Life hasn't been so good for LG recently, at least when it comes to the smartphone market. In the last couple of years, the company has rolled out a number of high-end, flagship phones that haven't really managed to make a dent. Do you remember the Optimus 4X HD? The Optimus G? The G Pro? OK, the manufacturer scored a sweet deal with Google for the Nexus 4, though everyone knows that the Nexus 4 is anything else but a money-maker.
So, where to now? With a competitor that is becoming increasingly unbeatable, LG needs a hero device. It needs an absolute winner in order to at least get noticed by customers drowned in a sea of Galaxies. Interestingly, while HTC has decided to differentiate from Samsung by doing the exact opposite of what the South Koreans are doing, LG has employed a completely different tactic to battle the behemoth. It's mimicking the moves of its neighbor, trying to beat it in its own game.
And this is where the LG G2 comes in. The newest flagship of the company will try to outgrow, outpace and outsmart its rival, the Galaxy S4, by packing an even larger screen, an even faster processor and even more software features that would attempt (or pretend) to make your life easier.
In the box:
USB cable
Wall charger
QuadBeat 2 earphones
Design
It's impossible to not notice the similarities between the G2 and the GS4 with regards to physique. After all, if Samsung can be successful with an uninspired, plastic design, why should LG try to shake things up there? Or at least, that seems to have been the thinking behind the G2's exterior. It's big, slightly bigger than an S4 (5.45 x 2.79 x 0.35 inches for the G2 versus 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches for the GS4), without any fancy appearance characteristics to make it stand out in any positive way. The plastic construction is nothing to write home about, but the occasional creaking sounds made by the back sure are irritating.
The G2's dimensions are still bearable. LG has done a terrific job thinning those bezels, while the nicely-curved back panel makes the handset sit comfortably in the palm of the hand. Even though the G2 is slightly bigger than the S4, we wouldn't say that LG's product is more uncomfortable to hold. In terms of weight, the G2's 5.04 oz doesn't make such a notable difference, compared to the Galaxy S4's 4.59 oz.
The most peculiar thing about the LG G2's design are the rear keys. Instead of positioning the power/lock and volume buttons on the sides of the handset, LG has placed those right on its back. This has been done for a couple of reasons. One, the side bezels have gotten so thin that the can no longer house any keys; and two, LG argues that placing the keys on the back would allow for a more intuitive access to those controls, as a user's index finger almost always defaults to that position upon picking up the phone. While we did not find the new positioning to be significantly worse than the good-old one, we can't say that it benefited our experience with the phone in any way. As a matter of fact, we feel that finding the desired rear key by touch alone is harder than finding it if it was placed somewhere around the sides of the device. Of course, this might simply be a matter of getting used to, which is why we'll continue using the handset during the days ahead and will update this review appropriately.
However, one thing we definitely didn't like about the rear volume keys is how cheap they feel – almost toy-like. Having in mind this is supposed to be a top-shelf product, LG should have tried a bit harder in this respect. Another design feature that we dislike is that the earpiece is concave, which causes a lot of dirt to permanently establish itself there. On a positive note, the manufacturer has wisely put the loudspeaker on the bottom, so that it doesn't get muffled when the device is laid on a table.
Narrowing those bezels down has allowed LG to fit a spectacularly big screen in the still-bearable dimensions of the G2, and that's not an overstatement. We're talking of a 5.2” display here, which is 0.2” larger than what's found on the Galaxy S4, and boy is it a joy to be staring at this thing! With a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels (423 ppi) and a standard RGB matrix, this advanced IPS LCD display is extremely clean and sharp. When it comes to color balance, we can by not means say that it's bad, but it's colors are definitely towards the colder side. Don't get us wrong – it's still a great display and most users will probably not notice that the color temperature if a bit off, but when compared to the iPhone 5's display, it immediately gets noticeable that there's still some room for improvement.
The LG G2's display is very bright, and it's certainly very readable in bright daylight. It's probably not the very best out there, but it's definitely among the best in that respect. As it's now the norm, the viewing angles of this IPS LCD screen are very good, although still not perfect, as there's some noticeable brightness loss, but that's normal.
