My real life review and comparison to the S6 edge

[erasat]

Just a follow up post after my first day of work.

Not good, not good at all, after the usual LG long 100% battery for a looong time, it began draining as usual and then it just went downhill.

I'm at 21% and it's just 5:15pm with 2:45 of SoT, I'll need to charge it as soon as I get home, in my S6 edge I'd be at 40-45% with the same usage and SoT. Using chrome on this phone is incredibly too much, you can literally see dropping 1% every couple of minutes, basically can't access Android Central with it if I want to conserve battery.

Tomorrow will be the real test as I'll be all day at the office with WiFi all day, I know by experience what all my phones have given me in same environment and usage, the S6 edge has given me constantly 5.5 hours of SoT if the G4 won't give me at least the same, I'll have no choice as to return this to T-mobile. Can't justify getting less battery life having a S6 at home collecting dust.

I want to keep it, but it hasn't been easy, today I've seen some lags and stutter again, it even went crazy after a phone call and it forced me to reboot. Crazy thing is that the Alcatel Idol 3 has been lag free and giving me an incredible battery life at the same time (yes using both at the same time). I don't know but if a $249 phone with exact same apps and settings is working better then something is not right.

And just in case, yes, I already did a factory reset on Friday night, won't do another one as it's behaving exactly the same after it.

I'll give it a couple of more days to see if it gets better, if not, then at least I try it, and hope to still get the LG offers for the additional battery, charger and 2 SD cards so at least it balances the restocking fee.

 

[BobR1908]

Looked at several S6 Edge before buying my G4 and every single one of the black sapphire I looked at had home buttons with significant scratches on them.

I mean incredibly noticeable. After 3 I said not to open anymore as I was turned off on buying it.

Edited due to leaving a word out.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[RN50]

Erasat I have the s6/edge and love it but wasn't one of the major points people were banging on about was that you can remove and change the battery on the g4? Surely if you battery rubbish just swap it out.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[little09]

After getting my LG G4 from T-Mobile yesterday and set everything as I wanted, I can say that after 24 hours with the phone I can have an honest opinion.

Look:

Both phones are gorgeous, the Leather on the LG G4 makes a huge difference, I thought that it s going to be bigger but it feels thin and not that big for a 5.5" screen size, last year G3 was a surprise because of the small bezels this is similar, one of the reason I decided to try it.

The unique and gorgeous design of the edge is amazing, and so far is taking me a lot of time to get used to the design on the G4.

Battery :

Sorry but for those of you that was thinking that the battery issues were Samsung's fault, sorry but it's obvious it's Google's.

I charged it while setting everything and charged it again to 100% and went to sleep, and just 5.5 hours later it has drained 6%. So far I've been using it non stop as I normally do every Saturday morning and it has drained 23% on 55 minutes of SoT, I'm at 70% already, I know that it drained 6% over night but still I'd be at over 85% if I unplug my S6 Edge when I wake up or 80% if let it unplugged all night.

So if that's an indication, no, it's not better on Standby than my S6 Edge as it has been draining 5-6% over 7-8 hours of sleep constantly for the past 2 months. This with the same amount of accounts and apps syncing on both as both phones are set the same right now, hence I can tell that so far, battery life is little worst than my S6 Edge.

I'm not liking how fast it seems to be draining while in use, it goes down in a hurry,. It seems to be averaging about less than 5 hours of SoT when in same conditions and usage I've bag being 5.5-6 his of SoT in the S6 Edge.

Screen:

This one is about even, I can't see any real difference other tham the colors, and they look gorgeous on each phone, Samsung's always over saturated colors on the S6 look great and LG really did a good job this time, not like the G3 last year.

Performance:

Sorry folks but I have experienced a good amount of lag in a lot of different places across the UI. I have done the same tweaks that I always do, and it seems to help but still I'm really noticing the difference between them, those that say that S6 lags and G4 doesn't are simply hating on Samsung.

As of now, my S6 Edge is showing that Exynos CPU and Samsung's own memory are a killer combo.

