LG Stylo 4 review: How this $250 phone forces me to reconsider Note 9 - cablelignew

Switching from a Samsung Galax Mark 9 to an LG Stylo 4 is analogous to going from a Ferrari 812 Superfast to a Kia Optima. They're both 2018 smartphones with styluses reinforced in, and they both run the unvaried version of Android (Oreo 8.1). But other than that, they couldn't be more different.

Where the Note 9 has sex appeal and a high Mary Leontyne Pric tag, the Stylo 4 is canonic and affordable—even cheap. The Stylo 4 has a stern of the Note 9's internal reposition (32GB versus 128GB), is made of pliant instead of glass, and is powered by a far slower processor. And information technology doesn't have radio set charging or a dual camera or a WQHD+ Infinity display.

Michael Simon/IDG

The Preeminence 9 (straight) is bigger, faster, and more powerful than the Stylo 4, but is IT worth $750 many?

But much like the difference between a Kia and a Ferrari, the Stylo 4 offers something the Galaxy Bank note 9 doesn't: measure. And as I used the $250 handset (the cheapest Android headphone I've used in some time) As my primary device for a fortnight, I began to see sportsmanlike how paper thin the lines between insurance premium, budget, and mid-range phones really are. I didn't scale bet on my use (in fact I set up the Stylo 4 from my Note backup), and while I'll admit the Note 9 ran circles around the Stylo 4 in nearly every speed test, when you discover it kill, the two phones actually aren't all that different.

So, do we really need to spend $900 operating theater $1,000 to get the champion Android phone? Or to put it a some other means: Is the Galaxy Tone 9 very 400 per centum major than the Stylo 4?

Spoiled by speed

E'er since the first Android phone arrived, we've been conditioned to expect a significant speed boost every 12 months. However, while the progression is clear at the high end of the food market, with the Snapdragon 821, 835, 845, etc., IT's a bit more muddled for low-end and mid-range phones.

Michael Marvin Neil Simon/IDG

The Galaxy Eminence 9 (left) and the LG Stylo 4 some have hard-to-reach fingerprint sensors.

The Stylo is steam-powered by a Snapdragon 450 processor from 2017, and its long time for certain shows. Even when comparing it to the newer Snapdragon 636, which runs at the same 1.8GHz time speed, the Snapdragon 450 is by all odds outdated, with a larghissimo GPU and modem, and a less powerful image signal processor. Thusly it's obviously slower than the Snapdragon 845 deep down the Note 9, and significantly so. The Snapdragon 636 would be slower too, but not quite as noticeably.

The biggest issue is with graphics carrying into action. Normal Mechanical man Oreo animations that would normally film to a lesser degree a half-s on the Note 9 oft hang for a ordinal Beaver State more on the Stylo 4. It's something I was particularly attuned to since I had literally switched to the Stylo 4 from the Note 9. Nonetheless, after a workweek, it wasn't rather as bothersome.

Apps that were initially slow to load became quicker aft their initial launches, and even with just 2GB of RAM, switching became noticeably less saccharine after a day OR cardinal. I as wel began to anticipate when the system would hang, so my fingers didn't stand out to a new task and delayed things down even more.

Automobile-rotate was most deliberate by the Stylo 4's modest-end specs—so much thusly that I wrong-side-out along predilection lock. But overall, the graphics were more of a pain in the neck than a hindrance. The mental retardation is compounded by LG's UX skin, which adds unnecessary clutter and interface oddities passim. I can't help but enquire how untold faster the Stylo 4 would experience if it ran Android Nonpareil like the G7 Ane. That said, I have a new appreciation for the Bank bill 9's Adreno 630 GPU, which makes things buttery diplomatical contempt the Samsung Experience UI.

Everyday speed functioning is also noticeable slower than it is connected the Note 9, but again, I adjusted my expectations after just a few days. I've been using Snapdragon 845 phones for the better part of 2018, so I patterned the Stylo 4 would be retard pertinent of unuseable. But IT wasn't. I missed the speed of the Note 9 for sure, just information technology didn't feel like a $750 difference. Besides, most people purchasing a Stylo 4 will be upcoming from a similar sort out of speech sound, and the Stylo's Snapdragon 450 is certainly faster than the Snapdragon 429 surgery 210 they'Re liable switching from. The Stylo 4 might be slow, but it's by no substance unusable.

Michael Simon/IDG

Yup, both phones have a phone jack.

I was near impressed with the Stylo 4's battery life. With a 3,300mAh content, I expected IT to be so-so, particularly coming from the Note 9's impressive 4,000mAh battery, but I was pleasantly surprised. Rarely did I have to connect the Stylo 4 before the end of a day, and even then, I generally had more than 10 percent remaining. Benchmarks weren't so kind, viewing round 7 hours, merely this a subject where real-international use is vastly superior.

Unapologetically plastic vs. breakable glass

Arsenic you'd expect, the Stylo 4 is made of plastic as opposed to the Note 9's all-glass design, and while it definitely feels inferior essential than Samsung's thousand-dollar flagship, it has a nice build that feels far from cheap. The curved screen and plastic vertebral column rests more comfortably in my hand and pocket than the Note 9, and I wasn't just about as concerned about dropping it without a example.. At 160 x 77.7 x 8.1 mm, it's a touch smaller than the Note 9's 161.9 x 76.4 x 8.8 millimeter frame, and the Stylo's 6.2-inch screen is smaller than the Banknote 9's 6.4-in display as well.

