LG G4

[CHANG3D]

Although the official announcement for the G4 is scheduled for April 28th, LG has already released information about the phone. It seemed like the LG display arm is not talking to LG Mobile. And LG's camera division has also announced their in house camera sensors for the G4.

Display:
5.5" QHD (538ppi)
120% color gamut
30% brighter and 50% higher contrast ratio than conventional LCD panels... whatever that means (Note: the screen in the G Flex 2 is a P-OLED display.)
Advanced In-cell Touch (AIT) - higher sensitivity and thinner (It was apparently shown to work with water? But does it work underwater?!? Is the G4 waterproof?!?)

Cameras:
16MP f/1.8 back and 8MP front
Back camera will have laser focus with OIS
Back camera receives 80% more light than the camera in the G3
Front camera has a "state of the art" ultra-thin IR filter

Rumored Design:
Aside from the leather-back that LG has place in the announcement ads, it is rumored to share design styles from the LG G Flex/2 and the G3. If it's curved, I suspect that the G4 will also not have a removable battery if it is as curvy. After playing with the G Flex 2, despite it's 5.5" display, I find it easier to thumb than expected due to its curves. But I doubt that the G4 will be as curvy as the Flex 2. Most rumors do report a slight curve with a removable back, which most likely means removable batteries.

(G4/G4 Note?)

Rumored Rest of the Specs:
(Like most sites, I'm going to assume that the specs aren't going to be much different from the G Flex 2.)

• Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 <-- some rumors suggest an "upgrade" to the Snapdragon 808
• 3GB LPDDR4
• 32GB eMMC or 64 eMMC, microSD card
• USB 2.0

P.S. No, TDSlam, LG using its own sensors does not automatically make it the best phone camera... (just pulling your chain )

 

[Trimlock]

I don't think it means it will be waterproof. They probably put in a sensor to detect the location of water on the screen so it won't obscure touch controls.

 

[CHANG3D]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/LG-G4-Sony-Xperia-Z4-both-spotted-taking-GPU-benchmark-test_id68138

Early benchmarks spot the G4 with an "upgraded" Snapdragon 808 instead.

 

[///AMG]

http://www.phonearena.com/news/LG-G4-Sony-Xperia-Z4-both-spotted-taking-GPU-benchmark-test_id68138

Early benchmarks spot the G4 with an "upgraded" Snapdragon 808 instead.

I am glad the Xperia Z4 is on there. Likely one of Sony's last flagship smartphones and I will definitely buy it day one.

 

[CHANG3D]

Some rumors suggest that the G4 will have S808 while the G4 Pro/Note/Plus will have S810.

Next G4 TV... just kidding.

 

[marshac]

I am glad the Xperia Z4 is on there. Likely one of Sony's last flagship smartphones and I will definitely buy it day one.

Ditto- unless it comes out in the fall in which case I'll pass.

 

[seanclayton]

The back looks like a refrigerator door. The Optimus G is still the best looking lg phone.

 

[Aurelius]

The back looks like a refrigerator door. The Optimus G is still the best looking lg phone.

What about the G Flex2 in that guitar-like shade of red?

 

[CHANG3D]

http://www.engadget.com/2015/04/11/lg-g4-leak/

Thanks, Aurelius!

The camera will have an IR color accuracy sensor? Now that got me wondering if the G4 could be used as a colorimeter, or calibrator. That would be an awesome gimmick that I would totally use on all my displays!

 

[Trimlock]

I doubt that IR sensor would have any sort of power to do true color detection. Have you seen the devices that you use on TV's/Monitors? They are that size for a reason.

 

[Smashed Ixnay]

I have had an LG G2 and now a G3, but that is hideous as hell. Luckily I use cases so it won't matter, but for people that don't, well, that leather would make me reconsider. I just hope it has some awesome specs and the camera is better.

 

[Kelvarr]

Let's hope that the leather backing is just one option. I think it is hideous as-is. I like the way the back of the G3 looked, so I hope something similar is an option on the G4.

