LG G5 HANDS-ON IMPRESSIONS
LG's G5 puts the fun back in functionality with crazy new pop-out modules
The LG G5 is a surprising phone. Not because it’s shaped like a barbecue grill or anything odd, but because it’s complemented by a range of unusual plug-in and standalone accessories. It’s all part of an exciting larger picture for LG, where the emphasis is on having fun with tech. That’s real fun too, not artificial “fun” generated by yet another incremental spec upgrade. It’s surprising, then — and very welcome.
Announced alongside the phone are two modules: the Cam Plus and the Hi-Fi Plus, which expand the G5’s photographic and audio functionality, respectively. These plug into the phone itself, but they’re not the G5’s only Friends. LG has also made its first push into VR with the standalone 360 VR headset and 360 Cam, plus a crazy robot — yes, we said robot — that whizzes around the floor like a headless BB-8, designed to torment your cat and watch over the house when you’re out.Talk of modular phones died down over the past few months after Project Ara was delayed, and although LG’s not calling the G5 a modular phone, it is one. Except you can’t swap the processor, screen, or complex parts. Instead, with the press of a button on the side of the metal phone, its bottom pops out to reveal the battery and an expansion slot ready to be filled with modules and accessories, which LG collectively calls “Friends.”
LG has built a house of fun for the G5, and you’re invited.
All metal, no bands
The G5 itself runs the house and is central to this crazy ecosystem, which is only in its infancy. The phone’s body is made of metal — a first for LG’s G Series — but it’s not a heavy metal, nor is it course or heavily textured. It’s very smooth to the touch with an understated finish. We’ve seen metal phones many times before, but the G5’s beauty comes from covering up something we’re all too familiar with: those plastic antenna bands. It used a process called micro-dizing, which hides the bands from view without disrupting reception. We wanted more details on how it works, but LG wouldn’t reveal its secrets, saying only that it has taken years to get right. The result is an uncluttered look that’s very striking, to the point where it’s hard to believe the G5’s made of metal, because we’re so used to seeing those antenna breaks running across the body.
The phone’s body is made of metal, but has no visible seams or cellular antenna bands — a first for a metal device.
The lack of seams softens the phone’s look, something accentuated by the many curves all over the G5. Curvy corners blend into rounded edges, while the body gently rises around the camera lens and fingerprint sensor, a design that’s more preferable and less jarring than the sharp angles seen on theGalaxy S6 Edge. The top of the screen turns down toward the body, in an exaggerated 2.5D screen effect, and if you look at it front-on there’s a hint of an angled G Flex 2-style curve to the G5’s body itself. It’s not showy, but mature and considered. I really like it.
Jeffrey Van Camp/Digital Trends
LG has reduced the screen size to 5.3 inches over the 5.5-inch G4 and kept the resolution at 1440p, but raised the brightness to 900 nits, promising excellent visibility even in challenging conditions like a sunny beach. A Snapdragon 820 processor with 4GB of RAM powers the phone, there’s 32GB of storage space, a MicroSD card slot, and a 2,800mAh battery. That’s smaller than the G4, and it has the extra pressure of keeping the new always-on screen alive. LG’s done its best to minimize the impact this has on the battery by putting the display IC (integrated circuit) in charge rather than the Snapdragon chip, resulting in power drain between 0.3 and 0.8 percent per hour over a 24-hour period. This is what they told us, anyway. However, this pull is less than the amount needed to wake up the phone entirely to check the time and notifications, so everything may work out in the long run.
Android 6.0 Marshmallow is installed on the G5, but the company has taken the controversial decision to remove the familiar Android app drawer from its user interface. Huawei and ZTE have done this for a while, and LG says it’s in the name of simplicity. In reality, it doesn’t make a huge difference, and newcomers converting over from the iPhone will probably find this easier — but it’s going to annoy Android purists.
The G5’s performance was strong during our hands-on time, with apps responding instantly and no sign of any excess heat from the processor.
Dual camera lenses
No, the dual-camera lenses on the G5 aren’t for stereoscopic 3D images, they’re for taking really wide-angle shots that look amazing. The G5’s field of vision is 135 degrees, which is 15 degrees more than the human eye manages and way beyond the standard 75 degrees provided by most phone cams. The difference is dramatic, making it possible to get a complete shot of a room, landmark, or view without the need to use a panoramic mode.
The second lens takes standard angle shots, and there’s a fun mode where the two lenses take a photo at the same time, producing a weird effect with a tight central shot surrounded by a wide-angle picture. Also, and for the first time, LG’s added in filters. There are nine in total, all inspired by film-based looks, and they can be applied in real-time to stills and video. Taking pictures with the G4 (and the G3) was always a joy, and there’s no reason this will change on the G5. The wide-angle shots are genuinely startling, the difference instantly noticeable when compared to a competing phone. Combine this with the G5’s already superb camera ability, and we expect it to be another hard act to beat in 2016.
Here’s where we get to the G5’s Friends, because adding the new Cam Plus module will be the next step for the keen mobile photographer. Slot it in and your hand wraps around a large grip that houses a battery extender pack, which adds an additional 15-percent capacity, plus a two-stage shutter button, video record button, and zoom wheel, all placed within reach of your right hand. The zoom feature is a hybrid, mashing both digital and optical zooms into one. It certainly caught and maintained focus quickly, and the zoom wheel feels natural, but there was still a drop in image quality when zoomed in.
The other new module isn’t photography orientated, but one for audiophiles. The Hi-Fi Plus module is almost a direct replacement for the bottom part of the G5, adding barely any size or weight, and giving the G5 a 24-bit DAC co-designed and tuned by Bang & Olufsen. Oddly, attaching this module does add another headphone socket to the G5. The socket on top of the phone uses LG’s 24-bit DAC, while the Hi-Fi Plus module’s socket sends out B&O’s audio. Weird.
