LG G4 Review

[alex davies]

The LG G4 retains a familiar look and still packs a removable battery and microSD slot, but it receives several internal upgrades, including a Snapdragon 808 SoC, an all-new camera, and a QHD IPS Quantum Display.

LG G4 Review : Read more

 

[cknobman]

Wife absolutely loves this phone and glad she picked this over the Samsung S6.
While it does not have quite the specs the Galaxy S6 does the microSD slot and the removable battery make it the easy choice.

LG gave her a free premium leather cover and a extra battery with charging cradle.

Sealed batteries are terrible because when they go bad you either ditch the phone or pay big money to have it replaced.

I learned the hard way with my last phone that had a sealed battery, it will never happen again.

 

[geosol62]

DONT YOU THINK THIS REVIEW IS A DAY LATE???? WTF!!!

GET WITH THE Z170 ROUND UP ALREADY!

 

[jimmysmitty]

Wife absolutely loves this phone and glad she picked this over the Samsung S6.
While it does not have quite the specs the Galaxy S6 does the microSD slot and the removable battery make it the easy choice.

LG gave her a free premium leather cover and a extra battery with charging cradle.

Sealed batteries are terrible because when they go bad you either ditch the phone or pay big money to have it replaced.

I learned the hard way with my last phone that had a sealed battery, it will never happen again.

I agree that a SD card slot would be nice but the battery is something I am not as convinced because most people move on from a smart phone in two years (now sooner with the new way they do their plans) and I have had a lot of phones and never had a battery die in that two year period. Only one of them started having issues with longevity of use and that was the Droid Bionic I had that was known for having horrible battery life.

The microSD is very nice though for music and pictures, especially if you use FLAC quality audio or take a ton of pictures.

I hops Samsung at least puts that back into the S7 but then again the Lumia 950XL looks very tempting especially with the USB Type-C and docking station.

 

[Rob_9_]

The G5 could well be launched in 7-8 weeks. Tom must've been writing this this review for a good while ;-) I have a G4 - it's fast, reliable, skinny, has a beautiful display and you can swap the battery out when it gets low.

LG work closely with Google and Quallcomm to get fast(ish) updates and searing performance.
The headphone jack is on the bottom so it doesn't dangle weirdly and obtrusively from the top of your device like most other handsets. Plus, you can edit the nav keys any way you want which is a welcome relief from the awkward placement of the stock buttons.

I've owned loads of phones. Ignore these benchmark and gamut 'ratings'. This phone really is awesome. And it's now very cheap.

 

[cknobman]

I hops Samsung at least puts that back into the S7 but then again the Lumia 950XL looks very tempting especially with the USB Type-C and docking station.

I have a Lumia 950xl on pre-order, ships Nov 25th.

Looking forward to it.

 

[SamSerious]

Apart from this review being more than late, i stopped reading after the first ten sentences. It is nonsense that early LG phones lacked quality and were copies of what Samsung offered at the same time. The firmware often spoiled the otherwise good phone, ok, but e.g. the build quality was always very high, these things were built like bricks. Even my Optimus P880 ist way more solid than any Samsung Andorid phone i know.

 

[innocent bystander]

Got a G3 and nothing I see here makes me want to upgrade.

Then again, I'm the type of smartphone user for whom a full charge will last 3 days...

 

[bpbarrette]

How can you not mention price as a plus?

 

[ptrick2000]

It was impossible for me to delve into the review itself after reading the first paragraph. The Monkees later output produced generally great records? This analogy is an insult to LG.

 

[SirGCal]

The V10 is out for everyone accept Sprint and the G4 Pro (GIMME GIMME GIMME) is rumored to be right around the corner. So this does seem a bit late.

 

[alex davies]

The G5 could well be launched in 7-8 weeks.

I don't expect the G5 to launch until mid-2016.

 

[Nintendork]

Stopped being interested on the phone after seeing that shi*tty 8000k color temp, thats annoying for any proper reading session.

 

[alex davies]

The V10 is out for everyone accept Sprint and the G4 Pro (GIMME GIMME GIMME) is rumored to be right around the corner. So this does seem a bit late.

