LG has just unveiled the G2,
its new flagship Android phone and a concerted attempt by the Korean
company to enter the smartphone big leagues. But how does the G2 size up
against three of its chief rivals: the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One and the mighty Apple iPhone 5? We break it down for you below.
The
LG G2 is the first smartphone to sport Qualcomm’s quad-core Snapdragon
800 chip, here clocked at 2.26GHz. It’s teamed up with 2GB of RAM. That
sounds like an awful lot of processing power.
Hardware
The iPhone 5 has a proprietary dual-core 1.3GHz A6 chip and 1GB of
RAM, and the HTC One rocks a quad-core Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7GHz
and 2GB of RAM. The Samsung Galaxy S4 also sports 2GB of RAM and a
Snapdragon 600, but it’s clocked slightly higher than the One at 1.9GHz.
All, on paper, lag behind the LG G2. But will that translate into
real-world performance? We’ll have to reserve judgement until we get our
mitts on a review unit.
The
LG G2 has a 5.2in 1920 x 1080 screen that runs almost edge-to-edge on
the front face; despite its giant dimensions, this means you can still
hold the phone (reasonably) comfortably in one hand. It uses IPS LCD
tech and, from our hands-on, appears to offer better brightness (if not
sharpness) than the HTC One’s 4.7in 1920 x 1080 LCD.
The Samsung S4’s 5in Super AMOLED matches G2 for resolution, while
the iPhone 5’s 4in LCD Retina display features 1136 x 640 pixels,
putting it at the bottom of this particular pile.
Build quality
The
G2’s outer body is mostly constructed from plastic, but unlike the S4
doesn’t have a removeable backplate, so it’s less creaky than Samsung’s
phone. It’s sleek too, thanks to the only physical buttons being the
rear-mounted power and volume keys.
The metal-bodied iPhone 5 and HTC One are a level above the G2. The
One in particular, with its beautifully machined, seamless unibody,
feels like a phone apart in this group.
Camera
LG
has equipped the G2 with a 13MP camera and optical image stabilisation
(OIS) to combat the blurriness that can occur when taking photos with
unsteady hands. It’s the only phone here to offer OIS, but the feature
is available on certain Nokia Lumia models (like the excellent 1020).
The Galaxy S4 comes with a 13MP sensor, while the iPhone 5’s snapper
offers 8MP and the HTC One musters 4MP. Of course, the One’s sensor has
an “UltraPixel” design that cuts down the number of pixels in order to
make each individual pixel larger and more effective in low light. So
it’s not really helpful to merely compare megapixel counts when
discussing which camera is best. There’s also the quality of the lens,
colour reproduction and contrast to consider. The iPhone 5, for
instance, is widely regarded as better for photos than the Galaxy S4
despite its smaller number of megapixels.
That said, combining 13MP with OIS should make the G2 an impressive
shooter, with the stabilisation aiding low light shooting especially.
We’re excited to give it a proper test soon and look at the shots in
detail.
Battery
The
G2 comes with a giant non-removeable 3,000mAh battery that should
combine snugly with the Snapdragon 800’s power-saving capabilities to
deliver a lot of use. It’s the biggest battery here, but it’s worth
noting that it has the biggest screen to power as well.
The iPhone 5 has a 1,440mAh battery, the HTC One 2,300mAh and the
Samsung Galaxy S4 2,600mAh. The S4 is the only model here with a
user-swappable battery, however, so you’re able to carry a spare around
with you in case of power running low.
User interface
The
G2 runs on the Android 4.2.2 operating system, over which is layered
LG’s own UI software. While the Snapdragon 800 keeps everything fast and
lag-free, and LG has dropped in a few unique tricks of its own design
(the ability to turn on the screen by knocking on it twice, a
restricted-access “Guest Mode” for when you’re handing the phone to kids
or friends), we can’t help but feel we’d much rather have Google’s
stock Nexus Android interface. LG’s is too busy and bloated, and the
unique features aren’t anything to write home about (restricted profiles
are available in Android 4.3 anyway, for instance).
The HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 also use their respective
manufacturers’ own UIs (both of which strike us as superior to LG’s,
from our admittedly limited time with it), but are available with the
stock edition of Android too. Perhaps LG, which enjoys a good working
relationship with Google, will go down the same route a few months from
launch?
The iPhone 5 comes with iOS 6 (soon to be updated to iOS 7), which
offers a much tighter, slicker and friendlier user experience than any
of the manufacturer-tweaked versions of Android.
Extras
The
G2 comes with either 16GB or 32GB of non-expandable storage. All the
other models offer up to 64GB built-in – the iPhone 5 comes in 16GB,
32GB and 64GB options, the HTC One in 32GB and 64GB and the Samsung S4
in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. The S4 also features a microSD slot supporting
up to 64GB of additional space.
There’s no IR port on the G2, something you’ll find on both the One
and S4. But it does have sport a 24-bit, 192kHz DAC, which can mean
better audio quality through headphones (you’ll need to have compatible
files on the phone, naturally).
Verdict
The
LG G2 has impressive hardware, and on paper is the equal or better to
all of these other flagship devices when it comes to almost all specs,
storage excepted.
Of course, there’s much more to a smartphone than specifications –
software and usability are equally significant – so we’re not calling
the G2 the best phone around, especially not before we’ve properly
tested it. Stay tuned for a full review soon.For The Reviews Of Other Smartphones Click HERE
