LG G5 - A new development milestone or a step back?

Design

In terms of appearance and status, the LG G5 is a step back. G2 was very good and G3 was even better. What was the cost of just a 5.5-inch screen with a wild resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels at that time? If my memory serves me correctly, in 2014 it was the first device in the world with such a high resolution. And with their minimalistic shell, the Koreans were even ahead of Google and their Material Design.

LG G3

G4 was no longer such a breakthrough and became an evolutionary continuation of its predecessor with a cool leather cover. It really gives the impression of an expensive and stylish thing.

LG G4

G5 causes nothing but bewilderment. A strange, simple, rounded body - this is clearly not a flagship for several tens of thousands of rubles.

However, there are still positive aspects. Aluminum is not quite ordinary here.

The coating is made using updated technology and is very smooth. After G-5, the iPhone 6S feels more like sandpaper.

Of course, the new product is very slippery. I haven’t held the device in my hands without wires yet, but it’s already clear that dropping it won’t be too difficult.

At first I couldn’t figure out where the power button was. On the left are only the volume keys and a latch that opens the battery compartment. This is indeed a real compartment, but we will return to this later. On the right is a slot for SIM cards. What should I do?!

It turned out that the fingerprint inscribed on the back is the power button. After all the Huawei and Xiaomi, you know, I’m not used to pressing sensors.

The glass above the screen is beveled. For what? Why? I never heard a clear explanation. Apparently, they wanted to somehow stand out and not install 2.5D glass, but they had to bend something. And so it happened.

On the back side, the camera module protrudes strongly. I don’t know why many journalists don’t like this particular moment. It’s as if everything else is in perfect order here.

It’s interesting that there are no plastic inserts for the device’s antennas. Hardly ever. Upon closer examination, something can be found at the ends (see photo below). is that enough? We need to test it again.

The gadget will be supplied in four colors: dark gray, soft pink, silver and gold.

Platform

The LG G5 is built on the basis of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, but for the markets of Ukraine, Russia and others they created a model with the SE prefix - its basis is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652. From a formal point of view, the difference between the Snadragon 820 and 652 is significant: positioning in the line is simpler, technical process 28, and not 20 nm, standard Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A72 cores instead of proprietary Kryo, lower clock speed, slightly simpler graphics (but also from the Adreno 5xx line), more modest results in benchmarks, and so on. The amount of RAM was reduced to 3 GB, but at least they did not touch the built-in memory and left 32 GB. There is a MicroSD slot combined with Nano SIM.

There are problems in numbers - competitors have more advanced “stuffing”. In practice, the LG G5 SE seemed fast to me - the platform copes with a high-resolution screen, the smartphone is responsive in everyday tasks and can handle modern games well. Heating is within normal limits.

Modularity

I bet you a thousand rubles (I don’t have any more - where from?) that the idea of ​​modularity was born from the obstinacy of someone among the developers that a smartphone should have a removable battery. Back at the time of the release of G3 and G4, the company proudly announced that their battery was removable, and that the rest were fools. Why and who needs this was not explained. The gap has only now been filled.

It turns out that this is necessary so that if the main battery is discharged, it can be replaced with a fully charged one. By the way, it will be located inside a special box, which can be used as an external battery. Obviously, it will be possible to recharge the spare battery via a regular USB cable. See photo below.

Removing the battery is quite simple. However, it’s not easy to do without a hint or visual instructions. I hope there is room in the package for a short manual on this matter.

Without the bottom cover, the smartphone looks even weirder. However, the empty space can be filled with additional accessories (for a fee, of course). Among them may be a separate DAC from Bang & Olufsen. It supports 384kHz/32bit high definition audio playback

LG CAM Plus is a camera module that connects through the battery slot and has physical on/off, aperture, recording, zoom buttons and an LED indicator. The module is equipped with an intuitive autofocus and autoexposure locking function. In addition, this module increases the battery capacity by 1250 mAh.

In itself, it resembles an additional grip, which is sold as an accessory for SLR cameras.

We will talk about all other accessories, including virtual reality glasses and a 360 camera, in a separate article.

Display

Beautiful, high quality, with rich colors, excellent contrast, and so on.

• Quantum 5.3-inch IPS screen
• resolution 2560 x 1440 pixels
• dot density 554 ppi
• Brightness up to 850 nits

Of course, there is a very effective oleophobic coating.

However, the main feature of the screen is its constant operation. In any state, the G5 display continues to work, namely, the time, date and icons for various notifications are highlighted in monochrome mode. Of course, this is a useful thing and, as the company itself states, it does not require a lot of energy (0.8% of the battery per hour), in other words, this function will consume approximately 19.2 percent of the battery charge per day. Personally, it seems to me that this is quite a lot, but you need to try and test how things work with this in real life.

