LG launched its latest flagship smartphone, the LG G4, in India recently. Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador for this beautiful looking smartphone but will it turn out to be another Maggi?
The LG G4 offers top of the line specifications and comes at a price tag of Rs 51,000. So, all should be good, right?
Well the phone has one dirty secret.
Watch: Review of LG G4
What’s Good?
The LG G4 sports a brilliantly bright 5.5 inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1440x2560p and 538 ppi of pixel density. That’s as good as it gets on a smartphone of this stature. The phone has a better display, in our opinion, than the Samsung Galaxy S6. It’s sharp and amazing to watch videos or read text. There is not even a hint of pixelation on this display.
Performance-wise also this smartphone is top-notch, as it’s powered by a Qualcomm MSM8992 Snapdragon 808 CPU that uses a dual-core 1.82 GHz Cortex-A57 and a quad-core 1.44 GHz processor.
Multitasking is butter smooth on the LG G4 as the CPU is backed by 3GB RAM. The phone gave out an AnTuTu benchmark score of 50,059 which is expected from a smartphone of this calibre. LG has put the right ingredients into this flagship smartphone.
The phone runs on the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system with LG’s own user interface on top. It does not interfere much with the workings of Android 5.0, thus, making it one of the more user friendly smartphones available.
The best part about the LG G4 is its awesome 16 megapixel primary camera that comes with optical image stabilisation. The focus is quick and the camera is fast and responsive to capture action shots.
Also, the OIS really works on the LG G4. The camera, overall, is better than even the one on the Samsung Galaxy S6. The image quality is great and focus is sharp. The front 8 megapixel camera for selfies is also an amazing add on.
The manual mode is actually effective if you want to click some professional pictures.
What’s Bad?
The LG G4’s uniqueness lies in the build quality. At least that’s what the company has been saying. Many have even said that the leather back on the phone is amazing and gives it a premium finish.
But sadly, it’s not.
We had to actually tweet about it, for LG to take it seriously.
The leather quality is cheap at best. It wears off with regular usage and the brown leather becomes black from the edges. There is no self healing back panel on the LG G4 like the LG G-Flex 2, so expect the scratches and stains to remain. The phone was launched globally just a couple of months ago and this is how it looks after being used for just a month.
For a phone that is priced at Rs 51,000, a consumer does not expect shoddy build quality like this, no matter how much user abuse it faces. I have never seen an iPhone or an HTC smartphone look this ugly after regular use.
So yes, the build quality is pretty pathetic on the LG G4. We haven’t tried the plastic back panel smartphone so we cannot comment on that.
The phone also faces heating issues if the camera is used for long durations or while playing a game.
The 3,000 mAh battery is removable and probably for a reason, as it drains out really quickly. The battery drains really quickly after it reaches 40% to 15% in about an hour. Our unit had this issue regularly. At best it struggles to last a day.
Why Buy it?
A technology company can load as much technology and hardware into a phone, but if has a shoddy build quality, even people with deep pockets would not like to pay Rs 51,000 for a phone.
Sadly, that’s the story with the LG G4. It has a brilliant processor, an amazing camera and a crystal clear display. But the let-down is its clumsy leather back panel and battery, and that is where we say that the Samsung Galaxy S6 or an iPhone 6 Plus is a better option.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)