LG K40

Pros:

• The 5.7-inch screen is big and vibrant. It offers a pleasant viewing experience.  
• It is well-built, lightweight, and comfortable to use.
• The 3GB RAM ensures a lag-free performance for the most part.
• The processor performs decently.
• The 16MP rear camera can capture detailed shots in favourable lighting conditions.
• It has a dedicated Google Assistant button.

Cons:

• The display does not support Full HD resolution.
• Sensors like Compass and Gyroscope are missing.
• There’s no fast charging support.
• The low-light camera performance is very disappointing.

For a phone priced at around 21K, the LG K12 Plus disappoints greatly in many aspects. The lack of FHD, missing sensors, and fast-charging support isn’t expected for a phone at this price bracket. Also, the camera’s subpar performance in low-light settings is another turnoff.

The LG K12 Plus sports a 5.7-inch screen with a resolution of 720×1440 pixels and an 18:9 aspect ratio. It packs in an octa-core MediaTek Helio P22 (MT6762) SoC coupled with PowerVR GE8320 GPU for enhanced graphical performance.

The phone runs on Android v8.1 (Oreo) OS and offers 3GB RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage. You can expand the storage capacity up to 2TB via a microSD card. A 3000mAh non-removable battery powers it.

The LG K12 Plus features a 16MP rear camera with an LED flash and an 8MP selfie camera at the front. It includes sensors like Fingerprint Sensor, Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, and Accelerometer.

The phone is 8.3 mm slim and weighs only 150 grams. It comes in three colour variants –  Midnight Black, Moroccan Blue, and Platinum Gray. In India, it costs around Rs. 21, 200.

The LG Q Stylus Plus sports a solid metal casing with an acrylic-like plastic back panel. The transition from the polycarbonate back panel to the metal casing is seamless. Overall, the rear panel design looks compact. The rounded corners allow for a comfortable grip, and the phone fits snugly in hand.

At the back, there’s a 6MP camera along with an LED flash. The fingerprint sensor rests just below the camera module.

A good thing about the phone is that you get a dedicated Google Assistant button on the right. As for the power and volume buttons, they lie on the left side of the metal frame. The left side also houses a primary SIM slot (nanoSIM + microSD card) and a secondary SIM slot (nanoSIM). At the bottom, there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack, a micro USB port,  and a speaker grille.

The front display has no side bezels, but there’s a noticeable thick bezel on top and bottom. The top portion houses the 8MP selfie cam, an earpiece, a front flash, and sensors.

The phone has a 5.7-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen with a resolution 1080×2160 pixels and a pixel density of 282 PPI. As we mentioned before, the bezels become pretty thick at the top and bottom portions of the screen. So, it’s not a full view. Another thing lacking here is an FHD resolution.

Indoors, the display colours appear to be sharp and crisp. The viewing angles look good. So, you shouldn’t face any problem while watching videos or reading texts on the phone from any angle without losing the screen brightness or colours. You have the option to tweak the display colour, contrast, and temperature in the settings option. As far as sunlight legibility is concerned, the display mostly works fine outdoors except for days when it is too bright and sunny outside. On extremely sunny and bright days, it becomes difficult to view the screen content.

The LG K12 Plus incorporates an octa-core Cortex A53 MediaTek Helio P22 SoC clocked at 2GHz. It gets a PowerVR GE8320 GPU for enhanced graphical performance. Coupled with the 3GB RAM, the CPU and GPU should deliver a lag free performance. However, this is true only for routine and everyday tasks like calling, texting, listening to musing, browsing, etc. The phone can handle such tasks easily without showing any signs of sluggishness. Also, multitasking isn’t an issue, thanks to the 3GB RAM.

When it comes to gaming, the phone takes a step back. It isn’t optimized for gaming. While it can handle simple games like Candy Crush, Temple Run, etc., the performance suffers significantly for graphics-intensive games like PUBG and Asphalt. So, if you are passionate for gaming, you would want to steer clear of the LG K12 Plus!

As for the user interface and OS, the phone leans towards delivering the stock Android experience. The UI is both intuitive and user-friendly. The Fingerprint Sensor is highly responsive, but the Face Unlock feature works relatively slower to unlock the phone.

The LG K12 Plus sports a 16MP camera on the rear and an 8-MP selfie camera on the front, just as seen in the LG Q Stylus Plus.

In daylight, the rear camera can capture sharp and detailed images. The camera can lock focus quickly, and hence, the objects in the pictures appear clear and crisp. Thanks to the Autofocus feature and the optical image stabilization (OIS), the photos don’t get shaky or blurred. However, the camera performance deteriorates in low-light conditions. Images shot in low-light settings depict and a lot of noise and lack detail. As a result, they end up looking grainy and out of focus.

Talking about the performance of the 8MP selfie camera, we can say that it’s average at best. In favourable lighting conditions, the captured shots have a fair share of details, with enough focus on the primary object. In low light settings, the front camera struggles to perform just like the rear camera – the captured images look blurry and lacking in detail.

The phone has a 3300mAh non-removable battery. Sadly, there’s no fast charging support. For light to medium usage, the battery can last a full day on a single charge. So, if you perform only routine tasks like calling, texting, etc., the battery will deliver excellent mileage. However, if you’re someone who loves to binge-watch TV series or play games for long hours, you will have to plug the phone in at least twice a day.

Connectivity options on the phone are –  Wi-Fi 802.11, a/b/g/n/ac, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v5.0, micro USB port, dual-SIM, FM Radio, GPS with A-GPS and Glonass, and 2G/3G/4G support.

On the whole, the LG K12 Plus fails to impress. It seems mediocre from all aspects including the display, the processor, the camera, and the battery as well. For the same money, you can go for better options like the Asus ZenFone Max Pro M2, Realme 2. Realme 3 Pro, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Honor 8C, Honor 9N, and Redmi Note 5 Pro, to name a few.