmi Note 4, Honor 6X, Samsung Galaxy On Max and more. All these smartphones
offer better gaming performance, but offers pretty much the same day-to-day
performance. At the same time, the Q6 is also not pushing any boundaries when
it comes to camera quality or battery life. All things considered, the LG Q6 is
an all rounder. It a jack of all trades, but master of none. It’s better
designed than any sub-20k smartphone though.
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