LG AKA
LG AKA REVIEW
LG Aka: meet Eggy, Wooky, Soul and YoYo
LG AKA retail box
LG AKA
Handling the LG AKA
LG AKA front
LG AKA left and right sides
LG AKA top and bottom sides
LG AKA back
The battery, microSD and SIM card slots.
AKA YoYo lovely personality
Interacting with YoYo results in different eyes
The homescreen • app drawer
Customizing the navigation buttons
Notification area • Task Switcher
Q-Slide in action • the available Q-Slide apps
Quiet Mode • Guest mode
Quick Memo • Clip Tray in action
The phonebook • the dialer
Configuring the LG Keyboard
The image gallery • Editing options
The video player supports subtitles
Music player app • music options and equalizer
LG AKA frequency response
The stock web browser
QMemo+
Calendar • Tasks • Calculator • File Manager
ThinkViewer
LG AKA camera UI
LG AKA camera samples
HDR mode: before and after
LG AKA panoramic samples taken in portrait and landscape modes
A sample with the YoYo alien
LG AKA in our Photo compare tool
LG G2 • Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 • Motorola Moto G 4G • Xiaomi Redmi 2
Introduction
Phones can talk to you and even talk back to you. Every now and then, they might even say something funny. Your phone knows where you are and what you're doing. Your phone is always watching. Now, look at your phone. It'll look back.
Meet the LG AKA. A funny phone with a personality. Big anime eyes smiling, squinting, blinking right at you. Different expressions depending on what time it is, on your actions or on what's incoming. Who thought the glance screen would be taken so literally?
The LG AKA wasn't the phone to remember at the last CES, but sure was hard to forget. A cute phone - never thought we'd ever say that about a five-incher - most likely for kids and teens, or the fans of phone charms and bunny-eared cases. And mascots.
There are four of them in the AKA lineup, a name and a color for each character. Eggy is yellow, Wooky is white, YoYo is pink and Soul is Blue.
The phone itself has midrange specs at bests with some features borrowed from the LG G series. The AKA runs Android 4.4 KitKat on a Snapdragon 400 chipset and packs a 5" 720p screen. There's an 8MP camera, 16GB of inbuilt storage with a microSD card slot, LTE connectivity and a 2,610mAh battery. The camera has laser-assisted auto-focus and the volume rocker and power button are placed at the back.
Key features
- Different interface (personalities) for the different color options, mascots included in the box
- 5.0" 16M-color 720p IPS capacitive touchscreen
- Android OS v4.4.2 KitKat with Optimus UI and AKA notifications
- Snapdragon 400 chipset with a quad-core 1.2GHz Cortex A7 processor and Adreno 305 GPU
- 1.5GB of RAM
- 8MP rear camera, laser-assisted auto-focus, LED flash
- 1080p video recording @ 30fps
- 2.1MP front-facing camera, 1080p video recording
- LTE Cat. 4; Wi-Fi a/b/g/n; GPS/GLONASS receiver; Bluetooth v4.0; NFC; FM Radio
- 16 GB of built-in storage; microSD card slot up to 32GB
- microUSB 2.0 port with USB host and MHL 2.0
- Standard 3.5mm audio jack
- Accelerometer and proximity sensor
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- 2,610 mAh battery (2,540mAh for model H788N, which we are reviewing)
Main disadvantages
- Rather pricey (before carrier subsidies)
- No Android Lollipop at launch
- Dated chipset
The Snapdragon 400 is soon to be retired but that didn't seem to bother LG. The chipset is still capable of handling the essentials, including an LTE radio, so the lack of 64-bit support can be forgiven. After all, if one's buying an AKA we bet they're are not getting it for the performance and specs.
LG Aka: meet Eggy, Wooky, Soul and YoYo
The LG AKA comes in different colors and personality - which is to say the interface changes to match the case. Not an entirely new concept but certainly taken a couple of steps further. We got to review YoYo, the pink and chubby one. It's our reviewer vs. LG AKA right after the break - let's see who blinks first.
