So first some background. I am a verizon customer, switched from s5, s3, nexus, sprint, palm pre and such. Apple will never be an option, but sometimes I see the reasons people choose the dark side, but still its not for me.
I switched from samsung because after careful consideration I understood I had many issues I was looking over because I liked the ideas samsung had. The s3 was ok, but the phone ( calling and getting calls) was terrible. My wifes iphone would work almost anywhere and I would struggle at full. It had a terrible gps and I am sure other isssues. The s5 was a good phone for the most part. I loved the heartbeat monitor, pedometer (first time carrying something like this), waterproofness, camera, removable battery and sd cards. Over all a great phone, until I started to have issues. Hangouts would restart or report an issue, it struggled from 4g signal to 3g and back, if I went to the hotspot and back or no signal to 4g/3g or wifi to no wifi I had to reboot it in order to regain signal. I tried all sorts of things just short of factory restore and figured if I was starting over I would rather just get a new phone.
So after considering s6, lg g4, htc, moto and sony I chose the lg. The battery, sd card, camera and back buttons being the biggest selling points. I am not a big believer in side by side comparissions of screen, camera and such. If I owned both phones I may notice but I just carry the one. So if its good, then I just get used to it and move on.
To start with the lg feels great in my hands. No sharp sides, clear screen and curved just right. The back buttons were an adjustment, but within an hour of using it I was well past that issue. The back buttons and the quick use combos are great. For example double tap the vol down gets you the camera and a picture snapped in like 7 sec or less. So without using another hand I can get a good shot. I am not sure why a featured selling point on a phone would be the finish of the exterior if you are going to be using a cover. Without covers I still like the lg better then the others. The htc seams heavy, as does the moto. Each of the last 3 phones I owned I purchased without a cover and within a few days had dropped. None come with a rubberised grip and at some point I drop them. Maybe its just me but once I have put a ding in my new expensive phone I feel guilty and cant wait until its trade in time. So this one got a $20 cover from verizon. It still feels great and now has some protection.
So now I will talk about the pros. I love the phone. Screen is beautiful. Camera is better then my camera that is knowingly several year old at this point. Like all other phones it is not without its weeknesses, but I have just spent the last week at boyscout summer camp and took over 200 pictures and 20 videos. Living in the age of digital pics I make sure I take as many shots as needed. I then go back and sort thru to remove the bad ones. Besides user error or my fat fingers getting in the way I only found a few pics that either didnt focus on the right object or were blurry. I was able to leave all settings in the highest modes because I can swap out memory cards... This would have been a chore to do without sd cards. I would have either had to use a cloud or be forced to delete photos and such as I went to fit them in. Or lower the quality. I also have not even begun to explore the optional settings.
Signal and call quality are great. No wifi, 4g or 3g issues. Lg fitness tracker and pedometer work perfectly. Several of us used different devices and had similar results. So we were either all right or all wrong.
So now to my questions and issues, or lets just say cons and pro/cons in the making. Lets start with the battery. It does not charge as fast as my s5. The s5 was my best phone for battery life I have ever owned. It could hold a charge thru the weekend and thats with the ultra battery saver in reserve if needed. I have read thru some of the battery threads and will begin to try and trouble shoot possible issues. Not only does it take longer, but it heats up during. I understand this has been discussed. I have had mixed results with extreme battery drains. The day I used the gps lg tracker to keep up with my 9 miles around the camp it was at 47% by the end. That with all the weather checks and pics. Other days I did only pictures and the phone was 27%. I did discover a big concern and thats the double tap to wake. I am hoping this can be shut off. I use a phone case but not a belt clip. So I keep the phone in my pocket. While walking I was getting double taps. This led to a few **** dials ( even though its in my front pocket or cargo pocket), pictures, flashlight turned on and many more. I had to switch back to an unlock setting because I couldnt figure out how to disable. When I got the long drains from the phone or heavy use it gets hot. I have gone back and forth with the message apps. For years I have used hangouts or google. This time I wanted better intergration and decided to use the lg app. I enjoy the app and for the most part can't see anything its lacking, but I do have a big issue. When using the app if you are tilting the phone and it goes from vertical to horizontal the chat your in goes all the way back to the beginning of the chat. Not a huge deal if its just a small chat with someone. But for example me and my wife can go back and forth a bit. So after 10 of chats it is painful to have to grab and scroll 4 or 5 swipes just to get back to the newest thing. If I keep the chats like I had on the s5 this will become unmanageable.
Overall I am very pleased. It may be my favorate phone ( except for my palm pre, but I wont start talking about that or I may cry, 6 years later and we still see the top companies pushing new features I had back then). I am waiting on my extra battery and leather backing ( I wish I had purchased in june and got the memory card instead) which will help but I am also sure I could resolve the battery issues if they don't get fixed in an update. I wish verizon didnt kill the fm radio, I could have used it this weekend. I am hoping the double tap and chat issue can be resolved.
Again I understand why people compare phones down to the finer details, but in the end if you dont put phone up against each other directly it doesnt matter. Most of us compare our current phone to the previous. To me the lg is not as snappy, much more natural in appearance ( for camera and screen). Its camera is the best I have seen on a phone, the look and feel of the phone are perfect and thr buttons on the back are an improvement.
