LG G5 review: Modular misfire?

LG has its foot firmly on the gas. Its G5 flagship totally shake-ups the top-end phone market by introducing a module-based design so that additional accessory units can be added for new features and operation.

But while that’s a fun feature – one that makes the G5 among the most interesting phones we’ve seen for years, including Samsung’s edge series – perhaps LG should have taken that foot off the gas to avoid turning a design corner at such pace. Because the LG G5 is at risk of skidding off the road of reason.

Why? We simply can’t see modules being bought or used by, well, anyone really. Think about it: “oh, darn it, I forgot the battery/camera controls module that makes my phone three times the size.” Not going to happen. It’s added cost, it’s added bulk, it’s added hassle that undoes what a phone should be – a single item to slip into a pocket.

Additionally, somehow – and we’re kind of baffled how – the G5’s metal body looks and feels entirely plastic; the “cut” line towards the bottom as a result of the modular design looks odd; and the rear is probably the least attractive derrière we’ve seen on a flagship phone for ages.

But the G5 claws back points in other all-important areas: it has a ridiculously good camera, a decent Quad HD resolution display, oodles of power under that metal skin from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, and quirks like a rear-positioned fingerprint scanner that doubles-up as an action button. So ignore the modules feature and there are plenty of stand-out positive features.

So should LG have hit the brakes on its modular design concept, or is that merely a distraction from all that the G5 gets right? Having spent a working week living with the G5 is it the flagship shake-up success we’ve been waiting for or not?

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LG G5 review: Full metal jacket

We’ve long criticised LG for sticking to plastic designs while its competitors have gone all premium with metal and glass. Last year’s G4 had an optional leather back which went some way to offset that, but it wasn’t enough to convince the public. With the G5 it’s all change, featuring a full metal design – and it’s the only metal phone to feature a removable battery. That might sound like a winner but, like we say, the finish somehow looks and feels entirely plasticky.

But there are its design perks. The first is the display’s soft curve to the top of the handset, which tapers away vertically as if folding off the end of the phone; it’s ever so subtle but gives the G5 that little something extra.

The second is that the rear button control – which has come to define LG’s flagship handsets in recent years – now incorporates a fingerprint scanner. It’s a bit small and doesn’t work as well as the larger indent in a device like the Huawei Mate 8, leading to read failures more than on most modern flagships, but we like how it doubles as a click-to-press button control. LG watchers will also note that the volume controls are now more conventionally positioned on the side of the handset – not the rear, as per the G4.

The third is that LG hasn’t needed to include the normal reception bands of plastic that transect many competitor devices. The company says that it has achieved this by “micro-dizing”, leading to a seamless look in the main body section. So there aren’t the large plastic side stripes as per, say, an iPhone, but the G5 does have two subtle “openings” positioned symmetrically to its top side – around the 3.5mm jack and opposite – and we’ve found reception to be as good as any other top-end handset (which, given our use of Three network, is admittedly hit and miss).

Nonetheless, putting so much effort into hiding antenna bands is counteracted by the large horizontal “cut” line to the base of the unit required for the modular design. There’s a little movement between main body handset and this modular bottom section if you tug them, but the two parts will only come apart if the small button to the side of the handset is pressed. Although hard to convey in photographs, we’ve spotted an open gap between these joining sections increasingly throughout use.

LG G5 review: About those modules

Which brings us to the modular design concept’s advantage. It means the LG G5 can accommodate a battery swap as needed – a feature that no other metal-bodied handset can boast. That option is certainly welcome, as the 2,800mAh one inside isn’t the highest capacity going.

Throughout use we’ve found the G5 will just about scrape through a day on one charge – we’ve been managing around 13-hours from full charge before hitting the 15 per cent “danger zone” (which prompts battery saver mode activation) – but it begs the question, why not just put a more capacious battery in there in the first place? We suspect without the modular design there would be more room to squeeze in a larger battery capacity.

