Every yr, LG manages to impress me in ane way or another with their new flagship Android smartphone. The inclusion of a almost bezel-complimentary display, combined with surprisingly awesome bombardment life on the G2 ii years ago fabricated me fall in love with LG handsets for the beginning time. In 2022, the company released the G3, the first mainstream smartphone with a well-baked 1440p display and a great light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-assisted autofocus organisation for the camera.

This twelvemonth, LG has focused on improving every attribute of the camera with their latest flagship, the G4, and the results might show impressive once once again. LG has upgraded the photographic camera sensor to a 16-megapixel unit, kept the optical paradigm stabilization and light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation autofocus from the G3, and switched to a wide f/1.eight lens. The selfie camera was likewise upgraded to viii megapixels.

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Bated from the camera, LG has upgraded several other parts of their flagship's hardware for the G4. The company has chosen a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC for this handset, rather than the Snapdragon 810 they used in the 1000 Flex 2, likely for ability consumption and heat concerns. There's also a new 5.5-inch 1440p "Quantum" IPS display, which improves upon its like predecessor, alongside versatile features that include a removable battery and microSD carte slot.

The design of the G4 is a definite upgrade on the LG G3 from last year, and volition be very familiar to folks who have seen or used LG's high-end smartphone from earlier this yr, the G Flex two. While the G4 doesn't bend or flex, its strong and rigid trunk is slightly curved, though not to the same extent equally the G Flex 2. The general style of the G4, with its slim bezels and quite rectangular contour, is borrowed from the G Flex ii also, and then much so that the two look exactly the same from the front end.

Around the back is where LG has inverse some things upwardly. The faux metal used on the G3's rear panel wasn't very impressive and basically felt like irksome plastic, then the company has swapped information technology out for a diamond-patterned back cover on the G4. This embrace is available in 2 options: "ceramic" white and "metallic" grayness, though both quite obviously look and feel like plastic when you see the telephone in person.

Equally I've mentioned countless times earlier, I'g not a huge fan of plastic on loftier-end smartphones, as – depending on the implementation and quality of the plastic – information technology tin can make an expensive phone look and experience inexpensive. The patterned back covers LG provides for the G4 are far from the worst utilize of plastic I've seen on a high-end device, simply I would inappreciably say that they are bang-up either. Perhaps the best word to depict this use of plastic is simply "meh".

Luckily, the diamond-patterned plastic back covers aren't the only options LG provides. For those that are willing to spend a bit more cash on their G4, LG will allow you choose between two 18-carat leather back covers in either black or brown. The black leather embrace has been given a skin-like texture, whereas the brown cover uses polished leather; both feature a prominent, stitched seam downwardly the middle. The retail G4 I was sent to review came with both a black leather dorsum and a ceramic plastic dorsum in the box, but I'1000 not certain whether the inclusion of two backs in the box is the case for all leather G4s on the marketplace.

Compared to the plastic back covers, the leather back is significantly improve both from a visual and textural perspective. Non everyone I've shown the G4 to concur with me on this indicate, just I really like the fashion the leather G4 looks, fifty-fifty if it is a bit unusual. Unfortunately the leather back didn't experience as good to touch as I was expecting: it'due south really only a modest upgrade over the faux-leather Galaxy Note 3 and four in this department. Part of this has to do with how hard the leather feels, generally due to the plastic backing, which differs from how other genuine leather products such as wallets and shoes typically experience.

Aside from the leather backing, the G4 also features dorsum buttons for ability and book, which shouldn't come as a surprise to people who have seen LG's flagship smartphones over the by few years. The use of back buttons supposedly allows LG to brand the bezels on either side of the display extremely sparse, and this is certainly the case with the G4. I have no problem with the positioning of the buttons on the G4, and after a few days of employ information technology feels merely as natural to use equally buttons on the side.

