LG G5 review: Reinventing the smartphone?

Note: This review was first published on 8^th April 2016, 4pm.

Update (8^th April 2016, 6:04pm): LG has informed us about changes to the App Drawer layout and promotional bundles.

Overview

The LG G5 succeeds the LG G4 in an unorthodox manner. It stole the show at MWC 2016 with its modular design and metal unibody build, and being one of the first flagship smartphones to tout the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, coupled with 4GB RAM. Beyond that, the phone has a removable 2,800mAh battery, two rear cameras with one boasting the ability to snap 135-degree wide angle photos, and an Always-On Display that only uses just 0.8% of the battery every hour.

At first glance, the LG G5 sounds like a reinvention of flagship phones with its mix of novel features and powerful performance underneath. But is reinvention always a good thing?

Design & Handling

The LG G5 looks thoroughly premium - the surface of the phone comes in an alluring metallic-looking sheen, and its 5.3-inch display is a gently curved 3D Arc Glass that looks and feels inviting. The rear looks equally elegant with its clean and mostly smooth appearance.

However, the two rear cameras that sit horizontally across the upper side of the phone feel slightly inconsistent with the overall look. The black panel surrounding the two camera modules breaks the design flow of the Home Button’s silver rims, as well as the subtle silver Shiny Cut Edge that frames the phone's borders. The raised bumps around the Home Button and rear cameras look out of place on a premium looking device, too. However, the mild oversight doesn’t deter the LG G5 from looking classy - you’ll mostly be facing the screen anyway.

Ardent LG flagship phone users who have followed the phone since the LG G2 will quickly notice that LG's signature rear buttons are gone, and the volume buttons have now shifted to the left side of the body. According to LG, the decision to move the volume buttons was because of the LG G5’s modular design; if the volume buttons remained centered on the phone’s back, putting extra pressure by pressing would affect the removable battery.

The materials used on the LG G5’s body were a contentious point just before its official retail launch. LG claimed that the flagship smartphone comes encased in a sleek aluminum body, with the antenna integrated without interfering the “seamless look of the metal unibody”. Android Authority’s destructive teardown revealed that the phone’s internal chassis is indeed made from aluminum, but it was armored by a plastic-like substance under the coat of paint.

In response to the teardown, LG issued an official statement explaining the materials used in building the LG G5. The phone uses a proprietary aluminum alloy (called LM201), and the frame is die-casted to create the shape and look of the phone. Sitting directly on the LM201 aluminum alloy body is the insulated antenna, followed by a layer of primer. Primer is a resin-based undercoat that is required for the premium-looking paint (which contains tiny metal particles) to stick to the LG G5’s body. A lack of primer would make the paint come off the device in large flakes, and primer also prevents oxidization of the aluminum body. Synthetic resin is primarily used in making plastic products, which helps to explain why the LG G5 feels slightly plastic-ky to the touch, despite its premium build quality.

Technically, LG is correct in saying that the LG G5 comes with a metal unibody construction. LG’s official statements did not state that our bare hands should come into contact with the LG G5’s metal construct; instead, they emphasized that the phone has a “seamless look of the metal unibody”, not how it should feel. So.

Metal woes aside, the LG G5 is comfortable to the grip with the combination of its light body and manageable 5.3-inch form factor. The Shiny Cut edge that borders the LG G5 isn’t just for aesthetics either, as it provides a tangible grip by making the phone’s edge feel more tactile when you grip the phone with the display facing down. The phone fits well in the hand, be it in use or when our fingertips rest on the edge of the device.

On a whole, the effort spent in upholding its high quality construction is quite impressive for a phone aimed at the lifestyle-oriented crowd. The raised housing for the Home Button and rear cameras may look out of place, but that’s because the phone does indeed have a dominant premium vibe that makes the design’s shortcomings stand out a little more.

 

Display & Audio

The G5 uses a 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2,560 x 1,440 pixels resolution at 554ppi). Display quality is rather lovely, and its colors make the G5 look absolutely flattering, even if they are not as vibrant as some of the AMOLED displays on other phones. The Quad HD display stands out for its sharpness, too. While the blacks aren’t as deep as the Samsung Galaxy S7/S7 Edge's, it also doesn’t have that warm color temperature tinge that haunted the rival phones. There’s little doubt about the quality that comes with LG’s displays.

