Review: LG G5 on a mission to make smartphones less boring

Review: LG’s latest flagship comes with plenty of friends on the side but falls short of taking the Android crown.

 

LG is marketing its G5 smartphone with add-ons called “friends” to spice things up.

The friends are a camera control system, a module for high definition audio, a 360- degree camera, a virtual reality viewer and a rolling ball that captures images. They are more than accessories and pair with the G5. In some cases, you remove the battery and insert the friend module inside the phone.

G5 smartphone

LG G5 smartphone

LG’s new flagship, the G5 presides over this modular friends empire. To me, it is the best of the G-series, but that doesn’t make it the best Android phone. The G5 is a serious challenger but doesn’t quite match the Samsung S7 edge’s screen, camera quality and performance.

At 5.3 inches, it’s quad HD display is bigger than the iPhone 6s yet smaller than 6s plus, a useful in-between size. Being an IPS LCD screen, it lacks the sparkle of the S7’s AMOLED display but matches it in clarity and pixel density — 554 pixels per inch. It has a plain textured metallic body that offers grip and doesn’t show fingerprints but the detachable bottom section doesn’t quite fit with the upper section at the back.

A photo taken with the LG G5 regular camera.

Like Huawei’s P9, the G5 has two rear-facing cameras. One is a 16-megapixel, 78-degree lens, with optical image stabilisation, and the second an 8-megapixel 135-degree wide-angle one. You may have shot thousands of photos with a wide-angle lens on a DSLR, but snapping a wider view with a smartphone is super convenient. With the G5 you don’t need a lens attachment and the camera is excellent for taking lowlight shots.

The same view taken with the LG G5 wide angle lens

The G5 has good battery life with video playing for 10½ hours at 50 per cent brightness. There’s Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, which works well. It took 10 minutes for my review unit to charge from 4 per cent to 25 per cent, another 10 and it was 42 per cent full. The G5 charges with a USB Type-C connector and also has a sizeable 2800 milliampere hour removable battery.

Speed wise the phone’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chip set ranked highly in AnTuTu’s Benchmark, fourth behind Xiaomi’s Mi5, the S7 edge, and iPhone 6s. But the G5 can be sluggish when traversing menus, or when zooming with the camera.

It has a microSD slot that adds up to 200GB of storage but it doesn’t support adoptable storage.

The power button on the back is now also a fingerprint sensor and the volume keys have sensibly moved from the back to the side. Like Huawei, LG has ditched having a separate drawer for Android apps. Overall, this is the best G-series phone, combining an excellent camera with a wide-angle lens, good battery life, quick charging, microSD card support and a removable battery. However, it still has some way to go before it dethrones Samsung’s S7. The G5 costs $1099 RRP and will be sold by Harvey Norman, Telstra, and Optus from early next month.

LG friends — accessory devices for the LG G5 smartphone

Some friends are better than others

Hi-Fi Plus: This adds an outlet for a 32-bit 384KHz high-resolution audio. You take out the chin section of the phone and battery, transfer the battery to the new module and slot it in. You’ll need decent headphones. I listened to music through it using a noise cancelling headset supplied by Bang & Olufsen, which developed the module with LG. Sound quality is excellent. But why isn’t this a standard feature without a plug-in module, as it is on Sony Xperia Z range? BYO headset. $229

Cam Plus: It plugs in the same way as Hi-Fi Plus and adds physical shutter and record buttons plus a digital zoom wheel. It also boosts the existing 2800 mAh battery by 1200 mAh for longer shooting times. I’d find it useful for the extra battery power but I’m quite happy with standard phone camera control. It does bump up the weight and thickness of the phone. $129

360 Cam: This one is hands down my best friend. It pairs with the phone via an app and images from its two 13-megapixel cameras are stitched together to create a 360-degree panorama. It records 360-degree video and has in-built microphones for 5.1 surround sound, but no microphone jack. It screws into a camera mount, eliminating the need to hold it. It has 4GB of internal memory and you can add a microSD card. Similar in style to the Ricoh Theta S. $399

360VR: LG’s virtual reality glasses are more like goggles, and therefore don’t offer a fully immersive experience. VR resolution is mediocre and it’s awkward to focus. You have to take off the unit and rotate the inside of each lens separately. Also, I needed to wear my reading glasses to see images clearly; I don’t need them with the Samsung Galaxy VR, Oculus Rift etc. Not recommended.

Rolling Bot: A sphere with an 8-megapixel camera that rolls like a ball. It was not available for review and won’t be sold at launch.

LG charging kit: Not officially a friend but a useful accessory. You charge a spare G5 battery or use it as a power source. Spare battery included. $69.95

LG G5 smartphone
Price: $1099
Rating: 8/10