Pictures and videos:

I haven't done extensive tests, but so far both are very similar, can't really pick a winner yet, too close.

Extras:

Just hate that basically can't use Nova on this phone as besides losing LG's widgets I can't (haven't found a way yet) use the double tap to sleep (I'm not going to install a third party for that) and with thethe power button at the back, this feature is very convenient.

Helium is not working with the LG G4 and that simply means a pain in my initial setting. Having a lot of device in the past years I'm so used to have this and do a simple restore of my apps and data that not having it was a nightmare. Took me about 3 hours to set this MF.

Summary:

The G4 is a great phone, best LG phone ever. But it's not perfect, I'm seeing some glitches and lags in 1 days where I haven't seen them on the S6 Edge in 2 months. The removable battery and the SD card are nice to have but I really haven't missed any of those on my S6.

Extra battery, charger and the 32 GB SD card promo from LG and the additional 128gb card from T-mobile plus the good price ($600) make the deal very sweet but the uniqueness and gorgeous look of the S6 Edge make it easier to pay the difference in price.

Both of this phone are the best of the bunch, you can't go wrong with any of them but if I need to choose right now (I don't) one of them, it would be the S6 Edge.

Note: I've lost 7% of battery writing this post, and my battery stat is not showing nothing unusual, just the screen and it has been in 20% and Auto because I'm in a low light room and it goes dimmer than the 20%.

After a couples time then you able to tell what the differentiated devices has hold a true prowess. Lol

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[erasat]

Erasat I have the s6/edge and love it but wasn't one of the major points people were banging on about was that you can remove and change the battery on the g4? Surely if you battery rubbish just swap it out.

Posted via the Android Central App

That's an option just if I'd have the promised additional battery from LG, but even then it's not my style, I've never bring and carry an additional battery nor will I'll begin to do it now, another battery in my case is more like a replacement for when the original battery begins to fail.

The more I can do is to recharge at some point of the day and I don't even like that. I have 2 wireless chargers (for the s6), chargers at the office and the car but all of them are just for an emergency, the fact that a phone won't last me a full day without recharge for me is enough to get rid of it, so like I said, tomorrow is the real test for the direct comparison, I hope it gets better, because 3.5 hours of SoT today before I needed to recharge the G4 By 6pm with 6% is not and will never be good for me. In fact, today has been the worst battery life is had from a phone in years, everybody worst that the 4 hours I got from the Moto X.

A couple of more days I'll know for sure what I'll do next.

 

[erasat]

After a couples time then you able to tell what the differentiated devices has hold a true prowess. Lol

Posted via the Android Central App

If my previous Galaxies are a proof then I'm sure I won't have any problems with either of them, as my Galaxy 2 after 2 years and Galaxy s4 after 14 months of daily use were working great when I replaced them.

Again, my plan was to keep both the G4 and S6 Edge, but after 3 consecutive disappointed days with less than expected Battery life today was atrocious, so if this doesn't get better in the next couple of days I'd have no other choice than to return it before the 14 days return period ends.

 

[clborden]

Did you consider swapping it for another one? Because 3.5 hours of SoT is ridiculous for this device. I'm also amazed at your SoT on ur GS6e. I can't even get to 4 hours on mine. That's why I was considering of picking up a G4, but if the battery life is really that bad, then there's no point.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[erasat]

Did you consider swapping it for another one? Because 3.5 hours of SoT is ridiculous for this device. I'm also amazed at your SoT on ur GS6e. I can't even get to 4 hours on mine. That's why I was considering of picking up a G4, but if the battery life is really that bad, then there's no point.

Posted via the Android Central App

Not really, for the same exact reason that I won't do another Factory reset as I've already done one the first night, after hours of setting everything because Helium is not working on it. So after the Factory reset I spent the same huge amount of time again setting my 89 installed apps plus the dozens others that come preinstalled. If with a Factory Reset it still does the same, then there is nothing that a 3rd or a 4th time will change.