Pop, snap, clip
Forget all those years of treating gadgets carefully, and thinking that a gentle touch produces better results than wildly pushing away at screens and buttons. The G5’s Friends need to be treated with a bit of roughness. Press the button on the side to pop open the magic slot (not its official name, by the way), and then pull the long battery and base plate free.
Once its out of the phone, the battery has to be detached from the base plate and reattached to a new module. This requires a firm snap, and the first few times you do it, it’s scary: The amount of force needed goes against the way we’ve been conditioned to treat these expensive gadgets. Battery attached, the module is slid back into the G5. Because the battery has been removed, the phone’s now turned off, so you’ll have to turn it back on. Although the volume buttons have been shifted to the G5’s edge, the power button is still on the rear under the fingerprint sensor. A compromise, but vaguely in keeping with the three-year LG tradition of putting buttons on the back of the phone.
All this popping, snapping, clipping, and sliding is fun the first few times, but we can see it becoming a chore the more modules you have at your disposal, and the more times you do it. LG’s opening up the API for third-party developers, so more modules could be made, adding even more features to the G5. After all, that’s what modular phones are all about. Whether LG can attract new friends to make new Friends is the big unanswered question.
Sliding out components, unclipping bits, and exposing the innards of a phone to the elements while you do so raises the question of durability. There’s no reason to expect all the securing clips to degrade or get loose, but it’s not a worry I’ve missed since sealed smartphones became commonplace. There’s also the potential for dropping or losing bits while out and about, and if the phone takes a tumble without the base plate fitted, we don’t hold out much hope for the bottom of the screen.
Not everyone is going to like all this chopping and changing. It’s the way modular phones must work, however, so if you want the flexibility, you’ll have to get used to it. LG’s putting the G5 and selected accessories on sale in April.
That’s normally where we’d end our hands-on, but LG’s not finished yet.
First steps into VR
LG wants to make cool tech more accessible to regular people, and the company has come up with the 360 VR headset and GoPro-alike 360 Cam, which along with the other modules are controlled through an LG Friends Manager app that come pre-installed on the G5. Everything syncs up using a proprietary system that means no messing about with complex setup, no passwords, Bluetooth pairing, or third-party app downloads. If you own a G5, it’ll all just work.
At least, that’s the theory.
We tried out some pre-production hardware and it still needs some work. Once we figured it out, it was fine, but it took some effort to get there — and we’re supposed to know this kind of thing. The 360 VR headset requires a tethered USB Type-C connection with the phone to operate, and it has to be directly into the phone itself, not through the Cam Plus module. That took some figuring out. The 360 VR uses the phone as a big touchpad, instead of the visor-mounted controls seen on the Gear VR, and it’s intuitive, but this and the cable mean you always have to have the phone close to hand.
LG’s Rolling Bot whizzes around the floor like a headless BB-8.
It’s probably unfair to judge the UI and VR experience right now, but it definitely needed improvement. The menus wobble around way too much, and the effect quickly gets sickly. This is not a comprehensive VR system like Gear VR; it’s a glorified version of Google Cardboard, operating Cardboard apps and showing 2D and 3D video. As a face-mounted portable video screen it has a use, being astonishingly lightweight at around 100 grams, but there’s plenty of light bleed around the edges to lessen any immersive effect you may get.
Content shot with the 360 Cam can be played back on the 360 VR. The dual 13-megapixel fish-eye lenses capture stills and 2K video, and audio is picked up by dual microphones. There’s a MicroSD card slot for additional storage, and the cam supports YouTube 360 and Google StreetView content.
Finally, there’s the crazy LG Rolling Bot. It’s a robotic ball, again, like a headless BB-8, that patrols your home — or at least one level of it, because it’s not going to cope with stairs. The clever gyroscope inside keeps the central section with a camera steady, and broadcasts to the G5 over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The Rolling Bot can be completely controlled using an app, so he can roam around the floor while you spy on the family or pets. Should you stumble across the cat, or vice versa, Rolling Bot has a laser pointer to keep it occupied. The Rolling Bot we saw in action is one of the few in existence, and while a massive amount of fun, we have toquestion if anyone will actually find a long-term use for it.
Conclusion
In the recent past, LG has launched its flagship smartphone at a separate event after Samsung has shown its hand for the year. Now, not only is it putting the G5 up against Samsung’s 2016 top model at exactly the same time, it’s bringing a gang of Friends for extra intimidation as well. That’s bold. The great news is the G5 is gorgeous, and the modular feature makes it truly different from any other major phone. An impressive camera is almost expected from LG these days, and we believe it won’t disappoint during a longer test.
LG obviously wants you to buy into this brave new ecosystem, and if you go for the G5, it would seem almost stupid not to embrace it. Prices are yet to be revealed, and will be crucial to success. All we know is the modules will be “reasonably” priced. We also don’t yet know the U.S. or worldwide release dates, so stay tuned.
We’ll know whether you should shell out for the G5 after we spend more time with it, but for now we’re definitely happy to have met the G5 and its extended family. So far, LG has proved a lot of fun to play around with in 2016.
Highs:
- Gorgeous, curvy, all-metal body
- Bright, high-res screen
- Modules add useful new features
- Removable battery and MicroSD card slot
- The center of a fun gadget ecosystem
Lows:
- Needs investment of time, effort, and money
- Modular system may prove awkward
- LG 360 VR still needs work
Read more: Tech Crunch
