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LG Q6 Review

LG used to create a mini variant of their flagship G-series smartphone. They had it with the LG G2 Mini, the LG G3 Beat, LG G4 Beat. They skipped it with the modular LG G5.


LG G6+, LG G6, LG Q6

This year, LG is somewhat bringing back the mini. They were even reports of a 5.4-inch LG G6 Mini a few months back. From the looks of it, the LG Q6 is perhaps the unofficial LG G6 Mini this year.

Design and Construction

From all intents and purposes, the LG Q6 is a slightly smaller version of the LG G6 — from the all-metal unibody design (uses the same Series 7000 aluminum) to the FullVision glass display at the front. Of course, not all is the same. Some major features were shaved off on the Q6, one of which is the fingerprint scanner at the back.

The power button is found on the right side while the volume controls are on the left along with the dual-SIM card slots and the dedicated microSD card slot.

The 3.5mm audio port is at the bottom along with the micro-USB port and primary mic. The noise-canceling mic is up top.


At the back is the main camera with a single LED flash and the speaker grills are flushed at the bottom left. The flat back panel has a brushed metal finish that’s mildly glossy and tapers toward the edges while antenna bands subtly run across the metal frame. Our only concern is that the shiny back panel easily scratches which is kind of expected considering it’s just a coated polycarbonate material.

In the course of the two weeks that we’ve had the unit, we’ve already discovered a couple of very visible scratches at the back (unlike the LG G6 where they used Gorilla Glass protection) so we recommend getting a protective case for this immediately after getting one.

Up at the front is the 5.5-inch display in an all-glass front panel protected with Gorilla Glass 3. The top and bottom bezels are narrower but still allows some space for the front-facing camera at the top end along with the loudspeaker and a couple of sensors.

LG dropped the fingerprint sensor on the Q6, a feature that has been a key selling point from previous iterations. The absence is immediately felt especially if you’re already acclimated to that biometric sensor for the longest time.

Fortunately, LG added Face recognition to help unlock your phone and that’s on top of the usual PIN, pattern or password method of securing the device.

The unit feels really good on the hands, the size is just right for one-handed use, the materials used are great. It even has the same MIL-STD-810G certification as the G6. Suffice it to say, the Q6 is pretty close to the look and feel of the flagship LG G6.

Display and Multimedia

The LG Q6 is the first mid-range smartphone from LG to have FullVision display. The almost bezel-less front panel was inherited from the LG G6 and the Q6’s 5.5-inch IPS panel fits right well in a much smaller form factor.

The full HD+ resolution of 2160×1080 pixels brings the LG Q6 to a nice 442ppi pixel density. The 18:9 aspect ratio follows that of the G6 and gives more screen real estate. All the native apps support it and you can also set 3rd party apps to adjust to the aspect ratio on a per item basis.

The speakers at the back are loud and crisp although we think it’s not really the optimal placement for it.

OS, UI and Apps

The LG Q6 comes with Android 7.1.1 Nougat right out of the box with LG’s own UX6.0 layer on top of it. There’s no default app drawer to speak so you’ll have to settle with additional home screens and app folders to organize your apps.

We also like the floating menu of the UI that allows you to re-arrange the sequence, including the option for Button combination that includes Capture+, QSlide, Notification, and SIM.

With the absence of a fingerprint scanner at the back, LG resorted to including a Facial recognition feature to unlock the phone. Setting up face recognition is quick and easy and the device can quickly recognize you and unlock the phone in under 2 seconds.

The system uses up 9.49GB of storage from the 32GB base capacity. There’s no a lot of 3rd party apps pre-installed and most of the native LG apps are the really eesential ones like the File Manager, Smart Doctor, Email and Task apps.

Camera

The main camera has a 13-megapixel sensor with autofocus paired with a single LED flash. The camera focuses fast, has good dynamic range and takes good pictures in daylight or well-lit environments. Photos tend to be warmer in low-light conditions and doesn’t do well with focusing if there’s not enough ambient light.

The 5-megapixel front-facing camera has a wide-angle (100-degrees) field of view which is great for group shots. The Square Camera mode is also present, great for Instagramers.

Video recording maxes out at full HD 1080p at 30fps. Don’t expect 4K support or slow-mo features here as well. Nonetheless, the 108op video output looks really good.

Performance and Benchmarks

The device runs on a new Snapdragon 435 chip which is a mid-tier chip running on two clusters of quad-core ARM Cortex A53 with a maximum clock speed of 1.4GHz.

Here are the benchmark scores we got:

Antutu Benchmark: 41,594
Quadrant Standard: 12,018
Geekbench 4.0: 631 (Single core), 2,129 (Multi-core)
PCMark: 4,106 (Work 2.0), 4,830 (Work 1.0)
PCMark Storage: 4,212

The synthetic benchmarks scores we got showed decent results, nothing spectacular and not much different compared to the previous Snapdragon 430. Where the Snadpragon 435 really added improvements is in the connectivity department.

