LG G4 review: Discontinued and forgotten

Released in April 2015, the LG G4 used to be a flagship phone and was among the only phones in the market that had an all-leather design. That clearly didn’t work out for LG, as it has since been discontinued and replaced by the LG G6 (and the LG G7, too). You’ll now struggle to find the G4 brand new, so we’d suggest avoiding buying a second-hand example and getting yourself the newer, greatly improved LG G6, instead.

If you’re keen to know more about the older LG G4, continue reading our review, below.

READ NEXT: LG G6 review: Last year’s flagship phone has significantly dropped in price

LG G4 review: Design

The leather is certainly an intriguing choice of design, but I was pleasantly surprised by just how comfortable it felt. The stitching down the centre is a particularly classy touch, and the smooth tan leather option provided just as much grip as the stippled black version.

^ The tan leather has a much smoother texture compared to the grainier black model

Measuring 149x75x8.9mm thick, it’s not the slimmest of phones, but LG said that its customers were more than willing to sacrifice a few extra millimetres for a more ergonomic design – and I’d be inclined to agree. However, the leather cladding does add a considerable premium onto the handset. If leather isn’t quite your bag, it’s also available in cheaper ‘ceramic and metallic’ versions (both of which are really plastic).

They’re still decent alternatives, as the ceramic model I had in for testing has a very subtle diamond-shaped pattern on the back of the handset. This adds a bit of visual flair to the phone when it catches the light, but in the hand it feels almost exactly the same as the plastic LG G3, making it a bit dull and tacky compared to the attention-grabbing leather versions. Having tested both models, I personally prefer the G4’s curved leather rear.

The curve extends to the front of the screen as well, but the arc is so infinitesimally small that you’ll barely even notice it unless you put the phone face down on the table. It’s certainly nowhere near as curvy as the LG G Flex 2, but at least it should still help protect the screen if it happens to fall face down on the floor.

LG G4 review: Display

The 5.5in 2,560×1,440 display was one of the stand-out features on the LG G3, so it’s no surprise that LG has reprised this resolution for the G4. The resolution isn’t quite as special as it once was, though, as both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge now have 2,560×1,440 resolution displays as well. What’s more, they both have higher pixel densities of 576 pixels-per-inch (PPI) thanks to their smaller 5.1in screens, beating the G4’s pixel density of 534PPI by quite some margin.

LG may not have the sharpest screen in the business any more, but its secret weapon is undoubtedly its brand new IPS Quantum panel. Not to be confused with LG’s Quantum Dot technology used inside its TVs, the G4’s screen uses a new type of liquid crystal that’s meant to enhance brightness and overall colour accuracy.

^ On first glance, you could almost mistake the G4’s IPS Quantum display for an OLED panel

In practice, the screen really does pop out at you when you first turn it on, showing lovely rich, vibrant colours and eye-searingly bright whites. Subjectively, it’s almost comparable to the OLED display I saw on the G Flex 2 in terms of sheer colour intensity, but the G4 higher brightness level of 505.66cd/m2 really helps to keep those colours looking just as punchy both inside and out, particularly if you’re out in the sun.

Blacks were deep at 0.27cd/m2 and we were suitably impressed with the G4’s contrast levels, which LG says are supposedly 50% higher than those on the G3. This would certainly seem to be the case according to my own tests, as I measured a huge contrast ratio of 1,715:1, which beats the G3’s measly 741:1 by quite some margin. Again, when I compared the G4 side by side with the G Flex 2, I could barely tell the difference in terms of image detail, which is good news for anyone still debating whether to go for this or a Galaxy S6, and the G4’s viewing angles were just as wide as its curvier brother.

However, LG’s boldest claim about the G4’s display relates to its colour reproduction, and sadly that’s not one I could back up during my calibration tests. According to LG, it’s the only smartphone display that can reach 98% of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) colour gamut, which covers a much wider range of colours than the traditional sRGB gamut, particularly when it comes to the number of shades of red.

^ According to our results, the G4 covered 96.3% of the sRGB colour gamut, with its weakest areas being its red and yellow coverage

LG says this equates to about 120% of the sRGB gamut, but our colour calibrator showed the G4 was only displaying 96.3% of the sRGB colour gamut. What’s more, it was the G4’s reds and yellows that fell short of the gamut boundary. Of course, 96.3% is still a highly respectable score for an IPS display, and it’s easily one of the most subjectively pleasing screens I’ve seen outside of Samsung’s Super AMOLED screens on the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, even if the nitty-gritty numbers (in my tests) don’t quite live up to LG’s promises.

LG G4 review: Camera

Aside from the screen, the G4’s other headline features is its 16-megapixel rear camera. It’s the world’s first smartphone to have a colour spectrum sensor on the back, which LG says is able to read and interpret colours in exactly the same way as your own eyeballs. It can read both the RGB spectrum and infrared, and will automatically adjust the white balance to make objects look more life-like.

