LG G2 Review

LG was not performing too well in the smartphone market. In the last few years, the company launched many flagship high end phones that hardly managed to make a dent. With today’s cutting edge competition, LG badly needs a hero device that can get noticed by the customers who are drowned in the sea of Galaxies and touchscreens. And, for this, the company utilized a totally different approach to battle the behemoth. It is taking off the moves of its neighbor trying to beat it in its own game.

The LG G2 is the bestial smartphone that is LG's answer to the Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. It's a huge, yet not completely bulky smartphone crammed with specs that would make the shrewdest geeks drool. With the G2, it seems like LG took a lot of cues from its Korean counterpart and built what many called a Galaxy S4 clone. It's large, made of lots of plastic, shaped similarly and is jam-packed with much more features. G2 surely is an attention grabber even without the expensive PR.

This device will be known as a phone that brings true hardware innovation for the first time in many years. So, without any further ado, let’s begin with unboxing the LG G2.

The LG G2 comes with the standard set of accessories you'd expect in a smartphone's retail box. Here is the list what you get when you unbox the LG G2.

• LG G2
• USB Cable
• Wall Charger
• QuadBeat v2 Headset

The similarities between the G2 and the GS4 are impossible to ignore. The G2 is relatively bigger than an S4 measuring 5.45 x 2.79 x 0.35 inches. The dimensions of the handset are still bearable, and we can say that LG has done a great job in thinning those bezels. The handset is one of the most comfortable phones to hold. When you first set your eyes on G2, you will be impressed with its look and design. The screen is nearly edge-to-edge, the device is dead thin at 8.9mm, and there isn’t a button in sight. From the front, there are no buttons on the G2. The navigation buttons like Back, Home, Menu are onscreen and the power and volume controls are not there. These rear keys are present on its back.

The loudspeaker is present on the bottom so that it does not get muffled when the device is placed on a table. The phone comes with a 5.2" True HD-IPS Plus display of 1080p resolution. The company claims that this is the largest a smartphone can get while still being manageable with one hand. We tried to verify their words and found that the phone not only is the most comfortable handset but it can easily be operated with one hand as well. Moreover, the tap to unlock feature helps a lot as well.

One of the key selling points of the LG G2 is its eye catching 5.2" True HD IPS Plus display of Full HD resolution that shows 100% accurate colors unlike AMOLED screen, at least this is what company claims. LG has successfully fit a spectacularly big screen in the still-bearable dimensions of the G2 by narrowing down those bezels. And that's for sure not an overstatement. Well, here we are talking about a 5.2” display which is 0.2” larger than what's found on the Galaxy S4. This advanced IPS LCD display comes with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels (423 ppi) and a standard RGB matrix, and is extremely clean and sharp. It surely is a joy to stare at this thing.

On the other hand, there is some contrast loss when you are viewing the screen at an angle, but it's minor and won't take away from the otherwise great picture quality. And, when it comes to color balance, we can say that its colors are slightly on the colder side, but this is not clearly noticeable and many users will not probably notice this.

Since the display of the LG G2 is very bright, therefore it is certainly very readable even in bright daylight. Viewing angles are also very good, though not perfect but yet that’s normal.

The biggest advantage or its key selling point definitely is its sheer size and would be an ideal choice for those users who enjoy bigger screens. After all, this makes game play and multimedia consumption even more enjoyable and more fun.

Now, let’s talk about its user interface. The phone runs on Android version 4.2.2 but the company used its own custom user interface in order to shake up things more. The user interface of the G2 is extremely customizable – probably it is the most customizable custom user interface present in the market recently. Look wise, the user interface of the LG G2 is quite similar to TouchWiz with its bright colors and not-so-subtle animations that are here to make the whole user experience even more pleasurable.

Its user interface is not bad and it has that perfectly fluid movement that people expect from a cutting-edge device such as the LG G2. The LG G2 is the company's first smartphone to be powered by Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. The customizations run deep and there's a rich selection of themes, changeable icons and home-brewed apps.

Since the hardware key for locking or unlocking the phone is positioned at the back of the G2, the company comes up with a brilliant and unique idea to make this key obsolete just in case you don't like its positioning. You can double tap on the screen in order to wake it up. This function works flawlessly. Similarly, simply double tap on an empty area of your homescreen or on the status bar no matter where you are - it will lock your G2.