LG AKA retail box
Just like the LG AKA itself, the bundle is rather unusual. The mandatory accessories are of course supplied, a 1.2A A/C adapter and a microUSB cable, along with a cheapish looking headset.
But half of the box is occupied by your AKA mascot, YoYo in our case. It's rather solid and heavy, with a pleasant rubbery feel to it. The mascots can be used in a dedicated selfie cam shooting mode, but more on that later.
LG AKA retail box
Finally, the box cover is a nice folding page, which introduces you to the four different AKA creatures.
LG AKA 360-degree view
LG AKA stands at 138.7 x 71.9 x 10mm and weighs 135g, which is about average for a 5" smartphone. Its mask adds an extra 1 to 3mm of thickness without putting on much weight. It also keeps the screen protected from scratches, so you won't need to get a case for that purpose.
Design and build quality
The LG AKA has the spirit and feel of the G series, scaled to its budget of course. The handset has clean and simple design with the trademark rear-placed power and volume keys. There is even the laser-assisted autofocus for the camera too. If it wasn't for the proprietary front covers, the AKA would have looked like the LG G2 mini with its matte textured battery cover.
LG AKA
The AKA's mask is made of glossy plastic, which is quite prone to fingerprints. LG did a great job shaping it though and it feels natural on top of the AKA. It snaps on firmly, and smoothly slides up and down to reveal whatever those smiling/asking/mysterious/drowsy eyes are looking at.
LG is selling all the proprietary cases separately (rear cover + mask), so when you've had enough of your Aka's original personality, you can easily change it just by snapping a new case on. There's a point system associated with buying new accessories for your Aka, which is an interesting (if a bit questionable) monetization strategy from LG.
The LG AKA is a nice phone with simple and efficient design. The mask is easy to use, and the comfortable rear control deck certainly helps the handling at this screen size. We've always been keen on the idea of the rear keys and this time the screen mask has made them even more relevant.
Handling the LG AKA
The overall handling of the AKA, despite the glossy mask, is very good. The phone is of solid build, the rear cover provides excellent grip thanks to the matte finish and texture. If you don't mind cleaning fingerprints off the mask every now and then, there is a good chance you'll like the AKA too.
Controls
Above the 5.0" IPS display, there is the earpiece and the 2.1MP secondary camera, capable of 1080p video recording. A hidden status LED and a couple of sensors are also around.
There are no hardware controls below the AKA's screen.
LG AKA front
The left and right sides of the LG AKA are completely bereft of controls as well. There is a lanyard eyelet in the top right corner - which will most likely be used for attaching charms.
LG AKA left and right sides
The top of the LG G2 features the secondary mic and the 3.5mm audio jack. The bottom has the microUSB port between two grilles: one for the primary mic and another one for the speaker.
LG AKA top and bottom sides
AKA's back is where things are quite familiar for the signature LG combo of volume controls each side of a Power/Lock key. The 8MP camera lens is placed left of the buttons, the LED flash and the focus assist are on the right.
When the screen is locked a long press on the Volume Up key launches the Quick Memo tool, while a long press on the Volume Down control fires up the camera. You can use that key as a shutter button too.
LG AKA back
Popping the battery cover open grants access to the removable 2610 mAh battery. Unfortunately, the microSD card and SIM slots aren't hot-swappable as the battery gets in the way.
The battery, microSD and SIM card slots.
Display
The LG AKA is built around a 5.0" display. It's an IPS LCD unit of reasonable quality. The resolution is good for the class at 720p resulting into a very comfortable 294ppi.
