If you could change ONE thing about the G4, what would it be?

[Minoru7]

Being that I come from the original MotoX, I would like to see LG go more the route of Motorola. Stick with stock Android, and add the features you would like via Apps. If I'm going to skin my phone, I'll do it myself, thank you very much.

 

[jsabo]

I actually miss the physical Home button from my S4, and the capacitive buttons on the bottom bezel-- I set the phone to hide the on-screen buttons the majority of the time, but I'm continually having my up-swipe gesture interpreted as typing. I'd like to get that screen space back.

Beyond that, notification lights on the back of the phone so I can leave it facing screen-down on a table, protecting the screen and showing off the leather back.

Front-facing speakers would be nice, but not a priority.

A cheaper replacement back-- I got the T-Mo leather back, and want to pick up a cheap plastic one for the 95% of the time it lives in a case. I must be looking in the wrong place, because I can't find anything under $50 for what seems like it should be a $10 part.

 

[jsabo]

Argh, double post.

 

[RedOctobyr]

You can set the flash to blink for notifications, if that's helpful. On Verizon, it's under Settings, Accessibility, Hearing.

 

[fridgey100]

Wireless charging without the need to mess around with qi stickers or that crappy circle case

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[Slytherin_Princess]

The autocorrect annoys me, but I haven't tried the Google Keyboard or Swiftkey yet. I also wish it vibrated harder. I have it in an Otterbox Defender case, and it doesn't vibrate hard enough to catch my attention when it's on my desk at work. I'm not allowed to have the sound on on my phone at work. But none of the aforementioned issues make me want to get rid of the phone. I still love it. No phone is perfec.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[scottysize]

More ram... I'm having to constantly close all apps in order to use it without seeing lag. It's getting pretty annoying. I'm about to return this otherwise awesome phone... I HATE LAG!

Turn off the Transitions in Developer. It solved my laggy issues.

 

[tadpoles]

You don't even have to turn them all the way off. Just dial transitions back to .5x and it'll make a marked improvement.

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[Shilohcane]

Make the touchscreen actually, you know, sensitive to touch. Out of all the great things about this phone, the touch is the worst I have ever encountered.

The only issue I have with touch is answering a incoming phone call that seems that I have to be doing something wrong. However my pick is a bigger battery or a phone that has less power lost due to heat. Snapdragon needs to reduce it's CPU's to the the 14nm process like Samsung has done.

 

[Ara Wagoner]

Front-facing speakers, then those god-awful emoji, then make it 5.2". Battery seemed fine the weeks I had a G4. And the speakers only matter when I'm not using bluetooth, but those emoji are stuck there and stuck lookin' ugly.

 

[Boston Powers]

Hot swappable battery for zero downtime

 

[dungoyle]

Hot swappable battery for zero downtime

Damn, you win the prize for technology optimism. I mean, it could be done by including an second embedded battery that would hold a charge for 10 minutes (yeah, you don't need that long, but you should spec for it), but I doubt we'll see that any time soon. Just the same; that's some paradigm busting [language removed by mod] going on in your head my friend.

 

[Boston Powers]

Damn, you win the prize for technology optimism. I mean, it could be done by including an second embedded battery that would hold a charge for 10 minutes (yeah, you don't need that long, but you should spec for it), but I doubt we'll see that any time soon. Just the same; that's some paradigm busting [language removed by mod] going on in your head my friend.

Ha, funniest post of the day

 

[dungoyle]

Okay, to take this literally, my one thing would be waterproofing. I realize, that to pull this off, you'd need to seal the system and have no replaceable battery, but we're playing the "one thing" game, so in this instance, I get the best of both worlds. I really wanted the Sony Xperia for this reason (plus it's dead sexy looking). I recently took my first (and hopefully not last) cruise, and I spent one day snorkeling, and to take underwater video, I had to use a waterproof bag case on my Droid Turbo. It came out quite nice, but not as nice as it would have been if the phone had not been inside a plastic bag. See http://forums.androidcentral.com/motorola-droid-turbo/552989-underwater-video-taken-my-turbo.html for the curious.

Having said that, I'll break the rules, and say that I additionally want (in order):

1. Longer battery life via more mah with current technology, or with new technology which is just soooo close I can taste it. We should absolutely expect nothing less than 48 hours of REAL battery life from our optimal phone (and 7 days on our smart watch while I'm on my soap box).
2. A slightly smaller form factor. Getting 5.5 inches in this size is pretty impressive. Enough so, that I don't consider the G4 a Phablet. But an engineering miracle to make the physical form factor smaller while retaining the 5.5 inch screen would be a God send. One day, we'll have screens projected at us at any size we want with no regard to the size of the phone, but until then; this.
3. Front facing speakers. Yes. I'm facing the phone, why aren't the speakers facing me? Hello? McFly? There may be technological reasons for this, but I don't care; this is my wish list: gimmie.
4. Native QI support. This is last, because I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get there on my own, but this should be a default for all flagship level phones today.

 

[RedOctobyr]

Damn, you win the prize for technology optimism. I mean, it could be done by including an second embedded battery that would hold a charge for 10 minutes

A suitable capacitor (perhaps a supercapacitor, for capacity vs bulk) might also be able to help briefly "bridge the gap" during battery swaps.

