LG AKA review: Eye contact

Performance

LG AKA is powered by the dated Snapdragon 400 chipset, which packs a quad-core Cortex-A7 processor running at 1.2GHz, Adreno 305 GPU and 1.5GB of RAM. Over the past year we've tested a plethora of Snapdragon 400-based smartphones and the chip proved the bare minimum for a 720p device. Hopefully the extra RAM will give the AKA an edge.

LG AKA does OK on the multi-core GeekBench 3 test - it's on par with other Snapdragon 400 devices, but the Cortex-A7 is slightly behind its A53 successor, found in the Snapdragon 410.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  2586
• HTC One mini 2
  1526
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1460
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1460
• Sony Xperia T3
  1373
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  1175
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1171
• LG AKA
  1153
• LG G2 mini
  1123
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1106

The compound AnTuTu 5 stacks the LG AKA next to similar devices as the Moto G and One mini 2, but it also puts it very close to the 64-bit Xiaomi Redmi 2.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  27070
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  21581
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  20616
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  19016
• LG AKA
  18795
• HTC One mini 2
  18641
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  18245

Unfortunately, the LG AKA does slightly poor than its siblings on the BaseMark OS II test, where the web browsing score is hurting it the most.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  725
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  555
• Sony Xperia T3
  535
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  526
• HTC One mini 2
  517
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  509
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  495
• LG AKA
  473
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  452

The BaseMark OS II Cortex-A7 scores for the single and multi-core performance are about right for the processor's class.

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  1812
• Sony Xperia T3
  1465
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1414
• HTC One mini 2
  1304
• LG AKA
  1232
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1217
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  1192
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1131
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1123

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  8453
• Sony Xperia T3
  5759
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5313
• HTC One mini 2
  5182
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  5012
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  5001
• LG AKA
  4977
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  4887
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  4880

The Adreno 305 graphics accelerator wouldn't be our choice for a 720p display, but it is capable of handling the OS perfectly, and some non-demanding games are well playable as well. The Adreno 305 turned out on par with the newer Adreno 306 within the Snapdragons 410 chip, but much weaker than the mid-range Adreno 405 (Snapdragon 615).

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  15
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  6
• LG AKA
  5.9
• Sony Xperia T3
  5.9
• LG G2 mini
  5.8
• HTC One mini 2
  5.8
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  5.8
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  5.8
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  5.3
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  5.2

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  26
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  15.5
• LG G2 mini
  14.9
• Sony Xperia T3
  11.2
• LG AKA
  11
• HTC One mini 2
  11
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  10.8
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  10.8
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  9.6
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  9.6

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  5.7
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1.8
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  1.8
• Sony Xperia T3
  1.8
• LG AKA
  1.7
• HTC One mini 2
  1.7
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  1.7
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  1.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  12
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  6.9
• Sony Xperia T3
  4.2
• LG AKA
  4.1
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  4.1
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  4
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  3.9
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  3.9
• HTC One mini 2
  3.8

The BaseMark X outs a rather uninspiring result though.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• HTC Desire 820
  4859
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  3142
• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1897
• HTC One mini 2
  1650
• LG AKA
  1414

Kraken 1.1 by Mozilla reflects the JavaScript capabilities of the Samsung Galaxy A5 while Rightware's BrowserMark 2.1 offers an evaluation of its HTML 5 abilities. In Kraken 1.1 the LG AKA does OK - on par with its competitors.

BrowserMark returned and even better overall score, besting all but the Galaxy A5.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Samsung Galaxy A5
  13083
• HTC Desire 820
  13568
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  13694
• Sony Xperia T3
  13738
• LG AKA
  14627
• HTC One mini 2
  15684
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  15988
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  16118
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  16129

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy A5
  1171
• LG AKA
  1142
• Motorola Moto G (2014)
  1085
• HTC Desire 820
  991
• Sony Xperia T3
  978
• HTC One mini 2
  945
• Motorola Moto G 4G
  911
• Sony Xperia M2 Aqua
  883
• Xiaomi Redmi 2
  549

It's clear that the LG AKA is no speed demon, especially with such a dated chipset. All the benchmarks show a middling to lower end performance in raw CPU/GPU, but do a very good job on the JavaScript/HMTL 5 tasks. Sure the AKA isn't fit to handle the graphic-intensive games but it is perfectly adequate for day to day tasks of any kind and that's what matters the most. The UI is fluid and we saw no lagging unless we decided to heavily use QSlide small apps.