I switched from samsung because after careful consideration I understood I had many issues I was looking over because I liked the ideas samsung had. The s3 was ok, but the phone ( calling and getting calls) was terrible. My wifes iphone would work almost anywhere and I would struggle at full. It had a terrible gps and I am sure other isssues. The s5 was a good phone for the most part. I loved the heartbeat monitor, pedometer (first time carrying something like this), waterproofness, camera, removable battery and sd cards. Over all a great phone, until I started to have issues. Hangouts would restart or report an issue, it struggled from 4g signal to 3g and back, if I went to the hotspot and back or no signal to 4g/3g or wifi to no wifi I had to reboot it in order to regain signal. I tried all sorts of things just short of factory restore and figured if I was starting over I would rather just get a new phone.
So after considering s6, lg g4, htc, moto and sony I chose the lg. The battery, sd card, camera and back buttons being the biggest selling points. I am not a big believer in side by side comparissions of screen, camera and such. If I owned both phones I may notice but I just carry the one. So if its good, then I just get used to it and move on.
To start with the lg feels great in my hands. No sharp sides, clear screen and curved just right. The back buttons were an adjustment, but within an hour of using it I was well past that issue. The back buttons and the quick use combos are great. For example double tap the vol down gets you the camera and a picture snapped in like 7 sec or less. So without using another hand I can get a good shot. I am not sure why a featured selling point on a phone would be the finish of the exterior if you are going to be using a cover. Without covers I still like the lg better then the others. The htc seams heavy, as does the moto. Each of the last 3 phones I owned I purchased without a cover and within a few days had dropped. None come with a rubberised grip and at some point I drop them. Maybe its just me but once I have put a ding in my new expensive phone I feel guilty and cant wait until its trade in time. So this one got a $20 cover from verizon. It still feels great and now has some protection.
So now I will talk about the pros. I love the phone. Screen is beautiful. Camera is better then my camera that is knowingly several year old at this point. Like all other phones it is not without its weeknesses, but I have just spent the last week at boyscout summer camp and took over 200 pictures and 20 videos. Living in the age of digital pics I make sure I take as many shots as needed. I then go back and sort thru to remove the bad ones. Besides user error or my fat fingers getting in the way I only found a few pics that either didnt focus on the right object or were blurry. I was able to leave all settings in the highest modes because I can swap out memory cards... This would have been a chore to do without sd cards. I would have either had to use a cloud or be forced to delete photos and such as I went to fit them in. Or lower the quality. I also have not even begun to explore the optional settings.
Signal and call quality are great. No wifi, 4g or 3g issues. Lg fitness tracker and pedometer work perfectly. Several of us used different devices and had similar results. So we were either all right or all wrong.
So now to my questions and issues, or lets just say cons and pro/cons in the making. Lets start with the battery. It does not charge as fast as my s5. The s5 was my best phone for battery life I have ever owned. It could hold a charge thru the weekend and thats with the ultra battery saver in reserve if needed. I have read thru some of the battery threads and will begin to try and trouble shoot possible issues. Not only does it take longer, but it heats up during. I understand this has been discussed. I have had mixed results with extreme battery drains. The day I used the gps lg tracker to keep up with my 9 miles around the camp it was at 47% by the end. That with all the weather checks and pics. Other days I did only pictures and the phone was 27%. I did discover a big concern and thats the double tap to wake. I am hoping this can be shut off. I use a phone case but not a belt clip. So I keep the phone in my pocket. While walking I was getting double taps. This led to a few **** dials ( even though its in my front pocket or cargo pocket), pictures, flashlight turned on and many more. I had to switch back to an unlock setting because I couldnt figure out how to disable. When I got the long drains from the phone or heavy use it gets hot. I have gone back and forth with the message apps. For years I have used hangouts or google. This time I wanted better intergration and decided to use the lg app. I enjoy the app and for the most part can't see anything its lacking, but I do have a big issue. When using the app if you are tilting the phone and it goes from vertical to horizontal the chat your in goes all the way back to the beginning of the chat. Not a huge deal if its just a small chat with someone. But for example me and my wife can go back and forth a bit. So after 10 of chats it is painful to have to grab and scroll 4 or 5 swipes just to get back to the newest thing. If I keep the chats like I had on the s5 this will become unmanageable.
Overall I am very pleased. It may be my favorate phone ( except for my palm pre, but I wont start talking about that or I may cry, 6 years later and we still see the top companies pushing new features I had back then). I am waiting on my extra battery and leather backing ( I wish I had purchased in june and got the memory card instead) which will help but I am also sure I could resolve the battery issues if they don't get fixed in an update. I wish verizon didnt kill the fm radio, I could have used it this weekend. I am hoping the double tap and chat issue can be resolved.
Again I understand why people compare phones down to the finer details, but in the end if you dont put phone up against each other directly it doesnt matter. Most of us compare our current phone to the previous. To me the lg is not as snappy, much more natural in appearance ( for camera and screen). Its camera is the best I have seen on a phone, the look and feel of the phone are perfect and thr buttons on the back are an improvement.
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