LG Magna Review
Overview- Who is it for?
With the spotlight mainly focused on the splashy flagship phone, it is easy to overlook that there’s a segment of the market that is leaning towards a mid-range device or phones that are more than good enough for average use. That said, the LG Magna is a bridge between those who don’t want a limiting phone and at the same time turned off by the expensive cost of owning a high-end device. If that is the reason for looking for a phone/ daily driver, then the Magna is among the pragmatic options to consider.
Quick Look at Specs- Decidedly Mid-range
Model: H502F
Variant: Dual Sim, HSDPA Display: IPS LCD Screen,
Screen Size: 5.0 inches , 720 x 1280 pixels with 294 ppi pixel density
CPU: Quad-core 1.3 GHz, Mediatek MT6582 Chipset
Storage: 8 GB
Camera: 8MP CMOS Main Camera, 5MP Selfie Camera
Battery Capacity: 2,540MAH
Sensors: Ambient Light Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Led Light Notification, Accelerator, Compass
Update 07/02/2016: Marshmallow update for LG Magna has been rolled out, which is quite surprising knowing most Android midrange devices are notorious for not getting latest software support. And we are not complaining either. Kudos to LG.
Also read: Best cases for Samsung Galaxy A51 5G
Look and Feel- curve is the new thin
You can’t really fault LG for exerting effort to make their phone stand out in the aesthetic department. The so-called “gentle curve” of the display panel is quite pleasing and no way near the eccentric look of the very prominent arch in the Flex series.
The Magna retains some of the signature design elements that LG implemented over the years in their phones. The familiar button placement on the rear takes a little bit of getting used to. In spite of having a textured volume button, it is easy for the finger to overshoot to the adjacent camera- therefore you’re prone to a smudged camera lens. The removable back cover has a faux-metal look to it which is rather nice. The back cover is also hunched ever so slightly more so than the screen and it complements the arch of the palm for ergonomics.
Build Quality- robust but steer clear from abrasive objects
At this price point, it is very easy for smartphone makers to cop out in terms of the design of the phone as cutting corners sometimes takes its toll on build quality. To some extent, LG has succeeded in creating a good looking phone that looks more premium than it actually is. Unfortunately, it seems the eye-catching design doesn’t come with a toughened display panel as it shows hairline scratches on the screen even with careful handling. A screen guard is a must if you want to keep the surface of the screen unblemished. There are also slight scratches on the back cover after using it for a few days. So it is safe to say that it is a good idea to go ahead and get a protective cover.
Flagship connoisseurs who happen to love the reassuring feel of cold metal in the hand should not balk at the plastic material of the phone either. It actually feels robust overall and the arch back feels at home in the hand. With little bezel, the display takes over the monolithic black glass design on the front.
Display- Mind the gap, if you can spot it
It is not surprising that LG elected to use a 720p display (294 ppi) on the Magna which doesn’t deviate from the competition in this price range. On paper, the resolution of LG Magna doesn’t sound much, but having HD display slapped on a 5 inch screen is still adequate as small fonts are still legible – but those with good vision can easily spot the jaggedness here and there but still, it is a darn fine screen.
Though pixel peepers can easily scoff at the presence of minute pixels and for not getting the full HD treatment, the screen actually has redeeming qualities. Aside from being curved, LG Magna is equipped with a good if not better display in its class. The marketed “in cell’ touch technology just means the gap of the screen and touch panel has been reduced resulting in a good viewing angle with only slight degradation. It has a pleasant color reproduction without going overboard with saturation which is the standard characteristic of LCD. The level of black is also acceptable so long as you don’t crank up the level of brightness.
Speaking of screen brightness, the inclusion of an ambient light sensor makes a world of difference here especially during outdoor use as the screen adjusts in real time for better readability under direct sunlight. Apparently, phone makers such as LG and Samsung have a penchant for leaving the light sensor on their cutting room floor for their line up of mid-range phones. For instance, auto-adjust brightness is a feature sorely missing in last year’s mid-range, the LG G3 S/Beat and some of the recent Samsung A and E series. Glad to say this time around, LG didn’t skimp on this important feature for the sake of cutting corners. So it means no more scrambling to find the brightness slider when the screen already fades under direct Sunlight. Speaking of which, with the help of ambient light sensor, outdoor legibility is non-issue with the LG Magna.
