LG G5 initial impressions

D13H4RD2L1V3 · Feb 21, 2016

So the LG G5 is now upon us officially. Here are my initial thoughts and impressions.

- Okay, I'm sorry I'm starting on this note, but that is not a pretty phone. The front is alright and I am thankful that the humps aren't as pronounced as they looked, but the back isn't exactly appealing. Also, R.I.P. back volume buttons.

- Why is the top bezel ginormous?

- I'm actually really happy that LG kept the removable battery, even with a metal unibody design. That's thinking outside the box.

- Still not really feeling about those modules. I think they're too limited and as of right now, look pretty gimmicky.

- Snapdragon 820, 32GB UFS storage, 4GB of LPDDR4, microSD card slot, 5.3-inch QHD IPS display, blah blah blah. Typical high-end specs.

- It has a Type-C charging port. THANK HEAVENS!

- Somehow, LG managed to take several steps back with their software. DPI is still overly large and the lack of an app drawer is really weird. Kinda feel like this is one device where Nova is an instant install. The always-on displays looks promising, though.

- Camera is still awesome

- Another one of those phones where the battery got smaller.....

- But it does do quite a few things very differently, and that gets high praise from me.

So those are my impressions. What do you think?

Roxas080 · Feb 21, 2016

I love almost everything about the phone

Posted via the Android Central App

D13H4RD2L1V3 · Feb 21, 2016

Roxas080 said:
I love almost everything about the phone

Posted via the Android Central App

It's 50-50 for me.

There's a lot of things I like, and there's also a lot of things I dislike, and some in between.

The G4 impressed me more IMO.

anon(9408097) · Feb 21, 2016

Seems reeeeally Under-designed to me. Everything is perfect except the design of the phone. LG got lazy this time when it comes to thinking about the design. I appreciate them spending most of their time with coming up with innovations and what not but the design. Ahhhh... I really wanted to love the G5 but I don't. It's a good phone though.

Posted via the Android Central App

davey11 · Feb 21, 2016

Removable battery or not, as soon as I heard the size of the battery is 2800 mah, I dismissed this device immediately. Total deal breaker.

sickspee

Guyinbox · Feb 21, 2016

With the smaller screen it's probably a no buy for me coming from the v10. Battery life could be atrocious (the v10 is really bad) since the always on portion is much larger then the v10, but we can wait for reviews on that.

I really wish they would've gone with 64gb internal storage. 32gb is getting to be a joke in this day and age.

maclancer · Feb 21, 2016

The design, battery size and the gui is a deal breaker for me. I have been enjoying my G3 but the radical design of the G5 is not a selling point for me.

D13H4RD2L1V3 · Feb 21, 2016

davey11 said:
Removable battery or not, as soon as I heard the size of the battery is 2800 mah, I dismissed this device immediately. Total deal breaker.

sickspee ??????

The smaller battery disappointed me as well.

SZQnl · Feb 21, 2016

My opinion (currently have G2).

Pros:
- looks comfortable to hold and quite like the understated design
- metal and curvy, not shiny and no fingerprints hopefully
- FM Radio seems to be there
- smaller screen at 5.3"
- narrower than G3 and G4 so easier for me to use single-handed
- like the modular concept as they can add functionality later on
- SD 820 so all the other bells and whistles that it provides

Cons:
- phone is taller than G2, G3, and G4 despite having a display smaller than the G3 and G4 (only 0.1" larger than the G2 yet over 10mm taller), top bezel seems overly large
- 2K display uses more battery and not required IMO
- smaller battery
- app drawer gone?
- icons on home screen seem to have changed to 4 across instead of 5
- camera module seems like a wasted opportunity. Seems excessively large for just some dials and buttons and 1000mAh battery. At that size they could have put a dedicated 3-10x optical zoom lense in there... maybe :-\

Not really sure about the G5. Credit to LG for being ambitious and exciting but unless you're definitely going to use the modular bits it may be worth waiting for in-depth reviews to see if they fixed/polished the normal stuff. Look forward to playing with display models!

Lets see what Samsung S7 is like. They seem to have gone the simpler and safer route and made what they currently have better. Rumoured larger battery, better camera, and I prefer the smaller size. Although I really dislike the glass on the back.

Also waiting for Sony Z6, Huawei P9, Xiaomi Mi 5, and even the Ulefone Future

I'll be buying off-contract so shall see what the price difference is.

Another thought, you won't be able to use the other modules with cases on! Need to take out of the case each time...

erwaso · Feb 21, 2016

davey11 said:
Removable battery or not, as soon as I heard the size of the battery is 2800 mah, I dismissed this device immediately. Total deal breaker.

sickspee

The iPhone 6s has a smaller battery than the 6 and lasts longer oddly, maybe LG figured it out too?

Or they just needed more space for the magic slot stuff lol

anon(782252) · Feb 21, 2016

Smaller battery, smaller screen, and buttons back to the side are deal breakers for me. Seems like to many steps back from my V10.

erwaso · Feb 21, 2016

D13H4RD2L1V3 said:
It's 50-50 for me.

There's a lot of things I like, and there's also a lot of things I dislike, and some in between.

The G4 impressed me more IMO.

+1

Like the camera, removable battery, SD card slot and specs

Not that I dislike but still not sure about the losing app drawer (like the iphone) and the back buttons.

