Okay, so here it goes. Here's what I think of the LG G5 from initial impressions. (No, I didn't buy the phone. I'm basing it based on what I've seen and used for a short period of time)
As you could guess from the headline, it's not very rosy, but that doesn't mean it's a terrible phone. In a nutshell, it's a pretty good phone plagued with early quality issues on a fair number of units.
Now, the phone itself seems to be built quite well as it feels somewhat solid and doesn't bend, but if you're used to metal phones, this one is going to feel a bit like a plastic one. Not because it's not metal, but because it's painted differently from other metal phones. Other metal phones are usually dyed aluminum, while the G5 uses primer and a top layer of paint for its color. It's going to feel different but personally, I'm not big on how a phone feels, but I know that some people will be put a little off by it. But this is the part where I'm going to have pitchforks and torches thrown at me, but I don't think the G5 is a looker. Even though I slap a case on my phone (which is why those humps don't bother me), the camera module just looks weird to me. It kinda looks like 2 confused robot faces. After seeing a Photoshopped version of it, it's hard to not see the resemblance and I get mini-nightmares from it. Okay, maybe it doesn't look that bad, but it's just weird to me.
Software is typical LG to me. It performs really well, with little to no lag, smooth transitions, butter-smooth performance and snappy response. BUT, I don't think it actually improved in terms of looks. Now, there are some improvements as I LOVE the new status bar icons and camera UI, but everything else is....uhhhhhhhh....pre-Marshmallow TouchWiz-like? I could live with the teal + white color, but I dislike the increased usage of the color white throughout the UI. Like, why LG? Why not add an optional dark theme for some of us who want an easier UI for the eyes? Looks aside, it's a snappy performer.......but I hope Dual Window returns in Android N, where Google has finally adopted that feature. THANK YOU!
Here are a couple of smaller points. Camera is still awesome even thougn it's the same 16MP f/1.8 Sony Exmor RS IMX234 shooter from the G4, and the 8MP wide-angle lens camera is cool and is quite fun to use at times. The SD820 seems to be a spritely little performer from what I've seen AND that IPS Quantum display still looks great today.
BUT, that's where the issues begin. While that display LOOKS great, backlight bleeding seems to be an issue on some units. I've seen a couple of phones exhibiting pretty bad bleed usually around the bottom. It varies between units, so I suspect this is a batch-related issue. Another issue is that the thin glass panel can cause the LCD to bloom at times if you touch the screen. I don't think this is a gigantic deal, but it might bug some guys with OCD (like me). I'm not going to talk about the gap between the module and the rest of the phone, or the seams at the back of the phone or other quality issues since I think it's been thrown around so many times already.
So, here's my initial thoughts summed up.
It's a phone with a lot of potential to be one pretty good phone. It just needs more quality polish. That's it. Some people who have the phone here seem to have good units with little flaws, so I hope that future batches will be like that. And it needs to be, after the whole G4 bootloop fiasco.
Anyway, that concludes my initial thoughts based on what I have seen and used (for a pretty short period). That might change when I actually get one for more than a few minutes a few months down the road when LG's quality control (hopefully) improves.
So please don't hate me.....yet.
As you could guess from the headline, it's not very rosy, but that doesn't mean it's a terrible phone. In a nutshell, it's a pretty good phone plagued with early quality issues on a fair number of units.
Now, the phone itself seems to be built quite well as it feels somewhat solid and doesn't bend, but if you're used to metal phones, this one is going to feel a bit like a plastic one. Not because it's not metal, but because it's painted differently from other metal phones. Other metal phones are usually dyed aluminum, while the G5 uses primer and a top layer of paint for its color. It's going to feel different but personally, I'm not big on how a phone feels, but I know that some people will be put a little off by it. But this is the part where I'm going to have pitchforks and torches thrown at me, but I don't think the G5 is a looker. Even though I slap a case on my phone (which is why those humps don't bother me), the camera module just looks weird to me. It kinda looks like 2 confused robot faces. After seeing a Photoshopped version of it, it's hard to not see the resemblance and I get mini-nightmares from it. Okay, maybe it doesn't look that bad, but it's just weird to me.
Software is typical LG to me. It performs really well, with little to no lag, smooth transitions, butter-smooth performance and snappy response. BUT, I don't think it actually improved in terms of looks. Now, there are some improvements as I LOVE the new status bar icons and camera UI, but everything else is....uhhhhhhhh....pre-Marshmallow TouchWiz-like? I could live with the teal + white color, but I dislike the increased usage of the color white throughout the UI. Like, why LG? Why not add an optional dark theme for some of us who want an easier UI for the eyes? Looks aside, it's a snappy performer.......but I hope Dual Window returns in Android N, where Google has finally adopted that feature. THANK YOU!
Here are a couple of smaller points. Camera is still awesome even thougn it's the same 16MP f/1.8 Sony Exmor RS IMX234 shooter from the G4, and the 8MP wide-angle lens camera is cool and is quite fun to use at times. The SD820 seems to be a spritely little performer from what I've seen AND that IPS Quantum display still looks great today.
BUT, that's where the issues begin. While that display LOOKS great, backlight bleeding seems to be an issue on some units. I've seen a couple of phones exhibiting pretty bad bleed usually around the bottom. It varies between units, so I suspect this is a batch-related issue. Another issue is that the thin glass panel can cause the LCD to bloom at times if you touch the screen. I don't think this is a gigantic deal, but it might bug some guys with OCD (like me). I'm not going to talk about the gap between the module and the rest of the phone, or the seams at the back of the phone or other quality issues since I think it's been thrown around so many times already.
So, here's my initial thoughts summed up.
It's a phone with a lot of potential to be one pretty good phone. It just needs more quality polish. That's it. Some people who have the phone here seem to have good units with little flaws, so I hope that future batches will be like that. And it needs to be, after the whole G4 bootloop fiasco.
Anyway, that concludes my initial thoughts based on what I have seen and used (for a pretty short period). That might change when I actually get one for more than a few minutes a few months down the road when LG's quality control (hopefully) improves.
So please don't hate me.....yet.
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