LG offers us a new mid-range consisting of 3 terminals specialized in one aspect, and here we will see the analysis of the LG X Power, one of the mid-range smartphones with more battery, although it also offers the features such as a mediatek processor with 4 cores or a screen with HD resolution.
All in a battery
The midrange of terminals seems to be a niche where there is always room for one more model. At least that’s what LG thinks, which brings us a new family of terminals, where each member seems specialized in a different aspect.
While the X Screen presents the screen as the highlight, and the X Cam brings us a more advanced front and rear camera, in this analysis of the LG X Power, let’s see how here the star is definitely the battery.
If we talk about the rest of the features of the X power, we have a terminal that offers us a hardware to which we are already accustomed in this category, with a Mediatek MT6735 processor next to 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of storage expandable by means of a micro-sd card up to 128 GB.
The 5.3″ screen seems to be the same as we saw in our analysis of the LG K10, although we will see this more closely in its corresponding section. In short, LG’s intention is to offer a cheap mobile with a lot of battery. Can the launch of a product like this justify this purpose? That’s what we’re going to try to glimpse in this review of the LG X Power.
Design with a lot of plastic
We came from having a pretty good last design reference with the old LG K10, but this new LG X Power leaves us somewhat bewildered. Although it may have interesting and differentiating elements such as the curvature at the top and bottom edge, but this does not remove us from leaving the visual impression that it is a fairly large terminal.
The funny thing is that the dimensions of the LG X Power barely differ from the LG K10 (with which it shares screen size), at 148.9 by 74.9 mm high and wide, just a couple of millimeters higher, while the thickness is even smaller, at 7.9 mm. But the feeling both visually and having it in hand is from a much larger terminal, probably due to the ergonomic shapes of the K10, thinner at the edges, managing to adapt better to the hand.
Another section that surprises is the weight of the X Power, where despite being a smartphone with a battery of 4100 mAh, this is located at only 139 grams, a very low value, and that given the volume of the terminal, gives us the impression almost of being empty. This is to be appreciated, although it also causes us to have a certain feeling of lack of quality for the materials used.
Because speaking of these, it must be said that they are not located at the same height as other terminals of the brand. In your quest to offer as thin and light a terminal as possible, we appreciate the complete absence of metal in the outer structure of the LG X Power. This time the front glass covers a large part of the front, although we can see how the frame, made of painted plastic, protrudes at the top and bottom as we pointed out earlier.
This frame features a pair of chrome lines at the edge of the terminal, simulating a metallic edge effect, although sometimes difficult to appreciate, and do not provide an improvement to the aesthetics of the terminal. Within this frame we find all the inputs and buttons, where we can see the power button on the right side.
Right on the opposite side we find the volume control, in an unusual position and that requires getting used to its drive, as it is less intuitive. On this same side we also see the tray slot where we can insert the nano SIM card next to the micro SD up to 128 GB.
It’s at the bottom where we find the two available connectors, a micro USB next to the 3.5-inch audio jack. We also have a microphone in both this part and on the top edge, leaving this clean.
The rear is the one that has convinced us the least during this review of the LG X Power. Its appearance is that of a back cover of a cheaper smartphone. We even have the feeling that it is a removable lid, even though it is not. It is on this back where we find the main camera with the LED flash and the main speaker located below.
Screen
If we see the screen size of the LG X power, we see that it has a size to which we are not used to, although we do have the reference of the LG K10, which equips the same screen size, and are probably the same, since in our test of the LG X Power has given us sensations very similar to those that we got at the time with this terminal.
At 5.3″, this reaches 1280 by 720 pixels, a resolution with which we already begin to be at the limit of what we could consider as a sharp screen, although its density of 277 pixels per inch is craved enough to appreciate a sufficiently sharp image, although here the edges are not as defined as in terminals with higher pixel density.
Both viewing angles and contrast are below expectations on an IPS panel, demonstrating that even with the use of the same base, there are noticeable differences between the best smartphone screens and terminal displays like this. The brightness is not surprising because it is especially high, although it allows a correct display as long as we are above 50%.
LG’s new customisation layer
With the advent of this new X range, LG has taken the opportunity to include its new layer of customization presented with the LG G5, which offers a different design to the one we had in previous generations and that seems to follow the trend of the disappearance of the menu of applications already so classic on Android.
The demise of the app menu is not the only change that has come with this system based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow. The design of the icons has been conveniently updated, and both the settings and the notification panel now offer a cleaner and simpler aesthetic.
It has several proprietary applications and several shortcuts to certain features that are usually more or less frequently consulted such as power saving or battery in the system folder, where LG Backup and Remotecall Service are also located.
Another outstanding application is Smartworld, where we have a variety of custom themes for this terminal, but we can also change elements individually such as fonts, start layout, keyboard, or ringtones. We also have a market of exclusive apps, organized according to the category of them.
One of the things that has caught our attention in this analysis of the LG X Power is the inclusion of Facebook, Instagram and Evernote by default and without having the option to be able to uninstall them. This case of bloatware is also not particularly annoying, since they are applications that are usually used by the vast majority, although it is always important to let the user decide this.
Performance at the limit in games
Unlike what we saw with the LG K10, this terminal does not choose to assemble the Qualcomm Snapdragon 410. Here Mediatek acts as a presence with its MT 6735 processor, with 4 cores and a maximum frequency of 1.3 GHz.
This processor is also an old known within mid-range smartphones, and is characterized by offering a performance slightly higher than the Snapdragon 410, and all the benchmarks we have made prove it.