Additionally, the LG G5 comes equipped with Qualcomm's aptX HD, an enhanced audio codec by Qualcomm that supports 24-bit sound over Bluetooth connection. This unique audio codec has a higher bit-rate than the traditional 16-bit aptX codec, but aptX HD only works if you pair it with an audio device that supports the format. One such headset belongs to one of the LG Friends - the LG Tone Platinum.

As for the built-in speakers, the LG G5 seemed a little bloated in the lower to mid-range frequencies, but it’s bright and clear where it mattered. We have no issues with its speakers, since most phones make them out to be purely functional.

Modular Design

The highlight of the LG G5 is its modular design, which allows the user to swap the phone’s bottom bunk out for other functional attachments. LG is one of the first companies to bring a modular type smartphone into retail at a global scale. With that said, there are modular phones that came before it. Project Ara by Google was one such attempt, but its development is currently delayed. There’s also the Fairphone 2, a commercially available smartphone that claims to be designed for repairability.

The detachable lower bunk of the phone can be released by pressing a small catch on the lower-left corner of the phone’s body. When released, the bezel will slide out, and the removable 2,800mAh battery follows through. Understandably, the phone will be turned off until you replace the battery and bezel. It feels like LG decided to make the modular design to have a clever way to replace discharged batteries, instead of it being hot-swappable while you exchange attachments. Removing the battery from the bezel’s latch takes a bit of practice, too. Go slow first, and you’ll master the art of swapping batteries or modular attachments without a hitch.

For users who want something unique among readily available smartphones, the G5’s unconventional design is certainly novel and promising. However, having only two attachments available in the foreseeable future with the lack of hot-swapping merely hints at the potential of the modular type design. This particular feature may be one of the biggest things to happen to mainstream flagship phones, but it won’t be game-breaking until LG decides to release more attachments.

LG Cam Plus

The first of the two available modules is the LG Cam Plus (sold separately at S$158). This is a camera grip module that offers a slew of physical controls for the in-built rear cameras. With the Cam Plus equipped and the phone's screen facing you, you will find a round video Record button and an oblong shutter button at the top. The corner has the zoom dial. Below the dial is a toggle nub for jumping into, or exiting out of the smartphone’s proprietary rear camera app. The grip attachment itself has a 1,200mAh battery, which extends the total battery capacity usable by the phone to 4,000mAh. You can still control the camera from the phone even with the grip equipped. Plugging the entire phone with its grip attachment to its USB Type-C charging cable will disable all of the grip’s controls.

While the physical controls are far more tactile than tapping tiny symbols on a phone screen, it is not as ergonomic as a conventional compact camera, and neither does it feel secure when you wield your modified smartphone with one-hand. Even with the attachment adding considerable girth, the workable area is still too narrow for your average hand, and it feels awkward when you ready the phone for a shot. In order to make swift adjustments, you will need to balance the weight of the phone in your opposite hand as you maneuver your fingers along the LG Cam Plus’s controls. On the plus side, the bonus 1,200mAh from the attachment is very handy if you just need a little bit more juice to keep the phone operational during a long day out.

LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O PLAY

The second attachment is the LG Hi-Fi Plus (worth S$298) - a DAC (digital-to-analog) converter for higher quality audio. The attachment comes tuned with B&O PLAY’s sound technology, and it physically features B&O’s Scandinavian design language. It provides 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC upsampling, similiar to the LG V10's integrated audio file upsampling from 16-bit/44.1kHz files to 24-bit/192kHz. LG Hi-Fi Plus also has 32-bit 384KHz high-definition audio playback support. This DAC module can work with non-LG G5 gadgets - when it’s sheathed, you can plug one end into a PC or smartphone using the USB port, and the other end connects to your headphones or in-ear monitors. Unfortunately, we didn't get a review unit at the time of writing, so we can't comment on the Hi-Fi Plus' performance.

UI Features

LG G5 uses Android 6.0 OS (Marshmallow), and a fresh LG UX 5.0 interface. It may be technically new, but you’ll still get all the good ol’ LG conveniences such as KnockCode for securing your phone. The power button doubles up as a fingerprint sensor, and it is fast and reliable for unlocking the device. LG UX 5.0 itself has new add-ons too, such as a File Manager for accessing your phone’s contents using a directory tree, and LG Friends Manager for connecting to LG Friends - a range of LG G5 companion devices. It also comes with 32GB internal storage, and it’s expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB).