The V10 IS the G4 Pro. The G4 continues as LG's current mainstream flagship.

 

[Daniel Bayes]

How is this phone not compared to the OnePlus Two? That's the direct competition for it.

 

[SirGCal]

The V10 IS the G4 Pro. The G4 continues as LG's current mainstream flagship.

The G4 Pro is supposed to have a 24MP camera instead of the 16MP of the A10. And a few other things. After talking with an LG rep, there seems to definitely be a separate spec for the G4 Pro, but if it'll ever come to light is the question. Rumor is that's what Sprint is waiting for. I actually expect it'll never come to light now with all the confusion and we'll be waiting for the G5. Maybe that's the spec that will now become the G5... Working for a similar type of industry, I know how they can play the naming game so who really knows till it's released.

 

[chaosmassive]

I am very sad just to see Battery removable, and sd card slot is a 'PRO'
because both feature is a norm during early stage of smartphone era
now OEM stripped it and added back as plus value...

 

[g00ey]

Still has poor repairability, if you break the USB/charger port you'll need to replace the entire motherboard to fix it!

 

[App_Developer]

A little help for the author of the article.
On the 1st page of the review the iPhone's graphics is not specified:

PowerVR GT7600 (hexa-core, 450 MHz)

This can be ignored by Android fans.

The final word belongs to applications and their users, in the smartphone world, i believe.

 

[techkiller]

I was very surprised when reading this review and how negative it was....Look at any of the other reviews and they RAVE about the new camera and how it is the best of any smartphone available. Many of the other reviews LOVE this phone....so i'm not sure why this one is so negative.

 

[MobileEditor]

I was very surprised when reading this review and how negative it was....Look at any of the other reviews and they RAVE about the new camera and how it is the best of any smartphone available. Many of the other reviews LOVE this phone....so i'm not sure why this one is so negative.

The only real negative we found was the screen, which does not match up with other premium phones. Everything else we found to be good, just not the best.

Personally, I only read reviews from a couple different sites, since most of them do little or no testing and spend only a couple of days hands-on with the products. They really do not provide any useful information, and what they do provide is oftentimes wrong or misleading. You should also be aware that many of these other sites, in their quest to be the first site to post a review, looked at the Korean version of the G4, which performs differently in some areas than the North American version.

We took A LOT of pictures with the G4's camera, and while it is one of the best, it's definitely not the best available right now. The camera comparisons in this review highlight its strengths and weaknesses well.

I would be very wary of any review that "RAVES" about anything. I've never seen a product that does not have any flaws. Even the best products are not perfect.

- Matt Humrick, Mobile Editor, Tom's Hardware

 

[Kursun]

A person should be a hero to buy anything from Samsung after learning that they use 10V electrolytic capacitors on a 12V line in their TVs.

 

[Retecliphe]

Hello Tom.
I have a G3 and would like to exchange for a G4 just because of the camera. Today I went into a store and experienced the G4 and realized the lack of magic focus and I was negatively surprised. As you rightly said, the grand opening of the camera's G4 automatically blurs the plane where the focus is not done, but the magic focus has a very important feature for a camera with such a small focus, which is the option of leaving the whole picture focused. Since you can not take a picture with various focus on plans with the opening f1.8 this camera, the feature magical focus is indispensable.

 

[Kursun]

Hello Tom.
I have a G3 and would like to exchange for a G4 just because of the camera. Today I went into a store and experienced the G4 and realized the lack of magic focus and I was negatively surprised. As you rightly said, the grand opening of the camera's G4 automatically blurs the plane where the focus is not done, but the magic focus has a very important feature for a camera with such a small focus, which is the option of leaving the whole picture focused. Since you can not take a picture with various focus on plans with the opening f1.8 this camera, the feature magical focus is indispensable.

Photographically speaking what you refer to as "magic focus" is depth of field. Artistically shallow depth of field, that is blurring the background is much desired. To achieve more depth of field as you desire you can take your photographs in bright light forcing the camera aperture to become smaller.

What you mention as "magic focus" is no magic at all. Just camera basics.