LG G2 vs Apple iPhone 5

Introduction

The Apple iPhone 5 is the best selling smartphone on the planet, but Android phones of all breeds and kinds have encircled it from all sides, and its latest competitor comes from LG. Can the new and bold LG G2 offer a better experience than the iPhone 5?

It’s a battle of differences - the LG G2 brings a large screen against the comparatively small 4-inch iPhone, then it’s a polycarbonate body against solid aluminium, and finally Android versus iOS. Moreover, we are about to witness one of the most heated camera battles in smartphones. Finally, you’d be able to make an informated decision, and say which one is better - the LG G2 or the iPhone 5?

Design

The Apple iPhone 5 is often considered to be the gold standard in design - sleek aluminum body, elegant chamfered edges, compact and durable. The LG G2 on the other hand comes with a polycarbonate body that is practical and elegant, but lacks that very solid build quality and screaks just a bit. If we had to sum it up, the iPhone 5 feels monolithic, more trustworthy. On the flipside, the G2 is a large device, but it feels surprisingly compact and lays extremely well in the hand. Still, the smaller size of the iPhone 5 makes it perfect for single handed use, and with the G2 using the device with one hand is a bit of a stretch.

Both devices are very ergonomic and easy to use. The iPhone 5 is compact enough so all its buttons are within easy reach, but the G2 does not lag behind. LG has put all its physical buttons on its back and that makes a lot of sense and is easy to get used to. The iPhone itself has this springy lock button and clicky stylish rounded volume keys that are both comfortable and look good. The G2 buttons are positioned well, but if we had to pick the nits we’d say are a bit wobbly.

Display

The sheer difference in display size is staggering. LG managed to include a gigantic 5.2-inch display in a device that does not feel phablet sized, while the iPhone only hads a 4-inch screen. We already looked at how this plays out in terms of ergonomics and single-handed use, but what about the actual screen quality?

We can safely say these are two of the best displays we’ve seen in smartphones. Both have very sharp displays, but the G2 has the slight edge. Pixel density on LG's flagship is higher at 420ppi against some 326ppi on the iPhone, but again the difference in sharpness is slight. The two screens also have lively, vibrant colors. Still, the iPhone 5 is extremely well calibrated with pleasing true warm tonalities, while the G2 has slightly colder tones, especially noticeable with the whites. The two displays are very bright, but the iPhone 5 has the edge and it is also the device we find more comfortable for outdoor use, legible even under direct sunlight. The G2 in comparison puts a bit more strain on the eyes. The actual brightness of the screens is 535 nits on the iPhone 5 and 438 nits on the G2. Viewing angles are great on both devices as they retain their vivid saturated colors at even more extreme angles.

Interface and Functionality

iOS versus Android, simplicity versus sophistication, it’s an endless battle and a matter of personal preference. The iPhone 5 runs on iOS 6 (and will soon be updated to iOS 7), and the LG G2 features Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean with LG’s colorful and playful skin on top.

We like the simplicity of iOS, but Android feels like the more advanced operating system per se with its richer customization options allowing you adjust every part of the experience to your taste - wallpapers, launchers and, keyboards. Android also leverages Google’s cloud expertise with apps like Google Now that automatically serve you relevant information when you need it, or with Google’s quick and accurate Voice Search. Android’s big advantage remains its great sharing options as you can share all sorts of contents through various apps. iOS in that regard is definitely limited. All in all, it seems like Android has stepped up its game seriously.


Both the iPhone 5 and the G2 come with some pre-installed applications, but the G2 has the theoretical advantage with QSlide apps, small apps like notes or calculator that you can always use on top of the currently opened application. The G2 also features an infra red (IR) sensor baked in so you all sorts of electronics with it including TVs, air conditioners and so on. The iPhone lacks that feature.


iOS’ big advantage remain its app ecosystem, though, and games in particular. Despite the fact that Android recently became the largest ecosystem, first breaking the threshold of 1 million apps on its Play Store, the Apple App Store is still getting the hottest titles first and often times exclusively, and a game like Plants vs Zombies 2 is just one recent example that comes to mind.

In terms of handling calls and messages, we don’t see one to have a particular advantage over the other. Both have rich phonebooks that sync to the cloud, and when it comes to messages and email, typing is accurate and quick as both keyboards are spacious and responsive.

Processor and Memory

Arriving nearly a year after the iPhone 5, the LG G2 has the clear advantage of a more advanced and powerful hardware almost throughout. Now, that does not necessarily mean everyone will be using that power. For daily operations, both devices feel buttery smooth, working without any slowdown.

JNow, just comparing the system chips of the two would be a mistake as Android and iOS are differently optimized for different tasks. Still, in terms of raw silicon power the LG G2 with its Snapdragon 800 chip feels not like a step - it feels like a leap ahead of the Apple A6 chip in the iPhone 5. The Snapdragon 800 on the G2 features a quad-core Krait 400 processor clocked at up to 2.2GHz, while the iPhone has a dual-core Swift processor running at merely up to 1.3Ghz. The G2 has 2GB of high-speed LPDDR3 RAM, while the iPhone 5 has half that - 1GB, and of the slower LPDDR2 kind, with lesser memory bandwidth. Digging further into details, we find that the G2’s chip is built on a 28nm HPM process with extremely low power consumption, against a 32nm HKMG chip on the iPhone.

The Adreno 330 graphics unit on the G2 is one of the finest graphics chips on Android, but it still can’t quite match the performance pumped out of the iPhone 5’s PowerVR SGX543MP3. The iPhone remains one of the most potent devices for gaming.