Blacks are deep at both ends of our test, 50% and 100% brightness. Speaking of, it's a sufficiently bright screen and its contrast ratio is impressive.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| 0.2 | 160 | 816 | 0.61 | 553 | 901 | |
| 0.26 | 248 | 986 | 0.46 | 457 | 946 | |
| 0 | 119 | ∞ | 0 | 344 | ∞ | |
| 0.21 | 223 | 1087 | 0.49 | 533 | 1078 | |
| 0.12 | 91 | 752 | 0.52 | 398 | 748 | |
| 0.1 | 149 | 1522 | 0.45 | 667 | 1495 | |
| 0 | 201 | ∞ | 0 | 404 | ∞ | |
| 0.24 | 253 | 1039 | 0.43 | 413 | 968 | |
| 0.42 | 387 | 916 | 0.7 | 651 | 929 | |
| 0 | 191 | ∞ | 0 | 398 | ∞ | |
| - | - | - | 0.82 | 790 | 963 | |
| 0.35 | 306 | 880 | 0.5 | 487 | 976 | |
| 0 | 152 | ∞ | 0 | 301 | ∞ | |
| 0.21 | 195 | 918 | 0.28 | 255 | 921 | |
Sunlight legibility is quite good, though not the best. The screen performs decently under direct sunlight but it would've done better had it been a little less reflective.
Sunlight contrast ratio
- Nokia 808 PureView4.698
- Oppo N32.181
- Nokia Lumia 9202.17
- Huawei Honor 62.169
- HTC One X2.158
- Asus Zenfone 2 ZE551ML2.149
- LG Aka2.145
- Nokia N82.144
- Nokia Lumia 6202.142
- Nokia 5152.134
- Archos 50 Diamond2.134
- HTC Desire 5002.129
- Samsung Galaxy mini 21.114
Battery life
The LG Aka has a relatively beefy 2,610mAh battery. Some local versions, such as the Hong Kong version we are reviewing (H788N), have a slightly smaller, 2540mAh battery. Despite that supposed handicap, our LG AKA scored an excellent overall rating of 73 hours in our test, which means you can count on three full days if you do an hour each of calling, web browsing and video playback daily.
The AKA did great at 3G calls, web browsing and video playback, but failed to impress when it comes to standby. It managed about 200 hours - an only average score.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our battery test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating.
While our endurance rating is not necessarily the battery endurance you are likely to get with your own usage on your own mobile network, it's mainly a good way of comparing battery life across the phones we review.
Our battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you want to learn more about it.
Connectivity
The LG AKA comes with quad-band 2G/GPRS/EDGE support, quad-band 3G with HSDPA and HSUPA, as well as quad-band LTE support with band 1(2100), 3(1800), 7(2600), 20(800) support.
The AKA has Wi-Fi with Direct functionality but it doesn't support the 5GHz band, so you'd have to rely on the more common but more congested 2.4GHz band. Bluetooth 4.0 is also on board with A2DP support.
The microUSB 2.0 port does not support USB on-the-go.
You can also stream your display via the Wireless Display feature (Miracast).
GPS support is available, but not the GLONASS variety.
There's also FM Radio and NFC but no IR port and no way to get wired TV Out functionality either.
The LG AKA may only be a mid-range phone, but it comes with a bag of features its bigger siblings are so proud of. But before we continue with the Android trivialities, let's check out AKA's exclusive content.
We bet you are curious to know more about those eyes. Depending on the model you choose - the front mask and the eyes will be different. The pink YoYo model comes with rather cute eyes, while for example Wooky (the white one) is very short tempered and will throw you judging stares most of the time.
AKA YoYo lovely personality
Tapping on the screen (when the mask is on) wakes up the eyes. If you have missed notifications they'll start looking below hinting you should get the mask off and see what's going on.
Sliding the mask about half the way down or less, you'll see YoYo's hands holding a board with a summary of your notifications. In case there are no missed events the YoYo model is dressed with hearts, diamonds or ice-cream under the mask.
Interacting with YoYo results in different eyes
The eyes get dizzy when you shake the phone, for instance. Or you can also play hide and seek by covering AKA's eyes shortly causing it to blink its eyes in funny ways.
The Eye color changes from red to green to indicate different emotions, while the background changes while charging as indication for the battery state.
Reading the current temperature from the LG weather app, the AKA will also change according to your locations temperature reading. AKA's face would stay normal in-between 1 to 29℃, but sweat will flow down over 30C and the screen gets frosty when the temperature falls below 0C.