If there is one feature that LG didn’t improve upon last year’s G3 S/Beat, it is the led notification. Atop the display, a red led light can be found which is frankly more of an annoyance and much less of a convenience. It blurts out a bright red color when calling your attention and it just doesn’t change color at all which can be an eyesore. Missed calls, unread messages and charging battery all blink the same ominous red light- so just toggle the off button if you must.
Software and Features- Android Lollipop with LG Enhancement
Just like most smartphone vendors out there, LG added their own heavily skinned UI as a key differentiator in the sea of Android devices flooding the market. The baked LG apps are mostly composed of square icons with sharp edges while the toggles on the notification are composed of teal circle icons which overall make the design looks disjointed. Running Android 5.0.1 out of the box brings improvement in the notification and some material design element has made its way on the UI.
There are plenty of customization you can do here – as expected in Android- such as filling the home screen with a bevy of icons and widget which occasionally makes for a cluttered interface. Navigation bar can also be arranged in your preferred order with a set of given keys available. I thought an inspired addition to the navigation bar is the button for notification thus making it vastly reachable instead of swiping down from the top portion of the phone- very handy indeed for one handed operation as 5 inch display is still considered a big phone for many.
There are nice additions like double tap to wake which is a habit forming and it makes you wish every phone has it. Meanwhile, knocking on code to unlock is fiddly at times– there are times it fails to register your tap which makes you wonder if it is your fault or the hardware’s. A quick glance feature allows you to peek at time, date and notification bar by swiping down while the phone is locked.
The stock keyboard is fortunately not something that makes you rush to the Play Store to find a better alternative. It is quite nice and offers customization that makes typing much easier. Typing feels accurate with a slew of customization you can do such as the ability to resize the height, a one-handed option that makes keys more reachable and changing the theme (though limited to black and white) among others, makes for a good typing experience.
In terms of bloatware, it is not as arbitrary or as imposing. Typically, you can’t wake up to the ‘bloat-mare’ imposed by the manufacturer by simply deleting the branded apps and services without rooting the device. To LG’s credit, there’s an option to uninstall some of those apps if deemed a nuisance in order to prevent them from hogging the phone’s memory and resources.
Also read: Best Samsung Galaxy A71 5G cases
Performance
This time, the LG Magna (H502f model) is powered by Mediatek 1.3 GHz Quad-core processor instead of the familiar resident, the Snapdragon series. Navigating around the system is a relatively smooth affair but lag and stutter rears its ugly head from time to time as performance takes a significant dip particularly while having multiple apps running in the background -perhaps also due to the modest 1GB RAM onboard.
Running benchmarks only confirm that this is a device not meant to compete in the speed department. In the Antutu benchmark test, the highest score we get is 19,144- unsurprisingly below the much cheaper ZenFone 5. Meanwhile, Geekbench scores the Magna a passing 361 for single core performance and 896 multi-core score- slightly bested by Moto G in the latter test which is running on a competing Snapdragon 400 chipset.
Camera
The LG Magna is equipped with 8 megapixel rear camera and 5 megapixel selfie shooter. The camera interface can be described as barebones as manual setting has been stripped off and there are no options to tinker with white balance and ISO. Maybe LG is confident that you’ll always get a good enough result every time. But that is not always the case. Thankfully, all is not lost as you can edit pictures with preloaded editing tools and from there, you can adjust the dynamic range and color balance. The HDR Scape tool is very useful in balancing light/dark areas in which, sometimes, can achieve compelling results.
The camera takes about 2 seconds to fire up so it is easy to miss fleeting moments that you want to capture. You can also boot up the camera while the phone is locked by holding the down volume button at the back. The same button is also relegated as a camera button you can press to take photos.