So like I said before, I'm hoping it gets better, I like the phone, I'm still inclined to the S6 edge overall, but I don't need to decide for one or the other, I can keep both as my company pays for the S6 edge and I can pay for the G4 and not feel like a waste of money, then I can switch back and forth between them. But so far Battery has not been even up to par with the S6, today will be the last day I'll try, it's a normal office day where I'm at the office all day with a steady Cell signal and Wifi, and not on the road like yesterday. This is the way I can compare my phones as this is my normal usage, if after today it shows the same than the past 4 days, then my S6 edge is giving me better battery life so it makes no sense for me to keep it.

I'll know by the end of the day.

 

[recDNA]

Does the G4 have Qi wireless charging built in?

 

[erasat]

Does the G4 have Qi wireless charging built in?

No. I haven't even look for more information on this but right off the bat I think that besides the normal Qi adapters you can buy on eBay or amazon the only official way is buying an LG cover that is wireless charging capable.

 

[clborden]

How did you make out today with the battery? Also, do you think it may just be a bad battery? Just curious about that.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[erasat]

How did you make out today with the battery? Also, do you think it may just be a bad battery? Just curious about that.

Posted via the Android Central App

Well, I just left my office and I'm still at 75% with 1:25 of SoT, averaging 5.75 hours of SoT, right on par with my S6E Edge, but with 0 use of Chrome until now, where in the S6 I don't have any issues while using Chrome.

I'll wait a couple of more days now to decide, but now just replying to this message I've lost 4%, I'm now at 71%, it took me about 7 or 8 minutes to finish because some interruptions. Just incredible.

**Latest Update ** I ended up the day averaging just 4.50 hours of SoT. After leaving my office at 4pm the battery just took a dive and never recovered, 75% at 4pm and ended with 25% by 9pm.

Will give it a couple of more days to see if something changes.

 

[erasat]

Still averaging just about 4.5-4.75 of SoT during this past weekdays with the 3.5 hours aberration on Monday, where my S6 edge is averaging 5.25-5.5 SoT, again, same usage, same apps, syncs and settings. So this will be my last update about it unless something happens and this trend changes.

Will decide by the weekend but as of now it doesn't look good.

 

[The_PLBs]

Still averaging just about 4.5-4.75 of SoT during this past weekdays with the 3.5 hours aberration on Monday, where my S6 edge is averaging 5.25-5.5 SoT, again, same usage, same apps, syncs and settings. So this will be my last update about it unless something happens and this trend changes.

Will decide by the weekend but as of now it doesn't look good.

I don't quite understand your infatuation with an extra 30 minutes to an hour of extra SoT when you have the ability to switch out batteries with the LG and you can not with the Samsung. Doesn't that fact end all debate on battery life? It is absolute common knowledge that any power user that uses all of the features of an Android phone (including push email and all Google services) can not make it through the day without charging.... unless you can replace the battery. Therefore if you are basing your decision on battery life you should stay with the LG.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[erasat]

When I have another battery to switch to, then it may be taking in consideration, as of now, there is none, nor I'll buy another one, I'm waiting for the free one of the offer, and even then like I mentioned before, I'm not the type of guy that carries extra stuff with me, no extra batteries or power banks, don't like it and I'll never will. An extra battery for me just means that I have a new one to replace a failing one.

So, any phone I buy and plan to keep MUST last me the whole day in a normal day with my normal usage, I have adapters everywhere but just for an emergency not to be attached to them. About your conclusion of the "Absolute common knowledge" that a power user can't last the whole day on a charge, ehh, what's a power user? who defines that? If you are talking about been hours playing games, no, I'm not, but using my phone as a work tool, replying to dozens of emails, creating dozens more, and reading hundreds more in my 2 Gmail accounts, plus my usual couple of hours reading through websites, forums and other webpages, plus my other 30 minutes reading my 8-10 magazines on Google Play Newstand and by the end of the day watching 2 or 3 new Youtube videos doesn't make me a Power user, then call me whatever you want, it doesn't make any difference.

In a summary, at the end of the day what is important is what I like and my needs, so if you love yours, fine, for me, right now, I'm over the fence, I've decided to see if something changes if not, it will go back, that's the beauty of Android and the 14 days buyers' remorse period.