Specifications LG G5 (Model H850)

Despite the fact that the G5 is only similar in name, these are still flagships from the same company and it is possible and even necessary to compare them with each other. Below is a plate with device specifications, in which, as always, I marked in red the deteriorations and in green the improvements relative to the previous model.

The smartphone is very fast, but there are places where it (maybe for now) slows down. For a moment, but still. For example, this is when opening a search for settings. The device needs one and a half to two seconds to figure out what it is about. There are practically no visible brakes or lags. Unless you spend a long time delving into the settings, and then suddenly go to the work screen. The system freezes for a second and everything returns to normal. I think all these points will be eliminated in new software releases. Still, the flagships from LG work very well, if not immediately, then with the release of new firmware - that’s for sure. There is no doubt about the latter, because traditionally the manufacturer supports its devices for at least two years.

It was impossible to run the device in a benchmark (AnTuTu, for example) on the stand, because the cutting devices refused to run the test. Access to system information - please. Counting virtual parrots - hello.

However, I still managed to find a sample that became friends with AnTuTu. The result is below and, as you can see, it is not as impressive as is attributed to the device on many other resources.

Cool Features:

• support for wireless transmission of the aptX HD codec, which provides 24-bit audio playback via Bluetooth without loss of quality
• Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology – charges 27% faster
• Low Power Optimization (LPLE) technology – improves battery efficiency by 41.9%
• Daylight mode measures light levels and controls brightness so you won't even notice.

LG K5

Rating: 3 out of 5

Advantages: - 2 SIM cards

Disadvantages: - The camera is disgusting. The front one is simply not needed here, because instead of a face you will see a soap stain. Megapixels are not the only parameter for assessing image quality. 5 seems to be not so little. But you don’t have to expect anything from it, on par with clamshell cameras from 2005. If where you photograph is even a little dim or twilight, then you don’t even have to take it out. — With any fall, even a minor one, from 15-20 centimeters, the back cover with the battery flies off to hell (with 10 out of 10 falls), it just freezes and you want to throw it again so that it doesn’t come together again, in short, give it into the hands of the techno inquisition . — Although the screen is large, the pixel density suffers as a result. They are simply visible to the naked eye (pixels), which frankly reveals the cheapness of this device. Even the Alcatel Pixis for 4k rubles was better. -Although it is written that 8 GB, but never forget that at least 2 of them go under the system by default. I don’t have many photos; almost everything goes into applications, and not a very large number. That is, anyone needs to insert a card. It is not included in the kit. Write down additional expenses immediately.

Comment: I have been using it for 4 months. I didn’t even bother buying a case and film for it, it’s like storing the TV remote control in a bag. Just don't carry it in the same pocket as your keys. Although the back cover gets scratched quite a lot simply from the fact that it is lying on the table. I chose it based on price and the availability of 2 SIM cards. Now it’s already starting to get dull and freeze for about 5 seconds. I’m afraid to imagine what will happen to it in a year. A purely temporary balalaika will not last long. This is the current policy of manufacturers. It needs to be quickly bent and people go buy a new one. I would advise you to choose from the Chinese (Meizu, Xiaomi) who are now on the wave, before they become popular like other brands, then the price for similar models will be less, and for better ones the same. This is just firewood, which in a year will stop working normally and will eat up your nerves.

VKontakte constantly freezes: if you scroll through the feed and come across videos that play automatically, you immediately get a glitch, either you wait 10 seconds for it to be released, or it just crashes from the application. One time it really got to the point where I ran all over it, broke the screen, then in a fit of uncontrollable rage I also dragged the sofa and broke the wooden back. I really wanted to destroy the whole house at that moment. Although I am a calm person in life, this creation of Satan managed to bring me to such a state that no other person could manage. In general, if you do not want to suffer unpredictable damage to your property because you will be overcome by rage that you have never experienced when working with this plastic native of the underworld, urgently close this page!!!

Software chips

This time, the Koreans abandoned the button with a list or matrix of applications. All icons on desktops. However, its own shell remains and it hides Android quite deeply. The latest 6.0, of course. Now they have completely abandoned any colors in the settings. Everything is black and white, and the icons are only outlined. It looks ascetic. I would still prefer to be filled with some colors, as was previously the case in G3 and G4. Obviously, in the next version we should expect just inscriptions on a white background.

I have not yet noticed any other nuances that catch my eye. Go ahead.

LG G5 camera test

If we talk about the quality of the pictures, it is excellent.