The area above the front mask can also show other controls beside the eyes. It can be used for answering calls, controlling the music player, or snoozing your alarm.
User interface
Sliding off the mask beyond half way down brings you to a familiar LG interface, merely skinned with a cartoonish theme. If it isn't your cup of tea, you can easily switch to the original and more mature LG skin. There is one exclusive widget called Come in displaying animations of your mascot (YoYo in our case), which also doubles as a shortcut to the AKA app.
By the way, if you are to use the AKA without the mask, or want an additional layer of security - you can always opt for the Knock Code, Pattern Unlock of PIN/Password protection for the lockscreen.
The homescreen is the usual Android affair - you change wallpapers, change swipe effects, use widgets, create shortcuts. All the apps are stored into a comfy app drawer, which supports custom arrangement and has option to uninstall apps thus sparing you tinkering with the Settings menu.
The homescreen • app drawer
As with the most of the LG phones, the AKA offers customizable Android keys (the front touch controls). You can rearrange the Menu, Home and Task Switcher keys, but you can also drag two additional buttons for Quick Memo, Q-Slide or Notifications up to the original three. You can also set a black or white background for the keys and control the opacity. There is even an option to hide the navigation bar in specific apps.
Customizing the navigation buttons
The Notification area hasn't changed much since we saw it in LG G2 mini and LG G2 - it's the standard Android KitKat one with additional features added by LG. It's not as pretty as on Lollipop, but it does serves its purpose well. The Task switcher is also the same with flat interface having all of your recently used apps at a glance.
Notification area • Task Switcher
The Q-Slide shortcuts in the notification area launch pop-up widget-like versions of the video player, web browser, phone, messages, calendar, email, memo, voice recorder, file manager and calculator. In case you don't need some of those shortcuts, you can remove them via the edit key at the end of the shortcut row.
Q-Slide in action • the available Q-Slide apps
There are a few gestures courtesy of LG's launcher worth mentioning. Smart Screen uses the front cam to detect whether you're looking at the screen. This means you can browse the phone for hours on end without it auto-locking itself. We can confirm that the feature works very well.
Smart Video on the other hand will pause a currently playing video when you look away. That's another thing copied over from TouchWiz.
LG Quiet Mode is also enabled. It works in a similar way to the Do Not Disturb feature on iOS and the Blocking Mode at Samsung's Galaxies. It gives you extra control over incoming call alerts.
If turned on, Quiet mode will mute incoming calls and you can set the time of day when it gets activated every day. Just like DnD on iOS, Quiet mode has an exception list where you can add some contacts that won't be affected by its restrictions.
Guest mode will come in handy if you are handing your phone to a child or you just want to keep your stuff personal from friends, who might like to use your phone for a quick call or anything.
Quiet Mode • Guest mode
Quick Memo is integrated in the phone's OS, allowing you to capture screenshots of anything (including the lockscreen!) and scribble notes over them like you would on the G3 and G Flex2, to name a few. You can save the result as an image or add it to the Notebook app.
Another useful feature is the Clip Tray. Upon a tap and hold on links, images, music and video files, phone numbers or just chinks of text, you can copy them to the Clip Tray to paste later in messages, emails, the browser, etc. The Clip Tray items are displayed at the bottom of the screen (you must have at least 2 items in the tray).
Quick Memo • Clip Tray in action
Performance
LG AKA is powered by the dated Snapdragon 400 chipset, which packs a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor running at 1.2GHz, Adreno 305 GPU and 1.5GB of RAM. Over the past year we've tested a plethora of Snapdragon 400-based smartphones and the chip proved the bare minimum for a 720p device. Hopefully the extra RAM will give the AKA an edge.
LG AKA does OK on the multi-core GeekBench 3 test - it's on par with other Snapdragon 400 devices, but the Cortex-A7 is slightly behind its A53 successor, found in the Snapdragon 410.
