My Honest G4 vs S6 review

Dec 17, 2014
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Let me preface by saying this is MY opinion so if you don't agree with something that I said please don't tell me I am wrong, its the way I feel so it cant be wrong to me ( Oh wow I sound like my wife!!!!! :) ). So I have had both phones the S6 for a little over a month and G4 since release day. Hopefully this will help some people who are still on the fence or who are wondering the differences between these 2 flagships

SCREEN:
This is when the S6 shines. Its easily the best screen on a smartphone I have seen, IF YOU LIKE THE AMOLED type of displays this is hands down the best. There is really nothing negative you can say, If you dont like the "punchy" colors you can change the display settings. If I didn’t ever see the S6 display and only saw the G4 then the G4 would have won that title. I have had the Note4, HTC M8 and the Nexus 6. A good way of looking at the G4 screen is it would be the middle setting of the Samsung settings. Not quite as “punchy” as the amoled cinema setting but more “punchy” than the basic. Im a huge fan of the amoled displays and the LCD is the one that comes closest to reproducing the contrast you see on Samsung displays. The S6 gets extremely bright in outdoor auto settings, the G4 not as bright but bright enough you will not complain.

BATTERY LIFE:
As good as the S6 screen is that’s how BAD the battery life is. I know some people have had good battery life with the S6 unfortunately I was not one of them. I tried everything installing several different battery saving software, greenfy etc…. Nothing worked! I would reset the cache partition about every 2-3 days (will get into that later). It could have been I had a defective device but seriously doubt it With the S6 I ALWAYS found myself looking at the battery and closing apps, running sweep master, doing battery saving things! And yes I did all the tips and tricks mentioned in these forums and other forums. Yes I know the quick charging is fast WHO CARES!!!! I want my damn battery to make it at least a day! My experience with the G4 was complete opposite, I had the same apps same things running and the G4 would get me through the day with ease, I can even turn up my brightness and turn on location settings to high. It was truly a night and day difference. I never once when I left my house with a full charge had to worry about not having enough to make it the whole day. Bottom line is the G4 battery was way better FOR ME than the S6.

Software/Performance
Oh Samsung when are you going to get this right???? I wanted to like the new Touch Wiz sooooooo bad. The first few days I had the phone it was AMAZING just flawless performance ZERO lag everything was snappy and almost instant. Then a week went by, then 2 then 3 and my phone was acting like a old Pentium CPU that couldn’t handle all the stuff you put on it. There were times when I would hit my home button and after what seemed like 5 minutes but was actually @30 sec later my home screen would show up! I think this is called redraw? From my experience if you add widgets and load up your screens the phone almost becomes a brick I would have to run my screens like a Icrap and have nothing on them. This is where every 2-3 days I would reset the cache partition and it would run fine then start acting up again. I read that this could possibly be a lollipop problem or the way Samsung handles memory. I tried it all, turning on developer options and limiting background process then went back to standard, nothing worked. I can honestly tell you that this phone went from being almost perfect to almost unusable! And yes I tried Nova, M launcher and every other launcher and got the same result. This really sucks because I really liked touch wiz and the new themes.
Once again COMPLETE opposite experience with the G4, this phone has run the way the S6 did when it was running flawlessly. I have all my widgets hell I even have Live wallpaper and it runs like nothing it on it. I know its weird because I read that peoples G4 is laggy etc. I have 0 need to want to add a launcher at this point. The G4 has acted the same as it was day 1. Very impressed with the LG skin and the optimization , goes to show you its not the sheer numbers but how the software and chip work together, and I hate to admit it Icrap has been proving that for years.

Camera
I LOVE THE S6 camera it is amazing! Some of the shots I took with it did not look like a came from a cell phone camera, the colors the simplicity in the options( even though there was a lot of them ) were almost perfect! There really is nothing wrong I can say about this camera, in my eyes the best by far on any smartphone. The G4 COULD BE better, but im not a damn photographer I don’t know what the heck shutter speed iso blah blah blah is. Im sure if you took the time to study all that you can do with the G4 camera it would be better than the S6. But it you were taking just straight shot for shot without all the adjustments the S6 has a better camera. Both cameras are great and are easily 1 and 2 in my opinion on smart phone cameras