Finally, this screen's biggest advantage remains its sheer size, so if you happen to be among the users who just can have enough screen, the G2 should definitely be considered – it really makes gameplay and multimedia consumption that much more enjoyable.
The numbers below represent the amount of deviation in the respective property,observed when a display is viewed from a 45-degree angle as opposed to direct viewing.
The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set(area)of colors that a display can reproduce,with the sRGB colorspace(the highlighted triangle)serving as reference.The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x:CIE31' and 'y:CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.
The Color accuracy chart gives an idea of how close a display's measured colors are to their referential values. The first line holds the measured (actual) colors, while the second line holds the reference (target) colors. The closer the actual colors are to the target ones, the better.
The Grayscale accuracy chart shows whether a display has a correct white balance(balance between red,green and blue)across different levels of grey(from dark to bright).The closer the Actual colors are to the Target ones,the better.
Drag the picture or use the keyboard arrows to rotate the phone. Double click or press keyboard
Space to zoom in/out.
Drag the picture in the desired orientation to rotate the phone.
Interface
The LG G2 is running Android 4.2.2 out of the box, but LG has, naturally, used its own custom user interface to shake things up. LG's UI is highly-customizable – probably the most customizable custom UI present, and while Android purists will most probably frown upon that, LG argues that such features are much appreciated in its home market of Asia. In terms of looks, the G2's interface is quite TouchWiz-like – bright and vivid colors are present in pretty much every screen, while not-so-subtle animations are adding a generous amount of playfulness to the whole experience.
We still don't like things such as the colorful dummies for those people in your contacts list that lack an image, or fact that LG has just crammed each and every setting it could think of in the notifications tray, but oh well, that's the way South Koreans seem to like Android. Personally, we'd prefer the more grown-up appearance of HTC's Sense 5, but LG's UI isn't bad as well, and has that perfectly fluid movement one would expect from a cutting-edge device such as the LG G2.
Processor and Memory
The LG G2 is a beast of a smartphone. With the most powerful Qualcomm processor available — Snapdragon 800 — the G2 simply blast through them benchmarks like no other phone currently on the market. The CPU is a quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400 monster, while the graphics chip is the capable Adreno 330. We're absolutely certain that the G2 is more than up to the task of running each and every 3D game or app out there. System-wise, the G2 is also a great performer — noticeably better than the GS4 — as it exhibits no visible lag throughout the system.
When it comes to the system memory, the G2 will be well-equipped to handle your multitasking activities with its 2 GB of RAM, while internal storage comes in 16 GB or 32 GB flavors. Sadly, you cannot expand this using a microSD card, since such a slot is missing from the handset.
QuadrantHigher is better
LG G220654
Samsung Galaxy S412078
HTC One12481
Sony Xperia Z8221
AnTuTuHigher is better
LG G235376
Samsung Galaxy S424701
HTC One23308
Sony Xperia Z20835
GFXBench Egypt HD 2.5 onscreen(fps)Higher is better
The G2's phonebook is absolutely full-featured, as it has separate tabs for the dialer, call log, contacts list, favorites and groups. Needless to say, LG's giving users the option to categorize and organize their contacts any way they like. On the whole, working with the phonebook is quick and easy – you can call people directly from the contacts list, thanks to the green dial buttons placed next to their names, which seems cleaner and more appealing than Samsung's 'swipe-to-call' gesture, or 'click-on-the-contact's-icon-to-display-quick-dial-buttons' option. Thankfully, LG has also added the option to search for contacts using the dialpad (in a T9 manner), which is a very convenient way of finding contacts. If you're mostly calling a bunch of people, though, the 'Call logs' tab will work perfectly for you, as it manages to fit a good number of contacts on the screen. Still, there's also the Favorites tab, which might prove to be even more convenient for you, as it automatically displays the people you've called most frequently.
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But, being such a great fan of customization, LG has also included tons of other options to let you personalize your phonebook, including the ability to reorder the tabs themselves! Thankfully, since those options are hidden in the contextual menu, they don't really stand in the way of normal usage.