 

[CHANG3D]

Let's hope that the leather backing is just one option. I think it is hideous as-is. I like the way the back of the G3 looked, so I hope something similar is an option on the G4.

there are plenty of leaks now. The leather is definitely just 3 of the 7 options.

 

[AltTabbins]

Lets see if LG learned their lesson and doesn't stick some jacked up screen sharpening filter on it this time. I'm putting my money on the "nope" side of the bet.

 

[Spidey329]

I doubt that IR sensor would have any sort of power to do true color detection. Have you seen the devices that you use on TV's/Monitors? They are that size for a reason.

Eh... They're pretty small. It'd be comparable to a consumer grade one, and those are mainly plastic bulk for ease of use. I see no reason they couldn't get it into the software/sensor.

 

[CHANG3D]

LG is calling the display an IPS QHD "Quantum" Display. Typically when a company touts anything not close to 100% color gamut, it means accuracy will suck. At 120%, it has 20% more colors than all colors that we need? Now I don't know what that 20% over 100% really means, but this is LG we're talking about. They are the world's top IPS manufacturer in terms of quality.

Personally, I'm far more interested in this phone after reading about all the GS6 early adopter troubles.

 

[chroniX]

I heard that this may have its own version of an S-Pen...any truth to that rumor?

 

[CHANG3D]

I heard that this may have its own version of an S-Pen...any truth to that rumor?

Would Ford have its own version of the HEMI? Would Adidas have its own version of Air Jordans? No. No. And no.

That said, LG is rumored to be releasing a G4 variant that has stylus support. The rumors also suggest that the G4 Note would have worse hardware than the regular G4.

 

[Trimlock]

Would Ford have its own version of the HEMI? Would Adidas have its own version of Air Jordans? No. No. And no.

Ford had engines that competed with the Hemi, even created a specific engine to compete with it.

Air Jordans were just a line of shoe from Nike, that eventually spun off. I don't think Adidas spun off any of their lines to their own brand but they do have many brands with sports figure heads.

 

[CHANG3D]

Wow! Shots fired. LG made side by side photo comparisons to the iPhone 6(P) and Galaxy S6 on both the camera and the displays. Needless to say, LG destroys them both. I'm actually kind of surprised at the display comparison to the GS6's qHD amoled. Obviously those images could be cherry picked by LG (strawberries), but if winded up being true from independent reviews, this phone may have reached the top of my list. I also like how LG designed the phone for ergonomic sake and made it thicker to house a larger removable battery without* a camera bump.

LG is making it out to be that this is a camera that happens to make calls... I tell you what. LG, if you are truly listening to users as you claim, include front facing stereo speakers, and shut up and take my money.

The only phones that may change my mind is GS6 Active or the rumors of the iPhone 6PS; start leaking WSJ!

 

[Vermillion]

Wow! Shots fired. LG made side by side photo comparisons to the iPhone 6(P) and Galaxy S6 on both the camera and the displays. Needless to say, LG destroys them both. I'm actually kind of surprised at the display comparison to the GS6's qHD amoled. Obviously those images could be cherry picked by LG (strawberries), but if winded up being true from independent reviews, this phone may have reached the top of my list. I also like how LG designed the phone for ergonomic sake and made it thicker to house a larger removable battery with a camera bump.

LG is making it out to be that this is a camera that happens to make calls... I tell you what. LG, if you are truly listening to users as you claim, include front facing stereo speakers, and shut up and take my money.

The only phones that may change my mind is GS6 Active or the rumors of the iPhone 6PS; start leaking WSJ!

The G4 could actually make me to want to JUMP from my Nexus 6. It's an amazing looking device. Love that they went 808 instead of 810 too because that would have killed it.

 

[Johnny78]

Let's see from the G2 to G3 the phone grew from a 5.2 inch screen to a 5.5 screen and the battery??? Stayed exactly the same. From the G3 to G4 the phone got thicker from 8.9 mm think to 9.8mm and the battery?? Stayed exactly the same. Now I personally dont mind a thicker phone IF the battery life is decent. But for godsakes LG. Why do you keep making the phone bigger and fatter but yet don't increase the battery size. What gives??

