This Android wears leather and shoots laser.
Smartphone makers are finding it harder and harder to differentiate their products, as smartphone technology seems to have reached a plateau.
To set itself apart, LG has taken the premium route with the G4 by choosing to use real leather instead of glass or metal for the back.
We like the leather back which not only gives it class but feels natural to hold unlike metal or glass. You also don’t have to worry about scratches or smudges, and it provides an excellent grip.
Like other smartphone makers, LG has moved the volume and power buttons from the sides to the back. Located just below the camera, they are easily accessed with the index finger.
If you can’t get used to it, you can always resort to the double-tap gesture to turn the screen on or off, which is equally efficient.
It’s rather surprising that LG left out the fingerprint sensor which is now common with most flagship models.
Quantum leap
The G4’s 5.5in QHD display (1,440 x 2,560 pixels) screams to be noticed. It uses Quantum Display technology for better colour reproduction, improved contrast and higher brightness.
We found the colours to be more natural and accurate than displays on other brands. The auto brightness setting was also accurate for both indoors and outdoors.
The 16-megapixel camera, which has OIS (optical image stabilisation) and laser-guided focus, is arguably one of the best Android cameras on the market.
The laser-guided focus was great for capturing fast moving objects like cars.
The camera interface is straightforward and has three settings – Simple, Auto and Manual.
Simple offers a clean interface with only one option – tap to shoot – as the camera will pick the best setting for any scene. With Auto users will be able to mess with the flash, HDR, screen ratio and even capture speed.
However, the full potential of the camera can only be unleashed with Manual, as all the options such as white balance, ISO, aperture and exposure can be tweaked.
It also allows images to be saved in RAW, which is the best format for tweaking with a proper photo editor.
Outdoor shots turned out great with good detail and colour accuracy. However, shots taken with strong backlighting had a little purple fringing.
Indoor shots were also generally good but with slight over sharpening.
Six pack
Unlike other flagship models, the G4 runs on a hexa-core processor instead of octa-core.
It’s not a bad move actually, as we didn’t encounter any issues with the smartphone even when we ran two apps at the same time.
We used PCMark For Android to benchmark it for Work Performance which tests the phone for web browsing, video playback and photo editing.
The G4 scored 4,657 points which puts it on par with devices such as the Sony Xperia Z3+ (4,668) and Huawei P8 (4,501).
Games such as The Wolf Among Us and Asphalt 8: Airborne ran smoothly with no issues and the phone didn’t heat up much.
Back to basics
The G4 comes preloaded with Android 5.1 Lollipop with the LG UX user interface.
The UI is not much different from the stock Android version which makes it easy to master. The App Drawer is also present which makes it easy to keep your apps organised.
And it’s great that LG’s icons for apps such as Phone, Contacts, Gallery and Calendar goes well with Android’s Material Design.
LG has also done a good job in keeping bloatware to a minimum, leaving it to the user to download additional stuff such as themes, fonts and wallpapers.
We really liked the weather widget as it offers friendly advice such as “Rain is expected until evening. Very hot and humid. Stay hydrated.”
It also reminds you to kill apps running in the background from time to time to keep the phone running smoothly.
The 3,000mAh battery struggled to keep up with the phone – it drained faster than batteries with similar capacities on other phones, probably due to the power-hungry QHD display.
On PCMark it scored six hours and 48 minutes for the Work Battery Life test, putting it ahead of the Xiaomi Mi Note (six hours and 26 minutes) and Huawei P8 (six hours and five minutes).
In our own test which mostly consisted heavy social media usage, occasional gaming and navigation with Waze, we managed to get about six to seven hours.
On the positive side, the G4 is one of the few phones to still have a removable battery so it can be easily replaced.
Conclusion
The G4 is one of the best Android smartphones on the market but it was a little late to arrive here.
It feels nice to hold thanks to the leather, has cool features such as laser-guided focus, and the user interface is simple and sweet.
Even though it’s not the slimmest or lightest smartphone, it gets so many things right that you shouldn’t give it a miss.
Pros: Excellent camera; nice user interface; real leather.
Cons: Average battery life; no fingerprint sensor; pricey.
G4
(LG)
Android smartphone
Network: 4G
Operating system: Android 5.1 Lollipop
Display: 5.5in QHD (1,440 x 2,560 pixels)
Camera: 16-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilisation and laser focus, 8-megapixel front camera
Connectivity: Micro USB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.1
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (quad-core 1.44GHz Cortex-A53 & dual-core 1.82GHz Cortex-A57)
Memory: 32GB internal storage, 3GB RAM
Expansion slot: MicroSD (up to 128GB supported)
Battery: 3,000mAh
Dimensions (W x D x H): 76.1 x 6.3-9.8 x 148.9mm
Weight: 155g
Website: www.lg.com.my
Price: RM2,499
Rating: 4 stars
Review unit courtesy of LG Malaysia
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