Always-on Display

LG G5’s 5.3-inch screen has a neat feature that’s also available on its rival’s 2016 flagship phone - the Always-on Display (AOD). To recap, an AOD allows you to check the time, date, battery status, missed calls, and other notifications - even when your phone is idle and locked. According to LG, the G5’s AOD uses merely 0.8% of the phone’s battery capacity every hour.

LG’s AOD shows you notifications from a variety of apps - not just unread SMS messages. If you’re expecting an e-mail or a message from a different app, this phone’s AOD shows you the pending notification below the date. However, the AOD is less bright than the Galaxy S7’s AOD. At a typical office desk, you’ll have to place your LG G5 at an angle optimal for your line of sight, without the glare from your artificial lights above. The AOD is still sufficiently visible under direct sunlight.

The AOD allows some customization, but you’re only limited to a time/date display or a screensaver with your signature. It’s less fancy and varied than the Samsung’s spread of AOD templates, but LG’s AOD feels more practical in comparison since it includes a wider spread of notifications. If you don’t like AOD itself, you can always turn it off in the settings.

Optional App Drawer

Update (8^th April 2016, 6.04pm): LG has informed us that a future software update will include App Drawer as an option within the settings.

The App Drawer is an optional add-on for the LG G5, and it is ideal for users who are familiar with Android OS, or if they install numerous apps on their LG G5. App Drawer can be downloaded via LG’s proprietary SmartWorld app store (the app name is LG Home 4.0). Once the download has completed, you will need to go into Settings > Display > Home Screen > Select Home to choose the App Drawer home screen layout. The default UX 5.0 comes with a Home interface that doesn’t do widgets or app drawers, which is also fine if you like tidy home screens and if you don’t install that many apps. What’s puzzling is LG’s decision to make users jump through hoops just to install the App Drawer, as opposed to leaving it as an option within the phone's settings.

Benchmark Performance

Within the LG G5 is a 64-bit quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC. On board is four custom-designed 64-bit Kyro CPUs - two of which are clocked at 2.15GHz, and the other two at 1.59GHz. For graphics, it has the Adreno 530 GPU, and it supports OpenGL ES 3.1+. We have an in-depth piece on the Snapdragon 820 SoC if you want all of its meaty details. We expect the Snapdragon 820 to be far more powerful than its predecessors since it has improved performance, improved LTE support, and better power efficiency over its old flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 810. The 4GB RAM built-in should be able to give the phone a run for its money as well. LG G5 is one of the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC-equipped smartphones to be officially available in Singapore.

SunSpider JavaScript

SunSpider JavaScript measures the browsing performance of a device when processing JavaScript. It not only takes into consideration the underlying hardware performance, but also assesses how optimized a particular platform is at delivering a high-speed web browsing experience. The default web browser on this phone is none other than Google Chrome, and it is smooth and swift in day-to-day operation.

Quadrant

Quadrant is an Android benchmark that evaluates a device's CPU, memory, I/O and 3D graphics performances. As this is an Android benchmark, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus is not included here. The G5 may not top the benchmark chart in this aspect, but it feels faster than the Samsung Galaxy S7, and it handles multiple apps just fine.

3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited

3DMark 2013 - Ice Storm is designed to test the gaming capabilities of a device, putting its GPU through a rigorous OpenGL ES 2.0 benchmark test that uses fixed off-screen rendering with high quality textures and post-processing effects. The Unlimited version of the benchmark disables v-sync, display scaling and other OS factors, making it ideal for chipset comparison. It’s on par with the Samsung Galaxy S7 and slightly better than the iPhone 6s Plus. Truly, a Snapdragon 820 SoC with the Adreno 530 GPU reinforces how the 2016 flagships outperform everything before its time by a significant margin.

With smartphones getting more powerful, we will have to progress to an equally advanced benchmarking tool for graphics. The LG G5’s 3DMark Sling Shot Unlimited benchmark score averages out at 2,713. We will be using this number for future benchmarks.

As a whole, the LG G5 feels and works like a powerful phone, as it should. Its real-world performance is on par with the Exynos-equipped Galaxy S7, so that makes two powerful flagship units for 2016 thus far.

