LG Q6 - Review 2022 - McPhail Milver

The LG Q6 is still another unlocked midrange phone in a very crowded market. Available from Amazon for $299.99 or subsidized with ads for Prime customers for $249.99, the Q6 manages to stand out cheers to its attractive tall and narrow course factor that looks similar more than costly flagships, including LG's own G7. In improver to a sharp 18:ix screen, the Q6 has a drib-resistant build and capable overall performance for the price, making it a solid purchase if you like the design.

Design, Display, and Features

The Q6 is made of plastic and metallic, with a shiny polycarbonate back panel that meets a metal band running forth the sides. The 18:9 form factor combined with a v.5-inch display results in dimensions of 5.vi by 2.7 by 0.3 inches (HWD), shorter and thinner than the 5.2-inch Moto G5 Plus (6.ane by two.9 by 0.3 inches). It's also lighter at 5.3 ounces (compared with the G5 Plus' five.9 ounces), making it easier to utilise with one paw and fit in your pocket.

The screen is a abrupt 5.5-inch, 2,160-past-1,080 IPS panel with a dense 442 pixels per inch (ppi), making it sharper than the aforementioned 5.ii-inch G5 Plus (424ppi) and the 5.5-inch LG X Charge (267ppi). Text and graphics expect well-baked and viewing angles are adept. Color reproduction is decent, but feels a little off in some places, with darker blues and greens looking cloudy, similar they're covered by a picture. Maximum screen brightness could be higher too, equally the panel washes out in direct sunlight, making it hard to read.

The ability button is on the right, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a micro USB charging port are on the bottom, and a pair of clicky volume buttons are on the left, along with a SIM/microSD card slot that worked fine with a 256GB carte du jour. Y'all might notice in that location isn't a fingerprint sensor, a feature that'due south become common even among less expensive phones.

A military standard 810G rating ways the Q6 is drop resistant. It was able to handle multiple drops onto the rubberized floor in PC Labs, as well every bit on a wooden deck. This kind of durability is rare to find among midrange phones, making the Q6 an especially strong choice for butterfingers. It isn't waterproof, but it tin can more often than not stand up to abuse meliorate than most phones and I'd feel comfortable using it without a example.

Network Functioning and Connectivity

As with nearly unlocked phones, the LG Q6 is compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile, just non Sprint or Verizon. It supports LTE bands 2/4/five/12 for decent connectivity on both carriers. We tested the phone on T-Mobile and recorded average performance in midtown Manhattan with 10.9Mbps down and 22.7Mbps up, lopsided numbers we've seen recently on other phones in the same surface area due to heavy network congestion.

Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands is supported, along with Bluetooth 4.2 for audio and NFC for mobile payments. Hard disk vocalism and Wi-Fi calling are also nowadays, though the latter is merely available for T-Mobile users.

Telephone call quality is generally skillful. Transmissions are clear and voices come across naturally. Racket cancellation was effective at blotting out traffic and construction noise in testing, only wind caused skipping and crackling. Earpiece book is fine for indoors, but a little low for outside.

Processor, Battery, and Camera

The Q6 is powered past a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor clocked at 1.4GHz and 3GB of RAM. In the PCMark criterion, which measures a variety of tasks like spider web browsing and video editing, information technology scored 3,381, quite a bit lower than the G5 Plus, which uses a Snapdragon 625 processor (4,931), though but ahead of the MediaTek-powered Ten Accuse (iii,122).

While the Q6 isn't slow, information technology'southward not snappy either, and yous'll discover instances of languor when multitasking and launching new apps. It eked out a mere 10fps on the GFXBench T-Male monarch on-screen test, less than one-half of what the G5 Plus mustered (22fps). As you might expect, the Q6 isn't much of a gaming phone. It can run PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds on depression graphics settings, but not specially well.

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Battery life is solid, at vi hours, 45 minutes of streaming full-screen video over LTE at maximum screen brightness. Information technology'due south no match for the LG 10 Charge (11 hours, 8 minutes), merely it comes close plenty to the G5 Plus (vii hours, 45 minutes). It doesn't support whatsoever form of fast charging, but it should manage a full day of normal use without a trouble.

Camera quality is par for the class. The xiii-megapixel rear camera is your average, no-frills sensor in proficient lighting. It'south sharp (bordering on oversharpened) and tin record relatively stable 1080p video at 30fps. Autofocus is responsive in good lighting, simply autoexposure sometimes struggles to handle brilliant sunlight, resulting in the background existence washed out or the movie getting a general haziness. Darker or indoor settings are a claiming, often resulting in blurry or muddy images.

The 5-megapixel front camera takes crisp selfies. It has the added advantage of being able to take wide-bending shots, letting you lot cram in multiple people or capture more groundwork scenery.

Software

The Q6 comes running Android 7.ane.1 Nougat. LG's custom UI layer makes several visual changes to the home screen, app icons, notification shade, and menus. Out of the box, apps are splashed across the home screen and the app drawer is removed, but that's easy to change in the Settings menu.

We tested the Prime-sectional model of the Q6 subsidized by Amazon advertising. That means you go ads on the lock screen, mostly in the class of push notifications (Amazon has gotten rid of full-screen lock screen ads, which is good). In addition, a full suite of Amazon apps comes preinstalled, along with Dropbox, Facebook, Instagram, LG SmartWorld, and QuickMemo+. There'southward too an Amazon widget on the domicile screen. The widget can exist removed, but the apps cannot, leaving you with 17GB of available storage out of 32GB. A microSD card tin can give you more infinite for photos and video if yous demand it.

Conclusions

The LG Q6 offers by and large solid functioning in a sleek and durable form factor for a reasonable price, whether you buy information technology using Amazon Prime or not. And information technology's fifty-fifty more alluring with the loss of loss of Huawei and ZTE in the US, ii very strong players in the unlocked market. But while the Q6 might currently exist sitting pretty among Amazon's lineup, information technology'southward worth keeping in mind that Motorola's recently announced E5 Play, E6 Plus, G6, and G6 Play are all right around the corner, boasting similar or better specs and features, peculiarly in the form of improved cameras, more comprehensive carrier compatibility, and more capacious batteries. We don't accept pricing details or availability on them yet, only if the E4 and G5 Plus are anything to go past, they could offering meliorate bang for the buck if you're willing to wait.