We managed to play a lot of games on the device without any hiccups — Gods of Rome played really well and NBA2k17 is playable at low to medium settings. With the 3GB of memory, the system can handle multiple apps running in the background without any problem.

Call Quality, Connectivity and Battery Life

The LG Q6 comes with two dedicated nano-SIM card slots and a separate microSD card slot, a rare feature these days (most phones come with a dual-hybrid SIM card slot).

Call quality is great and voice calls are loud and clear, SMS messages are fast and LTE connectivity is pretty good. WiFi connectivity is great as it supports both the 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz frequency.

GPS accuracy is pretty strong and accurate, thanks to GLONASS support. There are plenty of built-in sensors including a gyroscope.

The Q6 supports 2×20 MHz carrier aggregation so expect to get better LTE speeds compared to many other smartphones (you should see 4G+ or LTE+ in your network connection).

The 3,000mAh Li-Po battery of the LG Q6 lasted more than a day with moderate use. In our video loop test, the phone lasted 9 hours and 30 minutes running a movie at 50% brightness and zero volume in airplane mode. This is on the average side of most smartphones we’ve tested before it.

Conclusion

LG is bringing the FullVision display feature to an affordable price range, including a really beautiful design and great build quality. LG is unifying their lineup with this design ethos and we’ve seen it with the LG G6 tot he LG G6+ and now the LG Q6. LG might just as well call the Q6 the LG G6 Mini.

The LG Q6 offers the essential features of a good smartphone and wrapped it in a small form factor with great design and premium materials. For people on a budget, this is the closest they could get to getting flagship look-alike at very affordable price.

The LG Q6 is now available in stores with a suggested retail price of Php12,990. It’s also available in Lazada with a free 5,000mAh powerbank (see listing here).

LG Q6 (LG-M700) specs:
5.5-inch 18:9 FHD+ FullVision Display @ 2160 x 1080 pixels (442ppi)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 1.4GHz octa-core processor
4 x ARM Cortex A53 1.4GHz + 4 x ARM Cortex A53 1.1GHz
Adreno 505 400MHz GPU
32GB internal storage
3GB LPDDR3 RAM
13MP AF Rear camera, 1080p @ 30fps
5MP Wide-Angle front camera
4G/LTE Cat. 7
WiFi 802.11bgn/ac, Dual Band
Bluetooth 4.2
NFC
GPS with aGPS support, GLONASS
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
3,000mAh Li-Po battery
142.5 x 69.3 x 8.1mm (dimensions)
149 grams (weight)
Astro Black, Ice Platinum, Terra Gold

What we liked about it:
* Large FullVision display
* Impressive build quality and design
* Decent performance
* Dedicated dual-SIM and microSD card slots
* Good battery life

What we did not like:
* Back panel is prone to scratches
* No fingerprint scanner

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

15 Responses

  1. Avatar for jed jed says:

    vivo v7 12,990.00 nlng

  2. Avatar for Betchin Betchin says:

    Ang panget panget ng camera! Huwag na to angnbilhin nyo.. Kung sa performance smooth nmn. Pero kung sa cameea and security… Nope nope nope. Wag na wag na. 13k may quality phone kana sa ibang brand. Wag na itong Q6..

  3. Avatar for Supreme Supreme says:

    I’ve got the phone but yet I wish they added more security app but overall is good

  4. Avatar for milad milad says:

    are you sure its support 5ghz?

  5. Avatar for Mark Mark says:

    How much ROM does it have?

  6. Avatar for angelo angelo says:

    does the q6 have quick charge 3.0 enabled? qualcomm website states that the 435 processor/chipset features quick charge 3.0. but i was wondering if LG enabled this on the q6.

  7. Avatar for WilliamC WilliamC says:

    One more tiny downside… No notification light on the Q6.

  8. Avatar for Easy E Easy E says:

    Isa lang masasabi ko dito. Gorgeous!
    Pero nakulangan ako sa review ng camera.
    Wait natin ang 18:9 screen ng cloudfone :D

    • Avatar for Jaycy Jaycy says:

      Baka yung sa cf na 18:9 ratio is same sa micromax canvas infinity… Parehas na parehas yung build

  9. Avatar for Archie Archie says:

    Hiyang hiya naman ang consumer sa zenfone 4 price. 13k lang ang lg q6 pero ok na para sa specs. Ang problema bitin ang 32gb for internal storage. Dapat dalhin na ng lg ang q6+ sa local market.

    • Avatar for WilliamC WilliamC says:

      You can add extra storage via MicroSD card, this one has a dedicated MicroSD slot – not hybrid…. But then, so has the Zenfone 4 line…

  10. Avatar for yajson yajson says:

    Still waiting for the Q8

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