I’ve been quite a fan of the LG G3 for a while now. Until I actually had one in my hand I’d perhaps not considered LG as an option and, to be honest, that’s a bit of a shame. The new LG G4, like the G3 before, is a well built bit of kit and looks very sexy. The screen itself takes up almost 75% of the frontage and it makes the phone easy to use and a bit more “holdable”.
The addition of the leather is actually very nice. I didn’t think I’d like it but it’s not bulbous and doesn’t stick out or look out of place. Even the weird blue shade is going to please someone and it shows that specs aren’t everything.
Indeed, this was the message that was continually pounded out by LG. They don’t want to just be throwing more and more tech at a phone to get those headlines. They appear to have spoken to customers and actually asked what’s important before making their next phone. The requirements? A camera that actually works and reproduces the stuff we see properly. A screen that looks good, a user interface that helps out and a battery that lasts until the evening.
Check out some of the hands on pictures I got with the G4. It is a gallery so you can click on the image and scroll through.
From my brief experience, it seems to be delivering that in spades. The camera is snappy and sharp, the screen is crisp and clear. The interface isn’t all “in your face” and the addition of 115GB of Google Drive space will keep many people happy. Its not just about the cloud though. This will cleverly sort your images into sensible and understandable categories, letting you get back to those important moments in a flash.
As for the specs, this is no slouch. Here they are, including the intriguing Snapdragon 808.
￭ Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 Processor with X10 LTE
￭ Display: 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440, 538ppi)
As you can see, that rear camera is a 16 megapixel. What’s also quite clever is something called a Colour Spectrum Sensor, which really does add some depth to photos and basically makes the camera preview screen look like a piece of glass. The image you see maintains the colours, the brightness and the richness of whatever object you’re pointing at. To demonstrate this, LG created this stand, which shows a Samsung handset and two LG G4 phones, one with the sensor on and one off. You can see how it alters and enriches the image.
If you turn the sensor off, things look like this. Apologies for the portrait shot here, but these are the actual in shots taken from the LG G4 on the display above…
With the sensor on, the image looks like this..
The “manual” mode in the camera basically lets you use the camera as a professional would. You can alter the ISO settings and the shutter speed to create great low-light images where lights are blurred artistically. It’s very nice.
Up front, an 8 megapixel camera is more than enough for your selfie shots.
You do, as I mentioned above, get the feeling that LG have really listened. They actually told us that the slender frame would’ve suited a slimmer battery, but their customers wanted battery life to be the priority, so they stuck with a 3000 mAh unit and have made improvements to the GUI so that it tells you when an app is sucking your power. You can then choose to stop it, thus adding some much needed time to your usage.
The 5.5″ Quad HD IPS Quantum screen, as the afternoon sunlight streamed into the windows of One Marylebone, was still sharp and bright. It also meant that I wasn’t squinting at the test photos I’d taken. Taking a shot is a very quick experience, and you can double tap the “down” volume key on the back to wake the device AND take a photo in no time at all. I asked someone to demo this and it did indeed occur fast blur-free thanks to that laser-focus technology seen on the G3 too.
Powered by Android 5.1 Lollipop, the GUI on top is thick enough to be noticeable but not annoying. It was helpful and friendly and was clever enough to sort all the camera images into an easy-to-understand system which meant that you could access photos again quickly after.
The 3GB RAM and on-board 32GB storage can be expanded thanks to a microSD slot which, as LG boasted, “is something others no longer have”. It’s a direct swipe at Samsung but, I have to say, it’s true. If you’re in the “manual” mode on the camera and you’re saving shots in RAW format (which is possible, by the way), you’re soon going to fill that on-board storage. Plus, despite the huge splodge of free Google Drive space (115GB in total), many still use their phone and not the cloud, so it’s good to see that I can whack in a chunky SD card and carry it around. No WiFi or data connection to worry about.
As for everything else, we’ve got 4G, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, AGPS, NFC, WiFi, HDMI support and a rather beautiful construction, actually.
