LG Q6 preview: A closer look

Camera

The LG Q6 has a 13 megapixel F/2.2 camera at the back with LED flash and 1080p video recording.

Camera UI

The camera app is familiar from recent LG phones but pared down on features for the Q6. On the top you have a row of icons for things such as Settings, camera modes (Auto, Panorama and Food), color filters (choice of eight), front camera, flash and the option to switch to Square Camera.

Square Camera

The Square Camera mode has been carried over from the G6 and takes advantage of the taller display. Selecting it gives you four options in the camera modes menu. Match shot opens up the front camera in the top half of the display and the rear camera in the bottom half. You can match views from both perspectives to create an interesting image. Snapshot has a 1:1 image viewfinder in the top half and the bottom half of the display is like a film roll where your captured images appear instantly for you to preview while still being in the viewfinder mode.

Guide shot lets you overlay a stock image and then you can use it as a guide to capture another image with the same composition. Lastly, Grid shot lets you capture four images, one after the other to create a grid.

The Settings hides a whole host of options but what we found odd was the presence of the HDR mode buried in the Settings instead of out on the main camera screen. Having to dig through the Settings every time you have to switch between the HDR modes can quickly become annoying.

Apart from the Square Camera, there isn't much going on with the camera app. There are no further modes and most importantly, no manual or pro mode that lets you manually configure settings. By and large this is a pretty basic camera app.

Camera Samples

In terms of image quality, the Q6 does reasonably well if you are mostly going to be shooting outdoors under ample lighting. Images taken in daylight came out good with nice color saturation, contrast and accurate white balance. The images are over-sharpened but that's only noticeable if pixel-peep. The dynamic range isn't great, which is what makes the buried HDR toggle all the more frustrating. The HDR does its job but perhaps it goes too far and images do tend to look over processed.

HDR Off • HDR On • HDR Off • HDR On

Where the camera disappoints is in low light. Images taken indoors have visible noise even without zooming in, softer details and flatter colors with a noticeable blue tint in the shadows. This is really not the camera to pull out in indoors situations unless you are okay with using the flash.

Another issue with the camera is that the focusing system is a bit slow. Unlike most other phones in this price range, the Q6 does not have phase detection autofocus and can hence take a while to focus on closer objects, especially in low light situations.

Video

The 1080p video from the camera is adequate. There is even basic software video stabilization that works decently enough. It does, however, come at the cost of heavy image cropping, which throws you off guard the first time you turn on recording because hitting the video button from the main camera screen directly starts the video recording without letting you properly frame the shot first.

The Q6 also lacks 4K or slow motion recording option thanks to its low grade processor.