Under good lighting conditions, the 8 MP camera can capture good photos with plenty of detail and pleasant colors to boot. There is an HDR mode activated by tapping the dark area of the picture but the result is rather hit or miss. In low light , results are lackluster as the images produced are grainy and lack details overall – but the same can be said about most mid-range devices. Overall, the main camera is pretty decent for daylight photography but started to fall apart in low light.
There is a wide angled, 5 MP front facing camera for taking selfies which is capable of taking up to 1080p video. The front camera is trying its best to flatter with an aggressive blur effect that smoothens and adjust skin tone at the expense of less detailed view of the background. Under low light, the result is also grainy just like its rear counterpart. It is still possible to take a selfie in complete darkness as the screen cranks up brightness to light up the face in lieu of a flash.. though just barely. For what it is, the selfie camera is reasonably acceptable.
LG Magna Sample Photos
Also read: Best Samsung Galaxy A11 Cases
Battery Life
Not having features such as ultra sharp display and power hungry processor works in LG Magna’s favor in terms of stamina. With careful management of battery draining features and apps, it is not a stretch to say the Magna can last a day of light to moderate use- which includes watching Youtube, surfing the web and reading email through WIFI. However, heavy usage over cellular data connection that is always on can barely last through a day. A battery saving feature starts to kick in once it reaches below 15 or 5 percent and it will begin to throttle the system to conserve battery.
The 2,500 mAh battery can easily pull a day of normal use but having a removable back means you can still extend it by swapping a fresh one. Nowadays, even some recent mid-range phone are not spared to come with non-user replaceable batteries and sad to say, many midrange vendors like Asus and Samsung are going in this direction. That is why the removable battery of the LG Magna is a win in our book.
…And it can also make a call
We haven’t had any problem with regard to call quality. The voices are clear on both end of the line and we never experienced any drop calls. The annoying thing about it is perhaps the proximity bug that makes the screen freeze and stays blank for a few seconds even after you move the phone away from your face to end an active call. A future update should take care of that.
Conclusion
Though not officially announced by name as the obligatory ‘mini’ version of the flagship, The LG Magna mimics the design of G4 sans the leather back cover option and is an obvious downgrade in terms of performance. Overall, the LG Magna is a decent mid ranger with a performance that won’t knock anybody’s socks off as lags and waiting time appears from time to time– but not enough to ruin the whole experience. In terms of value for money, there are much cheaper phones within the price range that have better specs than the LG Magna.
Like- the strong points
- good battery life
- good viewing angle
- smaller bezels makes for a comfortable handling
- hurrah! an ambient light sensor on a mid-range
- some preinstalled apps can be disabled
- curve display is subtle and quite attractive
- removable back cover for DIY battery replacement in 2015
- expandable storage
- double tap to wake feels every phone should have it
- camera under good lighting condition
- rear buttons once you get used to it
Dislike- where it fell short
somewhatlaggy performance- 8 GB storage can fill up quickly
- camera is slow to open
- long charging hours
- glass display can get easily scratched
- quite pricey compared to what the competition has to offer
- camera doesn’t handle dynamic range well
- camera under poor lighting condition
- rear buttons if you can’t get used to it
ALSO CHECK OUT:
- Samsung S23 FE Updated with AI Smarts in ONE UI 6.1, but a Feature Is Missing - April 20, 2024
- Best Samsung Galaxy S8 Active Cases in 2024 - April 17, 2024
- Best Samsung Galaxy A53 5G Cases in 2024 - April 17, 2024
in your battery analysis, are you using auto brightness, or are you getting that screen on time with no brightness at all?
Hi. I managed to get that result with auto-brightness turned on. Brightness was on a lowest setting.
Hi. I managed to get that result with auto-brightness turned on. Brightness was on a lowest setting.
Hos did it go??? How many hours of screen on time did you get.???
“Unfortunately, the eye catching design don’t translate to being able to withstand hairline scratch on the glass panel even with careful handling.” I was sure about this phone until this. If I understand this correctly without some protection on day one, there will be scratches on display… I know this is not flagship but still… I have S3 mini and I was thinking about replacing with this phone or Sony e4g, but camera on Sony phone is bad…