But it’s about more than just batteries, of course. What we’re calling modules, LG calls Friends. Cute, eh? At present there’s the LG Cam Plus camera controls/battery module; the LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play, for a Hi-Fi DAC and amp for 32-bit high-res playback (sounds great, but the G5’s built-in headphone socket already supports 24-bit audio, as well as offering aptX HD); and the LG 360 VR, a virtual reality headset.

To be clear: we haven’t handled any of these so-called Friends modules for this review. So our thoughts about them are based on their concept rather than any physical experience. Reviewing a phone minus some of its core feature kit might seem backwards, but at the same time it’s allowed us, to a degree, to not be distracted by these modules and use the phone as exactly that: a phone.

Ultimately it’s these modules that are going to split the crowd. Will LG continue to support them beyond the G5? Will there be additional ones in coming months (the LG 360 Cam, a 360-degree camera with back-to-back wide-angle lenses, is due)? Will anyone buy them? It’s all an open book for now – and one that’ll raise a lot of ongoing discussion.

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LG G5 review: Going hard on hardware

With the LG G4 the company made an interesting (and ultimately savvy) decision to not use the out-and-out most powerful chipset on the market. It was a blessing in disguise, as the selected Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 didn’t run as hot as the beefier Snapdragon 810 did in many other flagship handsets, such as the now-defunct Sony Z3+.

With the G5 LG has stepped things up a notch by selecting the Snapdragon 820 chipset, backed by 4GB of RAM. That loadout is just about as powerful as things get right now. It almost goes without saying that this translates to slick and fast operation, whatever you happen to be doing. And it doesn’t get fry-an-egg hot either; sure, there’s some heat with more intensive tasks, but it’s always manageable within this particular metal skin context.

Such a processor can hit hard on battery life when used to the maximum, though, and we’ve seen some sharp drops in battery life when running more intensive games and apps. The saving grace, perhaps, is that the G5 supports Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 – the company’s fastest recharging tech yet – via the USB-C port to the bottom.

And QuickCharge 3.0 is quick. Despite receiving third-party cables from Anker and a US rather than UK plug to go with our US-sourced handset, we still managed to boost the G5’s battery from 15 per cent to 68 per cent in a mere 25-minutes or so, as one example. The top-end of the battery charge is slower to recoup, but quick battery top-ups can go a long way with the G5.

There’s 32GB of internal storage and a microSD card slot available to expand this further if you wish. The latter is housed in the rather large tray on the side, which also handles the SIM card in a separate slot. It’s worth noting, however, that this microSD slot isn’t using Android Marshmallow’s adoptable storage feature, which can make said card like part of the hardware storage. So in the G5 it’s not seamlessly integrated and can only be used as a removable card. Not a major issue, but – and just like with the Samsung Galaxy S7 – a point to note nonetheless.

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LG G5 review: Quad HD display

The phone market has changed quite a lot within a year, with phone sizes at the larger end of the scale being accepted as the norm (probably the result of the iPhone 6S’s acceptance en masse). So while the G4 was no small phone, and the G5 is ultimately similar in size – although slimmer, with its maximum 8mm thickness – despite downsizing the screen size from 5.5-inch to 5.3-inch. Again, that’s the product of the module-based design: the detachable section to the bottom of the handset ultimately eats-up what could have been additional screen real-estate.

But as 5.3-inch screens go there’s plenty of good in the G5’s IPS LCD display. It sticks to a Quad HD resolution, delivering 2560 x 1440 pixels (554ppi) over that surface. Because it’s not AMOLED it avoids screen burn, and as the handset has an always-on at-a-glance display – the clock, plus alert icons from apps pop-up on the screen without you needing to touch anything – it doesn’t need to cycle the position of anything on the display, which is altogether neater than the approach Samsung has to take with its Galaxy S7.

LG has told us that the display has been redesigned to accommodate this always-on feature, only drawing 0.8 per cent of the battery over an hour. We can’t specifically measure this, and while we’ve not found overall battery life to be all that great in the G5, the always-on screen doesn’t seem to have a significant standing on battery drain. Plus, as the feature operates without waking the application processor, the phone doesn’t fully awake for all notifications, so those precious Marshmallow Doze functions work their magic, saving battery while you still get to see basic details on the display. 