Overall/ Summary
I am a Samsung lover! This is the first LG phone I’ve had and I am VERY impressed IF and that’s a BIG IF the S6 ran like it did the first few days I got it, it would be the better phone, but the fact I have to baby it and HOPE it runs good is a big turnoff and the fact for me the battery was horrible and that sealed the deal . The G4 been flawless from day one ZERO lag all day battery and then some I am really impressed with this phone. BUT once the s6+ is released if the rumors are true I will be switching back( the joys of Tmobile new jump on demand) to see if the addition of 5.1 and hopefully Samsung learned and made the phone run smoother regardless If its day 1 or 30. Its to bad the S6 ran the way it did for me. If all things being equal and both phones ran the same way with no lag and all day battery the S6 would be my choice. But for me that was not the case. And LG has done one hell of a job with the G4, it’s a great phone and is my choice for my daily driver…………………for now!!! ( s6+ Note 5)
 

what5k

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It was either the G4 or the S6 for me, I'm glad I chose the S6. What pushed me to it was the better camera.

Also, a tip. Those battery saving, ram freeing apps are actually harming your battery life. Android apps restart in the background when you kill them, and end up using more battery than if you had just left them on.
 
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It was either the G4 or the S6 for me, I'm glad I chose the S6. What pushed me to it was the better camera.

Also, a tip. Those battery saving, ram freeing apps are actually harming your battery life. Android apps restart in the background when you kill them, and end up using more battery than if you had just left them on.

Ya after a while i realized I got better performance with out those apps!
 

maduro78

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It was either the G4 or the S6 for me, I'm glad I chose the S6. What pushed me to it was the better camera.

Also, a tip. Those battery saving, ram freeing apps are actually harming your battery life. Android apps restart in the background when you kill them, and end up using more battery than if you had just left them on.
S6 better camera? The g4 camera was voted the best of any phone. Ultimately is irrelevant since your happy

sent from my LG G4 vs986
 

I Can Be Your Hero

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Nice review. I share a lot of your thoughts OP.

For the screen, as you mentioned the G4 is in between Samsung's AMOLED adaptive and basic modes, which is why I prefer the G4's screen. Samsung's calibration is either too saturated (AMOLED adaptive/cinema) or too understaurated (basic/photo) for me, whereas the G4 hits that 'perfect' spot to my eyes. Battery life for me also hasn't been stellar on the S6 ever since I got it. It's not atrocious, but it could be better. G4 lasts me a few hours more than the S6 does.

Camera is very very close between the two. But if I had to give and edge to one, I'd give it to the S6. The G4 tends to oversharpen a little too much and I found the S6's dynamic range in auto mode to be better. I just feel like if I needed to bust out a phone to quickly snap a shot, I'd rely on the S6 over the G4. The G4 almost makes up for it by having a more robust manual mode. But they're minor nit picks and both are really awesome cameras.

I agree to a certain degree with your software/performance point. I notice lags and hiccups on both the S6 and G4, with the S6 having a little more hiccups than the G4. Neither of them I'd consider slow or laggy phones, but neither of them I'd consider the fastest/smoothest phones I've used. From the sounds of it, your S6 experience with performance seems way way worse than mine which suggests to me it may be a defective unit? But the things that I liked about the S6 over the G4 was the size (more comfortable in my hand), the build (prefer metal/glass over plastic/leather) and a few other small things.

A nice review OP. Always fun reading others opinions.
 

dmlv

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I have had the s6 and tested the g4 as I really enjoyed the g3 when I had one. 5.5 sreen is my ideal size.

Liked the g4 a lot but I notice it was not as snappy and did get hung up a little while multi tasking. I noticed little difference in battery to my s6 which was very surprising.

With the 5.1.1 update all the issues the OP experienced have been addressed...at least I have noticed. Most notably is improved battery life. I never had problems with slow downs or drag even before the update and I'm running this w stock touch wiz.

For me quick charging, wireless charging, give the edge to the s6.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

droidguy1964

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Let me preface by saying this is MY opinion so if you don't agree with something that I said please don't tell me I am wrong, its the way I feel so it cant be wrong to me ( Oh wow I sound like my wife!!!!! :) ). So I have had both phones the S6 for a little over a month and G4 since release day. Hopefully this will help some people who are still on the fence or who are wondering the differences between these 2 flagships

SCREEN:
This is when the S6 shines. Its easily the best screen on a smartphone I have seen, IF YOU LIKE THE AMOLED type of displays this is hands down the best. There is really nothing negative you can say, If you dont like the "punchy" colors you can change the display settings. If I didn’t ever see the S6 display and only saw the G4 then the G4 would have won that title. I have had the Note4, HTC M8 and the Nexus 6. A good way of looking at the G4 screen is it would be the middle setting of the Samsung settings. Not quite as “punchy” as the amoled cinema setting but more “punchy” than the basic. Im a huge fan of the amoled displays and the LCD is the one that comes closest to reproducing the contrast you see on Samsung displays. The S6 gets extremely bright in outdoor auto settings, the G4 not as bright but bright enough you will not complain.