GeekBench 3
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 8202586
- HTC One mini 21526
- Samsung Galaxy A51460
- Xiaomi Redmi 21460
- Sony Xperia T31373
- Motorola Moto G 4G1175
- Motorola Moto G (2014)1171
- LG AKA1153
- LG G2 mini1123
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua1106
The compound AnTuTu 5 stacks the LG AKA next to similar devices as the Moto G and One mini 2, but it also puts it very close to the 64-bit Xiaomi Redmi 2.
AnTuTu 5
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 82027070
- Samsung Galaxy A521581
- Xiaomi Redmi 220616
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua19016
- LG AKA18795
- HTC One mini 218641
- Motorola Moto G (2014)18245
Unfortunately, the LG AKA does slightly poor than its siblings on the BaseMark OS II test, where the web browsing score is hurting it the most.
Basemark OS II
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 820725
- Samsung Galaxy A5555
- Sony Xperia T3535
- Motorola Moto G (2014)526
- HTC One mini 2517
- Xiaomi Redmi 2509
- Motorola Moto G 4G495
- LG AKA473
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua452
The BaseMark OS II Cortex-A7 scores for the single and multi-core performance are about right for the processor's class.
Basemark OS II (single-core)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 8201812
- Sony Xperia T31465
- Xiaomi Redmi 21414
- HTC One mini 21304
- LG AKA1232
- Samsung Galaxy A51217
- Motorola Moto G 4G1192
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua1131
- Motorola Moto G (2014)1123
Basemark OS II (multi-core)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 8208453
- Sony Xperia T35759
- Xiaomi Redmi 25313
- HTC One mini 25182
- Motorola Moto G 4G5012
- Motorola Moto G (2014)5001
- LG AKA4977
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua4887
- Samsung Galaxy A54880
The Adreno 305 graphics accelerator wouldn't be our choice for a 720p display, but it is capable of handling the OS perfectly, and some non-demanding games are well playable as well. The Adreno 305 turned out on par with the newer Adreno 306 within the Snapdragons 410 chip, but much weaker than the mid-range Adreno 405 (Snapdragon 615).
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 82015
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua6
- LG AKA5.9
- Sony Xperia T35.9
- LG G2 mini5.8
- HTC One mini 25.8
- Motorola Moto G 4G5.8
- Motorola Moto G (2014)5.8
- Samsung Galaxy A55.3
- Xiaomi Redmi 25.2
GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 82026
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua15.5
- LG G2 mini14.9
- Sony Xperia T311.2
- LG AKA11
- HTC One mini 211
- Motorola Moto G 4G10.8
- Motorola Moto G (2014)10.8
- Samsung Galaxy A59.6
- Xiaomi Redmi 29.6
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 8205.7
- Samsung Galaxy A51.8
- Xiaomi Redmi 21.8
- Sony Xperia T31.8
- LG AKA1.7
- HTC One mini 21.7
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua1.7
- Motorola Moto G 4G1.7
GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 82012
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua6.9
- Sony Xperia T34.2
- LG AKA4.1
- Motorola Moto G (2014)4.1
- Motorola Moto G 4G4
- Samsung Galaxy A53.9
- Xiaomi Redmi 23.9
- HTC One mini 23.8
The BaseMark X outs a rather uninspiring result though.
Basemark X
Higher is better
- HTC Desire 8204859
- Motorola Moto G (2014)3142
- Samsung Galaxy A51897
- HTC One mini 21650
- LG AKA1414
Kraken 1.1 by Mozilla reflects the JavaScript capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy A5 while Rightware's BrowserMark 2.1 offers an evaluation of its HTML 5 abilities. In Kraken 1.1 the LG AKA does OK - on par with its competitors.
BrowserMark returned and even better overall score, besting all but the Galaxy A5.
