LG K8 review: A discontinued, middling Moto G rival

LG K8 review: Display

Where the K8 falls down is its 5in, 1280×720 display. Yes, its 2.5D glass panel looks lovely, It’s reasonably bright with a peak white level of 384.27cd/m2, but you might struggle to see it clearly in direct sunlight. Likewise, with an sRGB colour gamut coverage of just 71.4%, the K8 is rather lacking in colour depth and overall vibrancy. I was very pleased to see a contrast ratio of 1,738:1, but images definitely didn’t look as good as they did on the 3rd Gen Moto G.

LG K8 review: Storage

It’s also worth noting that the LG K8 only has 8GB of internal storage, just 3.4GB of which is available to the user. This seems rather stingy in this day and age, especially when the 3rd Gen Moto G is available in a 16GB variant as well. As a result, you’ll probably find you’ll need to pick up a microSD card (it supports cards up to 32GB, costing £5-10), especially if you like downloading lots of games and media files.

LG K8 review: Camera

The LG K8’s 8-megapixel camera is also rather underwhelming. Not only does it have a smaller resolution than the 3rd Gen Moto G, but it’s also lacking in detail, as even our outdoor shots in bright sunshine were very soft and hazy. Fine details such as paving stones and brickwork were completely lost in LG’s noise reduction processing, and there was a noticeable amount of noise present in the plain blue sky as well.

^ The K8’s colour reproduction was fine, but it was very short on fine detail

Indoor shots looked rather soft with the K8 only managing a shutter speed 1/25 of a second – any motion in the frame and you’ll get a very blurred photo in these kind of conditions. Its colour reproduction was admittedly quite good, but it’s a small consolation when everything else is blurred. Admittedly, turning on our studio lights produced better, sharper looking results, and unless you’re taking pictures with a lot of natural light present, you’ll almost definitely want to use the flash when taking photos indoors, as this produced much clearer and more detailed photos.

^ Indoor shots were very soft as well, so we’d recommend using the flash or finding more natural light

LG K8 review: Verdict

The LG K8 does a pretty decent job of matching the 3rd Gen Moto G’s speed, but when both phones were exactly priced at £130, the Moto G leapt ahead with its superior display and camera and longer-lasting battery. However, this is no longer the case, with a substantial £45 difference, making the LG K8 a fantastic budget alternative to the Mogo G line-up.

In truth, the newer Moto G4 is technically the better buy compared to both aforementioned phones, as the G4 not only offers faster performance, but its battery, camera and display are all significantly better than its predecessor. However, if you’re adamant that a 5.5in phone is just one step too far, then the 3rd Gen model and cheaper LG K8 are still the phones to get.