The LG G2 comes with the most powerful Qualcomm processor available — Snapdragon 800. Therefore, the G2 simply surpasses all other phones currently on the market. Other specifications include the CPU which is a quad-core 2.2 GHz Krait 400 monster, while the graphics chip is the capable Adreno 330. Since the LG G2 is equipped with such a powerful chipset and plenty of RAM, performance is exceptional. We can say that it is a smartphone that is more than up to the task of running each and every 3D game or app out there. It is noticeably better than the Samsung Galaxy 4 when it comes to its system. There is never any delay and it unquestionably does not ever crash. Moreover, opening apps is very quick and transitioning between apps is simply a breeze.

In addition, with its 2 GB of RAM the phone can handle your multitasking activities very easily. Plus, internal storage comes in 16 GB and 32 GB flavors. However, you cannot expand the storage capacity with a microSD card as here is no such slot.

The LG G2 comes with the most impressive 3,000 mAh battery and therefore, battery life is excellent. The company made a big deal out of taking up more internal space by staggering its battery shape within the device. You can get about 1.2 days of juice out of a LG G2 – the company claims. This means that on heavily using your device one day, you will be less likely to freak out at night. The phone gets us through a full day without any trouble, and that is commendable.

In terms of customization, both the apps i.e. the phonebook and messaging seem to be equipped with an impressive array of settings, and therefore, we can say that you will a very hard time in using them. The phonebook of the phone is enormously full-featured with separate tabs for the dialer, call log, contacts list, favorites and groups. It is clearly visible that the company has made a great effort in providing users with all the possible options to categorize and organize their contact the way they want.

Speaking of messaging, the messaging app of the LG G2 left us with mixed feelings since it is not truly consistent in terms of user interface and design but it is for sure more than sure that it will get the job done. You can also schedule a text to be sent at a particular time in the future. This feature is very suitable for the entrepreneurs and businessmen. Furthermore, various Android smileys can also be inserted to add some colorful emotion to your messages. All in all, the messaging app of the G2 will surely appeal those who enjoy tweaking every single aspect of their smartphones.

Typing on the LG G2's onscreen keyboard is fairly good, as it is supposed to be considering the giant 5.2” screen. Using the portrait keyboard is a fun as it is pretty spacious, and more interestingly it has a separate row of numeric keys above the letters, making it more comfortable to type message more quickly.

Now, let’s talk something about its software feature. Though there is so much to speak of, but here we are narrowing it down so that you can quickly review what is in there of your interest. The company has produced a great combination of unique software feature for its new flagship phone.

Here are the more prominent additions:

Knock On: Simply double tap the screen and it will automatically turn on. You do not have to press the physical key for that. Do the same at any dead space of the screen when the phone is turned on, it’ll turn off the display – fast and easy.

Gesture Mode: This is a very useful thing the company has added in the G2. There are two different lock patterns for you and for your guest. This means the phone adds another user profile for your guest where the admin can restrict certain apps. This feature works flawlessly and there is absolutely no problem setting guest mode up with all the accessible apps that the admin has selected.

Answer Me: The magical feature it is. You do not have to actually press the answer key when your phone rings. Simply pick up your phone, hold it up to your ear and it will automatically pick the call up for you. This saves time and hassle of course.

Text Link: With this feature, you can organize different information that are sent to you via various texts into their respective apps. For example if someone sends you a text regarding a time and date for a meeting, the phone can automatically put it into your calendar.

Slide Aside: This feature lets you multitask with your LG G2. You can select up to 3 apps for Slide Aside so that you can quickly access them at any time by swiping right with 3 fingers. For this you simply have to swipe to the left with 3 fingers on an app, and that app will be placed into a saved state. On the other hand, the restriction of only three apps is rather counter-productive, because the phone simply will not let you slide-aside any additional apps.

Capture Plus: With this feature, you can capture everything on a page be it web browser stuff or an email. Once again, very impressive functionality the company has added in its flagship device.

Quick Remote: It is a universal remote control with IR blaster. With this feature, the phone can learn the pattern from ANY IR remote controller like garage car openers or the usual TV ones. Point the other remote to the LG G2’s IR blaster, and it’ll learn the pattern of the IR.