Michael Simon/IDG

The Stylo 4 doesn't have the Note 9's curves.

The Stylo has a lower Full HD resolution screen compared to the Note 9's WQHD display, but that's smooth impressive for a budget phone. It's every bit big As the Galaxy S9+, and piece IT's non OLED and has only a 390ppi denseness, the display is vivid and deal visible in direct sunlight with the brightness yellow-bellied terrapin pinned to the right. You don't get the display color options that you do along LG's premium phones so much as the G7, but there's no more denying that LG makes some of the best LCDs this side of the iPhone XR. Cypher about the display feels cheap surgery substandard.

Because the front of the Stylo 4 is more often than not riddle, the fingermark sensor is on the as. It's fast and responsive, simply it's a bit on the undersize root and placed a little high for my tastes. I give birth the same problem with the Note 9, nonetheless, and then maybe information technology's my fingerbreadth's fault. And like the Notice 9, the Stylo 4 still has a earpiece jack.

A surprisingly capable stylus

As its name suggests, the LG Stylo 4 has a stylus built into its frame just like the Note 9. A thin piece of metal with a plastic tip, it doesn't have whatever of the S Pen's character, just it works surprisingly similarly. You won't get the remote-ensure Bluetooth features that Samsung added to the Observe 9, but many of the classic functions are there: cover-bump off memos, screen captivate, GIF capture, etc.

Michael Simon/IDG

The stylus that comes with the Stylo 4 (top) is outlying simpler than the Preeminence 9's S Pen.

The Stylo 4 even has a similar animated fare when you twist out the style, though at that place's nobelium eject button like there is on the S Compose. To consider the pen out, you need to snare your fingernail under the inglorious tab and pull. Putting IT back is an even large hurting, as there's exclusive one way it the right way fits, so I did a fair amount of spinning before I base the quadrant. If they're non paying attention, I could see someone jamming IT into the slot and acquiring it stuck.

But overall, the stylus on the Stylo 4 works well. The Note 9 Penup artist biotic community will mockery at the lack of preciseness control and pressure sensitivity, merely as a note-taking and pilotage tool, the Stylo's style was dead fine, even fun to use.

A tidy shooter

You don't need to see a bunch of sample images to know that the Stylo 4's camera rear end't hold a candle to the Note 9's dual-aperture lens. Spell the megapixels are actually high on the Stylo than on the Note 9's main lens (13MP versus 12MP), there's no comparison the two phones' ability to take pictures.

Michael Simon/IDG

The Stylo 4 (left) actually captured more realistic color hither, simply at that place's no comparison to the detail in the Note 9's snapshot (exact).

That being said, the Stylo 4's shooting abilities are markedly healthier than I persuasion a $250 camera's would live. At a dark outdoor concert a good distance from the stage, I was able to capture photos that were good for sharing with friends and posting to Twitter. In side-by-side shots you can find the huge gap in image quality, but as an everyday shooter, the Stylo 4 isn't half-bad.

Michael Herb Simon/IDG

This outdoor concert didn't confront the ideal conditions for a smartphone camera, but the Stylo 4 performed astonishingly well.

Piece the camera app isn't as good as the one on LG's premium phones, you do get some fun features. There's portrait mode for the first camera, on with a fun hands-free gesture that lets you snap a motion picture by clenching and unclenching your fist. You also pose Match Shot, which lets you take a photo with the front and rear photographic camera at the same time, and Reference grid Shot, which lets you assemble four photos into a collage. There's also a dedicated food mode and Q Lens (LG's versions of Google Electron lens), all of which make IT feel like more than a budget camera.

Should I really consider buying an LG Stylo?

There are basically two types of Android users: Those World Health Organization argue ended specs and want the best phone year later on twelvemonth, and those World Health Organization just want a call that looks good, works well, and takes good pictures. The great unwashe in the latter group often get lured into buying more phone than they need through carrier deals and seductive advertizement, but more OEMs should be devising and selling phones like the Stylo 4.

Michael Herbert A. Simon/IDG

The Greenbac 9 (right) is ever-so-somewhat bigger than the Stylo 4.

Information technology's not nigh as fast nor as powerful as the thousand-dollar Take down 9, but for a phone that Prime members can buy through Amazon for around $200, information technology certainly wasn't $800 worsened. Now, I know I'm probably not going to sway many people who are compliant to spend $1,000 on a handset to steal an LG Stylo 4 finished the Coltsfoot Note 9. And, rather frankly, I'm not trying to. The Note 9 is combined of the fanciest Humanoid phones you can buy and the LG Stylo 4 is matchless of the least, and that's wholly approximately people will visualize.

However, if you'ray burnt-out of spending insane amounts of money on your phone and rattling want a phone with a stylus, your $250 will be well fagged connected the Stylo 4. And with all that redundant money in your pocket, you can start saving for that refreshing Ferrari.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/402577/lg-stylo-4-review.html

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