In a time when ‘budget’ products allow companies to reach a wider fanbase, LG takes its shot at the budget phone craze with the LG X Power. The X Power takes a relatively low price point and combines it with decent specs, and a really powerful battery.
Upon opening a box of the LG X Power, you get:
- LG X Power (1 pc)
- Micro-USB Charging Cable (1 pc)
- Fast-charging Travel Adaptor (1 pc)
- Earphones (1 pair)
- Quick Start Guide (1 pc)
- Pin to open SIM-card holder (1 pc)
What jumped out at me when I first held the X Power was its thin, sleek build. As I’ve mentioned before on my past reviews, I appreciate a good metallic finish to any phone body. The X Power proves to continue this trend. For a somewhat cheap phone, it’s just as thin as more expensive flagships. My only real complaint about the design involved the metallic back mixing on the front with the black bezels. In my opinion, I would have kept the front as just the screen and the black bezels.
Speaking of the bezels, they’re actually quite thin too, if you only look at the actual black bezels. The front screen itself, measuring 5.3 inches, looks crisp, clear, and the colors didn’t look too bright, or washed out. This particular side also features the 5-megapixel front camera, and like other newer phones, the home/back buttons are on the screen, not the bezel. The left side of the phone holds the volume button and the SIM card holder, while the right side has the lock button. Finally, the very bottom of the phone sports the earphone jack. As for the speakers, they can be found in a small section at the back, opposite of the main camera.
I don’t hate the design, overall. In fact, I could probably see myself recommending this phone on looks alone. But it’s a good thing we can look at the actual performance!
Specs-wise, the LG X Power shows the most common way companies keep a phone’s price down: by cutting corners in terms of internal power. The X Power runs on a lower mid-range chip from 2015, the 1.3GHz Mediatek MT6735. In addition, his particular chip is paired with Mali-T720 GPU and 2GB RAM onboard. Now, on paper this sounds terrible, but in practice, it was actually decent! The multi-tasking felt good and fluid, and the only real distracting lag happened during graphics-intensive games.
For example, while Asphalt 8 is playable, do not expect this game to run without any lag. Whenever there was a lot of heavy action with multiple vehicles on screen, you could feel the framerate dip as it struggles to render it all. But that’s not to say Asphalt 8 was unplayable; if you can bear with the infrequent lag, you’ll do just fine. Honestly though, I’d just recommend games like Dead Trigger 2 or Final Fantasy Brave Exvius where lag doesn’t play enough of a factor to ruin a good playthrough.
When running this phone through various benchmark apps, we get the following numbers:
- AnTuTu – 32,549
- GeekBench – 544 (Single Core), 1621 (Multi Core)
- 3D Mark – 130 (Slingshot Extreme)
- PCMark – 2196 (Work 2.0), 1898 (Storage)
The cameras measured 13-megapixels for the rear camera, and 5-megapixels for the selfie camera. They work like they’re supposed to, but extra props goes to the rear camera for providing a decent low-light experience, and sporting LG’s own proprietary camera UI and software. Not only that, but this main camera focuses fast (without having Laser AF), and doesn’t have a color tint or hue that affects the whole image.
Check out theses photos taken using the LG X Power:
If there’s one factor that would convince almost anyone to buy the LG X Power, it would be the battery life. To recap, the X Power contains a 4,100 mAh battery. When used normally, with mobile data on, this budget device lasted more than a day, with a fully-charged battery. It gets even crazier when you try the video loop test for the phone, as it lasted a little over 16 hours on a full charge. Not only that, but expect to go from zero to 100 percent in 2.5 hours using the proprietary LG adaptor. I have to say, the strong battery on this device alone would justify a sale.
In a smartphone market where ‘affordability’ is a huge factor, LG puts in decent effort with the X Power. With an SRP of PHP 8,495, the price isn’t the lowest among budget phones. However, LG is a global brand, and even gestures like the LG X Power are quite appreciated. I do have a few problems from giving it a blanket “yes, get this phone!” rating. Namely, the lower-range chipset and RAM slapped in to keep costs down. There are better phone specs that you can get for under PHP 8,000, to be honest. But if you’re the kind of person who only buys from the better-known brands, then the issues shouldn’t be a problem. As a final verdict, I would recommend this phone to someone looking for a cheap phone from a bigger brand.
+ Good outer build and feel
+ Powerful battery and long-lasting battery life
+ Decent front camera
– Lower-end chipset and RAM
– Still a bit more expensive than most other ‘budget’ phones
LG X Power Specs
| OS | Android 6.0 Marshmallow |
| Processor | 1.3 GHz quad-core |
| Memory | 2 GB RAM |
| Storage | 16GB |
| DIsplay | 5.3-inch HD screen |
| Camera | 13-megapixel rear + 5-megapixel front |
| Resolution | 720x1280 |
| Battery | 4,100 mAh |
| Others | USB On the Go, Quick Charge |
