With little to no fanfare, the budget-friendly LG X Power launched in Canada on July 5th with a particularly enticing benefit: a whopping 4,100mAh battery. From specs alone the LG X Power could make a great option for those looking for a stepping stone away from flip phones. It’s got a 5.3-inch 720 x 1280 pixel screen, making it easily legible for those who are slightly farsighted, and a Quick Charge 2.0 battery that should last for days on end.
Even before testing it out in the real world, however, it’s clear it has its weaknesses. A paltry 1.5 GB of RAM, for instance, and an unimpressive 16GB of storage and quad-core processor. We’ll have a full review in the coming weeks, but in the meantime, here’s a first look at the device, which is surprisingly elegant for a phone that retails at the budget price of about $250 CAD.
One of the most appealing aspects of this handset is its price and accessibility. The device ranges between $240 and $299.95 at Wind, Videotron, and Koodo, and will be available soon at Bell, Sasktel, Telus and Virgin.
This is the Power X’s HD IPS LCD screen at full brightness – it was immediately obvious that this device doesn’t look its best in the sun. Its pixel density measures about 277 ppi.
While the front manages to look respectable, the back gives the X Power away as a budget phone and came out of the box slightly scuffed. Worst of all, though it appears to be the type of thin plastic backing that could be popped off easily, it’s sealed, bad news for those who like to have the option of updating their batteries. After all, 4,100mAh is a lot of power, but if it overheats and burns itself out, you’re going to need a Plan B.
At 139 grams, this phone feels really light, which is especially surprising considering the size of the battery. For reference, the similarly priced and specced Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime is 156 grams with a 2600mAh battery. The Moto G4 Play, coming to Canada later this summer, will outdo the X Power, though, at 137 grams with a 2800mAh battery and 5-inch display. The pricing for that device hasn’t been released yet, but we know it’ll be less than the Moto G4 Plus, which sits at around $400.
The only colour variant you’ll see for the X Power in Canada is “Titan,” which is a fancy way to say black.
As one would expect, this phone takes a MicroUSB charger. The 3.5mm headphone jack also sits at the bottom edge of the device.
The X Power runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.3GHz Quad Core Cortex-A53 processor with 1.5GB of RAM, 16GB of ROM, and takes MicroSD cards up to 2 TB (if you find one of those mystical 2 TB cards, let MobileSyrup know, we’d love to have one.) As for its OS, the handset is running Android Marshmallow.
The handset’s dimensions run 148.9 x 74.9 x 7.9 mm. This is once again pretty impressive for the battery size.
For someone with small hands, this device’s size and weight are ideal. It’s easy to hold and operate even with one hand, while the 5.3-inch display gives you the benefits of a slightly plus-size screen.
The device boasts Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 technology.
With Quick Charge, LG states you should be able to get a full charge in 2.3 hours, compared to “conventional charging” 1.2A TA, which would run something more in the range of 4 hours.
The clarity of the shots taken by the 8MP rear shooter aren’t bad, but the colours are a lot duller than you’ll see with a higher-end smartphone camera.
The camera clearly tends towards producing slightly washed out pictures, but they’re nonetheless of reasonable quality. As for the front-facing camera, it’s a 5 megapixel shooter.
Related reading: LG X Power now available in Canada, features huge 4,100mAh battery and affordable price
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