Overall, it’s still a bit of a challenge for any phone manufacturer to grab some of the limelight when you’ve got the likes of Samsung, Apple and perhaps HTC and Sony grabbing attention too. However, I’m glad that LG have been listening. Customers really don’t give a flip about specs sometimes. It was refreshing to hear the LG rep state that “the megapixels are going up and up, but it doesn’t always mean that the images you take are any better”. True. I could have a 20 megapixel shooter, but if it’s no good in low-light I’ve got a 20 megapixel picture of darkness. Here the f1.8 lens performed well, although I would like to test it in more challenging conditions. Perhaps that one will have to wait for the review.
Overall, I have to say I was pretty impressed with the G4. Which one to choose? The ceramic one? The metallic one or the many leather versions? That one is up to you.
So the last thing to do is check out the press release full of all those lovely marketing phrases we’ve all grown to love. Such as “Human-Centric user experience” and “The fashionable elegance of the LG G4 is a refreshing change”.
SEOUL, April 29, 2015 — LG Electronics (LG) unveils its eagerly anticipated LG G4 smartphone today, at launch events in New York, London, Paris, Singapore, Istanbul and Seoul. Approximately 1,000 guests around the world gathered to view the new LG G4, the successor to the G3, which exceeded all expectations in terms of sales and industry awards. Among the first users of the LG G4 will be 4,000 lucky customers who will receive the new smartphone as part of the company’s largest-ever consumer experience campaign.
With the G4, LG focused on delivering comfortable elegance, a great visual experience and a human-centric user experience. The LG G4 camera features a rare-in-smartphones F1.8 aperture lens which allows 80 percent more light to hit the image sensor than in the LG G3. The innovative camera module is paired with the new IPS Quantum Display that is better in every way than the innovative Quad HD display introduced to the world in the LG G3. The LG G4 embodies human sensibility that is clearly visible in its Slim Arc exterior design and graphical user interface.
“We are living up to our promise of Innovation for a Better Life with a fashionable, premium smartphone that is more focused on delivering a balanced user experience that can compete with the best of the best,” said Juno Cho, president and CEO of the LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We wanted to give consumers a truly human-centric device that combined the analog sensibilities with technologies that delivered real world performance. From the design to the camera to the display to the UX, this is the most ambitious phone we’ve ever created.”
Comfortable & Elegant Design
LG paid special attention to the materials utilized in its newest flagship. The LG G4 is available in handcrafted, genuine full grain leather in six beautiful colors. The vegetable tanning process employed is an age old tradition that requires skilled craftsmen to produce and dye the leather. The colors of the leather on the G4 are rich with warm tones that look authentic and change over time. Most importantly, vegetable tanned leather is environmentally friendly and can be recycled easily, since no harsh chemicals are used. Other material options for the G4 rear cover include pure Ceramic White with 3D patterns, artisan-forged Metallic Gray as well lustrous, Shiny Gold.
The fashionable elegance of the LG G4 is a refreshing change from the uniformly flat, full metal designs that have been become standard across the industry. The LG G4’s design is defined by the Slim Arc, which runs along its entire body, highlighted by a display with a subtle curvature. More than just a design accent, Slim Arc offers 20 percent better durability than a flat smartphone in face-down drops and gives the smartphone a more comfortable and secure feel in the hand.
The exterior design is also reflected in the smartphone’s user interface, which includes simple, naturally intuitive graphics. In the LG G4, the icon colors are more vibrant with icons that have rounded corners, consistent with the Slim Arc design. What’s more, the Smart Notice widget automatically changes its background and text color based on the home screen image selected by the user.
Great Visual Experience
LG designed the 16MP camera in the LG G4 to capture beautiful images, even under less than ideal lighting conditions. The camera module features a wide F1.8 aperture lens that allows 80 percent more light to reach the sensor. LG improved low-light performance even further with OIS 2.0, which doubles the performance of the improved OIS+ by expanding the range of image stabilization from one degree to two degrees on the X- and Y-axis and adding a third axis for the first time.
New for G4, Manual Mode allows experienced photographers the ability to exercise more artistic expression by letting them directly control the focus, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation and white balance for every shot. Advanced photographers can also save their photos in RAW format, in addition to JPEG, for more precise editing with no loss of details.