I'm sitting here looking a G3 in front of me alongside my new S6 edge. The screen quality on the S6 smacks the the G3 around and makes it its bitch. I'm supposed to believe that the G4 is magically that much better?? Consider me doubtful until I see it in person.

 

[CHANG3D]

Johnny78, I believe that the G4 will already last longer based on the hardware improvements over the G3, such as better screen and incell touch, etc. But I'm waiting for independent reviews to confirm that assumption.

And I think I just found Zorachus's new perfect phone...

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Mophies-Juice-Pack-for-the-LG-G4-brings-80-extra-battery-life_id68797

 

[Blown 89]

The G4 is turning out to be one hell of a device. Fingers crossed it's the new Nexus this year.

 

[CHANG3D]

The G4 is turning out to be one hell of a device. Fingers crossed it's the new Nexus this year.

If it has the same camera software, YES PLEASE! But the "shut up and take my money" is reserved for front facing stereo speakers (which ain't going to happen). But if it does have pure Googly goodness with the same advanced camera software, I'm buying it and I will also switch to Google's Project Fi if I have to...

 

[T4rd]

Coming from an M8, the only thing it seems to lack is front facing speakers (almost a deal breaker now that I have them) and software. LG's UI seems to be the worst and most bloated now, even behind TouchWiz now on the S6. But I suppose they're one of the more dev-friendly phones so you should be able to root and ROM it easily even on Verizon/AT&T, I think. But I'm still pretty damn happy with Lollipop on my M8 and don't feel the need to replace it anytime soon. I am about to replace my wife's crappy GS4 though, I'm amazed at how bad battery life is on that thing now, but I'm pretty sure it's app related as "Android system" or "Android Kernel" are constantly keeping the phone awake while the screen is off, so standby battery life is horribad and there's no way to see which app is the culprit.

 

[NotJay]

hmm VS S6, you get leather back + removable battery + sd micro slot + maybe better camera + probably much better battery life
trade off is SD 808 / DDR3 / eMMc storage / plastic / fast charging / wireless charging

then there's amoled vs ips display which is down to preference
also the size preference ( 5.1 vs 5.5 inches )

 

[T4rd]

hmm VS S6, you get leather back + removable battery + sd micro slot + maybe better camera
trade off is SD 808 / DDR3 / eMMc storage / plastic / fast charging / wireless charging

then there's amoled vs ips display which is down to preference
also the size preference ( 5.1 vs 5.5 inches )

I don't think AMOLED vs IPS is down to preference really anymore. Any newer AMOLED Samsung phone is pretty much objectively better in every way (including color accuracy) now. Though this new IPS on the G4 seems pretty nice and promising, I will be really surprised if it beats the S6 in brightness, accuracy (which is near perfect already), and sheer visual appeal, esp. in blacks.

I'm wondering how the 808 performs compared to the 810 (in real world with throttling) and the previous 805 and 801 phones. The G3 was moderately underpowered too with the 801 at the time powering that QHD display, which impacted UI performance considerably from what I saw, esp. in games compared to my M8 with the same SoC at 1080p.

 

[CHANG3D]

Coming from an M8, the only thing it seems to lack is front facing speakers (almost a deal breaker now that I have them) and software. LG's UI seems to be the worst and most bloated now, even behind TouchWiz now on the S6.

Yup, not having front facing stereo drop the MUST BUY NOW tag for me. What's the use of having this awesome screen if the audio experience just don't match. As for LG's UX4, some early hands on mentions it being really close to stock and even less bloated than in the LG G3.

I don't think AMOLED vs IPS is down to preference really anymore. Any newer AMOLED Samsung phone is pretty much objectively better in every way (including color accuracy) now. Though this new IPS on the G4 seems pretty nice and promising, I will be really surprised if it beats the S6 in brightness, accuracy (which is near perfect already), and sheer visual appeal, esp. in blacks.