Messaging
If we have to say which one is more customizable – the phonebook or the messaging app, we admit we'd have a very hard time, as both seem to be equipped with an impressive array of settings. Speaking of messaging, while the UI of the app is not particularly comfortable, as the text bubbles are quite big, which makes it really difficult if you want to read through a longer conversation, you do stuff like altering the looks of those bubbles, as well as changing the background of text conversations to whatever you feel like. You can also schedule a text to be sent at a particular time in the future, and you can also insert various Android smileys to add some colorful emotion to your messages. All in all, the messaging app left us with mixed feelings, as it's not really consistent in terms of UI design, but it's more than certain that it'll get the job done. Plus, it'll surely appeal to those who enjoy tweaking every single aspect of their smartphones.
Typing on the LG G2's onscreen keyboard is pretty good, as it should, considering the enormous 5.2” screen. We enjoy using the portrait keyboard as it's spacious and even has a separate row of numeric keys above the letters, but the landscape one is a mixed bag. While there's more than enough width to the keys, they are a bit stubby, which doesn't make them very easy to press accurately.
Organizer
You didn't think that LG will sell you a G2 without all the organizer tools that you may ever need, right? Good, because the G2 has some very versatile apps for tasks, alarms/world clock/timer/stop watch, voice recording, weather and, of course, a calendar. While most of these apps function very well, the calendar is a great example of why having too many features may make the UI feel too crowded and complex. The main screen of the calendar tries to fit together a month view plus a day, week or an agenda view, all at the same time, and it fails miserably at this, because it's simply not easy enough to use, especially if you have many appointments set. However, if you're sticking to something like week, day or agenda views only, things get much more intuitive and pleasant.
Software features
And now that we've gotten the general software part out of the way, it's time to take a look at the mix of unique software features that LG has produced for its new flagship phone. Here are the more prominent additions:
Knock on: Double tap on the screen when it’s off, the phone will automatically turn on. Do the same when it’s on at any dead space of the screen, it’ll turn off the display. This one is actually very useful, especially if you can't get used to the new position of the power/lock key. It's a feature that's also found in Nokia's new smartphones, and we can definitely see ourselves using it very often. Unfortunately, turning the screen off using this gesture may be a bit tricky sometimes, depending on exactly where you tap. Sometimes, this may actually cause you to run an app or do something else, which may be quite irritating. In that line of though, the feature is very useful, it's just not implemented perfectly and takes a bit of getting used to.
Guest mode: Two different lock patterns for you and your guest. Essentially, it adds another user profile for the phone, which gets them to guest mode where the admin can restrict certain apps. Naturally, it’s a useful thing to find, especially if you don’t want any unwanted app purchases. We're happy to report that the feature does work as advertized – there's absolutely no problem setting guest mode up with all the accessible apps that the admin has selected.
Answer Me: When the LG G2 rings, you simply pick up the phone, hold it up to your ear, and it’ll automatically pick it up. No need to finagle with turning it on and actually pressing on the answer key.
Text Link: The LG G2 inspects various texts, and automatically suggests links to relevant apps. For example, if someone sends you a text regarding a time and date for a meeting, you can have the LG G2 automatically populate the appropriate info to the respective apps – such as putting it into your calendar.
Slide Aside allows you to save up to three apps that can always be recalled later.
Slide Aside: Simply swipe to the left with 3 fingers on a specific app (any app in fact), the app will be placed into a saved state. Once you select up to 3 apps for Slide Aside, you can access them at any time by swiping right with 3 fingers – essentially another way to multi-task (like multi-windows for TouchWiz). Unlike Sammy’s implementation, this one works with any and all apps. However, due to the requirement for a three-finger gesture, Slide Aside isn't particularly comfortable to use. Even if you do get used to it, though, the limitation of just three apps is somewhat counter-productive, because the phone simply won't let you slide-aside any additional apps, meaning that you'll be required to do some Slide Aside app management. On the other hand, it might be useful if you just need one or two (or three) apps always ready for you.
Capture Plus: Capture everything on a page, not just the cropped image on the screen – like stuff in the web browser and email. For example, you can capture an entire web page – stuff you'd normally need to install a browser add-on on the computer to work. Once again, impressive functionality, though we're not sure how many people are going to need this. Maybe there's a reason why such functionality is available as an optional add-on on the PC?
