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LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S6 / S6 edge!

2015-06-07
the Korean Giants go head-to-head as one tries to stack the deck against the competition and the other tries to rethink the game all together this is Joshua Vergara manager Authority what's going on everybody and this is the LG g4 vs. the Samsung Galaxy s6 edge while one of these phones went in a pretty different direction from before the other tries to bring some new tricks to the formula yes the Samsung Galaxy s6 edge in this case is no longer of a plastic construction which is big for a lot of users who weren't really happy with that plastic anymore and with that comes the omission of irremovable backing however a metal frame keeps together a dual glass profile but the unibody design keeps the battery fixed and expandable storage has been kept from this new galaxy as well but while the regular galaxy s6 retains the pebble design from previous devices Samsung went all-in with the curved display and put edges on both sides of this particular panel this turns out to be a great feature for handling in particular as the screen comes down to meet the palm and makes this one accessible device a prominent metal lip definitely helps here so that the screen isn't all you're touching on the sides but otherwise this is a very Samsung S phone with the classic button layout tactile home button flanked by backhand recent apps capacitive keys and then the power button and the volume rocker or on the sides LG's general design is very similar to releases of the past year with the g4 coming with a larger screen but keeping a few points for handling mainly the button layout on the back that falls squarely where the index finger would land this is LG's signature now and remains a nicely functional take on the typical button placement curves are also a part of the LG g4 but to a lesser extent the curve on the front is subtle and much more pronounced on the back but in either case it helps with the phone sitting in the palm as well as for durability compared to normal slab smartphones and of course the main addition to the g4 is the leather backing plenty of nice feeling leather colors are available but the heavily finished plastic finishes are available if you have a problem with cow sourced material what's most important however is that the backings are all removable meaning that the large battery found within can be replaced with spares and a slot for micro SD cards is also available both phones leverage the curved display to a certain extent with the Galaxy S edge focusing on features and the g4 prioritizing durability but it speaks to how unique both of these phones really try to be handling is obviously a feather in the cap of the s6 edge but that can be mostly due to its smaller size meanwhile the g4 gets style points for its leather backings but otherwise this is best described as a worthwhile update to previous editions of LG's flagship line each company brings their respective display pedigrees to these phones with very specific focuses indeed the Super AMOLED panel from Samsung is an enhanced version of what you may come to expect already quad HD resolution despite this 5-inch display with all of the high color saturation Samsung has pushed for a long time now very high pixel densities are found here so all elements are really sharp whether at work or at play but what sets the edge apart is its usage of either curve you can put panels there particulate like information streaming make it glow a certain color if your favorite people are calling you and set it as a persistently glowing night clock these features might not be very robust or even completely useful for the masses but the story remains that the Super AMOLED from either Galaxy S iteration of the s6 continued Samsung's history of great display quality and in the g4 an update to one of the first quad HD releases flies right in the face of the Super AMOLED philosophy and in the LG g4 an update to one of the first quad HD releases flies right in the face of the Super AMOLED philosophy LG's focus this time around was to adhere to a DCI stand or typically found in TV and cinema supposedly hitting 98% of that mark rather than going far over it as Samsung routinely does apparently this is achieved by enhancing the IPS panel into what is called a quantum display so LG's typical panel gets a boost in color gamut and saturation 5.5 inches already is great for media consumption and even text for those who need a bit of a boost for the eyes as the pixel density is still quite high those claims about color saturation might be a bit too specific for the common user but it's hard not to see that the quantum display is definitely a few steps back in how it interprets colors compared to the Super AMOLED it comes down to whether or not sensory overload is important to you for lack of a better term because we found that the Super AMOLED display tends to please just that little bit more than other displays that said the g4 display brings more real estate for more fun so that certainly makes up for that ground lost in the color Department if you do prefer higher saturation I still give the Galaxy s6 edge points for handling but the 5.5 inch display does definitely still enhance work in play and again both of these releases go