LG unveils flagship G4 smartphone with 5.5-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 808 SoC, 16-megapixel camera

[Shawn Knight]

LG has taken the wraps off its latest flagship smartphone, the LG G4. The handset packs a 5.5-inch display operating at a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 (538 PPI) and is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 processor. There’s also 3GB of DDR3 RAM on tap as well as 32GB of internal storage and room for expansion via microSD card slot.

The G4 features a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens that’ll no doubt boost performance under low-light situations. It’s also aided by OIS 2.0 (optical image stabilization) which LG claims expands the range of image stabilization from one degree to two degrees on the X- and Y-axis and adds a third axis for the first time.

Other noteworthy specs include a front-facing 8-megapixel camera, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1LE and NFC. It’s powered by a 3,000mAh removable battery that can keep the phone running up to 20 percent longer than the LG G3. Specifically, we’re looking at 13.6 hours of video, 19.6 hours of talk time and 10 hours of Wi-Fi Internet use.

It’ll arrive running Android 5.1 Lollipop and comes in your choice of three different rear finishes: a ceramic-coated back, one with a hammered “metallic craft” look and one outfitted in leather reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

The display on the LG G4 has a very subtle curvature (not like the extreme curve found on the Flex series). This design decision is hardly noticeable but is said to offer a more natural and secure feel in the hand while providing 20 percent better durability compared to a flat smartphone in face-down drops.

LG hasn’t yet announced pricing although we know the rollout will start on April 29 in Korea before making its way to other major markets by the end of May or early June.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/60508-lg-unveils-flagship-g4-smartphone-55-inch-qhd.html

 

[veLa]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

 

[Guest]

I am pretty sure the screen is not curved, just the back of the phone. Never seen any mention of the screen beeing curved really, and curved backside cant be a big problem?

 

[Guest]

Just get an S5....
I upgreaded from the S4 and while the difference is not substantial I must say I enjoy the longer battery and the waterproofing.
I for sure do not intend to be getting an S6 since BOTH my requirements (battery / MicroSD) are not met. I am a frequent business travelller and having my whole music/star trek collection with me with a backup battery for long haul flights is simply non-negotiable in my books...

 

[BMfan]

I am pretty sure the screen is not curved, just the back of the phone. Never seen any mention of the screen beeing curved really, and curved backside cant be a big problem?

"The display on the LG G4 has a very subtle curvature"

 

[MoeJoe]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

I completely agree!
If that curved screen prevents the use of a quality ballistic glass protector - I say bad move.
Also, in contrast to the LG Exec hype, I don't see HUGE differentiation with this release. Not
from a practical standpoint anyway. They should have upped the battery capacity by at least 10%,
in conjunction with this alleged 20% functional improvement. Make this phone a longer lasting
device by that much and more folks would be compelled to take a look see based on the extended
freedom from worrying about your next charge.

As it stands now, this release seems to be a just another managed, incremental improvement -
like all these tech giants have been doing for the better part of 20 years. I expected
more from LG.

G3 is going to stay in my pocket until the next generation, for sure!

 

[agb81]

I am pretty sure the screen is not curved, just the back of the phone. Never seen any mention of the screen beeing curved really, and curved backside cant be a big problem?

Yeah, isn't that curvying thingie Flex 2's business?

 

[LNCPapa]

Those specs are awfully close to the Galaxy Note 4 - except that front camera.

http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote4/note4_specs.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

I completely agree!
If that curved screen prevents the use of a quality ballistic glass protector - I say bad move.
Also, in contrast to the LG Exec hype, I don't see HUGE differentiation with this release. Not
from a practical standpoint anyway. They should have upped the battery capacity by at least 10%,
in conjunction with this alleged 20% functional improvement.
As it stands now, this release seems to be a just another managed, incremental improvement -
like all these tech giants have been doing for the better part of 20 years. I expected
more from LG.

G3 is going to stay in my pocket until the next generation, for sure!

Lotta hate before reviews come out. The curvature is called 'very subtle'. Whenever something is 'very subtle' that means it's hard to notice.