Overall, we’ve found the G5 display to be of high quality. Auto-brightness works well (and with up to 900-nits it’s super-bright), there’s ample punch from colour and contrast (albeit the cast is a little cool/blue sometimes), while the IPS designation ensures decent viewing angles. That subtle curve to the top shows off the screen’s gloss coat but doesn’t cause excess issues with reflections either, unlike the hyper-gloss finish of the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

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LG G5 review: A ridiculously good camera

Flip the LG G5 around and, yes, it’s not very pretty. But the dual sensor camera on the rear doesn’t half take ridiculously good pictures.

We’ve seen dual sensors on the rear of a smartphones before now, including on LG handsets. So while the G5 isn’t the first to offer such a feature, LG isn’t going to be offering 3D capture again, instead paring a 16-megapixel main camera with an 8-megapixel wide-angle camera – you simply toggle between the “single tree” and “triple tree” icons within the app to pick which one best suits. It’s very cool.

The 16MP camera is the better of the two in a sense, as it’s supported by the laser autofocusing system that’s on board. Which sees the G5 have super-fast and super-accurate autofocus whatever you point it at, aided by a bright f/1.8 aperture for low-light shooting. We’ve shot in nightclubs, out on the street, in all manner of conditions and, without doubt, the G5’s camera is up there as the best performer we’ve yet seen in a flagship phone.

Switch to the 8MP wide-angle camera and things get very wide-angle. It’s all too easy to catch fingers in the frame, though, so you’ll have to keep an eye on those edges. There’s a fair amount of distortion from the 135-degree field of view too, but that’s to be expected. It means you can get loads in the shot, ideal for tight spots, panorama-like frames and landscapes. Plus the f/2.4 maximum aperture here still means there’s ample light getting to the sensor for decent shots.

The camera comes with three modes: simple, for basic point-and-shoot; auto, again for point-and-shoot but with a variety of modes available such as panorama, “popout” for processing-based enhanced blurred background, plus more options; and manual, for full control over all the shooting controls, from manual/autofocus, to shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, exposure lock, white balance and even raw/JPEG capture. Plenty of detail here to cater for all possible user levels.

The overall quality is really rather impressive too. We’ve been shooting frames hand-held in dim scenarios that some dedicated cameras would struggle with. Sure there’s some image noise – those mottled dots/colours – in the shadow areas, but it’s not especially bad, unless it’s very dark. In terms of actually getting the shot, though, the G5 is a true flagship. Better light yields even better results, in part thanks to that wide-open maximum aperture – which, with some specific focusing, can make for great blurred backgrounds in shots.

As cameras go in flagship handsets, LG’s dual offering is a storming performer with some great features that’s easily up there in among the mix for best of the bunch. It’s very impressive – to the point it’s almost made us forget about our not-so-hot view of the module-based design.

LG G5 review: Software

We’ve been using a US-sourced G5 ahead of final release software, so can only review the handset under those conditions, hence not yet awarding it a final score.

Even so, we’ve found the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow and LG software re-work build to be stable. Glitch-wise it’s only been the inability to use LG Backup to transfer out from a previous phone and a random one-off alarm going off at 15:00 (still haven’t figured that out) that have been small points to note.

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The G5 certainly doesn’t offer a pure, untouched Android experience, with the company making some fairly hefty changes. That ranges from the reworking of the settings, through to redesigning app icons. But the biggest change in this handset is removing the apps tray – something that’s common to manufacturers like Huawei, and we’ve always felt it makes things a lot more like the iPhone, with homepages full of app icons. Whether that’s you or not is, well, down to you – we don’t actually mind, but it divides team Pocket-lint.

Otherwise the G5 actually simplifies LG’s software approach, ditching a variety of features in older G-series phones such as Q Slide – those quick-launch overlays for multi-tasking – and dual-window support too. There are smart settings, though, with auto-responses to specific actions, such as Google Music opening when earphones are plugged in. Oh, and Knock Code – the ability to unlock the phone with a series of taps – is still present, but less useful, we suppose, considering the presence of the fingerprint scanner.