Honestly it looks no different than the Nexus 5x and 6p, simple. Which I like.

Maybe it's performance will surprise us. And hopefully the battery lasts lol

D13H4RD2L1V3 · Feb 21, 2016

SZQnl said:
My opinion (currently have G2).

Pros:
- looks comfortable to hold and quite like the understated design
- metal and curvy, not shiny and no fingerprints hopefully
- FM Radio seems to be there
- smaller screen at 5.3"
- narrower than G3 and G4 so easier for me to use single-handed
- like the modular concept as they can add functionality later on
- SD 820 so all the other bells and whistles that it provides

Cons:
- phone is taller than G2, G3, and G4 despite having a display smaller than the G3 and G4 (only 0.1" larger than the G2 yet over 10mm taller), top bezel seems overly large
- 2K display uses more battery and not required IMO
- smaller battery
- app drawer gone?
- icons on home screen seem to have changed to 4 across instead of 5
- camera module seems like a wasted opportunity. Seems excessively large for just some dials and buttons and 1000mAh battery. At that size they could have put a dedicated 3-10x optical zoom lense in there... maybe :-\

Not really sure about the G5. Credit to LG for being ambitious and exciting but unless you're definitely going to use the modular bits it may be worth waiting for in-depth reviews to see if they fixed/polished the normal stuff. Look forward to playing with display models!

Lets see what Samsung S7 is like. They seem to have gone the simpler and safer route and made what they currently have better. Rumoured larger battery, better camera, and I prefer the smaller size. Although I really dislike the glass on the back.

Also waiting for Sony Z6, Huawei P9, Xiaomi Mi 5, and even the Ulefone Future

I'll be buying off-contract so shall see what the price difference is.

Another thought, you won't be able to use the other modules with cases on! Need to take out of the case each time...

I think Samsung's bringing their A-game this year.

The S7 looks to be an utter beast in many aspects. I'm especially excited for the S7 Edge, since it looks like it's going to be a serious battery champ.

Murph5065 · Feb 21, 2016

Where are the speakers placed at? Front or back stereo or same as before

Posted via the Android Central App

davey11 · Feb 21, 2016

erwaso said:
The iPhone 6s has a smaller battery than the 6 and lasts longer oddly, maybe LG figured it out too?

Or they just needed more space for the magic slot stuff lol

My last 2 phones are the turbo 2 and my present 6p and I enjoy good battery life.

Going back to a device with maybe 3 hrs sot ain't gonna cut it. For me, battery life is about number one on my list.

sickspee

D13H4RD2L1V3 · Feb 21, 2016

Murph5065 said:
Where are the speakers placed at? Front or back stereo or same as before

Posted via the Android Central App

At the bottom

erwaso · Feb 21, 2016

Murph5065 said:
Where are the speakers placed at? Front or back stereo or same as before

Posted via the Android Central App

I believe they are the 3 slits on the bottom of the phone.

Jdroids · Feb 21, 2016

I like that battery can be easily swapped and extra camera module. Other than that the phone itself is not as interesting as S7 it seems. I think LG focused too much on the modular gimmicks than improving phone core design, performance itself. G2 was great in design and performance and I don't get why LG doesn't bring out its true successor.

anon(782252) · Feb 21, 2016

davey11 said:
My last 2 phones are the turbo 2 and my present 6p and I enjoy good battery life.

Going back to a device with maybe 3 hrs sot ain't gonna cut it. For me, battery life is about number one on my list.

sickspee

I'm not a fan of them going backwards on the battery size but the smaller screen should help. If I can get 6 hours SOT on my V10, people will certainly get more than 3 hours on the G5.

Aquila · Feb 21, 2016

Here's my list:

Pros:

More metal is generally good.
Rear fingerprint scanner - although having this double as a power button is going to be a Con.
They're thinking differently with the modular stuff
There's definitely probably almost certainly maybe a market for people who want smaller devices
Always on low power display - doing something here is better than nothing, but the rest goes in Cons
Huge amount of RAM
Large battery
Thinner is going to be a Pro for some people, but considering what was abandoned to get there, thinner in this case is very bad. It is 2.1 mm thinner than the G4. What can you fit in half of that?
Wide angle camera - do we need two cameras?
USB Type C
High speed local storage

Cons:

FPS doubles as power button on the back. This can only be done well if it is on the side.
Messing with removable storage code - this is now a security risk. When coupled with the failing hard on monthly security updates, this is essentially a statement from LG indicating that they don't think security is a problem.
Removable battery highlights two of the physical opportunity cost considerations that having it removable entail: smaller battery & a weak point in the device where issues are most likely to occur (slide out mechanisms)
Launching on Carriers
No official launch date
Always on notification on an IPS screen
Always on notification is always on and not breathing
Volume buttons being on the side is fine - but they're on the wrong side (left)
One of the colors ought to be "black"
Smaller screen but taller than the G4 with a 5.5" screen and bigger than the G3, which had the same screen size. \
Logo on the front
Lack of front facing speakers
No app drawer, more extra apps and software still very gross looking.

Unknowns:

Battery life
Screen quality
Camera quality
Software updates
Security updates
Processor performance and heat mitigation
Charging time
Build Quality

Hopefully some of these unknowns can be moved to Pros or Cons later.

LG G5 initial impressions

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