The camera also has a wide f1.8 aperture lens and a huge 1/2.6in sensor, too, allowing it to let in up to 80% more light than your average smartphone snapper and take more accurate pictures in low lighting conditions. LG’s also improved the camera’s optical image stabilisation and I’m pleased to see the G3’s laser auto-focus making a welcome return as well.

^ That’s not a dual LED flash next to the camera – that’s the G4’s colour spectrum sensor

Colours looked very natural in my outdoor shots and I thought it captured the particular shade of the surrounding brickwork much more accurately than the images we took on the Galaxy S6 and One M9. It still struggled to correctly expose some areas of particularly bright cloud at times, but switching to HDR mode quickly sorted this out.

^ Outside, the G4’s Auto mode produced bright, natural-looking images that were very well exposed 

The real star of the LG G4’s camera, though, is its new Manual mode, which lets you adjust the white balance, manual focus, shutter speed and ISO live onscreen, giving you plenty of flexible controls to be a little more creative with your photography. There’s also an auto-exposure lock button, which automatically locks the ISO and shutter speed no matter where you point the camera. This is particularly handy for stitching several shots together, as it keeps the exposure steady as you pan across a landscape, for instance. It’s a shame you can’t combine this with the dedicated panorama mode, though.

However, photo enthusiasts will be pleased to hear you can save your files in RAW as well as JPG, making them easier to edit afterwards on your PC, and shutter speed times reach all the way up to 30 seconds, allowing you to take shots of cityscape light streams and liquid waterfalls, for example.

^ Manual mode gives you a huge number of controls to play with, and we particularly like how you can adjust them live onscreen

LG’s also included a quick launch mode, so you can take instant snapshots without having to unlock the phone first. It’s certainly very handy, as LG says it launches in just 0.6 seconds, but I wish it hadn’t been mapped to the rear lower volume key, as this is possibly one of the least accessible buttons on the entire phone, particularly if you’re trying to shoot in landscape mode.

As for the front camera, this has an 8-megapixel sensor and LG’s new Gesture Shot feature will let you take four selfies two seconds apart by opening and closing your fist twice. It’s a fun feature if you’re out with friends, but my tests shots could be quite overexposed in the background and there was quite a lot of noticeable noise cancelling present as well, which smudged the edges of certain objects. I’d also recommend keeping the beauty filter on low, as this tended to blur some of my facial features together, wiping out almost all sense of skin texture and fine detail.

^ The leather versions of the G4 come in various different colours, but currently cost more than the ceramic and metallic models

LG G4 review: Performance and Battery Life

Rather than use the same octa-core 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset as LG’s own G Flex 2 and the HTC One M9, LG has instead chosen the slightly slower hexa-core 1.8GHz Snapdragon 808 chip to power the G4 as well as 3GB of RAM. This isn’t as fast as the chips inside other top-end smartphones, and it showed in our suite of benchmark results.

In Geekbench 3, for instance, the G4’s score of 2,547 in the multicore test is a long way behind the Galaxy S6 and One M9, as they both scored 4,501 and 3,649 respectively. In fact, it sits more comfortably alongside the mid-range £270 Moto X Play. Likewise, the G4’s single core result of just 692 has even been surpassed by budget phones such as the Acer Liquid Jade Z, which is hardly a ringing endorsement for a flagship smartphone.

However, benchmark scores are only part of the story, as I found Android to run perfectly smoothly on the G4 and I had no trouble dipping in and out of apps. The G4 also closed the gap somewhat in our Peacekeeper web browsing tests, scoring 818. As a point of comparison, the One M9 scored 1,138 and the S6 1,257. Again, while this doesn’t look great on paper, I found web browsing was beautifully smooth when scrolling up and down complex news sites like the Guardian, and I saw no signs of judder whatsoever, so it should be more than capable of handling demanding tasks.

^ The G4’s micro USB port is extremely secure and has a satisfying click when you connect a charging cable

The G4 also coped well with our suite of games, as it ran Blizzard’s Hearthstone, Threes! and Alphabear perfectly fine despite its somewhat average benchmarking results. For instance, it only produced 921 frames in the offscreen GFX Bench GL Manhattan test, which equates to roughly 15fps, but this is an extremely demanding benchmark and even the Snapdragon 810-equipped LG G Flex 2 only managed 1,179 frames (or 19fps) in the same test, so you should still be able to get your gaming fix on the G4 regardless of what type of game you like to play.

One big advantage the G4 has over its rivals is its expandable storage. All handsets come with 32GB of built-in memory, but this can be expanded by up to 128GB via a microSD, making it much more flexible than the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge. It also means you don’t have to pay more to get a high capacity phone. Instead, the only price decision you have to make here is whether you want the more expensive leather model or not.

