LG G4c review: A decent camera yet underwhelming overall

Performance

However, rivals pull ahead when it comes to performance. The quad-core, 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 processor and 1GB of RAM simply can’t compete with the M4 Aqua‘s octa-core Snapdragon 615, only managing to score 1,405 in the Geekbench 3 multicore test. That’s almost 1,000 points behind its 615-based counterparts. 463 in the single core test is also a touch slower than the Galaxy A3, which also uses a Snapdragon 410. 

It still has enough speed to run LG’s customised Android 5.0.2 skin without too much trouble, but web browsing was noticeably jerkier. While its Peacekeeper browser test score of 632 is roughly in line with what I’ve seen from other Snapdragon 410 phones, scrolling sometimes took a second too long to respond to my swipes, making it cumbersome to navigate pages at speed.

Graphics performance was also a little underwhelming, but it’s certainly no worse than other mid-range phones. The G4c only managed to produce 107 frames in the offscreen Manhattan test in GFX BenchGL, which is roughly the same as the 3rd Gen Moto G and Samsung Galaxy A3. Simple games such as Alphabear and Threes ran perfectly smoothly, but more demanding titles such as Blizzard’s Hearthstone were a tad jerky. Still, it wasn’t enough to make me want to stop playing.

Storage

The G4c isn’t best suited to storing lots of games and apps, though, as only a measly 3.45GB of the 8GB internal storage is available to the user. Fortunately, there’s a microSD card slot above the SIM card slot, so you’ll likely need to take advantage of this if you like storing any kind of media files on your phone.

Conclusion

The LG G4c has a reasonable camera and a fantastic battery life, but when it’s competing alongside the likes of Sony’s Xperia M4 Aqua, the Samsung Galaxy A3 and 3rd Gen Moto G, its poor screen, small amount of storage and mediocre performance simply doesn’t measure up. It’s not terrible but it’s distinctly below average. For me, the 3rd Gen Moto G continues to be my preferred budget handset, but those after an even better bargain are much better off buying the £125 Vodafone Smart Ultra 6. Alternatively, check out my other top smartphone picks in the Expert Reviews Best Smartphone Guide.