In terms of internal storage, the LG G2 has the upper hand with its base model featuring 32GB against 16GB on the basic iPhone 5. Yes, it has double the storage, and no, none of the phones support memory expansion microSD card slots.

Internet and Connectivity

Browsing is very fast on both devices. The G2 features Google’s mobile Chrome browser and LG’s customized Android browser on board, while the iPhone 5 has mobile Safari pre-installed. Both devices also have a plethora of other browsers available for download on their app catalogs. What’s built inside works flawlessly on both. Pages are rendered quickly and scrolling and zooming around is fast as well. Neither supports Adobe Flash.



Good news is that with 4G LTE connectivity download speeds could reach that of a home network connection. Both also feature dual-band Wi-Fi, great for congested metro areas where the 2.4GHz bands are often cluttered. Other connectivity options include Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS and Glonass. The G2 has the advantage of supporting NFC, something that the iPhone 5 does not have built-in.

Camera

Camera is where the battle between the LG G2 and the iPhone 5 really gets heated. The iPhone 5 has been the gold standard for smartphone cameras in the past year or so, but new competitors are starting to emerge and the G2 is a very strong one. The 8-megapixel camera on the iPhone 5 has to match a 13-megapixel shooter on the G2, and the G2 has the big advantage of optical image stabilization (OIS).

Firing up the camera is quick on both, but the iPhone is just lightning fast and opens faster. The stock cameras are different. Apple features a very simple camera interface with almost no manually adjustable settings - just press the button and shoot. LG on the other hand also has a very clean interface, but underneath its simplicity are a bunch of shooting modes that newbies would find useful. The G2 however also features more professional options that you can adjust - white balance, ISO, timer and filters are all adjustable via large and easy to find buttons.


The actual images are great on both handset. We find shots of the LG G2 to be slightly, but consistently better. Images taken on LG’s new flagship a bit sharper than normal, but extremely detailed, while the iPhone 5 has well detailed shots with more digital noise. The image stills on the LG G2 have very eye-pleasing colors, and the iPhone 5 is good but not all that consistent and sometimes cannot hit the right color temperature.

Indoors, where light gets low, we came up very impressed by the G2. It captures very sharp and clean images with well preserved color in conditions where the iPhone 5 captures way too much noise and overblows colors.



Both devices record 1080p video, but the G2 supports 60 frames per second recordings. The actual benefit of this is smoother, less skippy video quality. A nice little trick you can do with the recording is to scale it down to 24fps for a neat slow motion effect at 1080p.

Now, in reality, the G2 video footage quality varies a lot depending on the light. Out in the open and during the day, quality is great and footage mostly smooth, but in low light it all gets very blurry. The iPhone 5 captures similarly good videos in the sun, but low-light recordings are filled with digital noise. We ought to mention that the G2’s optical image stabilization smoothens videos a lot, and is one big advantage.



Front facing cameras are on both devices and their function is mostly to help with video conferencing. The G2 features a 2-megapixel front shooter and the iPhone 5 has a 1.2-megapixel camera.

Multimedia

You can really enjoy videos and images on the brilliant display on the LG G2 and the iPhone 5, but the larger 5.2” display is definitely easier on the eyes if you watch a lot of YouTube videos or other clips. The G2 and iPhone 5 easily played back all common formats we threw at it at even 1080p full HD without a hitch.



You can also kick back and listen to fairly loud and clear music as both devices feature fairly good speakers. The speakers are similarly and conveniently located on the bottom part of both devices, so they don’t get muffled when the phone lays on its back. LG has its own music player that breaks down your collection by songs, albums, artists, genres, playlists and folders, and navigation is easy as you can just swipe between tabs. The iPhone has the dedicated iTunes store for easy music discovery and purchase, and the music app that we all well know.

Call Quality

There were no issues with call quality as both the LG G2 and the iPhone 5 produce loud and clear tones through their earpiece. On the G2, we recommend toning down volume around three levels for great clarity as the earpiece is very loud and at maximum loudness voices start to crackle. On the other side of the line, our callers reported hearing us loud and clear, in our natural tones on both devices.

Both devices feature noise cancellation technique that would filter side noises nicely, and the LG G2 even has all three microphones for that.

Battery

One thing we definitely adore in the G2 is its large 3000mAh battery. Not just that, LG has optimized a lot of the experience to fit a low-power envelope - the display uses GRAM for more frugal refresh without affecting quality, and Snapdragon with the improved 28nm HPM manufacturing process is again easier on the battery. All of this combines for record breaking longevity on the G2. The handset will easily last users two days on average.

That comes against a modest 1440mAh battery on the iPhone 5. Then again, truth comes in comparison and the iPhone is also very well optimized. Still, the G2 has a definite edge.

Both batteries are not user replaceable.

Conclusion

The Apple iPhone 5 - as any other iPhone - ages gracefully. Its aluminum evergreen monolithic design still feels more solid than that of the brand new LG G2, its display is great and its camera still looks very comparable to the one on LG’s new flagship.

However one year is a lot of time in the tech world. The G2 brings better hardware by definition, but it’s also extremely frugal and has a record-breaking long-lasting 3000mAh battery. On its own, the G2 has a large 5.2-inch screen that is a beauty to behold, great ergonomics for its size, a mostly pleasant Android skin, and a stunning camera.

Credit where credit is due, but if you don’t absolutely require the compactness of the iPhone 5, the LG’s new G2 is the better phone overall.