LG today announced the launch of its latest budget-centric smartphones in India with new W-series – LG W10, W30 and W30 Pro. Of the two released smartphones, the LG W30 comes at an asking price of Rs 9,999 to tackle Xiaomi’s Redmi line of budget phones. The W30 comes with MediaTek’s budget processor, triple cameras, a large battery and clean stock Android 9.0 Pie.
For around the same price, the Redmi Note 7S offers a 48MP dual camera setup, similarly sized display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, a budget Snapdragon processor and an equally large battery. Does the LG W30 pitch anything different to what Redmi offers? Let’s talk about that.
Design:
Starting right off with the design, LG W30 does give you a premium look and feel. The back panel comes with a pattern that gives a distinct look when light falls on it. We got the Platinum Gray model for review which has internal grooves like that of a frosted back and it surely gives a premium look. There is a fingerprint sensor at the top-centre position.
The Redmi Note 7s is an identical twin of the Redmi Note 7 or Redmi Note 7 Pro. The phone is equipped with the new Aurora design, which is basically the company’s version of gradient finish. The design is similar to any phone present in the budget phone category in India and doesn’t stand out as a new phone by any means.
Winner: LG W30
Display:
The Redmi Note 7s is equipped with a 6.3-inch Full HD+ Dot Notch display with a screen Resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels along with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection on both front and back panel. The display looks good in our initial testing and the viewing angles are quite decent in nature. The colours look good and the text looks sharp in nature.
The LG W30 is backed by a 6.26-inch HD+ FullVision display with a screen resolution of 1520 x 720 pixels. The smartphone comes with a waterdrop notch and LG is giving you an option to hide the notch right from the Settings, which is a welcome move. The screen seems to be pretty decent with good viewing angles but the lack of a Full HD screen is not convincing for a device that set you back Rs 10k. Another thing to note is that the phone has larger bezels to the Note 7S which is evident from its screen-to-body ratio of 76.3 compared to the 81.4 screen-to-body ratio on the Note 7S.
Winner: Redmi Note 7S
Hardware:
The LG W30 is powered by a MediaTek Helio P22 processor along with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. The memory can be further expanded via microSD card slot. It remains to be seen how the Helio P22 on the W30 will be able to match up to the mid-range chipsets from Qualcomm.
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The Redmi Note 7S is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor along with Adreno 512 GPU. While not as powerful as the Snapdragon 675 on the Note 7 Pro, the Snapdragon 660 handles multitasking and daily usage really well and can run graphic-intense games like PUBG Mobile and Asphalt 9: Legend smoothly. The Snapdragon 660 is thus a tested and proven chipset, unlike the Helio P22.
Winner: Redmi Note 7S
Camera:
On the camera front, the LG W10 features a triple-camera setup with a combination of the 12-megapixel low light sensor, 13-megapixel Wide-Angle lens and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. For the front, the company has added a 16-megapixel shooter for selfies and video calling. The camera offers different modes like Panorama, Video, Photo, Bokeh, Beauty, Night, Time Lapse and Slow Motion. In our early testing, we noticed that the phone was able to capture good shots, though the colours were a bit washed out in nature. However, a wide-angle lens at this price is highly appreciated along with the depth sensor.
The Redmi Note 7s comes loaded with a 48-megapixel sensor and is the cheapest phone to come with a 48-megapixel sensor. There is also a 5-megapixel secondary sensor. For the front, there is a 13-megapixel shooter for selfies and video calling. In real-life usage, the phone captured some sharp images in broad daylight conditions and macro shots came out to be quite impressive in nature.
Winner: Redmi Note 7s for day-to-day photography, LG W30 for having a wide lens.
Software:
Software is where the Redmi Note 7S gets sloppy. While it runs the latest Android 9 Pie, the phone packs the heavily customised MIUI 10 which may not be everyone’s cup of tea. There is some bloatware and if not handled right, the UI might show ads even inside the Settings App which can be very annoying to a lot of users when using the phone on a daily basis. However, the UI comes loaded with some interesting features like Second Space, gesture-based navigation controls and more.
Coming to the software, the LG W30 runs on Android 9.0 Pie. LG is offering a Stock Android experience with the W30 and it comes loaded with minimal bloatware. The UI is lightweight and quite smooth to use in our initial testing. LG has added some smart action like double tap to wake the screen, double tap to lock screen, flip to mute and more. Then there are smart gestures by which you can draw different gesture to open applications. For example, you can draw O to open the camera, C for phone, M for Google Play Music and more.
Winner: LG W30
Battery:
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Both the LG W30 and Redmi Note 7S come with a large 4,000mAh battery which should ideally last one full day of usage. While W30 will last longer because of its power-efficient Helio P22 chip, it’s the Redmi Note 7S which sneaks in for the win as it supports Quick Charge 4.0.
Winner: Redmi Note 7S
Verdict:
The LG W30 is a refinement of budget phones from LG’s side. The W30 packs a decent performing low mid-range Chipset with a large battery, triple cameras and a very clean version of the latest Android 9 Pie, all of which is housed inside a frosted pattern which gives the phone a premium look. But in case, you’re in the market for a better performing phone and camera and the UI isn’t that much of a big deal, you can opt for the Redmi Note 7S.