Quick Remote: Universal remote control with IR blaster. Now, the G2 learns the pattern from ANY IR remote controller – like garage car openers too, on top of the usual TV ones. Point the other remote to the LG G2’s IR blaster, and it’ll learn the pattern of the IR.
Internet and Connectivity
You may think that the 5.2” screen makes browsing a breeze, but this isn't necessarily the case, especially if you stick with the LG browser that on the homescreen by default. That's so because it doesn't inflate text, which means that it's still quite small to read comfortably even on such a gigantic screen. That's why we'd recommend that you use the Chrome browser, as it will make reading that much more comfortable for you. One thing we dislike about Chrome, however, is that it doesn't snap your view once you start scrolling vertically or horizontally – this is something that the iPhone and even Windows Phone have already managed to get right, while Android's Chrome is still lacking it.
The LG G2 is choke-full of connectivity features. It has the must-haves such as LTE, HSPA+, 3G and 2G, as well as Wi-Fi a, b, g, n, n 5GHz, ac. Additionally, there's also A-GPS (works flawlessly), Glonass, NFC, DLNA, MHL and an infrared port.
Camera
Not to be outdone by its competitors, LG has also fine-tuned its camera snapping experience. Something we’ve come to expect, since the LG G2 boasts a number of shooting modes and settings to appease even some hardcore shutter bugs, but in making the experience different, they also have this neat feature when recording video – tracking zoom. When activated, a small window appears in the UI and it magnifies the selected section. It’s nice, to say the least, especially when you’re a bit far away from the action, though the zoomed part is simply digital-zoomed, which means that the quality of the zoomed area if pretty poor.
Placing our attention on the hardware, LG made sure to stuff with it something beefy to hopefully fend off the competition. Along for the ride is a 13-megapixel monster, which unlike some other camera modules, is able to maintain a flush appearance with the surrounding surface – so there’s nothing sticking out with the lens. Adding some serious punch, it’s complemented by its optical image stabilization module, 9 multi-point auto-focus, 1080p video recording at 60 frames per second, and a sapphire glass for superior protection and anti-fingerprint coating. That’s a whole lot of stuff, right?
Well, it gets better. The LG G2 captures simply outstanding images! Even when compared with the best cameras of this class (Galaxy S4 once again comes to mind), the photos of the G2 are perfectly competitive, if not better in some areas. For example, details are simply amazing – you can zoom in and examine the actual shot at 100% scale, and still looks very good for the most part. The pictures are incredibly clear and well-exposed. That's one area where the G2 manages to outperform the Galaxy S4, the pictures of which appear a bit hazier in comparison. One thing that could have been better in the LG G2's images is the color reproduction. As a whole, colors are actually very good, but they do tend to be a bit colder than they should.
Other than that, the G2's 13MP camera is as good as it can get right now. You can easily do terrific macro shots, panoramas, and so on and so forth. It's an extremely capable camera.
Fortunately, indoor images are also great. They are very bright and relatively noise-free, though they also happen to be somewhat soft. But in such scenarios, it's always a matter of balance between softness and noise, and we think that the LG G2's camera pictures are just fine in that respect. The LED flash provides enough light when needed, though it isn't strong enough to illuminate even a small scene on its own.
But this is not all! The G2 also features 1080p video recording at 60 frames per second (current smartphone cameras of this same class shoot at 30 fps), and we've got to tell you, watching such footage is pure joy. It's way better than a traditional smartphone's 30 fps video recording. Once you see it for yourself, you'll never want to get back to shooting at 30 fps. The bad news is that the frame-rate drops substantially when recording in the dark, which kind of ruins the whole footage. For the record, such staggering frame-rate drops aren't present in premium competitors like the Galaxy S4, iPhone 5, or One.
In terms of image quality, the 1080p video is absolutely great and can easily rival (and beat) the best smartphones out there with its fine details, adequate exposure and realistic colors. The Optical Image Stabilization system is always welcome, as it manages to help the camera avoid most unneeded shakes, resulting in a relatively fluid video footage.
