Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsSuperb Flagship Phone
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2015
I have been using this phone as my daily driver for a week now, and I am absolutely thrilled with it! I came from a OnePlus One and a Nexus 5, both of which I used regularly. The one thing I did not like about the OnePlus One was that it was rather hefty for the size, which the G4 immediately improves upon.
Display:
I for one always said that going beyond 1080p displays would make no difference, but boy was I wrong. This display is sharp! I am extremely impressed that I can actually notice the difference, but I undoubtedly do. The OnePlus One display looks simply paltry in comparison now. Additionally, this has some of the best colors on any smartphone display I have ever seen. Watching videos and consuming other media on it is a pleasure, and it is made better by the fact that this display has the blackest black colors which I have ever seen on an LCD display, almost makes me think it is an AMOLED display, which it is not.
Operating System:
I have always been a pure Android fan, though LG adds some useful functionality. The notification shade is improved upon in some ways, though I wish they had kept the stock Lollipop method of one swipe down for notifications, two for settings. Otherwise, there is not too much of a difference. It is so comfortable to use that I have not actually chosen to switch to the Google Now launcher, though I may yet do so.
Speed:
Nothing to really say here other than this phone flies! It's fast. If you're hesitant to buy this phone because it does not have the SnapDragon 810 processor, don't be! I cannot tell that I am not using the current flagship but instead one step down. I may update this section when I get my OnePlus 2 in a few days.
Camera:
Absolutely splendid pictures! Best phone camera I have ever had, and beats most point and shoots I have ever used. Participating in the Debaets Devos race on Labor Day, I snapped some pictures in burst mode (about 5 pictures per second I estimate) of the riders from sixty feet away. These riders were going in excess of 25mph when I took the pictures, and I could zoom in on someone's face and be able to tell who the person was. I could zoom in on the wheels and count each individual spoke of each wheel on every bike. Low light performance is as great. The camera is easily one of the top few in the smartphone world.
Battery life:
Battery life is solid, not quite as good as the OnePlus One, though that phone has been plagued with battery issues since the release of CyanogenMod 12, so it has gone downhill recently. The LG G4 gets me through most of the day on a single battery. I wake up at 5:30 AM for work on a given weekday. Today, I finally had to swap my battery out at 20:30 in the evening, a full fifteen hours, with roughly three and a half hours of screen on time, various calls, reading plenty of articles using LTE, and a handful of other usage.
Extras:
I bought a micro-SD card and several spare batteries. It's nice to automatically put all photos on the SD card, and keep apps on the internal storage. Additionally, having the extra batteries is great! I leave one to charge overnight in the external charger I bought, while my phone charges. By the time I need to change it out at the end of the next day, I have one to replace it with, and I put the dead one in to charge for the night. It works great! The leather back has been holding up well through the first week, with about half of the time spent in an OtterBox Commuter case. I will update if it starts to show wear, etc. I thought the buttons on the back would be odd, but they are actually pretty natural. Difficult to take pictures with the volume buttons, but otherwise, it hasn't bothered me in the least. The curved display is neat, though the curve is not nearly as exaggerated as the G Flex.
Conclusions:
If you're looking for a new flagship phone, I would not hesitate to buy this! Especially for the price. I ordered my OnePlus 2 around the same time, though after using this for a week, I would not be surprised if I continue to simply use this phone over the 2. The only major plusses the 2 have is the stronger processeor, which I would likely not notice, and the fingerprint scanner, which I probably would rarely use. The 2 also has a worse display.