What DID you expect from LG? Every comment section of every smartphone review says 'more battery, more battery, more battery' and LG threw in a 3000mah battery. That's like 20% bigger than any other non-phablet. Also, LG is filling the gap left behind when Samsung decided to ditch the removable battery on the S6. They'll pick up some customers with that decision. That may not be what you want, but then really... what do you want?
Look at this generation of smartphones, Samsung finally changed their design after much criticism, HTC finally ditched the ultrapixels after much criticism, and LG is improving on their design, and going for the home run where everyone cares the most: battery life. I honestly can't find anything to complain about just from this quick intro. LG even has a decent android skin.

I'm also interested in how the 808 SoC does. The 810 was a flop, so hopefully the 808 works well.

 

[MoeJoe]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

I completely agree!
If that curved screen prevents the use of a quality ballistic glass protector - I say bad move.
Also, in contrast to the LG Exec hype, I don't see HUGE differentiation with this release. Not
from a practical standpoint anyway. They should have upped the battery capacity by at least 10%,
in conjunction with this alleged 20% functional improvement.
As it stands now, this release seems to be a just another managed, incremental improvement -
like all these tech giants have been doing for the better part of 20 years. I expected
more from LG.

G3 is going to stay in my pocket until the next generation, for sure!

Lotta hate before reviews come out. The curvature is called 'very subtle'. Whenever something is 'very subtle' that means it's hard to notice.

What DID you expect from LG? Every comment section of every smartphone review says 'more battery, more battery, more battery' and LG threw in a 3000mah battery. That's like 20% bigger than any other non-phablet. Also, LG is filling the gap left behind when Samsung decided to ditch the removable battery on the S6. They'll pick up some customers with that decision. That may not be what you want, but then really... what do you want?
Look at this generation of smartphones, Samsung finally changed their design after much criticism, HTC finally ditched the ultrapixels after much criticism, and LG is improving on their design, and going for the home run where everyone cares the most: battery life. I honestly can't find anything to complain about just from this quick intro. LG even has a decent android skin.

I'm also interested in how the 808 SoC does. The 810 was a flop, so hopefully the 808 works well.

A 10 - 15 % battery capacity bump should have been a no-brainer. G3 = 3000mAh. The G4 is the same. Wireless charging is still not integral out of the box; requiring a back-cover switch. Bad move IMHO.
The curve doesn't look subtle to me; it's pretty distinct in the official photos. Some won't like it but I'm OK with it if ballistic glass comes out to suit it. Those are my "wants" in a follow-on to the G3.

But again, the color depth/brightness improvement, the fancy back treatments, the camera improvements and the fixed 3 GB of ram don't mean squat to me. My G3 already has 3 GB or ram, the camera is solid as far as camera phones go and UX improvements ? LMAO. Look, call it like it is: Incremental advancement. Not anything remotely ground breaking. But I feel your pain on the Samsung change-ups. Get over it.

And lastly, if you're interpreting constructive criticism as "lotta hate", you need to visit a therapist. Putting it another way, if I was still back on an Optimus or G2 (or some other non-LG platform), the G4 would be a good jump to things I value. Replaceable battery, SD slot and smooth execution in the optimal size works for me. But compared to the G3 - it's nothing more than ...

Incremental nonsense.

 

[Arris]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

I completely agree!
If that curved screen prevents the use of a quality ballistic glass protector - I say bad move.
Also, in contrast to the LG Exec hype, I don't see HUGE differentiation with this release. Not
from a practical standpoint anyway. They should have upped the battery capacity by at least 10%,
in conjunction with this alleged 20% functional improvement.
As it stands now, this release seems to be a just another managed, incremental improvement -
like all these tech giants have been doing for the better part of 20 years. I expected
more from LG.

G3 is going to stay in my pocket until the next generation, for sure!

Lotta hate before reviews come out. The curvature is called 'very subtle'. Whenever something is 'very subtle' that means it's hard to notice.

