Gadgetory

once you remove Samsung and Apple from the equation manufacturers are fighting for a much smaller chunk of the smartphone sales by for consumers wanting an alternative to galaxies and iPhones who offers the more complete solution i'm juan carlos back now for pocket now and here's our showdown between the HTC 10 and LG g5 the fight between these two companies is fascinating LG's products in 2015 were very well received critically though the G flex 2 suffered early teething pains because of the Qualcomm 810 our comments are full of folks who are fans of phones like the g4 and v10 HTC on the other hand struggled to find their footing after releasing the one m9 and the iPhone clone one a9 however the beginning of 2016 is an almost complete role reversal the g5 represents a more dramatic departure from previous LG phones a metal shell covered in a premium paint replaces plastic and leather this shell is a unibody frame with a detachable chin to swap the battery and we add a whole second camera to the experience to capture a super wide field of view but there are a few missteps here seams or rough edges feel unfinished a buttons feel a little bit tacky and the chin doesn't seal the bottom as well as we'd hoped during our comparison our silver g5 also started randomly rebooting and was sent back to 18 T where it was replaced with a gray g5 and happily the chin seems to fit better on this phone than on our previous the silver g5 will still show up in some of the shots for this video though HTC on the other hand hasn't taken as grand a departure with the 10 in many ways this phone gets HTC back to basics and from a distance might still be confused for a One m8 but in the hand this phone reminds us what an engineering force HTC can be this is wonderfully completed hardware with exacting attention to detail buttons are clicky the flat sides give you something to hold on to but tapers to the rear casing help the phone feel thinner in the hand these large chamfers really do play with light in a unique way it's subtle but distinctly different than previous HTC s both phones feature quad HD LCD displays though the HTC uses a slightly smaller 5.2 inch Green over the LG's 5.3 inch screen overall dimensions favor the HTC though it is about a millimeter thicker and the 10 does have a slightly better screen to bezel ratio on that front face to my eye the HTC has the brighter LCD when using the screen in direct Sun but neither phone will unseat the high brightness mode found on samsung amoled displays both phones also have faster always-on fingerprint sensors economically the rear mounted scanner on the g5 will likely be easier to reach for all people regardless of hand size and the HTC requires more repositioning to reach under the display but in anecdotal testing over the last couple days the HTC seems to have fewer misfires though that could simply be behavioral as the home button requires a more deliberate action to put a thumb on that sensor the 10 brings us back to hardware capacitive navigation controls software proves to be more flexible as LG allows users to customize the order and the features at the bottom of the screen and while some might not enjoy losing a little strip of that screen many apps and games now hide this strip which actually works well to prevent accidental button activation during heavy boss fights LG also took a bigger risk with the g5 s UI getting rid of the app drawer for more iPhone like experience carrier branded models don't include a replacement for the app door out of the box but it can be replaced by downloading LG Smart World app store then installing the LG home user experience if you want an app drawer it's honestly just faster to use now launcher or my personal favorite nova launcher on the whole I find mixing app shortcuts and widgets to be a fairly cluttered experience and I greatly prefer separating out the apps I use most while organizing the rest in a drawer alphabetically but of course your mileage will vary again HTC looks to refine more than push new boundaries with this version of sense their skin which runs on top of Android marshmallow it's still a significant departure from stock Android but it's well familiar terra-tory at this point navigating this UI should be fairly easy for consumers coming from any other Android and there are some nice customizations to the app drawer though I do wish there was a native way to change the grid size on the home screens seems kind of silly not to offer a five-by-five option with this quad HD screen also of note how little duplicate software there is on the HTC 10 it's a genuine pleasure just be able to fire up the Google Calendar as the stock solution and not have to manually disable notifications from a pre-installed calendar app I'm not as likely to use performance between these two phones is nearly identical as we're utilizing the same Qualcomm 820 chipset with four gigabytes of RAM a people engaging in heavy multitasking situations will be happier with both of these phones over last year's offerings gaming performance is very similar as well we still see some dropped frames on Marvel future fight on high settings implosion occasionally stutters when lots of enemies