Kraken 1.1
Lower is better
- Samsung Galaxy A513083
- HTC Desire 82013568
- Xiaomi Redmi 213694
- Sony Xperia T313738
- LG AKA14627
- HTC One mini 215684
- Motorola Moto G (2014)15988
- Motorola Moto G 4G16118
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua16129
BrowserMark 2.1
Higher is better
- Samsung Galaxy A51171
- LG AKA1142
- Motorola Moto G (2014)1085
- HTC Desire 820991
- Sony Xperia T3978
- HTC One mini 2945
- Motorola Moto G 4G911
- Sony Xperia M2 Aqua883
- Xiaomi Redmi 2549
It's clear that the LG AKA is no speed demon, especially with such a dated chipset. All the benchmarks show a middling to lower end performance in raw CPU/GPU, but do a very good job on the JavaScript/HMTL 5 tasks. Sure the AKA isn't fit to handle the graphic-intensive games but it is perfectly adequate for day to day tasks of any kind and that's what matters the most. The UI is fluid and we saw no lagging unless we decided to heavily use QSlide small apps.
The phonebook • the dialer
The LG AKA has high in-call volume and there are also native video calls available right in the phone app. Smart Dial also works like a charm and searches both names and numbers.
The LG AKA scored a Good mark on our loudspeaker tests, meaning you'll hardly miss any calls and notifications. The loudspeaker sound quality isn't very good though, but it will do for occasional videos and songs.
| Speakerphone test | Voice, dB | Ringing | Overall score | |
| 65.7 | 62.2 | 66.2 | Below Average | |
| 65.2 | 67.7 | 64.6 | Below Average | |
| 65.8 | 64.7 | 75.7 | Average | |
| 65.3 | 66.3 | 78 | Good | |
| 66.8 | 64.6 | 78.7 | Good | |
| 70.6 | 66.2 | 77.3 | Good | |
| 70.8 | 70.9 | 77.4 | Very Good | |
| 74.8 | 73.5 | 80.2 | Excellent | |
| 77.1 | 76 | 83.3 | Excellent |
LG Keyboard handles the text input - it supports various languages, it has a top numeric row and you can configure the keys height and the bottom row shortcuts.
Additional input methods include Google's voice input and handwriting support for multiple (downloadable) languages.
Configuring the LG Keyboard
Multimedia
The Gallery on the LG AKA is quite similar to what you get on most Android devices, including a resizable list of thumbnails. Rather than having an in-house editing suite like Samsung droids, for instance, the LG AKA relies on Google Photos to handle image editing. It features a variety of neat filter effects and the standard options like crop, rotate, and color balance, but doesn't let you write or stamp on an image.
The image gallery • Editing options
There is no default Video app - all video files pile up in the Gallery's Video tab. Besides being able to choose between three crop modes for how the video fits the screen, you can also adjust the playback speed anywhere between 0.5-1.5x.
The video player supports subtitles
The codec support is good, but not great - the default player supports MP4, H264 (MKV) and XviD, but lacks DivX and WMV. Strangely, the MOV containers aren't supported either, while the lack of AC3 audio means the MKV compatibility is pointless. On a positive note even non-Latin subtitles are supported.
You can play a video in a pop-up, visible while you interact with other apps, thanks to the Q-Slide option.
LG AKA's Music app is jam-packed with features and supports a wide variety of file formats, including .FLAC, and .WAV among others. It also supports cloud accounts as Dropbox and Box. LG has enabled equalizer presets (including a custom one with 7 bands) and even has the ability to adjust the pitch and speed of a given track during playback.
Music player app • music options and equalizer
Very good audio output
The LG AKA performed very well in the active external amplifier part of our traditional audio quality test, posting great scores all over the field. Its volume levels were below average, putting a minus next to that A mark.
There's some degradation when you plug in a pair of headphones, but it is limited to a moderate bump in stereo crosstalk, leaving the overall clarity great. Loudness fails to impress once again though, suggesting you better stick to less demanding headsets.