BATTERY LIFE:
As good as the S6 screen is that’s how BAD the battery life is. I know some people have had good battery life with the S6 unfortunately I was not one of them. I tried everything installing several different battery saving software, greenfy etc…. Nothing worked! I would reset the cache partition about every 2-3 days (will get into that later). It could have been I had a defective device but seriously doubt it With the S6 I ALWAYS found myself looking at the battery and closing apps, running sweep master, doing battery saving things! And yes I did all the tips and tricks mentioned in these forums and other forums. Yes I know the quick charging is fast WHO CARES!!!! I want my damn battery to make it at least a day! My experience with the G4 was complete opposite, I had the same apps same things running and the G4 would get me through the day with ease, I can even turn up my brightness and turn on location settings to high. It was truly a night and day difference. I never once when I left my house with a full charge had to worry about not having enough to make it the whole day. Bottom line is the G4 battery was way better FOR ME than the S6.

Software/Performance
Oh Samsung when are you going to get this right???? I wanted to like the new Touch Wiz sooooooo bad. The first few days I had the phone it was AMAZING just flawless performance ZERO lag everything was snappy and almost instant. Then a week went by, then 2 then 3 and my phone was acting like a old Pentium CPU that couldn’t handle all the stuff you put on it. There were times when I would hit my home button and after what seemed like 5 minutes but was actually @30 sec later my home screen would show up! I think this is called redraw? From my experience if you add widgets and load up your screens the phone almost becomes a brick I would have to run my screens like a Icrap and have nothing on them. This is where every 2-3 days I would reset the cache partition and it would run fine then start acting up again. I read that this could possibly be a lollipop problem or the way Samsung handles memory. I tried it all, turning on developer options and limiting background process then went back to standard, nothing worked. I can honestly tell you that this phone went from being almost perfect to almost unusable! And yes I tried Nova, M launcher and every other launcher and got the same result. This really sucks because I really liked touch wiz and the new themes.
Once again COMPLETE opposite experience with the G4, this phone has run the way the S6 did when it was running flawlessly. I have all my widgets hell I even have Live wallpaper and it runs like nothing it on it. I know its weird because I read that peoples G4 is laggy etc. I have 0 need to want to add a launcher at this point. The G4 has acted the same as it was day 1. Very impressed with the LG skin and the optimization , goes to show you its not the sheer numbers but how the software and chip work together, and I hate to admit it Icrap has been proving that for years.

Camera
I LOVE THE S6 camera it is amazing! Some of the shots I took with it did not look like a came from a cell phone camera, the colors the simplicity in the options( even though there was a lot of them ) were almost perfect! There really is nothing wrong I can say about this camera, in my eyes the best by far on any smartphone. The G4 COULD BE better, but im not a damn photographer I don’t know what the heck shutter speed iso blah blah blah is. Im sure if you took the time to study all that you can do with the G4 camera it would be better than the S6. But it you were taking just straight shot for shot without all the adjustments the S6 has a better camera. Both cameras are great and are easily 1 and 2 in my opinion on smart phone cameras

Overall/ Summary
I am a Samsung lover! This is the first LG phone I’ve had and I am VERY impressed IF and that’s a BIG IF the S6 ran like it did the first few days I got it, it would be the better phone, but the fact I have to baby it and HOPE it runs good is a big turnoff and the fact for me the battery was horrible and that sealed the deal . The G4 been flawless from day one ZERO lag all day battery and then some I am really impressed with this phone. BUT once the s6+ is released if the rumors are true I will be switching back( the joys of Tmobile new jump on demand) to see if the addition of 5.1 and hopefully Samsung learned and made the phone run smoother regardless If its day 1 or 30. Its to bad the S6 ran the way it did for me. If all things being equal and both phones ran the same way with no lag and all day battery the S6 would be my choice. But for me that was not the case. And LG has done one hell of a job with the G4, it’s a great phone and is my choice for my daily driver…………………for now!!! ( s6+ Note 5)

Spot on. Good review.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

yoopermjm

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I enjoyed your review OP. I agree with some of it, but have yet to experience the battery and slow down issues you had. I don't think you can go wrong with either of those phones and they were my last two choices. I went with the s6, for the screen, the camera, and in the end, the fingerprint scanner. With phones being easily stolen and so much of my data on my phone, I really appreciate the added security and ease of use of the fingerprint scanner on the S6. I had some issues with it, but after re-doing one of my thumbs a few times, it now works flawlessly and quickly. Also love the double tap camera availability at any time.