in different directions for the performance aspect we start with Samsung who decided not to rely on the snapdragons of the world and viewed the galaxy s6 as the global coming-out party for the Exynos 7420 3 gigabytes of ram rounds out the multitasking departments but what is most important here is how Samsung did truly optimize this new version of TouchWiz with their in-house processing package indeed the Samsung UI flies through its elements with one of the best ways of seeing it being the camera launch shortcut via a double press of the home button multitasking doesn't take a hit even when using the multi window or the S window capabilities but the recent apps screen is just as fast as it should be in this current crop of Android smartphones LG instead strengthened their relationship with Qualcomm and stuck with their Snapdragon 808 and high optimization to bring a fast version of the LG UX back to by the adrenal 4:18 and also three gigabytes of RAM this might not sound like the highest-performing package available but it certainly feels like one the UX is still pretty saturated with features but optimizations seem to have worked well to make this a very reliable and snappy daily worker the same situations for multitasking go quite smoothly then LG's own shortcut for launching the camera is pretty fast as well when it works most of the time while I did notice a bit of stutter in the g4 when playing dragon quest 8 in particular this can be due in part to the larger screen as much as the somewhat dialed back processing package performance for the most part is not a problem in either of these devices and you'd be hard-pressed to call one that much faster than the other disparity in situations like gaming are still pretty narrow and if you had to blame the software the LG UX still does feel a little more bloated compared to the somehow more Spartan iteration of touch ways this time around for perhaps the first time the hardware situation between the two korean giants has some real separation and that's because the LG g4 decided to keep two key features that many people have been vocal about in this new galaxy iteration expandable storage is probably the main source spot though the 32 gigabyte based storage option should be enough for the tip user but the battery is no longer removable so those who wanted the convenience of spares won't be able to take that advantage but the hardware editions while somewhat fringe do add to the phone's appeal like the heart rate sensor that works better this time around because of a vertical orientation and an easy-to-use fingerprint reader and the home button makes security pretty easy as you just have to press the button and leave your finger there to unlock the device the LG g4 does not come with the last to mention features but brings the removable battery and expandable storage security is still a personal matter as knock code returns though it is simply it not as easy as Samsung's fingerprint reader 32 gigabytes of storage is the norm for the g4 and but the ability to use microSD cards is a big boost and is important for those who in particular want to shoot raw in the camera and in battery the 3000 milliamp hour unit does bring some long battery life for even heavier users to perform tasks all day though the larger high-resolution display does seem to even things out a bit getting that second day of longevity is still a little bit tough to achieve which might be a little bit of a sore spot because full current iterations of fast charging aren't available here and wireless charging requires a specific back cover and in camera LG one straight head-to-head with Samsung in many aspects of their camera right down to the aperture indeed LG tried to one-up the Samsung F 1.9 aperture camera by bringing 1.8 and a larger sensor which does make sense for the right amount of data capture for photos and even then the fast laser guided autofocus is backed up by what is called a color spectrum sensor which tries to analyze the scene for proper white balance interpretation but the one-upsmanship continues with the manual mode in which the g4 camera app provides everything from a histogram to a full Kelvin white balance gamut to plenty of ISO stops and shutter speeds all in a pretty intuitive interface that any seasoned photographer will feel at home in yet pretty much anyone can get some great photos from the fast and responsive simple mode we're just hitting the subject will make it focus and get the shots the front-facing camera is another attack on Samsung as gesture based shots are bolstered by a 8 megapixel package rather than the 5 megapixel powered Samsung front-facing shooter these pictures are quite good in either case but we might put the s6 wide selfie feature as a little more useful than any of these gesture modes but it is pretty nice we had to easily check yourself portrait by bringing down the phone to a viewing angle which brings us to the samsung camera now whose f 1.9 aperture camera is still in a good place for nice depth of field shots and doesn't lose that footing from the g4 in that regard but it's a blue cz's a little more ground when comparing manual modes Samsung app provides a manual control but certainly not in terms of my new adjustments HDR can be kept on auto at all times like in the g4 but this is also true for the front-facing