Since its official release the LG G5 hasn’t been to the limelight as compared to Samsung Galaxy S7. Many are of the view that the latter is a lot better than the former, something we also tend to agree with.
Nevertheless, for LG lovers out there, this is a one-of-a-kind smartphone to have. In fact, when compared to last year’s LG G4, there are plenty of reasons one would want to upgrade, and here are just the five major ones.
A new design and build quality
As far as the LG G4 is concerned, the new G5 is a huge improvement in design and build quality. The 2015 flagship came in with a plastic body that somehow makes premium devices look cheap. In 2016, we have an all-metal design for the G5 that gives the phone the premium look that a flagship device deserves.
LG also reduced the physical dimensions of the G5 as well as display size, something that makes the new phone feel a lot better in the hand. The rounded edges and slightly narrower body structure also adds up to this ease of handling.
The design changes don’t stop there. LG G5 is the first modular device from the company. By being modular it means the G5 allows users to add extra modular accessories to the device, for instance, camera grip. The bad thing about this is that there are few accessories to be used with the modular design, and to make it worse, only one is available in the U.S.
Always On display
The LG G5 introduced a feature known as Always On display. Besides the modular design of the phone, this is one of the best additions this phone has received. While LG G4 users could access an almost similar feature via the Quick Circle case, the new Always On display comes preinstalled on the device.
With this feature enabled, it means your screen with remain on throughout, showing the time, date and a bunch of other notifications while the rest of the screen is “off.”
Samsung offers a similar feature on its Galaxy S7, but LG G5’s is better given that it provides info on notifications from all apps, including third party apps while Samsung sticks to its own apps. The good thing is that this feature won’t cause any battery drains.
A handy and fun-to-use dual camera
LG G4 has a 16MP sensor on the rear. This was actually one of the best in 2015, however, the South Korean company has taken things to a new level with the dual-camera setup introduced on LG G5. While the latter still rocks the same 16MP sensor like the G4, it goes further to add another 8MP sensor that is installed with a wide-angle lens. With this secondary camera, you will get views of up to 135 degrees, meaning more details will be covered in LG G5 shots as opposed to G4 shots, which only manage 78-degree angles.
Switching between the two cameras is hassle-free and in fact, it can be done even when in the middle of a recording.
Fingerprint sensor
The LG G4 was introduced at a time when fingerprint scanners were only beginning to look like a smartphone standard. Now that this feature is established in this niche, the LG G5 couldn’t live without it. To ensure that the feature adds the standout nature of the G5, the company worked on a sensor that happens to be among the fastest, if not the fastest, around. Of course, you’ll only know this if you’ve used a bunch of fingerprint sensors from other phones.
The location of the sensor is also ideal – at the back where the forefinger rests naturally when holding the G5 in your hand.
Monster hardware specs
There is no doubt that the LG G4 was a powerful device, despite the fact that it dropped the 2015 flagship chipset – Snapdragon 810 – in favor of an older and less powerful Snapdragon 808 SoC. The phone packs a RAM of 3GB, which should also be of great performance capabilities.
However, this is nothing close to what the LG G5 offers, coming in with a Snapdragon 820 SoC and a massive RAM of 4GB. These specs make the G5 fly during operations, be it multitasking or even intensive gaming.
Furthermore, LG has tweaked its software a little bit, making it slimmer than last year. This means that the device now offers much better performance when navigating thanks to the reduced clutter. Speaking of clutter, you won’t find things like QSlide apps, multi-window mode and the app drawer on the new LG G5. However, the latter can be revived with the help of launchers such as LG’s UX 4.0, among others.
So, will you make the switch from the older, but still capable LG G4 to the newer, powerful LG G5?
When will the press realize that 95% of cell phone users don’t/can’t upgrade every year? Comparisons should be against the phone that come out two years ago, not last year. The G5 should be compared to the G3, the S7 should be compared to the S5, etc.