The screen comparison shot LG had provided (note that it is provided by LG) showed that LG's new Quantum screens are at least better at showing red strawberries than Samsung could with Super AMOLED in the GS6. Quantum dot screens (that the Quantum is based off from) also could turn the backlight off in areas without color to be more black. So another image that LG provided with a darker backdrop shows that the quantum display may be just as dark as AMOLED. Also, even though at this PPI it doesn't really matter, but Samsung qHD isn't really qHD as they use diamond pentile matrices, whereas LG's qHD is true qHD in terms of pixels.

Luckily, or unluckily, right now, the rumors for the launch window in America is sometimes in June. This allows me to wait for not only the GS6 Active, but also the iPhone 6PS.

P.S. It's qHD as in quad 720p HD, and not QHD as in Quad 1080p HD. We may get QHD this Q4 though!

 

[seanclayton]

Not surprising. Quantum dot allows LCD to compete with OLED in colors.

 

[T4rd]

The screen comparison shot LG had provided (note that it is provided by LG) showed that LG's new Quantum screens are at least better at showing red strawberries than Samsung could with Super AMOLED in the GS6. Quantum dot screens (that the Quantum is based off from) also could turn the backlight off in areas without color to be more black. So another image that LG provided with a darker backdrop shows that the quantum display may be just as dark as AMOLED. Also, even though at this PPI it doesn't really matter, but Samsung qHD isn't really qHD as they use diamond pentile matrices, whereas LG's qHD is true qHD in terms of pixels.

Luckily, or unluckily, right now, the rumors for the launch window in America is sometimes in June. This allows me to wait for not only the GS6 Active, but also the iPhone 6PS.

P.S. It's qHD as in quad 720p HD, and not QHD as in Quad 1080p HD. We may get QHD this Q4 though!

Ahh, nice, I haven't seen those screen shots yet. Thanks for the info, that makes me excited to know that there's some other displays out there that can compete with AMOLED now. Hopefully LG (or whoever is making them) will outsource them to make them available in other phones too at some point. I hate how Samsung won't put AMOLED (at least their good panels, the Moto displays aren't nearly as good as Samsung's) in any other phone anymore like they did before it got so good in the Nexus One days.

But from what I've known qHD is quarter HD (960x540 - 1/4 of 1080p) and QHD is Quad HD (2560x1440 - 4x 720p) and then there's 4K - UHD. Shit is too confusing, lol.

 

[Johnny78]

Johnny78, I believe that the G4 will already last longer based on the hardware improvements over the G3, such as better screen and incell touch, etc. But I'm waiting for independent reviews to confirm that assumption.

Well, I'm hopeful but the battery life is better but LG does not have a good track record in this regard. The G3 had much worse battery life than the G2.

And consider this:

Dimensions of the G2 138.5 X 70.9 X 8.9mm
Dimensions of the G4 148.9 X 76.1 X 9.8mm

The G4 is larger in every facet. So why is LG being lazy and recycling the same 3000mah battery for the last 3 years. Seems like corner cutting to me.

And those screen comparisons showing the strawberries? You honesty put any faith in those?? I just watched that. All I can say is HAHAHAHAHA. Those are complete garbage. According to those the S6 not only looks like crap next to the G4, is looks like shit next to the Iphone retina. Now tell me, do you honestly think the S6 screen looks like crap next to the iphone display-wise??? Exactly. Those are just marketing slides nothing more. (just like I didn't put any stock in the S6 presentation slides comparing photo quality next to the iphone photos. Fortunately Samsung was correct in saying they had crafted arguably the best camera phone. With LG I will reserve judgment).

 

[iRoNeTiK]

Only "negative" thing I see is the use of the 808 instead of the 810 from a purely performance benchmark standpoint but for everyday use I'm sure no one would notice the differences between the two processors.