The overall G5 experience isn’t bogged down with pre-installed bloatware either, thus delivering a stripped-back approach that – ignoring the lack of app drawer – makes for a clean and approachable Android experience.

Verdict

The LG G5 is a flagship that’s going to split the crowd; it’s certainly had us bouncing from pillar and post. That module-based design is such a radical shake-up of the flagship market that we want to be excited, we really do, but we’re just not. Because we just can’t see that primary feature and the 360-camera/hi-fi/VR units ever getting explicitly used.

So, with modules axed from our brains for a moment, let’s hypothetically pretend they don’t exist. In that context the LG G5 has some really standout features: the dual-camera is something special, the Quad HD screen looks the part, and with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB RAM and QuickCharge 3.0 to boot, there’s all the power you could need. It’s good to see LG on board with the fingerprint scanner too, ensuring Android Pay is a reality.

But it’s still not a clean-cut result. The G5’s metal body looks and feels plastic despite being metal, and while all the “micro-dizing” and subtle screen curvature sells might sound the part, they don’t add-up for a phone that’s especially stunning; that fingerprint scanner also feels strangely small and isn’t as isn’t as foolproof as many current competitors (despite clever rear positioning); and the battery life is so-so given the 2,800mAh cell.

And so back to our opening gambit: LG has got its foot firmly on the gas, going full speed ahead for innovation and point of difference, but turning a design corner so steeply with the G5 is going to cause a collision of opinions, good and bad.

YouTube’s iPad app gets Split View and Slide Over features

Productivity and YouTube don’t always make a great pairing, but Google’s giving iPad owners a chance to make it work. The latest version of YouTube for iOS includes support for Slide Over and Split View — two of iOS 9’s tablet-specific features. The former lets you jump into other apps temporarily, while the latter — as the name suggests — lets you run two side by side. Of course, the benefit of these features is all in how you use them. If you’re planning on watching an Instructables video at the same time as making notes, productivity goes up. If, however, you’re really just watching FailArmy while trying to rush your homework, there’s no helping you.
The updates couldn’t come at a more opportune time, of course. You may have heard that Apple just announced a new 9.7-inch iPad, and the message was clear: the new Pro is about multitasking just like you’re used to on your laptop. Except, it’s not quite the same. You’ll still need for Slide Over and Split View to be enabled in both the apps you’re wanting to use. Oh, and if you thought iOS 9’s picture in picture mode made perfect sense here, that somehow isn’t enabled, at least not in this version.

Source: iTunes

‘Battleborn’ beta launches April 8th on PlayStation 4

If you haven’t noticed, episodic gaming is all the rage these days. The developers at Gearbox have taken notice and are structuring Battleborn’s story mode in such a fashion. A press release says that the game’s prologue and eight episodes work as a season that tell a collectively bigger narrative, while each episode will focus on a self-contained story about the game’s 25 characters.

The dialogue will change depending on who you’re playing both as and with in terms of those 25 characters, too. So, it sounds like there will be more of a reason to replay the episodes aside from getting new loot. More than that, Gearbox says it’s planning to release more characters and story episodes after initial release with a quintet of additional episodes for $5 each.

And that open beta launching first on PlayStation 4? It starts April 8th, with PC and Xbox One coming online five days later on the 13th. The test period includes two episodes from the campaign (playable in split-screen co-op for two players on a couch, and up to five total players online) and Gearbox says each will offer a sense of the game’s progression system for unlocking new characters, skins, gear and other bits.

Adversarial multiplayer will be on offer in the beta as well, featuring two distinct game modes: Incursion and Meltdown. The former has you working to destroy a pair of the enemy’s sentry drones while defending your own, while the latter tasks players with sending AI-controlled minions to throw themselves into an incinerator; the team with the most destroyed minions wins.

Sounds pretty cool, yeah? Maybe best of all, this isn’t tied to a pre-order of any sort and you don’t need a PlayStation Plus or Xbox Live Gold subscription to play these; it truly is an open beta. That the game isn’t afraid to use color — unlike another multiplayer shooter — is pretty welcome, too.

Amazon organized a secret robot, AI and space conference

Amazon brought a number of AI, robotics and space exploration experts together for a secret conference this week, according to Bloomberg. It was called MARS, or Machine-Learning (Home) Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration conference. Apparently, Jeff Bezos himself attended this very exclusive, invitation-only event in Palm Springs. He mingled with guests from various robotics companies, automakers like Toyota, research institutes like ETH Zurich and educational institutions, including MIT.

The conference’s details remain a secret — Amazon hasn’t even confirmed it yet. But Bloomberg says the guests attended seminars, including one that talked about giving robots human values. iRobot co-founder Helen Greiner also tweeted that she went to the conference, saw “old roboticist friends” and met new ones.

Seeing old roboticist friends and meeting new cool machine intelligence and space people @ MARS conference sponsored by @amazon

— Helen Greiner (@helengreiner) March 21, 2016

Amazon focused on these particular fields, most likely because they’re all relevant to its interests. It has robots working in its warehouses, and it even held a robotics challenge last year to develop machines that can find items and fulfill orders. Its Amazon Echo speakers come with Alexa, its voice assistant that can read ebooks aloud, control the lights and give you election updates. Finally, Jeff Bezos is in personally invested in the future of space exploration as Blue Origin’s founder and backer.

What I’ve been doing with my time over the last couple of days, https://t.co/K48hxWHL8n. #amazon #mars

— Alasdair Allan (@aallan) March 23, 2016

Source: Bloomberg

Apple Continues Pro-Environment Message With Three Exclusive iOS Wallpapers

After spending a portion of its “Let Us Loop You In” media event on the topic of environmental protection, Apple today decided to reward fans who use its Renew program (and those who don’t) with a set of exclusive iOS wallpapers.

As discovered by 9to5Mac, the company is giving out a URL on physical cards in retail stores when users trade in old devices for something new, but anyone can visit the site and download the art for themselves regardless of whether or not they’ve taken advantage of Renew.

Each wallpaper was created by Anthony Burrill, a renowned graphic artist, and was “inspired by nature and people coming together to help the planet.” The three pieces of art are called “Nature in Balance,” “Nature in Harmony,” and “Nature in Us,” and come fitted for the screens of the iPad mini, iPad Air, iPad Pro, iPhone 5, iPhone 6/6s, and the iPhone 6/6s Plus.

Users can download the wallpapers on a desktop in a zip file that includes different size versions of each piece of art, but it’s easier to navigate to the company’s website and save the image directly from the iOS device you wish to use the wallpaper on. That way all that needs to be done is a simple long press to save the image, then visit Settings > Wallpaper > Choose a New Wallpaper, and select one of the new environmental images.

Tag: Apple environment
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Android Pay UK launch confirmed, but Barclays isn’t on the list

Google has broken its silence on Android Pay in the UK, taking to its blog to confirm that launch in the UK is coming in the next few months.

Google details that it is talking to banks and retailers to get everything into place, so it can bring the Apple Pay-rivalling service to the UK.

Naming banks that are supported, there’s a notable absence of Barclays. Like Apple Pay, it seems that Barclays isn’t throwing in its lot with Android either.

However, Google confirms that Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards will be supported, naming the following: Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society. 

Android Pay will work through the existing and well-established contactless payment system that is already in place in the UK, so you’ll be able to pay for things pretty much as you do now with contactless payment cards you probably already have. 

Google names Boots, Costa Coffee, Waitrose, as well as Transport for London as notable examples.

Android Pay will also work within apps too, for example for JD Sports, Deliveroo and YPlan. That means you won’t have to tap in your details during the checkout process.

What’s missing right now is a concrete date that the service will go live. That’s understandable given the number of different pieces involved in the Android Pay puzzle. Google says it will be in “the next few months”, but by summer you should be able to use Android Pay in the UK, at least with a few banks.

READ: Android Pay: How does it work and where is it available?

Android Pay is coming to the UK ‘in the next few months’

While iPhone users have been enjoying Apple Pay, Android adopters in the UK have been left twiddling their thumbs, or experimenting with alternatives like Barclays’ bPay. Android Pay launched in the US last September, but Google has said little about a global release. Well, today that’s finally changing. The search giant says its service will launch in Britain “soon,” or specifically “in the next few months.” It certainly won’t be this month, anyway. Payments are handled over NFC, meaning the app will work anywhere that contactless payments are currently accepted. That includes Boots, Costa Coffee and the Tube network in London.

To use Android Pay, you’ll need to link a compatible Mastercard, Visa credit or debit card. At launch, this will include those issued by the Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society. The biggest omission from that list? Barclays. The bank, which is considered one of the “big four” in the UK, still doesn’t support Apple Pay, and seems equally lackadaisical about Google’s rival service. It’s frustrating but perhaps unsurprising, given that the company is trying to promote its own bPay platform and wearables instead.

Google has promised that new banks will be added “all the time,” however.

Android Pay acts as a digital wallet, so users will be able to use their account as a payment method for third-party apps such as Deliveroo, YPlan and JD Sports. It should be a one-tap process, removing the need to submit your bank card details every time you complete a purchase.

Until now, Apple has enjoyed a huge head start over Google in the UK. Android Pay’s delayed launch might not matter, however, given that the two services are exclusive to separate mobile operating systems. Consequentially, there are plenty of Brits that own an Android phone and haven’t used a mobile payments platform yet. Google does, therefore, still have a huge potential user base to aim for. Furthermore, contactless payments — and specifically, paying with your phone — is now a familiar and natural behaviour for Brits. That should make Android Pay easier to market and, in the process, improve its chances of being adopted.

Source: Android (Blog Post)

iOS Users in Japan Gain Apple Maps ‘Nearby’ Feature

Apple has extended the ‘Nearby’ feature in its iOS Maps app to serve users in Japan, bringing access to local points of interest such as bars, restaurants, health services and shopping centers.

AppleInsider reports that ‘Nearby’ is now active across the country, despite Apple having not yet updated its Maps feature availability web page to reflect the change. Apple reportedly introduced ‘Nearby’ to Japanese customers last December, but soon pulled the feature for unknown reasons.

‘Nearby’ lets users search Apple Maps based on categories such as Food, Drinks, Shopping, Travel, Services, Fun, Health and Transport, while each category can be searched deeper for specific places.

Nearby categories such as Food, Fun, Shopping and Travel can also be accessed from the Spotlight Search menu on iOS 9.

The location-based feature first appeared on mobile devices in the U.S. and China with the release of iOS 9 in September. A month later, ‘Nearby’ was extended to Australia, Canada, France and Germany. Finland, Netherlands and the UK soon followed, making Japan the tenth country to receive the localized feature.

Related Roundup: iOS 9
Tags: Apple Maps, Nearby
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Spotify heading to Indonesia; may debut in Japan and India

Spotify is all set to launch in Indonesia by the end of March, and it looks like the streaming service is set to continue its Asia expansion by debuting in Japan and India in the coming months.

HALO INDONESIA!!! #WaktunyaSpotify pic.twitter.com/D0YxEJiQxt

— Spotify Indonesia (@SpotifyID) March 20, 2016

According to TechCrunch, the music streaming service is looking to make its debut in the Japanese market shortly, with an exploratory interest in India.

The Indian market will be challenging to break into, as local offerings Saavn and Gaana lead the music streaming space. Apple Music also launched in the country last year, offering its paid subscription service for just ₹120 ($1.8) a month, albeit with a limited catalog of content. Saavn offers a wider selection of Bollywood music when compared to Spotify, but the latter wins out when it comes to international music. With Saavn Pro costing ₹99 ($1.5) a month, it will be interesting to see how Spotify prices its premium plan in India, as that’ll determine its market update initially.