The LG Stylo 2 was one of the surprise mid-range devices of early 2016. It was an affordable phone with a nice camera, decent processor and an HD screen. With the LG Stylo 3 releasing this month, has LG got another winner on its hands? Let’s find out.
I’ve been using the LG Stylo 3 for a little over a week now and it’s clear to me that LG’s motto with this phone is, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. Now normally, one would think that’s a bad thing, but in this case it isn’t. LG took a solid design from last year and made small improvements to the design.
Hardware
The Stylo 3 has an 1.4 GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 MSM8940. This is a nice upgrade as its predecessor had an 1.2 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916. I’ve found the phone to be very smooth and lag free when switching between applications, swiping back and forth, scrolling through the the app tray or running multiple applications at once. For a mid-range phone, I was very pleased by the performance I was getting.
Design/Screen
LG went with a very minimal approach for the LG Stylo 3 this year and it works. The phone is lightweight, thin and I applaud LG for including a relatively small bezel with this phone. In addition, the phone retains the same 5.7” 720p HD IPS LCD screen as last year’s model. Colors were vibrant and detail was good. I would’ve liked to have seen LG bump it up to 1080p but I understand LG’s decision opting instead to keep the device affordable. Just like the name implies, the phone comes with a Stylus pen. Having used the Galaxy Note series in the past, I found the stylus pen just as comfortable and easy to use with tactile response from the pen being sharp. The pen is integrated into the top right corner of the phone and LG has designed it to appear as though it is part of the actual frame of the phone. While this is a subtle design touch, I really like their decision to do this.
Camera
The Stylo 3 camera remains virtually unchanged from the Stylo 2, retaining the 5MP front facing camera, 13MP rear camera, and 1080p HD video recording. In my tests with the Camera, I found colors to be vibrant and detailed. I often video chat with my family and was quite pleased with the quality of the front facing camera. On top of that, the phone features High Dynamic Range (HDR), Panorama, and several “Instagram” like picture filters. All in all, a solid camera.
Battery/Storage
LG included a 3200 mAh battery this time around and I found battery life to be good, allowing me to get through most of my day with moderate use on a single charge. LG included a battery saving feature, but after using a similar feature on the Samsung J3 Emerge, I found it to be a bit lacking and had wished that LG had put a little bit more into something like this. On the storage side, the phone has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage as well as the options to expand up to 2TB. Now, while there may not be a 2TB sd card on the market yet, I really like LG’s forward thinking with this.
Features
The phone comes with Android 7.0 Nougat right out of the box, which is a nice surprise for a mid-range device. New to this year’s model is the addition of a fingerprint scanner located on the back of the phone.While this is not new technology, I really appreciate LG adding features that would normally be part of a “flagship” phone. Other features include customizable Themes that can be downloaded via LG SmartWorld and KnockON, which allows you to wake up and view notifications by tapping twice on the screen.
Whether you’re looking to get your child's first phone or just looking for an affordable device with solid features, the LG Stylo 3 may just be the right phone for you.
Have any questions or want to leave a comment about the LG Stylo 3, feel free to do so, i’d love to hear what you have to say.
I’ve been using the LG Stylo 3 for a little over a week now and it’s clear to me that LG’s motto with this phone is, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it”. Now normally, one would think that’s a bad thing, but in this case it isn’t. LG took a solid design from last year and made small improvements to the design.
Hardware
The Stylo 3 has an 1.4 GHz Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 MSM8940. This is a nice upgrade as its predecessor had an 1.2 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 MSM8916. I’ve found the phone to be very smooth and lag free when switching between applications, swiping back and forth, scrolling through the the app tray or running multiple applications at once. For a mid-range phone, I was very pleased by the performance I was getting.
Design/Screen
LG went with a very minimal approach for the LG Stylo 3 this year and it works. The phone is lightweight, thin and I applaud LG for including a relatively small bezel with this phone. In addition, the phone retains the same 5.7” 720p HD IPS LCD screen as last year’s model. Colors were vibrant and detail was good. I would’ve liked to have seen LG bump it up to 1080p but I understand LG’s decision opting instead to keep the device affordable. Just like the name implies, the phone comes with a Stylus pen. Having used the Galaxy Note series in the past, I found the stylus pen just as comfortable and easy to use with tactile response from the pen being sharp. The pen is integrated into the top right corner of the phone and LG has designed it to appear as though it is part of the actual frame of the phone. While this is a subtle design touch, I really like their decision to do this.
Camera
The Stylo 3 camera remains virtually unchanged from the Stylo 2, retaining the 5MP front facing camera, 13MP rear camera, and 1080p HD video recording. In my tests with the Camera, I found colors to be vibrant and detailed. I often video chat with my family and was quite pleased with the quality of the front facing camera. On top of that, the phone features High Dynamic Range (HDR), Panorama, and several “Instagram” like picture filters. All in all, a solid camera.
Battery/Storage
LG included a 3200 mAh battery this time around and I found battery life to be good, allowing me to get through most of my day with moderate use on a single charge. LG included a battery saving feature, but after using a similar feature on the Samsung J3 Emerge, I found it to be a bit lacking and had wished that LG had put a little bit more into something like this. On the storage side, the phone has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage as well as the options to expand up to 2TB. Now, while there may not be a 2TB sd card on the market yet, I really like LG’s forward thinking with this.
Features
The phone comes with Android 7.0 Nougat right out of the box, which is a nice surprise for a mid-range device. New to this year’s model is the addition of a fingerprint scanner located on the back of the phone.While this is not new technology, I really appreciate LG adding features that would normally be part of a “flagship” phone. Other features include customizable Themes that can be downloaded via LG SmartWorld and KnockON, which allows you to wake up and view notifications by tapping twice on the screen.
Whether you’re looking to get your child's first phone or just looking for an affordable device with solid features, the LG Stylo 3 may just be the right phone for you.
Have any questions or want to leave a comment about the LG Stylo 3, feel free to do so, i’d love to hear what you have to say.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram