LG G4

Got my GF a LG G4, it came in mail last night. Well she's going to try it and see if she has any problems with call quality, she really cares about that. If she does we're going to swap phoens and I'll have G4 and she'll take my Droid Turbo, which she thinks has good call quality.

Anyways fooling with phone last night, maybe my expectations were too high, but meh, its fine. I don't really care if I end up with the G4 or DT.

Camera is good but not as good as I had hoped. Seems great for like macro shots or any time you want to put time into it. But only had it last night indoors and most shots were way too blurry. Actually this complaint might be more the camera app that decided on 1/20th second than the camera itself.

Screen is fine but feels slightly washed out compared to AMOLED.

Battery charges really slow, and no wireless charging. I mean I knew that, but it came like 43% charged and then I plugged it into DT's charger for over an hour and grab it and it was at 80%-ish or something, I forget how long it was plugged in but I picked it up thinking it must have hit 100% awhile ago and it was still charging. I imagine it's going to be more important to plug that phone in at night. I'm kinda lazy with DT's quick charger at home and qi charging on my desk at work, I never run low on battery.

Speed... I mean its fast, I assume faster than DT. DT still doesn't have lollipop, but DT with Nova launcher I mean is speedy. G4... it felt speedy too. It must be faster but didn't feel all that different.

Phone feels lighter than DT, but also more flimsy. Different size phone too so not sure if its actaully lighter or just not as dense. Just feeling in hand was light plasticy phone. I dunno this isn't even a negative, just, I didn't pick it up and go "man this is super nice".

Oh buttons on back, I like idea a lot, but DT's whatever screen... just looking at phone it lights screen up to show time/notifiction and then unlock with swipe, no need to touch a button, I like that feature. Lollipop's notifications and stuff are much nicer though. So kinda a wash at the moment.

I dunno, in the end it didn't seem all that much better than my DT. I'm sure if I paid closer attention I'd concluded it is in fact better, but its not so much better that it really stood out in fooling around with it for a 1/2 hour.
 
Well, I have been playing with my G4 for the past hour. My wife got her iPhone 6, and I messed with it some too. Just a brief summary of thoughts..

The phone I got has the brown leather back. REAL leather. Feels very nice to the touch. I took the back plate off, and the normal assortment for battery, microSD, and SIM slots are there. I haven't put in the microSD card yet, but everything seems quite accessible.

The phone itself is very light in weight. MUCH lighter feeling than my Note 3. However, I don't feel this detracts from the quality (often, more weighty=quality feel). I haven't put a case on the phone, and I doubt I will. I am going to invest in tempered glass, though.

I wish LG did more with the top and bottom bezels. Feels a bit wasted on the space there. The screen itself is very nice. A slight bit more color saturation would have been nice, but then again, the colors still feel good, and the display is quite astonishing to look at (compared to my Note 3, which is no slouch either).

The UI feel solid, fast, and things seem thoughtfully laid out. Apps open very fast.. a lot faster than they did on my Note 3 (in particular after the 5.0.1 update). Doesn't seem overly bloated with crap.. more useful things this time on there. Plus, and a big one at that, is NO TOUCHWIZ!!!!

The Camera.. very, very nice. Wow. The best camera easily since I had my Lumia 1020. And, of course, this camera is sooooooo much faster than the Lumia was. Love the manual modes... I can see much potential here, especially with the RAW format, and using a program like Adobe...

All in all, I am quite smitten with this device. The only other thing of note is that the phone got pretty toasty playing with it for awhile. My Note 3 does have a Spigen case on it, and perhaps that's why I didn't notice the heat much on it (although playing Terraria on it did cause the screen to get very hot). Otherwise, I feel this may be among the best phones out there! Love the knock on feature, the volume and lock screen button placement. Sound is also pretty decent with this.. louder than my Note 3!

Oh, and before I conclude this quickie review, compared to the iPhone 6, I feel this device offers a lot more for the money. Better screen, much nicer camera, sound, UI feel, and the sweet, sweet leather back. Don't get me wrong, the iPhone has its place, but for me, I am glad I went the G4 route. No regrets!!!
 
Traded in my Galaxy S4 with a flickering screen problem (bad digitizer?) for a $100 to AT&t which surprised me, girl forgot to charge me the extra $40 fee too so it only cost me $99.99...way too much AT&T and LG bloatware crap though, I hope the XDA folks find a method to root to remove all this crap soon.

After draining my battery down to 1% and shutting down, so far I've gotten 73% charge in about an hour while being powered down....
 
mi7chy said:
In place of Smart Settings have you tried Automate or Tasker which does the same plus more?
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Negative but going to look at that this weekend now that I actually have more than five minutes to play with this thing. I'm looking forward to trying out different apps for visual voicemail, texting, dialing, etc. Had a pretty good day with this thing today so I am starting to warm up to it. Researching and trying apps is going to be fun if I can keep this thing charged.
 
I got to play around with one today. It was pretty nice and I'm glad that they got rid of that screen sharpening. I'm really disappointed thought that there's no wireless charging. I think it should be standard on Android phones.
 
Just saw a tweet that said the G4 could replace your DSLR. Right...
 
Megalith said:
Just saw a tweet that said the G4 could replace your DSLR. Right...
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Plenty of people (not saying most) who go and buy a DSLR have no clue how to use one. A very nice camera with RAW support, which G4 has, can probably be just as good for them.
 
MrCrispy said:
Plenty of people (not saying most) who go and buy a DSLR have no clue how to use one. A very nice camera with RAW support, which G4 has, can probably be just as good for them.
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Most DSLR's, even entry level ones have very good settings out of the box. Even if you were just point and shoot, light direction be damned, shutter length be damned will still be much better than a tiny sensor with an extremely small light source.

You would have to try really hard to make any DSLR (even mirror less) to look worse than any smart phone camera.
 
I'm really disappointed in the Verizon shortcomings. This device had already lost 'brownie points' for having the back facing speaker and no native wireless charging (compared to my lg g2).


How likely is this device to get root within the month?
 
The g4 camera is good but it's not THAT good. I tried it vs the g3 and the g2 (modded with better drivers) and it honestly was only a hop above the two. The G2 modded with the g3 drivers performed exactly the same as the g3 which was kind of sad.
 
MrCrispy said:
Plenty of people (not saying most) who go and buy a DSLR have no clue how to use one. A very nice camera with RAW support, which G4 has, can probably be just as good for them.
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You don't even need a DSLR to beat the shit out of LG G4 camera.

Any crap compact camera with just point and shoot still outperform it by light years ahead.

I don't get why people think supporting RAW automatically go to the same level as DSLR.
 
shansoft said:
You don't even need a DSLR to beat the shit out of LG G4 camera.

Any crap compact camera with just point and shoot still outperform it by light years ahead.

I don't get why people think supporting RAW automatically go to the same level as DSLR.
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Lol, you're so incorrect that it's not even funny.

Modern smartphone cameras outperform those "crap compact cameras" that you're talking about. Explain why Canon and Nikon's sales are nosediving? Because no one buys cameras anymore. Seriously, the last time I heard someone buying a camera was like 2 years ago. And I know A LOT of people.
 
I agree that he's incorrect in this case, but I completely disagree with your explanation. Your explanation is way worse. Sales still say that McDonald's makes the best burgers in the world....
 
I also agree that shansoft doesn't know what he is talking about. The sensors used in the best smartphone cameras are well ahead of the "crap" point and shoot cameras. The amount of light that the lens that the G4 lets in, is quite incredible. Manual modes are now becoming the standard in flagship phones, and this REALLY makes a big difference in what can be done with a camera, not to mention the great Auto modes that are available.

Point and Shoot camera sales are slowly dropping on the low end market, due to getting similar quality from mid to high range smartphone cameras. The high end POS camera sales, though, are quite strong, and may be getting stronger due to implementing features that used to only be found in high end DSLR cameras. I still fully recommend a good POS camera, despite the great camera that exists in phones like the G4 and S6, as they compliment one another.
 
I ended up buying my wife this last night. I don't know anything about battery life since we just got it, but she is liking the phone. The camera is a HUGE upgrade to the G3. I went to a Sprint store and played with an S6 (wasn't considering it, but wanted to compare colors/camera) and I kinda liked the G4's camera better. Granted I was indoors, but I liked the G4's color picture quality better than the S6's. It was close, but I think the S6's camera is 'snappier,' which I liked. The larger screen on the G4 is still a + to me. I really loved the S6's screen, but the G4's is right behind it.

The S6 does feel like a 'premium' phone compared to the G4, but a case is going on the phone, so that doesn't matter to me. The ability to remove the back to use a spare battery and removable SD card is a big + to me. You get a free 32gb SD card, extra battery, and battery cradle charger right now with the phone (via promo), so she can take advantage of that instead of taking a charger to work. The G4 supports quick charge, but you have to buy your own cause the phone's charger doesn't support it. I ended up ordering one from Amazon, but it's a bummer the oem charger doesn't do it.

My G3 and my wife's G3 was dog slow after lollipop update (slower than usual), so the 808 powering the G4 makes the phone super fast. She doesn't do any gaming, so I'm not worried about it not having the 810.

This isn't a huge con to most, but I really do enjoy it on my iPhone 6. I wish LG would make the phone have a finger scanner unlock. I don't use passcodes or anything on my phones, but since I got the iPhone 6 as my work cell, the ability to just put your thumb on the phone and it instantly unlock is awesome. That way if I lose it I don't have to worry about anyone going through my phone. It's just not a nuisance like a pin/pass code. This is LG's flagship phone, so I do wish they had one. I got her the G4 b/c, well, it's an upgrade over her G3 and she needed a new phone, but the fact I could remove the back, remove the sd card/battery, was a huge + to me. (She wanted the phone also, so it wasn't just what I wanted, but I'll be getting one here in the next week or to so I'm saying 'me' a lot.) Hopefully next year they include this b/c it will be a bigger deal to me next time around upgrading a phone.

I don't like the speaker on the back of the phone, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It is loud so you can hear things much better than the G3, but the M9's speaker location is still the best. I won't say I'm disappointed in the speakers on the G4, but I'm not going to praise them either.
 
Most annoying things for me so far is the screen doesn't register touches sometimes(might be because I'm not pressing hard enough sometimes close to the top edges?), I guess this might be a software fix...and if you lay the phone on the table and do stuff on it, because it's not flat the phone tends to rotate around a little while tapping.
 
I just bought the black leather Verizon version. It should arrive in the mail in the next 2 days. I will post impressions after it gets here. Should be a nice upgrade from the still very nice LG G2.
 
WarpDrive said:
Lol, you're so incorrect that it's not even funny.

Modern smartphone cameras outperform those "crap compact cameras" that you're talking about. Explain why Canon and Nikon's sales are nosediving? Because no one buys cameras anymore. Seriously, the last time I heard someone buying a camera was like 2 years ago. And I know A LOT of people.
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What does sales of compact cameras have to do with camera performance?

DSLR sales are going down too, smarphone cameras must be outperforming them too.
 
People will use whatever camera they have on them. Most have a phone, so that is what gets used.

Now, on with the G4. Disappointing to hear about the camera after all they hype, but I am still interested in checking this out in person.

I do dislike all the exclusives with carriers for color combos. For something unique, sure (thinking red for verizon in their droid series), but something basic like natural leather, why? I'm ATT so I can have black or black. WTF, this isnt 1908 and a Model T. Lets not show the world 15 color options if you can really only get 1 from your carrier and some may not be available in all regions or have limited supply.

I guess the Iron Man S6 is no different, just seems strange. Is hype that strong? Here is something you cant have, buy this other thing over here!
 
aarcam said:
People will use whatever camera they have on them. Most have a phone, so that is what gets used.

Now, on with the G4. Disappointing to hear about the camera after all they hype, but I am still interested in checking this out in person.

I do dislike all the exclusives with carriers for color combos. For something unique, sure (thinking red for verizon in their droid series), but something basic like natural leather, why? I'm ATT so I can have black or black. WTF, this isnt 1908 and a Model T. Lets not show the world 15 color options if you can really only get 1 from your carrier and some may not be available in all regions or have limited supply.

I guess the Iron Man S6 is no different, just seems strange. Is hype that strong? Here is something you cant have, buy this other thing over here!
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Blame the US carriers, as usual. None of these restrictions exist outside the US, of course,
 
MrCrispy said:
Blame the US carriers, as usual. None of these restrictions exist outside the US, of course,
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Poppycock. Are you trying to insinuate that our model of carriers with proprietary technology that locks you and your device into a specific network is less than stellar?

But, but I was told it was for choice and competition. Not some hairbrained scheme of buying any phone I want and having it work on any carrier I deem worth of my business and if they piss me off I can go somewhere else with my money. ;)
 
txsizzler said:
Pssst.. That's why we use Manual Mode when shooting low light. Then, it FAR exceeds the competition. ;)
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Manual is often too slow though. Needs an option to just force min shutter and max iso, I'd rather have a bit underexposed than blurry or noisy crap.
 
So all it takes for something to be equivalent to a DSLR is manual mode and RAW output now? I see.
 
From the comparisons when the G4 is better than S6 it's minor but when it's worse it's significant like in night scenes where the color spectrum sensor seem to get in the way. Feel like we're judging the processing capability more such as the female reviewer linked above that favors the more heavily processed beauty mode that makes her unrealistically attractive. Would prefer to see raw comparison as a base when 5.1 update comes out for S6.
 
Well, most people don't take photos in RAW, so processing capability matters. RAW will show you what the hardware alone would do, but it's like basing your car buying decision based solely on 0-60 times when you're merely commuting to work -- it's a performance figure that won't matter in practice. And why are you singling out gender in the Greenbot review?
 
Aurelius said:
And why are you singling out gender in the Greenbot review?
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Are you seriously going to pretend like more than a tiny fraction of males are going to give a rat's ass about "beauty modes"?
 
Aurelius said:
Well, most people don't take photos in RAW, so processing capability matters. RAW will show you what the hardware alone would do, but it's like basing your car buying decision based solely on 0-60 times when you're merely commuting to work -- it's a performance figure that won't matter in practice. And why are you singling out gender in the Greenbot review?
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For someone who's been parading accuracy over over-saturated, HDR, etc. it's surprising you're changing your tune to fit your argument.

Also, in regards to accuracy and beauty mode no need to turn it into a gender issue when I'm merely pointing out what she stated with "However, it’s also a little more…life-like?" when referring to S6. Not saying it's not useful and in this one case where subject with pale skin turns out better making her skin more yellow but what happens when the skin tone is already yellow would the subject look like a banana?

Think outside of the box for one moment and pretend you don't have to down play RAW mode because your beloved iPhone lacks it. Even with significant in-phone processing improvements it's still very limited and less powerful than PC based photo processing workflow or even off-load it to Google Photos-like cloud service for nearly infinite processing power and even easier workflow. Yes, RAW matters because photographers are demanding for it and the reason why it's becoming more common. In the case of G4 it's beneficial to do processing outside of camera for night scene while manufacturer improves the in-camera processing.
 
Having read a ton of G4 reviews, my take is that the iPhone 6, S6, and G4 cameras are all first rate for a smartphone. Each has its advantages and disadvantages over the others. I don't think you can go wrong with any of these 3 unless you are really picky, in which case you should be going with a dedicated camera anyway.
 
Lens correction profile would be nice. Shutter priority mode would also be helpful.
 
Amazon is selling the LG G4 for a penny ($0.01) right now with 2-year contract on Sprint. It's actually a very good deal especially with the gifts from LG, but even I'm not that high on Sprint right now. I think Sprint is working on the network around my work neighborhood, so I'm not receiving calls sometimes and having issues with sending and receiving sms/mms in a timely manner at work. (Texts may get to me like 4 hours later!) And MMS with WiFi calling is simply not working either. So I'm thinking to just let my contract expire, if not early terminate.

T-Mo on my Nexus 5 is okay, but the coverage is worse overall (some suburbs I get nothing where as I get something on Sprint), and that I also am in a Channel 51 area (which is the reason why I know so much about the issue).

Just waiting on the iPhone 6S, Windows Mobile, and Nexus 5 (2015) right now. But the G4 is definitely the device I would want to get if I'm just tired about waiting. If the iPhone 6S also has the same 12MP camera with OIS as the 6S Plus, I'm probably going to convert to an iPhone, assuming that the Nexus 5 (2015) isn't going to be amazing, like by having front facing stereo speakers... And I'm also curious about the new Windows Mobile with Continuum USB Type-C stuff. Actually, now that I think about it, I'll get the phone with USB Type-C, Apple better not disappoint me with the lightning cable after putting just one Type-C connector on the new crappy Macbook. But I digress.
 
CHANG3D said:
Amazon is selling the LG G4 for a penny ($0.01) right now with 2-year contract on Sprint. It's actually a very good deal especially with the gifts from LG, but even I'm not that high on Sprint right now. I think Sprint is working on the network around my work neighborhood, so I'm not receiving calls sometimes and having issues with sending and receiving sms/mms in a timely manner at work. (Texts may get to me like 4 hours later!) And MMS with WiFi calling is simply not working either. So I'm thinking to just let my contract expire, if not early terminate.

T-Mo on my Nexus 5 is okay, but the coverage is worse overall (some suburbs I get nothing where as I get something on Sprint), and that I also am in a Channel 51 area (which is the reason why I know so much about the issue).

Just waiting on the iPhone 6S, Windows Mobile, and Nexus 5 (2015) right now. But the G4 is definitely the device I would want to get if I'm just tired about waiting. If the iPhone 6S also has the same 12MP camera with OIS as the 6S Plus, I'm probably going to convert to an iPhone, assuming that the Nexus 5 (2015) isn't going to be amazing, like by having front facing stereo speakers... And I'm also curious about the new Windows Mobile with Continuum USB Type-C stuff. Actually, now that I think about it, I'll get the phone with USB Type-C, Apple better not disappoint me with the lightning cable after putting just one Type-C connector on the new crappy Macbook. But I digress.
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Could you link the G4 Sprint on Amazon? I only see the AT&T version, there's no Sprint option. I think it may have expired?
 
CHANG3D said:
Just waiting on the iPhone 6S, Windows Mobile, and Nexus 5 (2015) right now. But the G4 is definitely the device I would want to get if I'm just tired about waiting. If the iPhone 6S also has the same 12MP camera with OIS as the 6S Plus, I'm probably going to convert to an iPhone, assuming that the Nexus 5 (2015) isn't going to be amazing, like by having front facing stereo speakers... And I'm also curious about the new Windows Mobile with Continuum USB Type-C stuff. Actually, now that I think about it, I'll get the phone with USB Type-C, Apple better not disappoint me with the lightning cable after putting just one Type-C connector on the new crappy Macbook. But I digress.
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Ah, the age old waiting game. I decided last year to get off that carousel. Too many of us get off drooling over the possibility of what features that (insert unreleased phone) may possess. The reality is that every phone will disappoint us hardcore enthusiasts in at least one facet because the idea of a perfect phone is a myth. I decided that as long as a phone checks off most of my hot buttons then why not get it? I can certainly afford to upgrade every 6 months if I want to. I had my G3 for about 7 months. I may only have my S6 edge for 6-7 months as well. And that's okay. I'm happier this way.
 
mi7chy said:
For someone who's been parading accuracy over over-saturated, HDR, etc. it's surprising you're changing your tune to fit your argument.

Think outside of the box for one moment and pretend you don't have to down play RAW mode because your beloved iPhone lacks it. Even with significant in-phone processing improvements it's still very limited and less powerful than PC based photo processing workflow or even off-load it to Google Photos-like cloud service for nearly infinite processing power and even easier workflow. Yes, RAW matters because photographers are demanding for it and the reason why it's becoming more common. In the case of G4 it's beneficial to do processing outside of camera for night scene while manufacturer improves the in-camera processing.
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I'm not changing my tune. I'm saying that most people don't shoot in RAW, and it's not realistic to expect them to given limited storage space, capped data and a lack of service support... therefore, processing quality is an important factor. Unless you can prove that RAW is genuinely going to become mainstream, this is an unquestionable fact.
 
Aurelius said:
I'm not changing my tune. I'm saying that most people don't shoot in RAW, and it's not realistic to expect them to given limited storage space, capped data and a lack of service support... therefore, processing quality is an important factor. Unless you can prove that RAW is genuinely going to become mainstream, this is an unquestionable fact.
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The ability of a sensor to capture RAW is still very important. The new Camera2 API in Android allows this. This doesn't have to mean more storage space or bandwidth - its very possible for the camera software to capture in RAW, process using the cloud (maybe defer this till wifi is ready, which is the default for Google Photos app I think), then just upload the processed photo, and for those with bigger accounts, keep the unprocessed version also.

Of course the onboard processing algorithms matter, but allowing RAW capture simply means that they can then be decoupled and updated at any time, vs being tied to camera firmware. Much like in Android now WebView is a system component that can be updated from Play store and improve all web browsers immediately.
 
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