Oh, and if you don't like the leather or plastic backs, I'd highly recommend grabbing 1 of dbrand's custom black carbon skins, seen in a higher place. The skin doesn't just look crawly on the dorsum of the G4: information technology besides fits extremely well and feels fifty-fifty better than either of LG's stock options.

The v.5-inch display occupies the vast bulk of the front panel (around 74% of the total area), with a simple LG logo below and the usual collection of sensors, camera and speaker to a higher place. The entire surface area is protected with shine Gorilla Glass 3, which like other Gorilla Glass panels, feels dandy to touch on and is very swooshable.

The edges of the G4 are fabricated of plastic, which is a tad disappointing but not unusual for a smartphone. On the peak border you'll find an infrared LED that allows the G4 to act as a universal remote for your abode theater equipment, which can definitely come up in handy. Along the bottom are both the micro-USB port and the three.5mm audio jack. Unfortunately the G4 has just missed out on getting USB Type-C.

The profile of the G4 is certainly interesting. Likewise as the display existence curved from top to bottom e'er and then slightly, the device'due south body is curved from left to right, making it thicker in the centre than at the edges. This means the G4 is ten.6mm thick at its thickest point (thicker than LG's official figures for the device), tapering down to under 6mm thick at the edges. And although the handset doesn't look chubby thanks to the curvature of the design, information technology doesn't actually feel all that thin when you lot're holding and using it.

The back cover of the G4 tin exist removed, revealing the removable 3,000 mAh battery, the microSD card slot, and the micro-SIM slot. The cover is secured well but can all the same exist removed easily when necessary, and information technology can be replaced if y'all make up one's mind the plastic back y'all went with originally should actually exist leather. Like the M Flex 2, the G4 doesn't support wireless charging natively, unlike the G3 which is a disappointing downgrade.

LG is using a brand new five.v-inch 2560 10 1440 IPS LCD panel for the G4, improving upon the first-generation 1440p panel we got with the LG G3. LG claims this new "IPS Quantum display", whatever that means, improves upon its predecessor through better contrast (rated at 1500:ane), improved color accurateness, improve ability efficiency, and better brightness.

To start with, the G4's display is extremely crisp at 538 PPI. LG has removed the odd sharpening filter that made the G3's display look artificially sharper (and worse), and the device is better off for it. Images, text, videos, apps and games all expect cracking on this display, and even though I still don't believe 1440p is a significant upgrade on 1080p at this display size, this new panel in the G4 nullifies some of the issues with the initial use of 1440p displays in smartphones.

The G4'south display is noticeably brighter than the G3'southward brandish, with LG's latest display technology allowing this high-resolution panel to match the luminance of current-generation 1080p LCDs. Compared to Samsung's 1440p AMOLED brandish used in the Milky way S6, the G4's LCD is slightly brighter, and I establish the G4 easier to view outdoors thank you to ameliorate management of stray reflections, perchance due to less of a gap between air and panel. The G4'southward automated brightness also performs smoothly, accurately and quickly, which is cracking to see.

It's hard to visually compare the accuracy of smartphone displays these days, because about do a very proficient job when information technology comes to color reproduction and saturation. Photos certainly look excellent on the G4'due south display thanks to great dissimilarity, decent blackness levels for an LCD, acceptable gamma, and a panel temperature close to the ideal 6500K if slightly on the absurd side of the spectrum. Information technology's hard to definitively say whether the Galaxy S6 or LG G4's display is better, which goes to show how excellent both panels are.

Another aspect of the G4's console that seriously impressed me were the viewing angles; I don't remember I've seen an LCD with viewing angles as skillful as this. The display exhibits so petty color and brightness shift at off-normal and acute angles that it could be mistaken for an AMOLED panel, which is an impressive achievement for LG's display division.

Unlike a number of other flagship smartphones on the marketplace these days, LG does non offer any way to adjust the quality of this display through the settings menu. Yous tin can suit the layout of the on-screen navigation buttons, as you've been able to do on previous LG flagships, simply that'south it.