Does the device take better pictures than ? It's very difficult to say. It is necessary to test and compare both generations head-on. One thing I can say for sure. The G5 has quite a lot of new features that its predecessor does not have, which means that to some extent it actually shoots better.

If you shoot with one 16-megapixel camera, the photos turn out very good, but ordinary. Why? But because when the additional sensor is activated, both cameras are used in the process and the shooting angle becomes much wider. One with a standard lens with a shooting angle of 78 degrees, and the second with a wide-angle lens with a viewing angle of 135 degrees. In general, it is better to see once than to hear a hundred times.

Below is an example number one (on the left is a regular photo), on the right (for two cameras).

And now example number two and three, to confirm the result, so to speak.

Personally, I would leave both matrices enabled. In any case, the picture can always be cropped from 24 to the same 16 megapixels. Right on your smartphone, don’t forget about it.

An archive with examples can be found here.

Among other things, the device is equipped with many photo effects: the 3D effect (Pop-out Picture) - a combination of a standard and wide-angle lens, the film photography effect - 9 film simulations and auto shot - a function of automatic selfie shooting when a face is recognized.

⇡#Camera

Competing with each other in the field of mobile cameras, smartphone manufacturers from time to time come up with something loud - sometimes successful (the very high resolution of the Nokia PureView 808), sometimes not at all (the very small resolution of the “ultra-pixel” camera of the HTC One). This year, dual-camera solutions came to the fore: first used in the Huawei P9, where two modules were used to improve the final picture, now on the LG G5/LG G5 se, where two different modules perform different tasks.

The body combines a 16-megapixel camera with an f/1.8 aperture lens and a standard viewing angle (78 degrees) and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle (135-degree viewing angle) camera with an f/2.4 aperture lens. The first one is taken directly from its predecessors: LG G4, LG V10. The same proven module with laser autofocus and optical stabilization, which allows you to get some of the best photos in the class, has changed little since last year, although competitors in the form of the Samsung Galaxy S7 and the same Huawei P9 also look very powerful.

The second module is much more interesting. It does not shine with high picture quality, being limited both in terms of aperture (which means the ISO inevitably rises in dark conditions) and in resolution. But due to the wide angle, it allows you to get very impressive landscape shots or shoot videos in the style of action cameras (first of all, GoPro comes to mind, of course).

Shooting with a wide-angle camera at dusk

In terms of the quality of the resulting image, the second camera is more reminiscent of modern front-facing cameras - with low detail and a high level of noise in the dark. Another thing is that it relies on very accurate laser autofocus, dual LED flash and manual shooting mode, due to which you can manually adjust the shutter speed, sensitivity, white balance and exposure metering method and get a very reasonable result, for example in twilight.

A separate plus of both LG G5 se cameras is optical stabilization. Blurring when shooting in the dark is still possible and even probable - I thus ruined several test shots without noticing micro-blurring on the smartphone screen. But with proper skill, you can shoot with shutter speeds around 1/5 and even 1/3 seconds. You can see an example above.

The camera application interface is the same as in the LG G4: three screens (only the viewfinder, minimal settings and manual mode), displaying all settings on the screen in one strip and a virtual horizon available in manual mode.

But the functionality has expanded slightly: in particular, a slightly strange “picture-in-picture” mode has been added, when the device shoots simultaneously with a wide-angle and a regular camera. At the same time, the central picture (the one with a narrower angle) can be changed using various special effects like a fish eye. The shooting mode with all three cameras is, for my taste, more interesting - it creates an entire atmospheric collage. But in this case, the shots are taken not simultaneously, but one by one.

In the pictures below you can see how the 16-megapixel LG G5 se module and the Huawei P9 camera performed in the same situations.

Regarding the LG G5 se camera, the same words that we said about the LG G4 are true - excellent clarity across the entire field of the frame, the camera confidently works with contour sharpness. The quality of shooting in the dark is good, the colors are not bad, although the Koreans have some tendency to choose too cool shades. No problems with autofocus - by smartphone standards, very fast and accurate work. In comparison with the Huawei P9, we note a more confident exposure metering and a more distinct separation of the subject and background in a portrait situation, but also a noticeably weaker dynamic range.

LG G5 se-cameragallery

The camera can shoot 4K video at up to 30 frames per second - it turns out, frankly, so-so. The resolution is fair, but the picture is slightly jerky; It's better to set it to standard Full HD.

The 8-megapixel front camera, without flash and autofocus, is quite ordinary and allows you to take fairly detailed selfies in good light. There will be problems in the dark - however, this has never bothered lovers of self-portraits; the value of a high-quality front-facing camera is somewhat exaggerated.