LG G4 Review: A Leather-bound Smartphone with an Excellent Camera
LG’s new G4 is a contender for the best smartphone you can buy. It has an incredibly crisp display, a powerful camera, and long-lasting removable battery. On top of that, you can get it with a sweet optional leather back panel.
Designed for the times
Smartphones are as much fashion accessories as they are pocket-size supercomputers for watching cat videos. And the proof that LG understands that is in the G4’s new leather-bound back panels. Each panel is treated with vegetable oil to give it a smoother, more luxurious feel, and treated to prevent abrasions and water stains.
If leather isn’t your thing, you can instead opt for a gold, grey, or white patterned plastic back panel. Without the leather panel, the G4 looks like just another bland black slab, so if standing out is important, get the leather back.
The G4’s body has an ever-so-slight curve that LG says makes the G4 nearly twice as durable as the S6 and iPhone 6. That doesn’t mean that it won’t break if you drop it — just that it can take a bit more punishment than its competitors.
But the thing that truly differentiates the G4 from every other smartphone is that it has the power and volume buttons on the back panel, not the side. LG says this makes it easier to reach the buttons without having to reposition the phone in your hand. It’s a good idea, but it takes getting used to.
Quantum leap
LG has created a new kind of screen for the G4 that it calls its IPS Quantum Display. Sci-fi name aside, the G4’s 5.5-inch panel is made to be brighter and offer far more vibrant colors than that of its predecessor, the LG G3.
The G4’s 2560 x 1440 resolution is exceedingly high, meaning text looks incredibly sharp. In the TV show “Daredevil,” the subtle threading on the titular character’s black costume looked exquisite.
The big to-do about LG’s screen, though, is that it is compatible with Hollywood’s Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), which means colors should look the same on the G4’s display as they do on the big screen. Compared with the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, colors on the G4 looked less saturated and more realistic.
Unfortunately, the G4’s screen is rather dim, which makes images and videos a bit difficult to see at times, especially if you’re binge-watching a fairly dark show. Like “Daredevil.”
That said, it’s not as though the display particularly problematic. In fact, until I put it next to the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, I thought it looked incredibly bright. But the Galaxy S6 still has a better screen, thanks to its brightness and vibrant, oversaturated colors.
Camera
The LG G4’s camera is made to outshoot the iPhone 6’s and Galaxy S6’s cameras. It has a 16-megapixel sensor with a 1.8 aperture that helps the camera pull in more light. That’s wider than the 2.2-aperture lens found on iPhone 6. The Galaxy S6 has a 1.9-aperture lens.
LG says the G4’s camera also has a color spectrum sensor that can detect both visible and invisible light waves to help ensure better overall color accuracy, and create images that look closer to how you would see them with your own eyes.
During my testing, photos snapped with the G4’s camera looked incredibly detailed, easily besting the iPhone 6 when zoomed in, and rivaling the Galaxy S6’s shots. Colors, though, looked a bit too white in certain situations, especially shots of the sky.
In a photo of the lawn at New York’s Bryant Park, the sky looked far too blown out compared to the same shot taken with the iPhone 6, which produced a gorgeous azure color. The Galaxy S6’s shot fell between the iPhone’s and G4’s.
On the flip side, a photo of an orange and yellow tulip taken with the G4 looked spectacular, as the phone’s camera was able to capture the subtle color changes between the flower’s hues. The iPhone 6’s and Galaxy S6’s cameras, on the other hand, made the flower’s petals look oversaturated, making details difficult to see.
Low-light photos taken with the G4 looked particularly clear, thanks to the camera’s wide aperture. Details were easy to make out and colors were fairly accurate. More importantly, there were far fewer artifacts in the G4’s photos than in the iPhone 6’s or Galaxy S6’s images.
Android with a twist
The LG G4 runs on the latest version of Google’s Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. Like Samsung and HTC, LG puts its own twist on Google’s mobile OS by changing the appearance of its various icons and settings menus.
LG also throws in a new notifications and settings menu that lets you adjust your phone’s screen brightness, Wi-Fi, volume, as well as open what LG calls QSlide apps.
QSlide apps, — which include things like a video player, calculator, and dialer — can be viewed two at a time in their own windows that you can move around the screen, minimize and full-screen just like on a PC.
The apps are fairly useful, but with a 5.5-inch display, using two at a time is too cumbersome.
LG also adds its own Smart Notice widget that includes the weather, time, and a small notification that lets you know if you should wear a jacket, bring an umbrella, or rub on some extra sunscreen if it’s especially sunny. It’s basically an overbearing parent in smartphone form.
(Thanks, Mom)
The G4 also gets a Smart Bulletin home screen that provides you with quick access to apps like LG Health, Calendar, and Music. It’s genuinely helpful if you want to see how many steps you’ve taken today, or if you’ve got an upcoming meeting without having to open a separate app. If you don’t want to see Smart Bulletin, you can always disable it in the G4’s settings menu.
Performance
LG packed the G4 with a quad-core processor and 3GB of RAM, which means it will be able to handle all of your games, apps, and Snapchats without a single hiccup.
Onboard storage space is limited to 32GB, but unlike the Samsung Galaxy S6 or iPhone 6 — which offer up to 128GB of built-in storage — the G4 includes a micro-SD card slot, so you can expand the handset’s storage by up to 2TB.
(Actually, 2TB microSD cards don’t exist yet, but it’s nice to know that you can pretty much add as much space as you want.)
With a 3,000-mAh battery, our G4 lasted all day without needing to be recharged. When you do need to recharge the phone, though, you’ll have to wait a while, as the G4 doesn’t offer the same kind of super charger technology as the fast-charging Galaxy S6.
One thing that will make power users in particular happy is the fact that the G4’s battery is completely removable and replaceable. So if you have to go on a long trip and you’re not going to be near a charger, you can swap in a new, fully charged battery and keep going.
Neither the Galaxy S6 nor the iPhone 6 have removable batteries.
Should you buy it?
The LG G4 is one of the best smartphones on the market, but it falls short of passing Samsung’s Galaxy S6 and Apple’s iPhone 6. It has a sleek leather design, colorful screen, and exceptional camera, not to mention its removable battery and expandable storage.
Still, I prefer the Galaxy S6’s and iPhone 6’s displays to the G4’s. What’s more, both the S6 and iPhone 6 offer built-in fingerprint readers and their own mobile payment solutions.
This decision comes down to whether you want a removable battery and expandable storage. And if that’s the case, the LG G4 is the easy choice. If you’re more interested in a bright display and extras such as a built-in fingerprint reader, the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6 are your best options.
Email Daniel at dhowley@yahoo-inc.com; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley or on Google+.