Camera Performance

The LG G5 technically has two rear cameras with different outcomes in mind. One is a 16-megapixel shooter with an f/1.8 aperture, and it has the standard field of view of 78 degrees. The other rear camera is a wide angle lens at 135 degrees, with an 8-megapixel resolution and f/2.4 lens. They come equipped with laser autofocus, three-axis OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), and LED flash. Naturally, having a built-in lens with a 135-degree field of view is a great way to make smartphone photography slightly more varied, and it lets you capture more of the scene ahead. Both rear cameras support Manual mode, and it’s not that different from the LG V10’s manual mode, with control over white balance using a color temperature scale, and the ability to adjust ISO, shutter speed, and focus. You can capture photos in RAW+JPEG formats, too.

LG’s support for selfies is quite impressive as there's a host of features for the 8MP, f/2.0 front camera. Functions like Gesture Shot and Cheese Shutter are still available on the G5, but there’s a new Auto Shot added to the family of selfie assistants. During Auto Shot, the phone will automatically snap a picture every time it detects a face in the front camera (an on-screen white border will show that it has detected a face, and a cyan border will appear briefly before it snaps the photo). This is ideal for users who want to take a roll of selfies before meticulously choosing the best of the batch.

Our test image above showed us that the LG G5’s 16-megapixel rear camera snaps decent photos. We can’t really say if the OIS did help out when taking the test images, but it’s undeniable that the photo quality is quite sharp, even if the colors captured aren’t the most vibrant for a smartphone camera. Although it’s not big on detail, the words on the bottle’s label are still very legible.

To demonstrate what you are getting out of the wide angle rear camera with its massive field of view of 135-degrees, here’s a test image taken from the same spot.

As you can see, the original test image with its standard rear camera shows you nothing beyond the test image setup, but the wide angle lens is able to tell us that the setup is actually on a shelf, in the corner of the room. We have to give LG props for including this wide angle option on the LG G5. Frankly, if you’re not a stickler for image quality, the LG G5’s rear camera capabilities will truly offer a fresh perspective on your smartphone photography opportunities.

Battery Life

Our standard battery test for mobile phones includes the following parameters:

• Looping a 800 x 480-pixel video with screen brightness and volume at 100%
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity turned on
• Constant data streaming through email and Twitter

While its 2,800mAh battery capacity feels like a sufficient number, the LG G5 actually has the worst battery life out of all the smartphones in this list. The LG V10 and LG G4 also suffered at the hands of our battery benchmarking process. However, this should not discourage a potential LG G5 user from getting the phone, since our battery test forces the G5 to run videos at full brightness on its power-demanding QHD screen. Fortunately, LG still makes flagship phones with removable batteries, so we highly recommend picking up the G5 with a spare battery and charging kit (worth S$168). It also helps that LG will bestow a complimentary set of said battery and charger with each LG G5 purchase.

And yes, the LG G5 supports Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0.

Conclusion

LG’s journey to reinvent the flagship smartphone ended up inviting more questions than answers. LG did successfully build a phone with a metal construct and removable battery, and the care taken in its blend of materials has ensured its physical attractiveness. The effort expended is admirable. Yet, it seemed to lose sight of the way when it came to the finer details of the G5. It wants to be seen as the beginning of something revolutionary with its modular type design, yet it did away with its iconic rear volume buttons. The phone’s front display is a testament to its elegant look and feel, yet it missed out on the chance to make a good phone great when we saw the lapse in design sense on its back. It welcomed the convenience of enhancing the phone's capabilities by giving it modular attachments, yet it's not designed to be hot-swappable. Variety of the attachments isn't great either.

LG’s adventurous experiments conducted on this 2016 flagship phone aside, let's not lose sight that the G5 is a powerful phone in its own right, topped off with a great display and good-enough camera performance. Features such as the Always-On Display, removable battery, and the option (unfulfilled potential?) to enhance the phone with modular attachments combined to make the phone feel like it’s worth its weight in gold. It is also wonderful in day-to-day use, and we can see the physical appeal it had when it first stole the show at MWC 2016. This is LG Mobile's first step to something great and new, and we think the company did put a good foot forward in pursuit of that greatness.

Just make sure you get that (free) spare battery when you purchase your LG G5.

Don’t forget, too, the LG G5 will launch on 16^th April 2016, at a recommended retail price of S$988. Check here for a list of LG G5 launch promotion bundles.

Update (8^th April 2016, 6:04pm): LG has updated us with its latest changes to the LG G5 promotional bundles - there will be an overhaul to the offers, and bundles offered prior to this review are no longer available.