are on screen though it is impressive to see how we're pushing the boundaries on mobile devices that there are developers taking advantage of the horsepower on these newer phones the camera battle this year is a hard-fought fight over three fronts HTC's camera is much improved over the m9 but LG offers one of the most formidable software and hardware combinations for capturing still photos available on the market LG's more refined camera app is pretty handily able to outperform HTC in most shooting situations in bright light both phones produce colorful images with nice bokeh LG does have a closer minimum focusing distance for macro shooters and LG's autofocus system seems to be more accurate throughout most of our setups when shooting warmer colors the g5 tends to exaggerate those colors a bit more than previous LG's but it's still quite a bit closer than HTC's color processing however both phones produce somewhat ridiculous HDR photos shadows are boosted fine but highlights aren't reined in at all and you're going to clip a lot of details in bright sections of your photos in low light situations HTC's image stabilization is terrifically improved over the a nine but even on our best of five handheld shots here can't quite match the image clarity of the g5 in general night shots from the g5 seem to retain better contrast juicier saturation and less destructive noise reduction over similar HTC ten shots in extreme low-light the 10 is happily able to focus on objects in full auto but is easily confused when tapping on the screen to focus on specific objects a situation where the g5 excels and when throwing the flash exposure is generally more accurate from the dual color tone LED solution on the 10 but LG is extremely closed with only one LED on the g5 however this comparison flips when we talk about video both phones produce extremely high quality UHD files though the g5 shoots full auto there are no controls over anything other than focusing the HTC 10 doesn't have much on tap to play with but at least you can adjust exposure which is fantastically helpful for reining in situations where you're seeing might be too dark or too bright one small note on the files the 10 produces you will have to sort out MKV video containers which is a little less common a file than the MOV or mp4 files our phones normally produce also a handy win for the HTC is the selfie camera adding image stabilization to the front shooter marks a significant improvement in video quality and now makes the HTC 10 a killer option for folks interested in doing a little vlogging we were honestly hoping for a more engaged audio fight between these two phones and we've previously mentioned the issues relating to LG cancelling the high-five friend in North America this leaves HTC with little competition when comparing headphone output the 10 continues a stellar reputation for punchy loud amps and high quality Dax against the built-in jack on the g5 the HTC 10 is louder has a wider dynamic range lower noise and less distortion anecdotally it's just clearer brighter it's a better representation of instruments across the whole EQ range and does a better job driving my more expensive headphones the speaker fight is at least a little closer the g5 actually might ring in a touch louder but the 10 points the main speaker in the right direction for when you're interacting with your phone and the split boom sound speakers which fire low-frequency sound out the bottom make for a slightly more nuanced sound for having many similar internals the g5 does come with a smaller battery 2800 milliamp power compared to three thousand on the HTC 10 run time actually seems to improve slightly beyond just the difference in capacity running our playback test streaming 30 minutes of HD video over Wi-Fi at 50 percent brightness the g5 drained 7 percent and the HTC 10 drained 6 percent what's interesting about this test is seeing the HTC 10 pull ahead when we can clearly see a brighter screen on the 10 over the g5 when both sliders are set to 50% while the hardware is very similar LG does seem to manage a slightly faster recharge rate a half hour on a quick charger the HTC recharged 44% of its battery the g5 hit 55 percent a larger difference in performance than the 7 percent difference in battery capacity between the two so let's wrap this up where's that leave us between the HTC 10 and the LG g5 the title of this video likely already gave away our feelings on this comparison we're not really in the business of picking winners and losers and individuals purchasing phones should always focus on their own unique needs but this battle pits a well refined line of phones against a more daring leap in phone iteration both of these phones contain killer features which will sway individual consumers and that's always going to be a headline worthy story for folks looking outside the Samsung Apple duopoly as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for our full coverage of the HTC 10 and LG g5 and hit that thumbs up button for a little extra positive reinforcement for pocket now i'm juan carlos bag now you can chat me up on twitter and instagram as some gadget guy and i will catch you all on the next comparison