LG X Power Review - Respectable Performance And Long Battery Life
LG's latest contender in the hotly contested sub PHP 10K range is the X Power. It highlights good specs paired with long battery life which can't be found on LG smartphones in this price segment before.
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| LG X Power review |
We had the handset for a month now after unboxing the device, so here's what we fully think about the interesting LG X Power.
For the review part 1: LG X Power Unboxing And First Impressions - A Lot Of Juice, But Slim And Light?
Display Quality
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| 10 point of touch |
Donning a not that common 5.3 inch HD screen, the LG X Power comes with reasonable display quality. The colors saturation is fine, though they slightly lacking in punch, contrast, and dynamic range. Details are okay and sharp enough at 277 pixels per inch.
Brightness levels aren't also strong in this one as sunlight legibility suffers. Fortunately, it has accurate light sensor for auto adjustments and 10 points of touch for accurate typing and swiping. Overall, it is decent, but we wished it could be better.
Audio Quality
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| Single loudpeaker at the lower back |
The handset sports a single firing speaker below which is average in loudness level. Quality isn't that great, but it is listenable at least. Vocals and instruments are quite clear too, just don't crank the volume all the way up.
For headphones, it is good and well balanced. We enjoyed its bass reproduction with good speed, resolution, and depth. Vocal clarity in on point as well. Soundstage has average in your front presentation and wideness. However, it isn't that detailed or layered compared with real high-res powered devices.
Audio recording for videos and voice is peaky and noisy even if it has a dual micrphone setup. Using it in a quiet environment is a must. Call quality is fortunately good.
Battery Life
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| Battery test result |
As expected, the 4,100 mAh battery coming from this machine is long lasting and enjoyable at the same time. Based on our PC Mark Battery test benchmark, the handset registered 10 hours and 18 mins of battery life. In real life, it can last the whole day on a single charge. If you're not a heavy user, expect two days of battery life.
Long battery life, fast charging time!
That's good especially for a slim handset. There's a battery saver feature at 15% battery level and background app restriction to make your battery last even longer.
Charging time using its Quick Charge 2.0 can fill up its 4,100 mAh battery in less than less than 2 hours. 1 hour and 50 mins to from 0 to 100% to be exact. That's fast!
Charging time using its Quick Charge 2.0 can fill up its 4,100 mAh battery in less than less than 2 hours. 1 hour and 50 mins to from 0 to 100% to be exact. That's fast!
Camera
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The LG X Power boast a 13 MP f/2.2 lens at the back. However, the camera software is too plain. It only has point and shoot and panorama mode. There's no HDR and filters. Fortunately, it has grids for rule of thirds.
Camera software is lacking
Focus speed on well lit conditions is speedy, though its slow on tap to focus for close-ups. Shutter and saving speed is good.
Checking the quality of its stills, its average on daylight or well lit scenes. Color and depth rendition is decent w/ slight hint of over saturation, though it blows out details on background at time. The missing HDR feature would have made those shots slightly better though.
In lowlight, expect grains and blurriness on your stills. The bright white flash can help you take better photos in the dark at times.
In lowlight, expect grains and blurriness on your stills. The bright white flash can help you take better photos in the dark at times.
Rear Camera Samples
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| Random daylight shot |
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| Background blurs |
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| Sunset |
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| Lowlight struggles |
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| Sample snap at night |
In front, the 5 MP f/2.4 camera is likeable. It comes with adjustable beautify mode by default and has selfie panorama. The lens LG used here is wider than your affordable midrange from a popular smartphone brand.
For videos, both the back and front camera can shoot up to 1080p full HD quality. Color quality and details are identical to what it can deliver in photographs as well. Just make sure to have steady hands or use a tripod while recording to prevent shakiness as it doesn't have any sort of video stabilization.
The pink selfie screen flash is useful!The pink light screen flash feature is also very useful in the dark. It is a respectable selfie cam in daylight with close to accurate colors and sharp details.
Selfie Camera Samples
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| Selfie daylight |
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| Selfie struggle in lowlight |
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| Screen flash on! |
For videos, both the back and front camera can shoot up to 1080p full HD quality. Color quality and details are identical to what it can deliver in photographs as well. Just make sure to have steady hands or use a tripod while recording to prevent shakiness as it doesn't have any sort of video stabilization.
Video Samples
Performance
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| Benchmark scores of LG X Power |
The LG X Power is loaded MediaTek's 1.3 GHz 64 bit MT6735 quad core processor paired with Mali T720 GPU and 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of expandable storage. It can provide average performance that's great enough for your daily social media use and casual gaming even if the storage capacity isn't that large.
Facebook / Instagram doesn't lag, multitasking is decent, gaming is respectable on Asphalt 8 medium settings, and NBA 2K17 is playable in low settings. We also liked the fact that it barely heats up even if WiFi hotspot and LTE is on at the same time.
Facebook / Instagram doesn't lag, multitasking is decent, gaming is respectable on Asphalt 8 medium settings, and NBA 2K17 is playable in low settings. We also liked the fact that it barely heats up even if WiFi hotspot and LTE is on at the same time.
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| The UI |
The UI on the other hand, reminds us more of the LG V20. There's no app drawer by default anymore, so users can easily see the apps they need in a swipe. However, the look on its settings is still old school. It is fine, but the learning curve is a little longer than what we wanted.
On the software features, it has the LG Knock code to lock and unlock the phone by double tapping the screen, basic Android features, and font changer.
Connectivity and telephony is also good on this one. GSM signals are strong, LTE doesn't fail most of the tiem, Bluetooth 4.2 is fast, and OTG connectivity works. Its also loaded with accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, sound, and magnetic sensors. However, there's no gyro for VR and AR.
On the software features, it has the LG Knock code to lock and unlock the phone by double tapping the screen, basic Android features, and font changer.
Connectivity and telephony is also good on this one. GSM signals are strong, LTE doesn't fail most of the tiem, Bluetooth 4.2 is fast, and OTG connectivity works. Its also loaded with accelerometer, light, orientation, proximity, sound, and magnetic sensors. However, there's no gyro for VR and AR.
Cons - Display isn't bright, camera software is too plain, build quality is far from premium, microphone quality needs improvement
Verdict
The X Power is the respectable affordable LG handset we've been looking for. We liked that it has decent performance, long battery life, and fast charging ability that could make it good enough to be a daily driver. Camera quality is decent even if we find it too plain in our taste as well.Overall, while there are several kinks in its armor, the LG X Power is a good one.
Build / Design - 3.5
Display - 3.5
Audio - 3.5
Battery - 4.5
Camera - 4
Performance - 3.75
Average - 3.8
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