^ Unlike its metal rivals, the LG G4’s 3,000mAh battery is completely removable

Another point in the G4’s favour is its big 3,000mAh removable battery. Unlike its metal-bound rivals, which seal the battery away inside the main chassis, the G4 gives you the option of attaching larger battery packs to the rear of the phone to extend the phone’s overall battery life. It also allows you to replace the battery later on in the phone’s life-span if it starts to degrade.

Admittedly, I was hoping for a little more from the G4 considering the size of its battery, but its 11h 58m of video playback with the screen set to 170cd/m2 is still a pretty decent score for such a large phone. This should be more than enough to get you through the day, and it compares well with the Galaxy S6, which lasted 13h 37m under the same conditions and has a smaller screen to power. It’s certainly got more life in it than the One M9, which managed just 9h 13m, but the Galaxy S6 Edge is still the current forerunner with its battery life of 15h 33m.

LG G4 review: LG UX 4.0 & Android 5.1

Note: Since the review was written, the LG G4 can be upgraded to Android v6.0 Marshmallow.

The G4 runs the latest version of Android 5.1, but it also comes with LG’s new UX 4.0 interface over the top. In keeping with Google’s new Material Design scheme, it’s much cleaner and flatter than the G3‘s interface, and I much prefer how its Smart Notices have been integrated with the main clock and weather widget on the main homepage.

LG’s Smart Bulletin board lies to the left of your main screen, which houses LG’s Health app, your calendar, music controls and other quick start guides, but thankfully you can select which bulletins you want to appear, or disable the entire panel if you don’t want it clogging up your home screen.

You can also choose whether to allow notifications on the lock screen, and LG’s Knock Code pattern returns as an alternative method of unlocking your handset. First seen on the G3, this lets you tap out a specific pattern onscreen even when the display is turned off to unlock your phone. It’s very effective, and perhaps a little more secure than the more common unlock pattern settings you’ll find on other smartphones.

Other handy features include a new Smart Settings menu. This can automatically switch sound profiles when you get home, for instance, and you can also enable it to turn on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth settings as soon as you step through your front door, or turn them off again when you leave. Likewise, plugging in a pair of earphones or connecting it to a Bluetooth speaker can prompt it to automatically open an app like Spotify or a game, for instance, to save you the hassle of rooting around for it in the app tray.

^ Smart Notices are now much more neatly integrated into the main weather widget, and it will also tell you which apps are using a lot of power

Meanwhile, Smart Power Saving will warn you when apps are using too much power, and will create a Smart Notice prompt to let you shut them down in order to help save battery. Likewise, the G4’s graphics RAM will put the CPU to sleep when there’s nothing happening on the display, helping you squeeze a few more hours out of it when the phone is locked.

The new Event Pocket feature in the basic Calendar app is also quite useful, as this lets you add new events by dragging images, text, memos, tasks, locations and even information from Facebook directly into your monthly planner. It could use some refinements, though. For instance, I wasn’t able to drag a pocket image onto an already scheduled event without it creating a separate entry.

^ Event Pocket makes it easier to personalise and consolidate your various calendars, but we’d like to be able to add more than one piece of information without creating multiple events

Likewise, any time information in a memo, for example, isn’t scanned or picked up when it creates the calendar entry, so you’ll have to manually adjust these figures after you’ve dragged in the text. Dragging in Facebook events is pretty handy, though, and it will even suggest nearby events for you to add into your calendar as well. Finally, Quick Memo+ lets you save the contents of web pages for later, stripping out the adverts so that you’re only left with the text.

LG G4 review: Conclusion

The G4 may not be as powerful as other flagship smartphones, but it’s certainly got a wealth of features to help it stand out from the competition. While I’m not a huge fan of the ceramic or metallic models, the leather back is surprisingly elegant and I definitely prefer it to the slippery glass back of the Galaxy S6. The G4’s unique colour spectrum sensor also puts it neck-and-neck with the camera on the back of the S6 and I think its display looks just as sharp and punchy as Samsung’s Super AMOLED panels.

In this sense, I’d say it’s a genuine alternative to either of Samsung’s flagship handsets, and I’d definitely choose the G4 over the HTC One M9 despite the decrease in overall performance speed. The G4 might not have as much stamina as the S6 or S6 Edge, but its removable battery does give it an extra degree of flexibility and the presence of a microSD card slot also makes the G4 a far more accommodating device than almost every flagship phone I’ve seen this year.

The leather might not be to everyone’s tastes, but the G4 is definitely the phone to choose if you want a top-end handset that can adapt to your own needs. For me, the curved screen of the S6 Edge still has that unbeatable ‘wow’ factor, but the LG G4 is a very worthy alternative.