Introduction
The Q6 is LG's latest crack at the budget smartphone market. But instead of making yet another cookie cutter device, LG has decided to shape it in the mold of its flagship - the G6.
The result is a phone that you'd certainly call G6 mini if you went by looks alone. The taller 18:9 display with its eye-catching curved corners instantly makes the Q6 stand out in a sea of mid-rangers that are, frankly, quite boring to look at.
And design is certainly not the only thing the LG Q6 has going for it. The phone has Military Standard-810G certification for drop protection, improved facial recognition for faster face unlock and a wide-angle front camera with 100-degree field of view.
LG Q6 Key Features
- Body: 7000 series aluminum frame, US Military Standard-810G Certified
- Display: 5.5-inch, 18:9 2160x1080 IPS LCD
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 435, 8x 1.4GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 505
- Memory: 32GB storage (expandable), 3GB RAM
- Main Camera: 13 Megapixel, f2.2, 1080p30 video with EIS
- Front Camera: 5 Megapixel, f2.2, 1080p30 video
- Connectivity: 4G VoLTE, dual SIM, Bluetooth 4.2, single-band Wi-Fi 802.11n, microUSB
- Battery: 3000mAh
- Misc: FM Radio, Face unlock
Main shortcomings
- Underwhelming processor
- No fingerprint sensor
- No 4K or slow-motion video
- No NFC
LG certainly had to cut a lot of corners to make the Q6 price tag what it is. You lose out on useful features like fingerprint sensor, fast charging, USB-C connector and some extra bells and whistles like 4K video and NFC that some of the competitors now have. You are also stuck with a decidedly slower entry-level chipset, whereas some competitors reach a little higher.
But, whether or not all that matters is something we find out only when we are done with our inspection.
Design
The LG Q6 looks like someone just shrunk down the G6. The front panels of the two phones are identical, with displays that go nearly all the way to the top and bottom edge and have curved corners. Like the G6, the glass used on the Q6 is flat and does not wrap around the edges like those so-called 2.5D glass covers. The way the display stretches across the front surface really makes it feel like you are holding just the display itself rather than a phone with a display on it.
This is easily the best thing about the design and makes it stand out immensely from the crowd. We wish LG had left out its logo on the front for an even more immersive experience but at least it is understated enough to the point where it isn't distracting.
Front
The phone is available in three colors - Black, Gold, and Ice Platinum - and regardless of which you pick, the front bezels remain black.
Right • Left
Around the sides, the Q6 makes use of series 7000 aluminum. On the right is the power button that is within reach and easy to use. On the opposite side are the volume controls. Unfortunately, these are two separate buttons instead of one long strip, so you have to run your fingers along them each time you use them as you could be pressing the wrong one.
Also on the left are the two trays, first for SIM 1 and microSD and the second one for the SIM 2. The Q6 lets you have both SIMs along with a microSD and you don't have to choose between a second SIM and expandable memory like on many competitors.
Top • Bottom
On the top is a microphone and on the bottom, is the headphones jack, microUSB connector and another microphone. It's a shame that LG chose to go with a microUSB connector on this phone rather than the newer USB-C port.
Back
The back of the phone is where the design distinguishes itself from the G6. While the G6 has a glass back with the telltale dual camera setup and fingerprint sensor, the Q6 comes with a completely different setup. You get a glossy plastic back cover with a single camera lens in the corner with a single LED flash.
There is no fingerprint sensor at all on this phone, which is quite disappointing. The Q6 has a loudspeaker near the bottom on the back instead of the bottom edge as on the G6.
In terms of visual appeal, the Q6 wins all the points out there. The design is unlike anything out there in the market in this price range and makes the phone look much more expensive than it is. We also love how the phone feels in hand. The narrow body afforded by the aspect ratio coupled with a generally small display means that the Q6 fits great in the hand and is an absolute pleasure to use.
In terms of build quality, LG has touted military grade drop protection. The phone uses sturdy aluminum and durable H-frame design to absorb bumps and bends. We didn't actually drop the phone to test this, so we will just have to take LG's word for it.
What we can comment on is the general quality of the back of the phone. The glossy plastic on the back is a big step down from the glass on the G6 and the aluminum on most phones in this price range. Not only does it not feel particularly good in hand, it scratches extremely easily. Our review unit had several minor and a couple of major scratches on the back in just a couple of days of use. The glossy back also has no oleophobic coating and gets smudged up easily and is very hard to clean.