The advanced camera in the LG G4 is complemented by Color Spectrum Sensor (CSS), the first feature of its kind to find its way into a smartphone. CSS improves color accuracy by precisely reading the RGB values of the ambient light in a scene, as well as the infrared light reflected from objects. CSS uses this information to adjust the camera’s white balance and flash color to create images that are as close to what one would see with the naked eye. With Color Spectrum Sensor, no longer will reds appear as bright orange or whites as dull yellow.
For selfies good enough to frame, LG included an industry-leading 8MP front-facing camera for sharp, detailed portraits and group shots. Gesture Interval Shot improves on the original Gesture Shot feature by taking four shots spaced two seconds apart, increasing the chance of getting that perfect shot under the most difficult conditions. Triggering the shutter is as simple as opening and closing one’s hand twice in front of the camera.
Taking a quantum leap in display technology, the LG G4 is the first smartphone to use LG Display’s new 5.5-inch IPS Quantum Display, which offers 20 percent greater color reproduction, 25 percent improvement in brightness and 50 percent greater contrast. It is the first Quad HD display to employ Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) technology, which combines the LCD and touch sensor into a single layer to provide better color reproduction and touch sensitivity. This new display is calibrated for DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) standards for color expression, championed by top Hollywood studios.
Power and Performance
With G4, the higher quality display doesn’t come at the expense of battery life. The LG G4 is equipped with a high-capacity 3,000mAh removable battery, a rare feature in today’s high-end smartphones. Combined with the benefits offered by the snappy yet energy-thrifty Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 processor with X10 LTE, the LG G4 has no trouble getting through a full day of normal use. In fact, the LG G4 is estimated to last 20 percent longer than the G3, from the same capacity battery.
To mark the first public unveiling of its Snapdragon™ 808 processor, Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, executive chairman of Qualcomm International joined Mr. Cho on stage in New York City with Qualcomm vice chairman Jim Doh attending in Seoul.
“LG and Qualcomm Technologies collaborated from the initial stage of the Snapdragon 808 introduction to expertly tune the technologies and make several of the LG G4’s unique features possible,” said Jacobs. “The resulting G4 smartphone is an ideal example of how the best optimized technologies come together to meet consumers’ needs.”
Human-Centric UX
The LG G4 is the first phone to utilize the new human-centric UX 4.0 that promises to be simpler and more intuitive to better understand and respond to the needs of each user. The improved UX eliminates unnecessary steps while providing more configuration options for advanced users.
￭ Quick Shot allows customers to take pictures without opening the camera app by double tapping the phone’s Rear Key while the display is off. LG G4 also has an incredibly fast camera startup time of just six-tenths of a second.
￭ The new Gallery makes it extremely fast to scroll through thousands of pictures and view them on a timeline. The Memories feature automatically organizes photos and videos into event albums based on the time and place they were taken, without having to upload to the cloud.
￭ Event Pocket allows users to create one, unified calendar by dragging and dropping appointments and activities from multiple calendars and social media sites. After the initial setup, there’s no need to log into multiple calendars.
￭ The improved Smart Notice provides more personalized notifications for weather, travel and more by analyzing habits, such as how a user commutes to work. This allows Smart Notice to issue personalized messages such as, “Make sure to take an umbrella on your way to the subway.”
￭ Quick Help allows users to search for instant answers to any questions about operating the LG G4, right in the Smart Notice widget. Quick Help can guide users through the LG G4’s settings and even schedule a call with customer service.
LG has sought out partnerships to enhance the overall user experience of the G4. Google Office comes pre-installed on the LG G4 for easy collaboration on-the-go and G4 owners will receive an additional 100GB of Google Drive storage free for two years. With MirrorLink and LG G4, owners of Volkswagen vehicles will be able to view a car-friendly version of the G4 interface on the in-dash display for full integration with contacts, navigation and music on the smartphone.
The LG G4 will start its global roll-out on April 29 in Korea and will eventually be available on approximately 180 carriers worldwide. Prices and carrier availability will be announced locally in each market.
