LG has announced the LG G5 in what it calls, the LG G5 Day, taking place at Sant Jordi Club, Barcelona Spain at 14:00 February 21, 2016. In this article will take a look at the the LG G5 key features and specs, including the G5 cameras specs and compare it to the G4 and V10.
LG G5
In every year a day come to replace the older models and come up with something new, and this day has come. The LG G4 has received positive rating in phone reviews’ website, mentioning its gorgeous sharp display, the camera manual controls and raw capability, the expandable storage, the nice optional stitched leather over plastic finish, and the overall impressions were good. That said, many users has a mixed feeling about the G4. It felt somewhat too similar to the G3 released a year earlier. The battery life was average and the overall features didn’t help it differentiate itself from the competition flagship models.
It seems that LG has to come up with unique features to capture the attention of new buyers and to convince Samsung, HTC and Sony users to join its lines. Not an easy task, especially that the Samsung Galaxy S7 isn’t going to make things any easier.
The new LG G5 looks gorgeous, but LG made sure that a sleek design doesn’t come as the cost of convenience. The G5 has a full metal unibody ergonomic design, but also has a removable panel that you can slide out. In fact, the G5 has a modular design type, which means that the modular bottom part can be used to attach and connect to other devices or connect with external devices LG calls “Friends”.
LG G5 Friends
Some of these Friends has been introduces in MWC 2016:
- LG 360 CAM – 360 degree panoramic image and video capturing device. It’s light and compact and easy to carry around. It is packed with intuitive UI and it’s paired wirelessly with the G5. It’s also works in conjunction with Google Street View (Street View compatible camera)
- LG 360 VR – an extremely slim, lightweight and portable VR headset that weights only 180 grams, 1/3 the weights of the average VR headset and provides 20% sharper image according to its manufacturer.
- LG Smart Controller (by Parrot) – a wireless remote controller device which the G5 attached to and allows you to control a drone and support easy one hand piloting
- LG Rolling Bot – remote controlled ball-lie bot that serves as a home and pet monitor. It can be controlled remotely and can take photos and video via WiFi. It has a Pet Care mode that can be used to monitor your pets, including letting them hear your voice and it can emit a laser beam that you can use to play with your pet when you are not at home. The Rolling Bot also serves as an IR remote control that you can use to control your home appliances when you are not at home
- LG Cam Plus – turns your phone into a digital camera. Has a dedicated shutter button, a dedicated button for video, jog dial to zoom in and out and it also boosts over the default LG G 5 battery by 1200 mAh (4000 mAh in total)
- LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play – transforms the G5 into a high-fi audio player, superior audio performance anywhere anytime
There is also the LG Friends Manager that makes it easy to pair friends with the G5 phone with not settings and in just 3 touches on the device.
Here’s a summary by Android Authority covering the G5 key features and G5 modules.
Among the other G5 key features:
- Always-on display – 150 times a day people check their phone to check the time. LG G4 time is always on the display show the time all the time. Don’t worry about this eating your battery, as this feature consume 0.8% of the battery every hour and it knows how to reduce the brightness automatically. Stay informed without turning on your screen!
- 135 degree field of view dual camera setup with Zoom in and out feature. Manual mode. Automatic switch between the two cameras to act like a zoom in and out feature
Rear: 16MP (78-degree lens) + 8MP (135-degree lens)
Front: 8MP - Comes in Silver gold pink and titan colors
- Has MicroSD card slot
- Adreno 530 graphics
- Slicker user interface
- USB Type-C connector
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor that has the power efficiency to play VR 360 photos, videos and VR games. New Snapdragon helps promote better low-light photography and better color accuracy. Gamers can enjoy console-free 3D gaming, enriching visual and audio quality.
- X12 LTE Modem with Cat. 12 download (up to 600 Mbps), Cat. 13 upload (up to 150 Mbps) blazing fast web browsing and faster uploading and sharing photos and videos
- Low Power Location Estimation Technology (enhance battery efficiency by around 41.9% when using location based apps)
- Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 (27% faster and 45% more efficient the previous generation)
- Dolby Digital Plus audio
- 4GB LPDDR4 RAM
- 32GB UFS storage (faster than the eMMC in the G4)
- aptX HD 24-bit Hi-Fi Wireless Audio
- 5.3-inch Quad-HD IPS LCD display with Daylight mode (analyzes ambient light and adjusts the display brightness). The screen maximum brigthness is twice than the G4. The screen also has a 3D Arc Glass design, which seems just to make it look better, but it also makes it easier to use on the hear while talking
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow
G5 vs G4 vs V10 Camera Specs Comparison
[table id=264 /]
One of the biggest changes in the G5 camera is that the G5 features a dual rear-facing camera setup. It seems LG borrowed the V10 front dual-camera setup and used it in the G5 just with different specs. Each of the rear facing cameras has different focal length. The 16-megapixel camera has a 78-degree standard angle lens and the 8MP has a wide 120-degree angle lens. LG also made it easy to switch between the two like a zoom in and out mechanism. When in normal angle and pinching to zoom out, the camera will switch to the wide angle lens seamlessly. There are two icons at the top that tells you which of the camera is being used, the wide-angle lens or the regular one. This also means that there isn’t any image quality loss because the field of view isn’t changed digitally, but optically by moving between the two cameras. The 135-degree angle camera is more suitable for landscape and group shots, as it shows a wider field of view.
The LG V10 has a similar setup at the front, but as I mentioned, in the LG G5 LG made it switch seamlessly, compared to the V10 in which you need to tap to select which camera to use. In the video above you can see that there is a slight lag when the G5 switches between the two cameras, but it’s better than having to click a button every you move between the two cameras.
One of the greatest features that I so much adore about the new G5 is the LG CAM Plus Friend. It’s an external module that you can attach to the G5 in the bottom panel. It does several things. First it has a dedicated shutter and video recording button, a jog dial to zoom in an out (the seamless zoom that I’ve mentioned), and (and it’s an amazing feature!) – it adds 1200mAh battery for a total of 4000mAh battery capacity. Trust me on this, it’s very important when traveling. I am in Barcelona, and I’ve been so frustrated with my phone’s battery life. The two other options for me was to either buy Mophie or compatible battery pack or a second phone. This is a much better solution in my opinion, leave alone the fact that you can always carry an additional battery just in case.
I was hoping for a sensor+lens modules, something that will give mirrorless some competition. But who knows, maybe some 3rd party manufacturers will make something like that in the near future.
The cool thing is that the camera features doesn’t end up with the dry specs. It reaches out to many 3rd party manufacturers to extend upon the LG G5 built-in features, and that’s what so interesting about the G5. For example, the LG G5 has another ‘Friend’ called LG 360 CAM, which is an external device, rather than attachable one. It offers LG G5 owners the ability to easily capture 360 panoramic images and can be controlled remotely using your Android phone.
More to come… (being updated)