We could still live with that. Unfortunately, the plastic lens used for the camera has the exact same issue. The camera lens also got a handful of scratches during use and we also found it hard to clean because it too lacks an oleophobic coating.
Overall, we really like the look and feel of the Q6 but there has been some obvious cost cutting done on the back of the device.
Display
The LG Q6 has a 5.5-inch, 2160x1080 pixel IPS LCD panel. The 18:9 aspect ratio gives the phone some extra resolution at the top and bottom, making it the highest resolution display in its price range.
Display settings
Now, as is the case with ultrawide displays, there are some things worth remembering. First, 5.5-inch 18:9 display has less surface than a 5.5-inch 16:9 display. Also when you are watching 16:9 videos, which form the bulk of the content online, you will get black bars on the side, which further reduces your viewing area. We measured the diagonal length of a 16:9 video on the Q6 and found it to be only 5 inches. So for 16:9 content you either have to zoom in and crop the edges or you effectively have only a 5-inch display.
However, for content that does take up the entire screen, you get to enjoy the full resolution of the screen. You can see more of your WhatsApp conversation, more of your Facebook timeline, more of your web page and more of your map. It might seem like a small boost in usable area but it's actually quite useful and going back to a 16:9 display suddenly seems restrictive.
If your eyesight is good, you can reduce the rendering size further from the settings and have everything scale down, making the Q6 fit even more things on its screen. This allows you to be even more productive, at the cost of some visual acuity. And when you do find that ultrawide video on YouTube or Netflix, then you genuinely get a bigger image compared to a 16:9 display of the same size.
Now, coming to the display quality, we were quite impressed with the improvement LG has done in terms of color calibration. While past LG displays always exhibited rather wild color rendering that didn't seem to adhere to any particular color space nor did they let you adjust them, the display on the Q6 sticks rather close to standard sRGB values.
If we had to nitpick, we would say the colors are still just a tad bit oversaturated and the color temperature is a bit cool but apart from that we do think this is a very good display as far as colors are concerned and we hope LG improves upon this in future.
What bothered us about the display was the presence of a sharpening filter. For some reason LG felt that the display wasn't sharp enough and artificially sharpened the image through software. It's quite noticeable if you look closely at it and is especially obvious around things like text that exhibit haloing. It isn't as bad as it used to be when we first got the phone and the sharpness was turned all the way up. LG eventually turned it down in a software update but didn't get rid of it entirely. It reminds us of the LG G3, which too shipped with a sharpening filter that was eventually toned down in subsequent updates. We hope someone from LG is reading this and gets rid of the filter entirely as there is absolutely no need for it, especially on a display as pixel dense as on the Q6.
Software
The LG Q6 runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat with LG UI 5.0 on top. The software on the Q6 is essentially the same as that on the G6, minus a few hardware specific features.
Homescreen
The software on LG phones has evolved considerably over the last couple of years. Visually, it has improved dramatically and although it won't be winning any awards any time soon, the software looks clean and functional without any dramatic flair or over the top animations that really serve no purpose and only slow things down.
Settings
In terms of features, LG has found a good balance between the useful and the superfluous. In fact, we hardly found any feature that we thought was entirely useless. Admittedly, this does have a lot to do with the budget nature of the device, as the more premium LG phones do have way more fluff.
Face Unlock
One of the key new feature with this device is Face Unlock. While the name makes it sound like the now defunct feature of stock Android of recognizing your face, the LG implementation is a lot better. Once you scan your face the phone lets you pick it up and unlock it without any further input.
The phone automatically detects when it gets picked up and scans for your face. We had our doubts going into this feature but to our surprise it worked well most of the time. It is a bit slow though, as the phone takes a second or two to detect when it is picked up and then couple of more seconds at best to have your face detected. A fingerprint sensor would still be faster but since this phone doesn't have one, this could be your best bet.
Of course, it's not super reliable and won't work at all if you're in a dark place. There were times when the phone's screen didn't even light up when picked up so this might not be the feature for you if you are impatient or get easily annoyed.
The Q6 does have LG's Knock On feature, that lets you double tap the screen to wake it up. However, LG has left out its excellent Knock Code that lets you create a pattern of taps to unlock the phone. This would have been a more useful option instead of Face Unlock in the absence of a fingerprint sensor as it is both quick and reasonably secure.
Another feature LG left out is the always-on display found on the more expensive LG devices. It is a handy feature to have and without it you have to manually wake up the phone every time to check the time or notifications.