camera that is also f 1.9 samsung did finally get it that post-processing can make or break an image and in looking closer at the Samsung photos the grain is largely left alone not to mention that these photos get a bump up in saturation making for some really vivid photos in almost any situation now while the saturation isn't quite as high for the g4 it does do a good job of interpreting proper white balance levels making for a pretty accurate photo most of the time the f-18 aperture doesn't put it that much better in low-light situations but we do prefer it over Samsung in these cases but the g4 does have a bit of post-processing and noise reduction going on still making these photos a little smudgy unless that tiny bit behind yet this can be helped by shooting in RAW format for some post-production work in programs like Lightroom which is a great feature for the budding shutterbug as we already mentioned these are two of the best Android cameras we've used and either of these phones will be great companions to have in the pocket the g4 might be a bit faster in its auto mode but the Samsung pictures are just that little bit more pleasing to the eyes with their punched up colors and finally in software once heavily bloated operating systems do get the optimizations needed to create speedy and reliable daily drivers but in the case of LG much of what might have gotten too far into the users face do remain but are well hidden enough in this lollipop version of the UX certain features like the smart bulletin still need to be turned off from the get-go and the smart notice despite its pretty simple look doesn't prove as useful as LG claims and the qslide apps are tucked away from the quick settings unless you really need them even the enhanced calendar application for better date and item saving as well as a categorizing gallery don't really add up to really big additions but certain things like the Mac code and the ability to customize a soft key layout help the experience with dual window round the multitasking yet ultimately this is a very LGS take on Android and it manages to not be very harsh on the eyes what its most important here is that even when jumping among recent apps and sliding menus to and fro it keeps its speed throughout which is great and a testament to LG's connection with Qualcomm Samsung looked inward for their own operating system not only optimizing it for the Exynos but also slimming it down for the user plenty of tutorials in particular that use to annoy users are largely not found multi-window is as useful as ever which can be quite said for the s finder and the S window capabilities the latter of which is only available if you so want it and it's not shoved in your face Samsung's own apps have been updated - including s-health which looks better and is the platform for the better heart rate sensor and of course there are the edges which has a few features like quake notification view and takers for things like Twitter and news feeds but ultimately its best usage is still as a night clock where the time is lightly shown during user defined hours like in the evening for your nightstand as this year's flagship releases for both of these companies either will come in at the premium price on contracts and unlocks pictured here are the costs for either phone on the t-mobile simple choice plans the g4 of which has just made it onto all of the different carriers in the States and for the money these are very robust offerings if you want the best Android flagships available right now both of these phones tick off a lot of different boxes those who want a larger device will go for the g4 with its 5.5 inch screen that provides the quality needed for work and play the galaxy s6 and edge are still fun at their smaller size but it is at the expense of expandable storage and a removable battery for a more unique looking device the s6 edge is probably the most head-turning device but the leather backing of the g4 gives it a real measure of style and either camera or bring the kind of quality users will want for capturing the moment at any time as daily drivers these are speedy Android phones that are less bogged down by gimmicks than they were in the past of course it's always going to come down to what your needs are but what's great about these korean giants and their new flagship phones is that where one doesn't succeed the other one likely does and vice versa so you just need to get in touch with your requirements and then you can take your pick so as always thank you guys very much for watching and I hope you enjoyed this versus between the Samsung Galaxy s6 edge and the LG g4 which is now available on all major US carriers so if you're looking between these two maybe this video will help you make your decision nonetheless keep it tuned here for even more and all of our coverage that we've already had on the g4 and the Samsung Galaxy s6 edge and stay tuned for even more including the camera shootout between these two that I'm actually going to be conducting very very soon our first camera shootout vs. will be available very soon so keep it tuned here drop us and waxen our videos and subscribe to our channel if you haven't already listen to the FDP every single week to discuss Android with us and from there make sure you 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