The Q6 brings bezel-less display under Rs 15,000!
The LG Q6 is the latest entry in the mid-range. The smartphone has a USP of 18:9 aspect ratio, just like its flagship sibling, the LG G6. Priced at Rs 14,990, the device features a large 5.5-inch display and Snapdragon 435 SoC. Let’s see how the smartphone performs in day-to-day usage in our review.
Design and Build
The LG Q6’s frame is made up of metal, however the rear panel is of plastic. Still the build quality seems durable enough to withstand normal drops. The device has a smaller footprint even with its 5.5-inch screen, thanks to almost no bezels. It’s also light in weight and can be used easily with a single hand.
The volume rocker and the SIM card tray is on the left, while the power button is on the right. The 3.5mm audio port in in the bottom along with the micro-USB charging port. The rear panel has camera on the top right corner along with flash and a Q6 logo towards the bottom. On the front, there’s selfie camera is on the top along with sensors. Surprisingly, there’s no fingerprint sensor, though the Q6 offers Face Recognition feature to unlock the phone. Overall, the design is almost similar to the LG G6, and can also withstand harsh conditions. That’s because it’s MIL-STD 810G certified.
Display
The LG Q6 features a 5.5-inch display with 1,080 x 2,160 pixel resolution. It’s protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 layer. Sadly, the icons on the screen are not sharp enough and seems faded. In direct sunlight, one has to use it with the maximum brightness and by trying different viewing angles.
Specifications
Powering the LG Q6 is an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz, supported by 3GB of RAM. There is 32GB of onboard storage and it can be expanded up to 128GB via a microSD card. It runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box with LG’s UI. The interface is good and quite user-friendly. There is no additional apps or app drawer but still the usability and customization is good. Out of 32GB, it offers 26GB of free storage to the users.
Performance
The Snapdragon 435 SoC is good enough to handle the usual tasks like switching apps, multitasking and social networking. But it struggles with gaming and heavy usages like camera and video playback. The gaming section is not up to the mark and struggles with frame rates and playback. Although the casual games can be enjoyed. There’s also a heating issue while playing games for a longer duration. The touch response is fine.
The face recognition works rather poorly. It only recognizes the face when an adequate amount of light is provided on the face. Otherwise, it’s of no use. The call and connectivity options works fine. There was no call drop or any type of distortion in the voice in my usage.
Battery
The 4,000mAh battery provides backup to the smartphone. It gives a standby time of six hours in our continuous video loop test of running a 720p video. I was able to get 8 hours of battery life with moderate usage in it. Overall, the battery life is sufficient enough.
Camera
The LG Q6 sports a 13-MP camera with f/2.2 aperture and LED flash at the rear. The camera quality is good and it shoots decent images with the provided lens. The captured images have a good amount of light and sharpness. Still, when the dual-camera setup is becoming a trend, this seems bit outdated.
On the front, it is equipped with 5MP camera. The front camera shoots good selfies. The captured images have a good amount of colour and the tone level is natural. The camera app is also quite good and user-friendly, but lacks certain customization and modes.
Verdict
The LG Q6 seems a good imitation of its flagship brother, the G6, at a budget pricing. It offers a similar design, good battery life and camera performance for its price. However, it fails to provide a reliable performance. You can surely go for it as it offers 18:9 ratio, which is usually seen on the super-premium smartphones only.