In terms of apps, the Q6 did come with some bloatware installed in the form of Google Docs apps that cannot be uninstalled and also some Facebook apps. Fortunately, even though you cannot uninstall these, the launcher does have a handy option to hide them away from sight.
LG Keyboard
LG is one of the few companies left that still includes its own keyboard. Unfortunately, the autocorrect on the keyboard is very slow and you have to type and wait after every word for the keyboard to catch up with you as it simply cannot keep up. The stock keyboard actually had very low latency, which made us want to use it more but the poor speed of autocorrect meant we had to switch to using Gboard even at the cost of increased latency.
Other than that, there isn't much to talk about the software. LG has left it intentionally lean to separate it from its more expensive phones. While we don't lament the loss of all the features, we could have loved to have some of the aforementioned ones. Still, the software experience here is largely good and as long as LG keeps the phone updated regularly we don't think users would have a lot to complain about.
Performance
The LG Q6 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 435. It is by far the weakest link in the chain and the biggest reason for complaint with this phone.
The software performance on the Q6 is rather disappointing. The chipset inside is simply too slow and outdated at this point to keep up with modern applications and the experience of using them is really abysmal. Scrolling through Twitter is incredibly choppy, even after disabling image previews on timeline, which normally helps with performance on slower phones. Other apps aren't much better and scrolling performance in general is sub-par. Neither the CPU nor the GPU seem capable at fetching and processing new information and rendering it on the screen fast enough during scrolling.
GeekBench 4.1 (multi-core)
Higher is better
- Moto G5S Plus
4193 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
3779 - Sony Xperia XA1
3611 - Nokia 5
2851 - Moto G5
2580 - LG Q6
2011
GeekBench 4.1 (single-core)
Higher is better
- Sony Xperia XA1
887 - Moto G5S Plus
843 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
734 - Nokia 5
672 - Moto G5
618 - LG Q6
584
The weak GPU performance shows up in games as well, where only older titles and simpler modern titles work well. Heavier 3D titles will have to be run at lower settings to be playable otherwise the frame dropping and input lag makes them unplayable. It's worth remembering that the Q6 has a higher resolution display than most phones and the Adreno 505, which normally struggles on 1080p displays, struggles even harder when tasked with additional pixels to render.
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
9.5 - Moto G5S Plus
6.4 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
6.2 - Sony Xperia XA1
6.2 - Moto G5
4.6 - Nokia 5
4.6 - LG Q6
3.8 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
3.3
GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Sony Xperia XA1
15 - Nokia 5
10 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
9.4 - Moto G5S Plus
6.8 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
6.2 - Moto G5
4.6 - LG Q6
3.5 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
3.3
GFX 3.1 Car scene (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
5.4 - Sony Xperia XA1
3.7 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
3.4 - Moto G5S Plus
3.4 - Moto G5
2.5 - Nokia 5
2.5 - LG Q6
2.1 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
1.9
GFX 3.1 Car scene (onscreen)
Higher is better
- Sony Xperia XA1
7.9 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
5.4 - Nokia 5
5.2 - Moto G5S Plus
3.8 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
3.4 - Moto G5
2.5 - LG Q6
1.9 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
1.9
Basemark X
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
13666 - Moto G5S Plus
10488 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
10446 - Sony Xperia XA1
9714 - Moto G5
7475 - Nokia 5
7316 - LG Q6
6179 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
5489
The multimedia performance is average. The headphone output audio quality is good but it doesn't get particularly loud. The bundled earphones are some of the worst we have seen over the years and we would have preferred if LG had left them out entirely and shave a few extra bucks off the price.
The loudspeaker is awkwardly placed on the back and is all too easy to cover with your hand and you are constantly checking your hand to see if you aren't covering it. The speaker does get decently loud but sounds thin and hollow and gets quite sibilant at high volume. The display, however, is quite good if you watch a lot of ultrawide aspect ratio content such as movies and some TV shows.
AnTuTu 6
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
85162 - Moto G5S Plus
64554 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
61616 - Sony Xperia XA1
60707 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
46822 - Moto G5
43755 - Nokia 5
43392 - LG Q6
37276
Basemark OS 2.0
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
1728 - Sony Xperia XA1
1351 - Moto G5S Plus
1176 - Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (S625)
1050 - Nokia 5
982 - Moto G5
795 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
349 - LG Q6
275
Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal
Higher is better
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Helio X20)
287 - Sony Xperia XA1
191 - Moto G5S Plus
137 - Moto G5
100 - Samsung Galaxy J7 (2017)
93 - LG Q6
82
Camera
The LG Q6 has a 13 megapixel F/2.2 camera at the back with LED flash and 1080p video recording.