What DID you expect from LG? Every comment section of every smartphone review says 'more battery, more battery, more battery' and LG threw in a 3000mah battery. That's like 20% bigger than any other non-phablet. Also, LG is filling the gap left behind when Samsung decided to ditch the removable battery on the S6. They'll pick up some customers with that decision. That may not be what you want, but then really... what do you want?
Look at this generation of smartphones, Samsung finally changed their design after much criticism, HTC finally ditched the ultrapixels after much criticism, and LG is improving on their design, and going for the home run where everyone cares the most: battery life. I honestly can't find anything to complain about just from this quick intro. LG even has a decent android skin.

I'm also interested in how the 808 SoC does. The 810 was a flop, so hopefully the 808 works well.

808 = 810 + arctic silver thermal paste

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It's a shame that they had to ruin it with a curved display. I planned on getting the G4 since the S6 got rid of the SD card slot and removable battery, but here again we have another case of manufacturers just not offering me a device I really want. I guess I'll have to see it person now to make sure I can deal with the curvature, otherwise I'll have to keep my S4 running indefinitely.

I completely agree!
If that curved screen prevents the use of a quality ballistic glass protector - I say bad move.
Also, in contrast to the LG Exec hype, I don't see HUGE differentiation with this release. Not
from a practical standpoint anyway. They should have upped the battery capacity by at least 10%,
in conjunction with this alleged 20% functional improvement.
As it stands now, this release seems to be a just another managed, incremental improvement -
like all these tech giants have been doing for the better part of 20 years. I expected
more from LG.

G3 is going to stay in my pocket until the next generation, for sure!

Lotta hate before reviews come out. The curvature is called 'very subtle'. Whenever something is 'very subtle' that means it's hard to notice.

What DID you expect from LG? Every comment section of every smartphone review says 'more battery, more battery, more battery' and LG threw in a 3000mah battery. That's like 20% bigger than any other non-phablet. Also, LG is filling the gap left behind when Samsung decided to ditch the removable battery on the S6. They'll pick up some customers with that decision. That may not be what you want, but then really... what do you want?
Look at this generation of smartphones, Samsung finally changed their design after much criticism, HTC finally ditched the ultrapixels after much criticism, and LG is improving on their design, and going for the home run where everyone cares the most: battery life. I honestly can't find anything to complain about just from this quick intro. LG even has a decent android skin.

I'm also interested in how the 808 SoC does. The 810 was a flop, so hopefully the 808 works well.

808 = 810 + arctic silver thermal paste

Nah. The 810 only got a bad rep because it's built on TSMC's troublesome 20 nm node. I doubt there's anything inherently wrong with it. The 808 should perform better because it's less powerful (now there's an oxymoron for you) and shouldn't throttle as much.
I heard Qualcomm are beseeching Samsung to build the next generation of their performance chips and giving TSMC the cold shoulder.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It looks pretty nice apart from those with the leather back cover but I'm pleased to see there are alternatives available because who wants parts of a dead cow plastered all over the back of their phone? Certainly not me.
I'm surprised to see it has a removeable battery, nice. I thought it was going out of fashion.
I guess I'll just head on over to Android Authority on YouTube and scope out their take on it.

 

[Kibaruk]

I for sure do not intend to be getting an S6 since BOTH my requirements (battery / MicroSD) are not met. I am a frequent business travelller and having my whole music/star trek collection with me with a backup battery for long haul flights is simply non-negotiable in my books...

Yeah because who carries with them an OTG cable and a USB drive / External battery backup with them nowaday they are extremely hard to get by and sounds like a lot of hassle.

 

[Arris]

Still don't get the fascination with curved screens. A flat screen will have direct reflections that you can avoid by angling the screen. A curved screen will have more direct reflections from more angles making it harder to position/angle to avoid the souce of reflection/light.

 

[MoeJoe]

1. Brighter, higher contrast and improved color depth. >> Fixing what should have been provided on the G3

2. Improved UX >> Fixing what should have been provided on the G3

3. Advanced camera >> Always an incremental offering and "suck you in" facet.
Just remember, these are phones - not cameras!

4. Ooooh. 3 GB of ram instead of the 16/32 GB storage - 2/3 GB ram respectively, configs. WoW! That's ground breaking right there!

