Gadgetory

in mobile technology it's the same thing over and over new device comes out new device gets reviewed new device gets forgotten almost no one follows up no one follows along no one sticks around to see how well a gadget ages over time because there's always something new to drool over so let's do something about it let's take a second look at one of the few flag shifts left that still takes the word expandability seriously I'm hi Mary Bennett with pocket now this is the LG g4 and this is episode 49 of after the buzz and the ever-changing world of flagship smartphones the latest trend for 2015 was sadly too i phone eyes them which means that a thin and light premium design is far more important than a feature of X smartphone replaceable batteries took a backseat to a seal chassis and if you crave more storage be ready to pay for a unit that offers that LG is one of the few knights in shining armor that actually defined the trend in a completely opposite direction the lessons learned from the sealed and not expandable optimus G&G - we're somewhat solved with the g3 but we all know that that particular phone tried too hard to innovate and accomplished too little up to the point where we were mostly left already wanting to see the company successor I was one of those people and after watching Michaels review of the LG g4 back in May let's just say that I jumped on it as quickly as I could as a result I've been rocking this AT&T units in September and some things have been great others not so much the hardware story is that a pleasant disparity this phone is not trying to copy anyone and that's proven to be a good choice for both feel in the hand and variety like most American race cars this design is both futuristic and substantial the gentle curve on the display is then augmented by the arc design of its trim if you're not rocking a leather back trust me you should i do love the feel of the ceramic back at times but leather does make or break this device and it gives it a very premium feel in the hand which is very important for smartphones LG could have followed others with the aluminum trend but I feel that the LG g4 has aged better than most of its metallic competitors I've dropped this phone at least five times on tiled floors and the dents on the shiny plastic finish are hardly noticeable the corners on the leather back do show some minor signs of wear and the ceramic fact that scratch on the first day but you really have to nitpick to notice this and you can always just replace the back for around $40 on Amazon that same glorious aging can be said about the quad HD display with quantum IPS technology now see these aren't famous for inky blacks but this display does the best job that I've seen so far and its color reproduction and viewing angles are just gorgeous gone are the over sharpening and brightness issues of its predecessor but not all the problems were solved sadly visibility in direct sunlight is still an issue and you'll notice that if you use polarized sunglasses you'll find yourself thinking that displays off sometimes depending on the angle you're looking at it from still the 73% screen to body ratio of this 5.5 inch display continue to make this one of the best options if you're wanting the benefits of a phablet sized screen on a phone that still fits well in most hands and that doesn't become a burn in your pocket now the software experiences where the not so much fits best if you've noticed that I almost use none of LG's proprietary widgets keyboards and other features well there's a reason for that I do praise LG for building one of the most customizable user interfaces in the Android ecosystem from display transitions to floating qslide applications to the flexibility of a keyboard you will most likely be able to customize everything you want here things like being able to call your notification tray from the bottom navigation keys is just plain common sense and the same goes for the way you can call on split screen multitasking all this is great as added bonuses but the biggest problem is LG's taste and execution or lack thereof some of these applications follow a very data design language and others like the settings menu are very well organized and it just feels like if the user interface lacks cohesion then when you notice the very small list of applications that can do split-screen and the very limited tools that can become floating windows and at times you simply forget these features you're there this lack of consistency and availability really hurts the user interface since people drift more to third-party applications than the ones that are built in about the only true benefit of owning an LG phone in the software front is aging as the g4 follows on the steps of the g3 and getting the latest version of Android before most of its competitors at the time of this recording marshmallow was already reaching devices in Europe and this AT&T unit should follow very shortly using the LG g4 for the last three months has proven to be both awesome and frustrating yes the software will frustrate you on the first day but once you install your favorite widgets and keyboard you'll actually like how fluid the Snapdragon 808 performs on this phone apps load quickly multitasking is snappy and the added screen real estate makes playing graphics and tons of games really cool awesome can also be said to describe the data speeds over LTE and the call quality is also very good through the earpiece for some the gentle curve on the display adds comfort but for me it was really the loudness of the earpiece and colors agree about the audio quality on their end the back mounted speaker is a still placed in the oddest of places and can easily be muffled with a finger but as with the g3 it continues to be one of the loudest out there that being said the word awesome fits most in the camera combo included here the primary 16 megapixel optically stabilized shooter with F 1.8 aperture continues to be one of the best cameras out there not just on the Android front double tapping the volume down button match with optical image stabilization on three axes and laser autofocus all contribute to making this one of the fastest smartphone cameras and the resulting photos are just plain gorgeous whether it's during the day or in a very dim scenario this camera just doesn't cease to amaze me great color reproduction amazing results over HDR and you also get a bevy of manual controls if that's your thing the 8 megapixel selfie shooter is also a shocker and especially with the amount of detail that it's able to pull if you remove the beautifying modes and yes there is also a very cool built in selfie flash software solution just this Pleasant is how the phone is able to capture light in video recording where devices like the iPhone 6 were simply ridiculed in filming this exact same scene at night overall the LG g4 has one of the cameras to beat in the smartphone industry and this is one of the features that will age best over the next few months sadly that's the end of the pleasantries though as oddly one of my biggest frustrations has to do with the fluctuating battery life some days I get through the day just fine and then other days like today the battery takes a dramatic plunge unless I keep closing the applications in the background yes I know you can replace the battery but this is rather sad given LG's legendary work in building some of the best batteries in the industry and it's probably a software bug that could get fixed with a marshmallow update you know what sadly the biggest problem is that LG decided to kill this phone rather early one of the things that made me think twice about buying the LG g4 was the lack of a fingerprint scanner at a time when everybody is jumping in and I gave it the benefit of the doubt and just decided to give the phone a try just about two or three weeks before LG decided to launch the LG b 10 and yes everything that the LG g4 didn't have is now brought to you by the v10 and I guess that sad note is the best way to end this after the buzz episode of the LG g4 at this time even with all the cool things that this phone brings to the table it's rather pointless for you to invest in buying it if you can get the better features of the LG v10 surely you miss out on the leatherbacks and a couple of other things but the idea of investing on a flagship phone have mainly to do with getting more bang for your buck and if LG came to the conclusion that it could do more with its newer v10 and really who are we to argue otherwise folks just like in the case of the g4 every other phone comes of age so stay tuned to the next episodes of after the buzz coming very soon while you're at it make sure you also follow us on social medias instructure YouTube channel as well you can follow me on twitter hyn underscore Iveta on instagram @ hi I'm Eddie betta please give this video a thumbs up if you like what you saw I am hi Matt ivenna thank you very much for watching we'll see you on the next video