Camera UI
The camera app is familiar from recent LG phones but pared down on features for the Q6. On the top you have a row of icons for things such as Settings, camera modes (Auto, Panorama and Food), color filters (choice of eight), front camera, flash and the option to switch to Square Camera.
Square Camera
The Square Camera mode has been carried over from the G6 and takes advantage of the taller display. Selecting it gives you four options in the camera modes menu. Match shot opens up the front camera in the top half of the display and the rear camera in the bottom half. You can match views from both perspectives to create an interesting image. Snapshot has a 1:1 image viewfinder in the top half and the bottom half of the display is like a film roll where your captured images appear instantly for you to preview while still being in the viewfinder mode.
Guide shot lets you overlay a stock image and then you can use it as a guide to capture another image with the same composition. Lastly, Grid shot lets you capture four images, one after the other to create a grid.
The Settings hides a whole host of options but what we found odd was the presence of the HDR mode buried in the Settings instead of out on the main camera screen. Having to dig through the Settings every time you have to switch between the HDR modes can quickly become annoying.
Apart from the Square Camera, there isn't much going on with the camera app. There are no further modes and most importantly, no manual or pro mode that lets you manually configure settings. By and large this is a pretty basic camera app.
Camera Samples
In terms of image quality, the Q6 does reasonably well if you are mostly going to be shooting outdoors under ample lighting. Images taken in daylight came out good with nice color saturation, contrast and accurate white balance. The images are over-sharpened but that's only noticeable if pixel-peep. The dynamic range isn't great, which is what makes the buried HDR toggle all the more frustrating. The HDR does its job but perhaps it goes too far and images do tend to look over processed.
HDR Off • HDR On • HDR Off • HDR On
Where the camera disappoints is in low light. Images taken indoors have visible noise even without zooming in, softer details and flatter colors with a noticeable blue tint in the shadows. This is really not the camera to pull out in indoors situations unless you are okay with using the flash.
Another issue with the camera is that the focusing system is a bit slow. Unlike most other phones in this price range, the Q6 does not have phase detection autofocus and can hence take a while to focus on closer objects, especially in low light situations.
Video
The 1080p video from the camera is adequate. There is even basic software video stabilization that works decently enough. It does, however, come at the cost of heavy image cropping, which throws you off guard the first time you turn on recording because hitting the video button from the main camera screen directly starts the video recording without letting you properly frame the shot first.
The Q6 also lacks 4K or slow motion recording option thanks to its low grade processor.
Battery
The LG Q6 has a 3,000mAh non-removable battery. The battery life on the phone is generally good thanks to the underpowered processor and relatively small display. On a full charge you can expect about 6-7 hours of screen-on time and about a full day of use.
Unfortunately, the phone lacks fast charging and takes about two and a half hours to charge completely with a 10W charger. The phone ships with a 6W charger, which takes even longer.
Verdict
At first glance, there is a lot to like about the Q6. The design, largely carried over from the G6, looks great and feels absolutely perfect in hand. The display is also very good and looks like it goes almost edge to edge on every side. Simply having this aspect ratio with those curved corners in this price range itself is very unique. And the software too, for most parts, works quite well.
Yet there is no avoiding the downsides of the cost cutting, which you spot throughout the phone and which goes against the very premium and upmarket first impression you get from the device. The cheap plastic back scratches very easily, the phone lacks basic necessities like a fingerprint sensor and fast charging.
The camera is quite decent in daylight and we can live without dual cameras or 4K video recording in this price range. The software feels like it was robbed of a few features, either because the hardware was just not good enough or for the sake of differentiation.
But what really damages the whole experience for us was the poor performance from the utterly lackluster processor. We could have excused the lack of features to some extent if it didn't perform so poorly but the combination of two makes it hard for the Q6 to stand-up to its competition.
Coming in at about the same price as the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 or the Moto G5 Plus, the Q6 really can't compete with either of these devices in terms of performance, features and overall value for money. To us, the appeal of an overall package is far greater than just having a pretty exterior and that's exactly where the Q6 fails to deliver.
In the end, the Q6 is beauty that is skin deep, which is a shame because we really wanted it to be good. If LG were to make a version with more power under the hood, we would love to give it another shot.
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