And here go the results so you can see for yourselves.
| Test | Frequency response | Noise level | Dynamic range | THD | IMD + Noise | Stereo crosstalk |
| LG AKA | +0.02, -0.31 | -93.0 | 93.2 | 0.0037 | 0.012 | -98.3 |
| LG AKA (headphones attached) | +0.01, -0.07 | -92.0 | 92.1 | 0.0096 | 0.026 | -61.3 |
| LG G2 mini | +0.12, -0.03 | -93.5 | 93.3 | 0.0023 | 0.015 | -92.7 |
| LG G2 mini (headphones attached) | +0.09, -0.01 | -93.1 | 92.9 | 0.012 | 0.042 | -61.7 |
| LG G2 | +0.03, -0.28 | -91.9 | 91.9 | 0.0097 | 0.011 | -91.3 |
| LG G2 (headphones attached) | +0.07, -0.03 | -91.5 | 91.8 | 0.037 | 0.041 | -54.3 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 mini | +0.06, -0.05 | -93.5 | 92.7 | 0.0090 | 0.056 | -86.2 |
| Samsung Galaxy S4 mini (headphones attached) | +0.08, -0.04 | -93.2 | 91.8 | 0.029 | 0.089 | -53.3 |
LG AKA frequency response
You can learn more about the whole testing process here.
Web browser and other apps
The LG AKA comes with its own version of the stock Android browser, as well as Google's Chrome browser.
The stock browser packs the usual features: Incognito tabs, Bookmarks, Find in page and Desktop view. There is no Flash support. Pages can be saved locally to read offline, but videos cannot. Reader view is available, too.
The stock web browser
QMemo+ features a plethora of features, including the ability to add location and weather info to your notes, draw and add text to nearly any type of screenshot or picture, as well as share and save your notes via a wide range of media.
QMemo+
The usual organizing tools are present as well - there is a Calendar, a Calculator, Tasks, Voice Recorder and Weather apps. A proper File Manager app is pre-installed too.
Calendar • Tasks • Calculator • File Manager
There is no full blown office package, but you can open office files, including PDFs, thanks to the ThinkViewer app. If you need an edit option, you'll have to find another solution from the Play Store.
ThinkViewer
Great 8MP camera
The main camera on the LG AKA has an 8MP sensor that captures photos with a maximum resolution of 3264 x 2448 and 1080p videos at 30fps. Sadly, there's no option for 1080p videos @ 60fps, neither 720p @ 120fps as the Snapdragon 400 just can't handle it. The 2.1MP front-facing camera shoots 720p videos.
The camera benefits from the laser-assisted autofocus, which should help with focusing in low light.
LG AKA has the same camera interface as the LG G3. It is intentionally stripped down to house a bare minimum of on-screen controls. It's not as extreme as what Google did with the Nexus camera interface, but it is somewhat uncharacteristic from a maker that typically throws in camera features by the boatload. Still, all the shooting modes are easily organized in their own section. You can touch the screen to focus on a specific element, and can even set it to automatically shoot once it does so.
LG AKA camera UI
The LG AKA has an excellent 8MP camera. The amount of resolved detail is on a high level and we are happy to see excellent corner to corner sharpness. There are no issues with excessive noise or noise reduction.
LG AKA camera samples
The AKA HDR mode produces some eye-pleasing results. You can see in the following examples that it's able to achieve a more balanced exposure across the scene without going overboard.
HDR mode: before and after
The LG AKA is also capable of 360-degree panorama shots, and while those take some time to shoot, they came with no problems with the stitching. The quality is excellent - there is more than enough detail, the exposure is great as is the contrast, while the color reproduction is just superb. The portrait pano mode outs about 16,000 x 3,200 pixels sample, which is about a 50MP picture - amazing, indeed.
LG AKA panoramic samples taken in portrait and landscape modes
If you scan your AKA mascot with the camera you can use the AKA VR mode to take some pictures with your favorite alien. If you own more than one toy, you can add those to your library as well. Their virtual avatars are very cute, react on touch and can be rotated, zoomed in or out. Unfortunately, this exclusive camera mode saves 1MP photos (1280 x 720px - or the screen resolution).
A sample with the YoYo alien
The LG AKA is up for comparison with other capable 8MP cameras. It did well against the competition, and we like the amount of detail it can capture.
LG AKA in our Photo compare tool
Video recording
The LG AKA records 1080p videos at 30fps. There's also a 720p shooting mode, but it too is at 30fps.