5. Physically bigger but no additional battery capacity, no built-in wireless charging, no improvement in speaker placement - but hey - we curved the screen just a little bit - just for you. YaY !

Strategically marketed, incremental advancement. Nothing more.
Coming to LG for the first time? Definite win!
Already own a G3? Why waste your money?

 

[amstech]

The 5.5" phones are growing on me and a minor curve isn't going to ruin my day. I'll have to see this thing for myself but I'd imagine I would like it.
The removable battery, 3GB RAM and 1440p display would be enough to satisfy yours truly.
And most importantly, my Clash of Clans attacks should improve as well

 

[Arris]

1440p on a phone. Needed, not at all. Another "It's a bigger number so it's better".

 

[Kibaruk]

3. Advanced camera >> Always an incremental offering and "suck you in" facet.
Just remember, these are phones - not cameras!

I'm sorry but unless you are a pro photographer more than a good camera phone is hardly needed, I get awesome pictures on my G2. This is not a sale point for me, at all, just that cameras=/=phones is becoming old.

 

[Arris]

I always find it funny when my Android phone presents a slideshow of my images for the month and I get presented with all the crap I photograph with my phone.... Prices of things on shelves... Images of things for return to Ebay/Amazon, pictures of my camera that I obviously can't take with the camera itself... pictures of the mess left by the council grass cutters outside my house... pictures of takeaway menus... pictures of electricity/gas meter readings I.e. nothing of consequence.

 

[MoeJoe]

I'm sorry but unless you are a pro photographer more than a good camera phone is hardly needed, I get awesome pictures on my G2. This is not a sale point for me, at all, just that cameras=/=phones is becoming old.

Don't be sorry.
Be realistic.
You obviously don't know camera tech.
It's casual ...

 

[Tanstar]

Don't be sorry.
Be realistic.
You obviously don't know camera tech.
It's casual ...

I think that was his point. MOST of us are just casual photographers and the camera on our phone is convenient and all we'll use. Therefore, the better it is the better. The camera is a huge reason I am considering the G4.

 

[MoeJoe]

I think that was his point. MOST of us are just casual photographers and the camera on our phone is convenient and all we'll use. Therefore, the better it is the better. The camera is a huge reason I am considering the G4.

You don't need to be a "pro" to own or use effectively, something WAY better than the camera built into a phone. That said, incremental improvements in on-board, phone-camera tech is obviously incremental.
Just goes to prove the point that mass employment at large tech companies is enabled by a more massive consumer base that blows massive amounts of money on incremental bloviating ...
like there's no tomorrow ...

 

[Tanstar]

You don't need to be a "pro" to own or use effectively, something WAY better than the camera built into a phone. That said, incremental improvements in on-board, phone-camera tech is obviously incremental.
Just goes to prove the point that mass employment at large tech companies is enabled by a more massive consumer base that blows massive amounts of money on incremental bloviating ...
like there's no tomorrow ...

Who said anything about not being able to use something better than a camera phone? More like it's convenient and I don't care about the better options because I don't take the pics to frame them. I (and most consumers) want the camera in our pocket already to be good enough to quickly snap a quality pic when life throws something memorable at us. I would say this is more than an "incremental" upgrade from my current Galaxy S3 and, since I don't intend to upgrade for another two years, I want one of the best cameras currently available. The SD card slot puts this over the S6 for me. If it was waterproof like the S5 or Experia X3 it would be perfect.

 

[MoeJoe]

My references to "incremental" have been and always WILL BE in relation to the transition from the G3 to the G4. With regard to your other spew ... not interested.

Who said anything about not being able to use something better than a camera phone? More like it's convenient and I don't care about the better options because I don't take the pics to frame them. I (and most consumers) want the camera in our pocket already to be good enough to quickly snap a quality pic when life throws something memorable at us. I would say this is more than an "incremental" upgrade from my current Galaxy S3 and, since I don't intend to upgrade for another two years, I want one of the best cameras currently available. The SD card slot puts this over the S6 for me. If it was waterproof like the S5 or Experia X3 it would be perfect.