Living with the LG G2: a long-term review

No man ever steps in the same river twice

In a seeminglyvery distant past, I was 11 years old. A kid that age has very fewworries at that stage of his life, and I was no different, with theexception that I had a typical child craving for a particular toythat had an ad looping day-in and day-out on Cartoon Network. It wasa rifle. You know – the airsoft type that shoots with one of thoseplastic pellets? Now, airsoft handguns were all the rage at thatstage of my life – practically every kid in the neighborhood had apiece (and a bunch of pellet-shaped bruises) – but none had arifle. I won't go through the set of rather shameful tactics a kid 'has' to go through to get a stupidly overpriced item like this –you all likely know too well – but long story short: I finally gotone.

Now this riflewas a downright monster, complete with a magnifying scope and goodfor 'precision' shooting at up to 50 meters – it even hadnon-standard, larger pellets that supposedly helped with accuracy. Itlooked sturdily made, and I am fairly sure it had a ton of lead on theinside to make it feel realistic. And it was beautiful, not tomention that all those kids in the ad seemed to have a blast out ofusing it! The package, in other words, was perfect... until, of course, itwasn't. A few weeks into using it, I realized that it was no good forshooting at more than 10 meters, and that's only when no wind waspresent. I then quickly started stumbling into a recurring problem:it would glitch and the pellets would get trapped inside, forcing mydad to open it up and get it out. You can imagine that he was nonetoo happy about it when this started happening every other day. Then,sooner rather than later, I ditched the rifle and it was the biggestdisappointment of my adolescent life.

Why oh why?

So why did Ijust charge two paragraphs of not-phone-related-mumbo-jumbo worth ofyour life? I mean, you're all obviously smart enough to not getsucked into marketing fluff like I did – you're on PhoneArena afterall, looking for the in-depth commentary you deserve. You'relikely older than 11, too. Point is, while there certainly wasn't an airsoft-toys-reviewing committee at the time, there certainly are forphones nowadays – loads of them, actually. Unfortunately, these can get alittle detracted from what I've always thought the essence – "Ultimately, will I like using this product?" – and get sucked into astandardized, droning commentary about the hardware and what itmeans, with a few lines on the software and its usability. So am Iimplying that this plunge into the depths of the LG G2 is somehowmore objective and complete than the myriad of quality reviews, justa Google search distance away? Kind of, but not exactly.

If you're aPhoneArena regular (doesn't really matter), then you'll probably knowthat it hasn't actually been too long since I joined the team. In myestimates, we probably get about a dozen, give or take, devices amonth for reviewing, and a bunch of accessories. Now, not all ofthese are exciting or good enough to go truly in-depth with, yet Ican tell you first-hand just how meticulous the reviewing process is– it's standardized, measurable and as close to scientific as wecan get. And I actually agree with the methods we use – they aren'tsimply something shoved down my throat. Sure, a lot of it staysbehind stage, but these observations do shape the final review thatgets to you. Yet, despite all these checks and guidelines, it isn'tat all surprising that every now and then a colleague will simplycome and cop a feel of a new device you're reviewing and make anobservation that, as a reviewer, you've missed, usually throughnobody's fault. And that's the practical reality and also why you'rereading this – because it's simply impossible to live with everyproduct for a few months in order to get sufficiently acquainted withit. But in the case of the LG G2, it's well worth it. And I did.

Here's how this is to go down

So how exactlyis this going to go down? A question I struggled with for a while,since coming up with a structure for such a massive quantity ofinsight into the world of the G2, along with the bid to delve deep,ruled out our traditional, categories-driven approach. After a while,however, it dawned on me that what people are looking for is quitesimple, really – “Just how well will the LG G2 feel in my ownhands?”, a question that gave me a direction – this pieceneeds be every bit as personal, idiosyncratic and direct as we allare in our day-to-day patterns. So kind of like a diary.

I by no meansclaim that what you're about to read is an all-encompassing, fullycomplete take on the G2 – one would need a lot more than a fewpages for that and there's still a fairly good chance it won't bewhat it set out to be. But it is personal, and it is direct, and itis very much idiosyncratic, just the way it should be. Sure, my viewswon't necessary match yours, but the human brain, having beenprovided a context and a perspective, is pretty good at drawingparallels. And ultimately – that's the point – for you to drawparallels and hopefully even find this helpful, should you ever endup considering the G2.

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