The user interface remains unchanged from the still image mode. You can shoot photos while filming, but they are at most 1080p in resolution.
The video bitrate of 17.6Mbps with mono sound recording with a bitrate of 156 Kbps and 48 kHz audio sampling rate.
The LG AKA managed to do a great job here, too. There's a decent amount of fine detail, while the colors and white balance are excellent.
Final words
One thing that usually fails midrange phones is lack of personality. No worries there for the LG AKA, except perhaps that it may have too much of it. You know - too cheerful, too interactive, too pink and too yellow for certain settings, dresscodes, job descriptions and, ultimately, age.
Kids and teens seem like the most obvious target audience unless we're missing something. Maybe young adults who refuse to grow up? People who like cute things? Those who once had a Tamagotchi and give virtual pet apps five stars. People who think all Samsung phones look the same. People who put iPhones in weird cases with faces.
How about people who would gladly buy their kid a feature phone but there just aren't any of those left. The LG AKA is a feature phone of sorts - as in having a single defining feature that no one else offers. It isn't cheap for what it is if you can't get the AKA on a carrier deal. That being said up front, the LG AKA does what it does pretty well, never mind the gimmickry.
The mask and custom personalities are what makes a rather ordinary piece of technology quite unusual and fun. Your very own definition of fun on a smartphone is certainly different from the next guy's, and LG has probably accounted for that fact.
At the very least, you get to choose from four different characters. No matter which one you get, a pair of eyes will always look back at you - and you can change the personality hassle-free by simply snapping a new case on. The LG AKA will look and behave differently - custom notifications and personalization taken to a whole new level.
LG AKA key test findings:
- The LG AKA offers a full-fledged native version of a virtual pet / custom notification app
- Build quality is very good, the front mask is glossy and prone to smudges
- The display quality is perfectly OK with rather high contrast ratio, but the reflective screen glass means mediocre sunlight legibility.
- The battery life is excellent - with a 72-hour endurance rating it's a great performer
- The Android 4.4 KitKat and LG launcher are becoming dated, but they still provide smooth user experience and plenty of features, some useful
- There are elaborate distinct interfaces for the four characters - you can change them by changing the front panel. That's as far as notifications go though, the rest of the interface is standard Optimus UI with a playful theme
- We rated the speaker loudness as Good, the ringing tones are subjectively quite loud
- The performance (speed, multitasking) is reasonable for the class, but not for the price
- The audio quality is very good, though a bit on the quiet side
- Camera takes very good photos and OK 1080p videos, laser-assisted autofocus is really fast regardless of the available light conditions
- The video player lacks DivX, WMV video and AC3 audio codec support, but supports subtitles
Sure, the LG AKA isn't the best smartphone you can get, especially at this price, but you can't get anything quite like it either. Beyond the mask and blinking eyes though, it's pretty much an LG G2 mini with the added laser-assisted auto-focus of the flagship.
The performance is reasonably smooth despite the dated chipset and, overall, the smartphone experience isn't secondary to the entertainment.
To put things in perspective, the LG AKA offers a Motorola Moto G or a Xiaomi Redmi 2 level of equipment for the price of an LG G2 or a Samsung Galaxy S4.
LG G2 • Samsung I9505 Galaxy S4 • Motorola Moto G 4G • Xiaomi Redmi 2
That will hardly make any difference to the intended target audience though - and LG knows it. It's really simple - if you like the LG AKA, you go get it. There's nothing quite like it. The LG AKA is unusual enough to get anyone's attention. An easy one to like - honestly. More difficult to get around to owning one. But what do we know about phones that blink and wink. Leave them to the kids. Anyone up for a limited edition with the Eye of Sauron or Darth Vader on it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments
(
Atom
)
Good site. I constantly look at this website and I am impressed! Very useful information.
ReplyDeleteStructured Cabling
Very interesting info!Perfect just what I was looking for!
ReplyDeleteCheers mate!
top best 75 inch tv in dubai