Korean electronics giant LG has lagged a little behind when it comes to budget smartphones. Well, more than a little. But with its new Q6, the company obviously wants to make its presence felt in the crowded mobile market. The Q6 has one big crowning glory: a 5.5-inch display in a small holdable body that has very thin bezels on all sides, including top and bottom. A good 78 per cent of the front is screen. That makes it look special — and rather expensive. So far, a display like that can’t be found at the price the Q6 is selling for. The display is nice enough and is in a 2160 x 1080p resolution, which comes with an unusual aspect ratio of 18:9. From the front, it looks like no other budget phone.

On the back, the Q6 is plasticky and glossy, so glossy that it immediately looks smudged. How the gloss will stand the test of time, one can’t say, but for now one will have to do a fair amount of wiping to keep it spruced up and clean. It certainly stopped looking new within a few days of light usage. Other than that, the back is only embellished with a tiny Q6 logo and this looks rather elegant in its minimalism.

The edges of the Q6 are very gently rounded, by no means enough to make it slippery. That, plus the smaller than usual size of this phone, makes it really easy to grip and is a good option for those who use their phones for a lot of calling. There’s a 3,000 mAh battery inside and that’s quite adequate for this phone. Battery life holds up well and doesn’t make the device heavy.

The Q6 is ahead on the software rather than hardware. It works with an octa-core Snapdragon 435 processor with 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB storage. The problem is that it’s instantly compared with other phones in the category that have stepped up on both RAM and storage. Startlingly, it doesn’t have a fingerprint sensor, which is now standard on practically all inexpensive smartphones. But it does include a face recognition feature that worked rather well. The cameras are a 13 MP and a 5 MP set and are just workable with nothing in particular to recommend them.

The Q6 is running on Android 7.1.1 and has Google Assistant ready to work. LG’s interface is simple on the surface and thankfully not overloaded with their apps. Many that are preloaded can be uninstalled, in fact. But underneath, there are a lot of tweaks you can find to tailor the phone to your liking. For example, you can put up to five buttons on the bottom row. Other than the usual, you can have a button to manage the two SIMs, to take a screen shot, and to pull down the notification panel. Some will surely consider this overkill. There are quite a few other settings within settings, which could be a little confusing to those who aren’t adventurous with their phones.

Overall, the way the Q6 looks and feels makes it a compelling addition to the affordable category, certainly for those who think they will like the way a slim-bezeled device looks.