If it means longer battery life, then I'm for it. I'm hoping that the updated QHD display and use of 808 means a better battery life than the G3. If the battery is better than the M9 and S6 then I will get this phone. I like the looks of it, I would get a leather backed one

I was going to get the M9 but after reading reviews, I would just get a M8 for $1 off Amazon w/ 2 year contract since there wasn't much improvement over the two.

I usually don't care about the camera but this one has potential to be great!

Sucks that phone won't be released until late May/June in the US but be in Korea tomorrow, damn them! Hopefully we can see reviews in the next week or two.

 

[CHANG3D]

And those screen comparisons showing the strawberries? You honestly* put any faith in those??

Oh, yes. Of course! I don't know why I kept on saying that those were "cherry picked" and "provided by LG." I don't know what the hell I was thinking asking for "independent reviews"...

And lo and behold:

LG G4's display measures out to the same 5.5 inches diagonally as the G3 and it has an IPS LCD screen, but it now it's considered a "quantum" display.

This translates into much more color accurate multimedia that considers an eye's perception instead of oversaturating photos and videos.

LG is driving toward a cinema-industry standard of color perfection known as Digital Cinema Initiatives or DCI. It touts LG G4 as 98% DCI compliant, while the S6 AMOLED is 110% compliant AMOLED, giving it that infamous - for better or worse - oversaturated look.

Samsung and iPhone's color inaccuracies were shown to be worse when it came to food. A picture of strawberries on the S6 and iPhone 6 proved more orange vs the red shown by the LG G4.

LG G4, on paper, is 20% richer and 20% brighter for better outdoor visibility. Its has a 50% bump in contrast, yet consumes less power thanks to negative LCD technology.

-----------------------------------------

And next a video from PhoneArena on the display (again provided by LG)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J8qqOSegMI

 

[Megalith]

Laugh.

Black level is far more important than that level of color accuracy.

 

[Johnny78]

Oh, yes. Of course! I don't know why I kept on saying that those were "cherry picked" and "provided by LG." I don't know what the hell I was thinking asking for "independent reviews"...

Well, if you truly acknowledge that the utility of these photos is basically nothing then why bring it up in multiple posts? What exactly does "ability to show red" actually mean? You do realize that you can calibrate the S6 display however you like. You want an accurate panel? Put it in basic mode. You want big bold saturated colors? There's cinema mode. You want something in between? There's adaptive display. So which mode are the S6 stills taken with? That's right, we don't know. Again making this worthless. Oh and how do we know that the G4 is more accurate? Unless we have the actual bowl of fruit in front of the displays, this tells us nothing. If anything, it could be the furthest off of all of them. See where I'm going here? This is one of the dumbest comparisons I've ever seen. "Our red is better....."

 

[Johnny78]

Where I think the G4 might make the biggest splash is the camera to be honest. I think it has a chance to be better that the S6 and that's saying a lot considering how good the S6 camera is. Last year I tested extensively the S5 and G3 and although both of them traded spots in picture quality, overall, I thought the G3 was slightly better due to better low light performance.

I like everything I've read about the new camera and coupled with the new lower F stop and light sensors, it looks very promising.

 

[Blown 89]

But the "shut up and take my money" is reserved for front facing stereo speakers (which ain't going to happen).

Agreed. I'm tired of cupping my hand around the side of a phone to hear sounds, every manufacturer should have solved that by now. That and the camera are my only two musts, I'll deal with whatever else they give me.

 

[Deleted whining member 223597]

Agreed. I'm tired of cupping my hand around the side of a phone to hear sounds, every manufacturer should have solved that by now. That and the camera are my only two musts, I'll deal with whatever else they give me.

Get headphones/earbuds. They are gonna blow away any type of speaker.

 

[Trimlock]

If I were a guessing person I'd say they are NOT using a quantum dot screen. Their press release (underwhelming) said IPS Quantum screen and zero about using quantum dot, in other words they are using marketing spin. I bet this screen is going to be really lack luster.