LG K4 (2017) review – Little ‘K’

LG have refreshed their lowest class lineup for 2017 with the LG K4 (2017). Its design resembles high-end devices, and the 5” display only adds to that impression. Still, since this is a low class device, its chassis is made of plastic. Compared to the last year’s K4, we get an improved display, and also an improved chipset – this time Qualcomm instead of MediaTek. Inside the box we can find: user manuals, LG charging adapter and a microUSB cable. For our review we have the K4 in the Titan color, but the device is also available in Black color. Starting price of only 120€ seems fantastic, but to learn what you get for the money, keep on reading…

Speaking of a modern smartphone, most of us customers primarily focus on dimensions of the device which is dictated by the diagonal of the display. In the K4 (2017) we find a 5” IPS LCD display with the FWVGA resolution. The panel shows up to 16 million colors, it is very bright, and it is decently sharp – on par with the competitors. The screen takes up 66.3% of the front panel. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Visibility on the sunlight is great, as well as minimum and maximum brightness levels. The number of PPI is 195.

For the smallest device of the “K” lineup for 2017, the LG have prepared a low range Qualcomm chipset. It is the Snapdragon 210 chipset. It is consisted of four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.1 GHz. Adreno 304 GPU is in charge of the graphics, and taking into consideration the FWVGA (854 x 480 pixels) resolution of the display, it represents a more than decent GPU option. The system runs fluidly when opening basic applications, and the slowdowns are noticeable only when running more demanding applications (3D games, Photoshop). Overheating under pressure is within normal limits and it’s not too detrimental to the performance. This device comes in two storage options: 8GB/16GB (AT&T, Cricket). RAM memory is at 1GB. We have the 8GB version, which could very soon become overloaded, and it’s just not enough in 2017. Luckily we have a microSD card slot to “fix” the wrongs. The system is based on Android v6.0 Marshmallow firmware.

Unfortunately, the K4 (2017) cannot boast with its cameras. The main camera is a 5MP sensor, and with the low resolution and a small sensor simply does not provide good photos. Colors are washed up, and sharpness is only average. The interface is intuitive and enables quick navigation through the options. The shutter speed is also a weak spot, while the auto-focus speed is quite decent. An LED flash is here for low light conditions. Video is captured in HD 720p resolution at 30fps.
The thing that is unusual is that the front facing camera has the same resolution as the main camera. It provides decent results and also captures HD 720p videos.

In our test we have the SingleSIM K4 (2017), but the device comes in both single and DualSIM versions. It supports 4G LTE which is definitely a plus. Wired connection is realized through a microUSB port, and the same port is used for charging of the device. Headphones are not included in the box, but the device has a 3.5mm port.

Speaking of wireless connections there are:

The device lacks NFC, but we cannot blame it on the LG taking into account the price and the class of the device.

The K4 (2017) is a decent device for its price range. Of course, there is plenty of room for improvements. Bigger resolution of the display would be a massive improvement, but the chipset could also be better taking into account users who like to have a lot of applications. Also, 8GB of storage is simply too little, but we have an option to use a microSD card. If you are not a demanding user, prefer a DualSIM device and value practicality and compact dimensions – the K4 (2017) is just the right device for you.

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LG K4 (2017) Full Specifications