LG puts a massive battery in the X Power2, but not much else

LG will be showing its new G6 flagship phone at Mobile World Congress next week, but that's not the only handset the company is bringing to Barcelona. Joining it will be an update to the X Power, the X Power 2. Like its predecessor, the second-gen X Power's X-factor is battery life.

Part of a new line of affordable phones that “incorporates different exclusive features that are usually found only in premium smartphones,” the LG X Power 2 features a massive 4,500mAh battery that will easily get users through a full day of heavy use. LG estimates that the phone “can play back videos continuously for approximately 15 hours, provide navigational directions for about 14 hours or surf the web for around 18 hours.” And if that’s still not enough juice, it features high-speed charging that can provide 50 percent battery life after being plugged in for an hour.

The 5.5-inch HD LCD display also includes Comfort View, which reduces the amount of blue light emitted by the display to help with eye strain, and a wide-angle 5MP front camera for selfies. On the back you’ll find a 13MP camera featuring LG's Zero Shutter Lag to “eliminate the annoying delay between the time the shutter button is pressed and the image is captured.”

The phone also sports a 1.5 GHz Octa-Core processor, either 2GB or 1.5GB RAM, 16GB of storage, and a Micro SD slot. It runs Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box, and comes in black, silver, gold, and blue. Pricing for the phone wasn’t announced (though last year’s X Power cost less than $200), and LG says it will roll out beginning in March in Latin America followed by a U.S. launch.

Behind the power trip: While we would positively rejoice if LG brought a 4,500mAh battery to the G6, it’s less exciting here. Last year’s X Power phone sacrificed performance for battery life, and from the specs here, it seems the Power2 is doing the same thing. Specifically, the claim that each X phone will bring a different “premium” feature is dubious. A good battery doesn’t mean much if the rest of the phone doesn’t perform, just as a great chip won’t matter if the battery won’t last more than a few hours.