But even being able to run off a charger temporarily could help some users hot-swap batteries. I tried it with my G4, and it didn't work. The phone didn't instantly go dead when I pulled the battery, with using the LG charger, but it show a message, and then powered itself down.

Out of the other goals (48 hours of actual use, 7 days on a smartwatch), hot-swapping might actually be the most attainable, at least if using a charger was permitted for hot-swapping.

New battery technology always seems to be 1-2 years away, so I personally wouldn't hold my breath on that.

Better energy-efficiency could make better use of the battery capacity that we have, however, as evidenced by current phones with longer battery life. But that may be at-odds with having giant QHD screens, 6-8 core fast processors, etc. Though making the chips on a smaller manufacturing process could probably help us have our cake and eat it too.

If manufacturers focused less on phones being razor-thin, we could also fit larger batteries, of course. Maybe the industry will reach a tipping-point where people agree that battery life is too short, and will take steps to address it. They likely won't come "free", though, we'll probably have to compromise a bit.

There are waterproof phones with removable batteries & SD cards, like the Galaxy S5. So that could be achievable, if the manufacturer really wanted to go for it.

 

[Boston Powers]

It all comes down to what the average Joe (or Josephine) gets hooked on in a 20 second ad or a sales pitch at the kiosk.

If you stand around long enough you'll notice that the sales pitch is tailored to what the potential client is projecting. Fashionista gets the "slim" "thin" pitch while the guys get Qaud screen gaming and battery life.

If you want to sell 15-30 million units, you cant have one type of client. Personally I would like to see a basic model and then a high octane model that will cost more by vertu of production but covers everyone.

I'd pay $1000 for a high octane phone per year... I already pay $800 for what they call "flagship" and I call bare bones.

 

[dungoyle]

A suitable capacitor (perhaps a supercapacitor, for capacity vs bulk) might also be able to help briefly "bridge the gap" during battery swaps.

But even being able to run off a charger temporarily could help some users hot-swap batteries...

You make two good points there. I'm on board from a practicality perspective.

Yeah, new battery tech is always 1-2 years away, but my personal opinion is that technological advancements don't drive that advancement, customer demand and profit does, so this shouldn't be the case.

I'm glad you mentioned QHD, because I was thinking of that very topic, but my 54 year old brain failed to remember it while I was typing my post (yes, that will be my standard excuse for every typo, and misspoken word on this forum). I personally do not need a damned QHD screen. If that's "your bag" (speaking generically, not to you) great; but I can get by perfectly well on JUST an HD screen thank you.

On the subject of slim phones vs battery life, this circles back to new battery technology. I am afraid that when new battery allows more mah in less space, that manufacturers will use the same battery life to accommodate yet a smaller footprint, and therefore slimmer case. Crap man, the phones are slim enough!

Thanks for pointing out that the the S5 is waterproof with removable battery and SD card. I was not aware of that.

 

[RedOctobyr]

I also see QHD as more resolution than I need. It looks great, sure. But it feels kind of like just a specs race, without a huge need (at least to me). I'd have been fine with FHD (1080x1920). Of course, I wouldn't mind it being a 5.1" screen either. My last phone (an S3) was 720x1280, 4.8", I thought it looked fine.

But with root now becoming available, and presumably opening more options, I was thinking about the resolution topic this morning. I just posted on another forum, asking whether it would be possible to reduce the display resolution, and whether people thought that might help battery life.

It seems reasonable to me. If we could make it display at HD (720) or FHD (1080), maybe that could help stretch the battery life somewhat. The phone wouldn't have to work as hard. But maybe it can't be done, or maybe some aspect of the hardware means it would have no benefit for battery life, I don't know.

 

[Boston Powers]

I also see QHD as more resolution than I need. It looks great, sure. But it feels kind of like just a specs race, without a huge need (at least to me). I'd have been fine with FHD (1080x1920). Of course, I wouldn't mind it being a 5.1" screen either. My last phone (an S3) was 720x1280, 4.8", I thought it looked fine.

But with root now becoming available, and presumably opening more options, I was thinking about the resolution topic this morning. I just posted on another forum, asking whether it would be possible to reduce the display resolution, and whether people thought that might help battery life.

It seems reasonable to me. If we could make it display at HD (720) or FHD (1080), maybe that could help stretch the battery life somewhat. The phone wouldn't have to work as hard. But maybe it can't be done, or maybe some aspect of the hardware means it would have no benefit for battery life, I don't know.

I'll stick up for the 2K screen, infact I'm waiting on a 4K 6 inch.

This won't apply to everyone but I deal with massive photos (RAW) shot so I can get the most detailed look as possible of them before I give the ok. What I'm able to see on a 2K versus a simple FHD is the difference between a happy customer or a customer who had to wait for me to sit down infront of my Dell laptop which has 4K

To me, it would be like saying I would rather forgo outgoing call function to save on battery.

Spec race all the way (and catch up you darned batteries).

 

[tadpoles]

QHD screens are nice but not necessary at all. The Note 3 proves this. That said the Note 4's, G4's, Nexus 6's, and S6's screens are nice.

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