We're not in love with the built-in music player, as it doesn't show all the tabs at the top of the page at the same time. There are tabs letting you sort music in various ways, like albums, artists, genres and so on, using them is not very convenient. Other than that, the visual design of the music player is quite simplistic and likable.
It's a good thing that the LG G2 can play lossless audio right out of the box, saving you the need to install a third-party player. When it comes to its ability to play "studio quality" 24 bit / 192 kHz audio... well, we doubt it that most people will be able to tell the difference between this and the standard 16 bit / 44.1 kHz format. Still, the feature is there for those who might want or need it, and we're OK with that.
The QuadBeat 2 earphones that arrive with the LG G2 are capable of playing some very high-quality sound. The problem is that their form-factor, which requires you to stick them deep in your ears, makes them uncomfortable to use. We'd rather use something like Apple's EarPods, which have a much more convenient design that doesn't require you to make love with your ears in order to get some decent bass.
Do we even need to say that the LG G2 is an outstanding device to watch video on? Yep, the 5.2-inch screen is simply amazing for the purpose. No matter if it's locally-stored or streamed video, the G2 makes things come to life with that enormous screen, and your eyes will forever be thankful for this. Now, if this screen could just be paired to the HTC One's speakers...
The LG G2 doesn't amaze with its sound quality during calls. Actually, it's about average at best. While the earpiece sounds sufficiently well, with voices being loud and clear, though not really natural, the microphone is not very good, transmitting our voice in a slightly unclear manner. It's nothing out of the ordinary, of course, but we just hoped for some premium call quality in this premium handset. Oh well, one can never have it all, that's for sure!
Meanwhile, the loudspeaker of the G2 is more than decent. It's has a really strong output, although you shouldn't really expect wonders from it. It's lacking in depth, meaning that the sound coming from it will sound mostly high and without any audible low frequencies.
Battery
How is the G2's beefy 3000 mAh battery handling this enormous display? Quite well, actually. The phone can easily last you through a full working day of heavy usage, or about a couple of days of moderate usage. Sure, the device might has some extra thickness to it, but we'd prefer this over a thinner profile, if it means better battery life... especially when the added thickness doesn't make the smartphone more difficult or unpleasant to hold.
We measure battery life by running a custom web-script,designed to replicate the power consumption of typical real-life usage.All devices that go through the test have their displays set at 200-nit brightness.
The LG G2 is an outstanding smartphone almost every way you look at it. The screen is beautiful, albeit a bit off in terms of color temperature, while the camera is simply outstanding – definitely among the very best out there. Under the hood, the Snapdragon 800 processor is doing exactly what you'd expect it to do – making sure that everything operates perfectly smoothly with no hiccups or delays. Software-wise, the G2 may not be your cup of tea, if you happen to be a fan of a more stock-ish Android experience, but LG's custom UI is not so bad. It can easily rival Samsung's TouchWiz, and in case you enjoy extreme customization capabilities, it may actually appeal to you.
The G2 is truly a no-compromise smartphone, except... yeah, that generic and plastic design doesn't really live up to the high standards set by the internals. Don't get us wrong - it's not so bad, it's just... not good, in terms of appearance, at least. While the LG G2's visuals can easily compete with those of the Galaxy S4, they don't really stand much chance against something like the HTC One, the iPhone 5 or the Nokia Lumia 925.
At the end of the day, though, it's probably the internals and the screen of the LG G2 that will attract its targeted consumers most, and in those areas, LG's device is currently second to none. Whether the G2 is sharing the first place with the Galaxy S4, or Samsung's handset has fallen slightly behind... well, while it's up to everyone to decide for themselves, our inner voice tells us that LG has just one-upped Samsung in its own game.
And for those, who, for some reason, just can't see the LG G2 as their next smartphone, well, you guys should definitely check out the Galaxy S4, or the HTC One, which are the G2's biggest rivals.
Rad Slavov is the Editor-in-Chief at PhoneArena. He joined the media in 2008, right on the cusp of the modern smartphone revolution. Through time and perseverance, he amassed a great deal of knowledge and industry know-how, allowing him to guide and organize the company's growing line-up of talented content creators and ever-expanding content portfolio.
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Slide Aside allows you to save up to three apps that can always be recalled later.
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