You will get all the organizer tools with your LG G2 that you may ever need. The G2 is well equipped with some extremely versatile organizer apps such as Tasks, Alarms, World Clock, Timer, Stop Watch, Voice Recorder, Weather and of course Calendar. However, Calendar app with too many functions in it somewhat feels crowded and complex. Its main screen tries to fit month view plus a day, week or agenda view all at the same time that make it difficult to use. On the other hand, if you set to something like day view only or week or agenda views only then things get pleasant and much more intuitive.

With a 5.2" screen, you may expect the web browsing a breeze, but here you will be disappointed because of the default web browser of the LG G2 that is present on the homescreen. The reason is that the browser does not inflate the text which means that it's still quite small to read comfortably even on such a gigantic screen. You can alternatively use Chrome browser for comfortable reading. The thing that Android’s Chrome is lacking is that it does not snap your view once you start scrolling vertically or horizontally.

Furthermore, the phone is well equipped with all the connectivity features such as LTE, HSPA+, 3G and 2G, as well as Wi-Fi a, b, g, n, n 5GHz, ac. Moreover, A-GPS is there that works flawlessly in conjunction with Glonass, NFC, DLNA, MHL and an infrared port.

The company has also fine tuned its camera experience and this is something that you would expect. The phone comes with a number of shooting modes and settings to attenuate even some hardcore shutter bugs, but in making the experience different, they also have this neat feature when recording video – tracking zoom.

The G2 has a great 13-megapixel shooter that’s about on par with Samsung and Apple’s offerings. Within the app, you may experience a little slowdown and lag and that may possibly be because of the LG’s star feature: 9-point auto-focus. The G2’s camera attempts to locate points of interest within a 3 x 3 grid and focus on all of them.

More often than not, you will be getting a very fast camera and thanks to good image stabilization, most of the shots will come out remarkably clear. Keeping the default settings, you will get outstanding results both indoors and outdoors. Furthermore, macro shots are also very crisp and colors are very accurate in most situations. Though, there is some problem in low light and dark rooms.

On the whole, the camera is complemented by its optical image stabilization module, 9 multi-point auto-focus, 1080p video recording at 60 frames per second, and a sapphire glass for superior protection and anti-fingerprint coating.

Image quality is excellent, details are simply amazing, you can zoom in and examine the actual shot at 100% scale, the pictures are incredibly clear and well-exposed.

The phone comes with all the necessary multimedia tools. The music player is simply great with perfectly clean audio output. Video player comes with everything you will need and there is RDS support for FM Radio. Now, let’s go into details of all these features.

First, we talk about its music player that offers different tabs so that you can sort music in various ways such as albums, artists, genres and so on. Design wise, the music player is very simplistic and likable and using it is also not so difficult. Furthermore, you do not have to install a third-party player as the LG G2 can play lossless audio right out of the box.

The phone is supplied with a QuadBeat 2 earphones that provide very high-quality sound. However, they are somewhat uncomfortable to use because of their form-factor as you need them to stick deep in your ears. So, the only pitfall is its design.

Video player has everything that you would expect and watching videos on a 5.2” screen will surely be an amazing experience. No matter if it's locally-stored or streamed video, the G2 makes things come to life with that enormous screen, and your eyes will forever be thankful for this.

The audio output is also perfectly clean. Plus, the FM radio can be played over a set of headphones or the loudspeaker, but the headphones need to be plugged-in either way (they act as an antenna). You can also scan for radio stations, and save up to six channel presets. There is RDS support just fine.

To put it briefly, the LG G2 is the best phone we have ever used that has virtually no downsides apart from the annoyance with the sheer amount of software on the phone you will not have any real complaints. The phone is pretty comfortable to hold and operate with one hand, comes with the fastest hardware available in the market and it has a battery that can last more than a day. Furthermore, the memory is twice as much as the competitors offer, however it does not have microSD card. Plus, the camera is also as good as the competition. With all these features, the phone has everything that you could ask for in a smartphone.

The only thing that would have made this phone closer to perfection is its button positioning if it was placed where they normally are and easier to reach. With a beautiful screen, outstanding camera, powerful battery and fastest hardware the LGG2 is an outstanding smartphone almost every way you look at it. Under the hood, the Snapdragon 800 processor makes sure that everything operates perfectly smoothly with no hiccups or delays. But the G2 will surely be not your cup of tea when it comes to its software, but still since its custom UI is not so bad you can easily get accustomed to its extreme customization abilities.