LG launched its new flagship smartphone named G4 across the globe on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. There were a lot of leaks about how the LG G4 would look, feel and sport in terms of specs. LG proved all the rumours to be true with the G4 and while it is being called the successor to the G3, the spiritual successor to LG’s 2014 flagship smartphone actually is the G Flex 2. The G4, on the other hand, walks on a different path than what the G3 walked on. The G4 almost says it to other smartphone makers that it is no interested in matching up to them in terms of brute force and has rather used more brains than brawn this time around. Here we break down anything and everything that you would need to know about the G4:
Taking down Apple with a trick from Motorola’s book
LG has made the G4 with a hint of G Flex 2 in it to remind you that G Flex 2 is not just an experimental smartphone but something to make its smartphones better, if need be. The G4 sports a subtle curve and depending on how closely you look at the details, you may or may not find it without settling the smartphone on a flat surface. The subtle curve makes the G4 more handy for use than even the G3, which was praised for packing a big screen in a body which could be managed really easily in one hand. Add to the mix the plastic construction of the G4 and the weight of the G4 has been kept in check to help facilitate one-handed use.
LG made the back panel of the G4 a talking point by making available the choice of a leather back panel instead of glass or metal or a mix of both. LG has emphasised on using leather and said that it makes the smartphone feel more like a companion than just another gadget. If you remember, Motorola gave the Moto Maker treatment to its Moto X and also supplied leather back panels for it. Though we folks in India never got the Moto Maker and the customisation options it offered, we still got access to the leather-clad Moto X. The folks who went for the leather-clad Moto X may dismiss LG G4 as a copycat, but it is not. LG’s folks spent time in working on how to mass produce the leather panel for G4 and unlike Moto X, the G4 with leather back panel is expected to sell more than any other option. LG has added its own touch to how the leather comes to you by giving it a seam and etching the G4 at the bottom right corner of the panel. The tanning process used by LG is the same used by Motorola, so expect the G4’s back to age gracefully. As a side note but important too, the leather back panel on G4 can handle water and dirt too.
The design changes do not end there as with the G4, LG has retained G3’s rear camera and button arrangement with a notable difference on how big the power button on the back is. Also the G4 does not sport curves all over, resulting in providing you ample area to grip on to. These are subtle changes and make the user experience better, the same reason why HTC did not change the design of the One M9, as compared to One M8, but updated it a bit.
Making Quad HD LCD display better than it already is
LG is not just touting the design of the G4 to be the changed part about its flagship smartphone from 2014. There is a new display unit up front, which is unchanged in size and still measures 5.5 inches across, but gets a new name – Quantum Display. Now that would make you ask, what is the Quantum Display? The question holds importance as there are quite a few technologies doing rounds in the market these days as far as display technologies go. There were typical LCDs, which were then quickly outclassed by their IPS variants, making way for AMOLED or Super AMOLED (Samsung speak for AMOLED) and now it is Quantum Display. So here is our explanation about the same.
Quantum Display is just another version of the LCD display technology. As a side note, few know that it is actually Samsung pushing the LCD technology while LG is backing the OLED display technology, but that is a television market talk best left there. Coming back to the point, unlike the LCD displays that use various lighting sources to light up the liquid crystals, white LEDs being commonplace right now, quantum dots are placed all over the screen in various sizes. Instead of using white LEDs, blue LEDs are used for backlighting and the quantum dots convert the light into primary colours that are needed. The need to do so arises from the fact that white LEDs have yellow phosphors which produce a broad light spectrum, making saturated colour reproduction a hard task. Different size of quantum dots means there are different colours produced through backlighting without needing to have layers of colour filters. However, you will be able to see the differences only when you place such displays next to other types of displays.
– The G4 does not display Quantum Dot display technology but has derived the Quantum Display used on the G4 from there. So, while it is not in the same league as the AMOLED displays, it still has narrowed the gap to just a small margin and you may like it or not, depending on your personal preference.
Specs are not better than G Flex 2, but…
If you were wondering why we did not talk about specs in the first place, it is because of the reason that they are not really taking the centre stage this time around. The G4 sports a 1.8 GHz 64-bit hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM and Adreno 318 GPU, 2G, 3G, 4G, 32GB inbuilt storage capacity (expandable up to 2TB), Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, USB 2.0, Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, A-GPS, GLONASS, HDMI and NFC. The G4 runs on Android 5.1 Lollipop and sports a 3000mAh battery that supports wireless charging but no fast charging is present here (the Snapdragon 808 chipset supports fast charging technology but why LG has not incorporated it here or mentioned it is beyond us).
– LG later clarified that G4 and G Flex 2 support Fast Charging technology and while nothing is known beyond that, unfortunately the G4 does not come with a fast charger in its box and you have to make do with a travel adaptor instead.
In comparison, the G Flex 2 sports a 2.0GHz 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 2GB RAM and Adreno 430 GPU, 2g, 3g, 4g, 16GB internal storage space (expandable up to 2TB), Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n, HDMI, NFC, Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, USB 2.0 and GPS. The G Flex 2 runs on Android 5.0 lollipop and sports a 3000mAh battery that supports wireless charging and also has fast charging technology to charge the battery upto 50 per cent in less than 40 minutes. The only areas where the G Flex 2 comes short of matching G4 is display and cameras, sporting a 5.5-inch Full HD (1920×1080 pixels) curved P-OLED display and 13-megapixel rear camera with 2.1-megapixel front snapper.
Both smartphones come with IR blasters but you must be asking as to how is the G4 the successor to G3 when it should be G Flex 2. We agree with you as spiritually, the G Flex 2 is G3’s successor, but G4 is not really pitted as a successor to G3. It is actually what the G3 would and should have been from the start had it not been limited by the technology of its time. The G3 came out at a time when the ghosts of G Flex were still alive and it was able to make them go away. The G Flex 2 was LG’s way of showing that G Flex was just purely an unlucky experiment. The G4 is LG’s effort of showing the world what it could have done and what it will be doing from now on.
Cameras are the talking point here
LG has made its cameras the talking point with the G4. Many of us think why is that even needed to be mentioned and few cared until Apple started churning out great cameras that camera technology became serious business consideration. Until now, Samsung is the only smartphone maker that can go toe-to-toe against Apple in this department and even overpower it, but LG does not feel like playing second fiddle to its Korean counterpart and hence does not want to stay behind in any department whatsoever. So, LG has bumped up the cameras on the G4, providing a 16-megapixel unit instead of a 13-megapixel one on the G3. The front unit gets a bump up to 8 megapixels instead of the 2.1-megapixel unit on G3.
The 16-megapixel rear camera on the G4 would have just been talk had LG not mentioned the F1.8 lens it is equipped with. The F1.8 lens finds its way on the G4 as it is known to capture more light in almost every condition it is used in, making it ideal not just for outdoor and indoor shots but low-light photography as well. LG has retained the laser auto-focus with its camera on the G4 and it helps the camera in focusing almost instantaneously.
Another addition to the rear camera is the Colour Spectrum Sensor. What it does is handling the white balance on the rear camera by measuring and analysing all the visible light in the scene before a shot is taken to ensure accurate and real-life colour reproduction. This sensor is placed just under the flash that accompanied the rear camera. The rear camera also comes with two-degree Optical Image Stabilisation instead of the usual one-degree OIS as found on most smartphones equipped with one. It not just operates on the X and Y axis but, according to the official statement by LG, introduces a third axis to ensure greater stability in the shots. The front camera comes with its own set of tricks like gesture shot. All you have to do is make a fist to click a photo or make a fist two times to click 4 consecutive photos.
What has been retained?
Apple has long done away with removable batteries and was never the kind to offer internal storage expansion options. Samsung used to do up until the Galaxy S5. With the Galaxy S6, it has moved on to using glass and metal as construction materials and hence, does not have either removable battery or microSD slot for internal storage expansion purposes. Sadly, it has also lost its waterproof and dust-proof properties.
LG, which considers Samsung and Apple as its primary competitors, was never the one to play with water and dust, even though it has tested the leather back panel of the G4 with such elements. What it dabbled with throughout is the idea of internal storage expansion and removable battery. While LG did not mention anything about fast charging technology accompanying the battery on G4, it is still removable. Also, while other do away with expandable storage, LG retains it and continues to push envelope even further. LG is perhaps the only smartphone maker to support internal storage expansion of up to 2TB (not that there are cards that offer that much, but at least it would push the card makers to do so). In essence, with the G4, LG has taken a whole new set of tricks while ensuring that it retains all the useful features one would need.
This article appeared on http://www.priceraja.com on April 29, 2015.
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