Glad you like your G4. Love my S6!
 

Stanley Kubrick

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Good review...appreciate honest reports....however, after reading your review and even going over it a second time (more quickly of course) I did not see any mention of doing a factory reset??
As painful as it can be (I hate resetting everything back up) and I personally have not had your issues (S6 Edge here) sometimes a factory reset is what fixes these issues. I see you did a cache wipe several times but no factory reset? Unless I missed it somewhere. So if you still have the phone, why not try that and see if it helps?
 

jskinvest

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Great review. I have the same lag issues with the Galaxy S6. I need to reboot every 2-3 days to get it back to running smoothly. From what I read though, a lot of people are having this problem and a lot are not. Do you think that some phones are defective? Would it be worthwhile to swap it out for a newly refurbished one from Verizon? If not, I will switch to the new Moto X when it comes out later this year.
 
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Good review...appreciate honest reports....however, after reading your review and even going over it a second time (more quickly of course) I did not see any mention of doing a factory reset??
As painful as it can be (I hate resetting everything back up) and I personally have not had your issues (S6 Edge here) sometimes a factory reset is what fixes these issues. I see you did a cache wipe several times but no factory reset? Unless I missed it somewhere. So if you still have the phone, why not try that and see if it helps?

I was under the impression that doing the cache reset was just as good as rebooting without looking all your info. Im getting used to the G4 screen so I'm anxiously awaiting the s6+ !!!!!
 
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Great review. I have the same lag issues with the Galaxy S6. I need to reboot every 2-3 days to get it back to running smoothly. From what I read though, a lot of people are having this problem and a lot are not. Do you think that some phones are defective? Would it be worthwhile to swap it out for a newly refurbished one from Verizon? If not, I will switch to the new Moto X when it comes out later this year.
Honestly I don't get it how can basically half the people say they have no issues and the other half are like you and me? I would give it another shot with the new moto or wait until the 5.1 update and see if that helps
 

MDMcAtee

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Honestly I don't get it how can basically half the people say they have no issues and the other half are like you and me? I would give it another shot with the new moto or wait until the 5.1 update and see if that helps

Because it is mainly all in how folks have their phones setup. It also has to do with the carriers people are on,and lastly in the phone itself and if someone has a faulty phone.

No 2 phones are going to give the same results unless they are set up exactly the same and used exactly the same way in the same exact place.

I have seen this over and over again in all my years dealing with these phones. There is one other thing that can cause some serious differences and isn't given a lot of thought by many. This is a issue that a factory reset won't address. If you have a phone that doesn't have a complete factory rom installed from the factory. One would assume that it would but I can say after having different phones that have had issues having a complete wipe done of the phone and reinstalling the os from the carriers stores have seen a drastically different results. Same to with rooting and flashing a different kernel,radio, and new rom...

Now about your review, it's pretty much spot on and what I found when I had my g4 from opening day. It's a really great phone and the battery did exceptionally well.

My issue was with the antennas in them.

Do me a favor... try this and tell me what you find. Be in a area that has full bars for both cell signal and WiFi signal...or close to it. Watching your bars closely.. lay the phone in your opposite hand so that the top of the phone is in the center of your hand and hold the phone with your other hand at the bottom.

Does your signals fade or go completely away? Mine would even if standing next to a router and micro tower on 4g and outside on Lte.

Try it and see what yours does.

Posted from my Samsung S6 Active
 
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Because it is mainly all in how folks have their phones setup. It also has to do with the carriers people are on,and lastly in the phone itself and if someone has a faulty phone.

No 2 phones are going to give the same results unless they are set up exactly the same and used exactly the same way in the same exact place.

I have seen this over and over again in all my years dealing with these phones. There is one other thing that can cause some serious differences and isn't given a lot of thought by many. This is a issue that a factory reset won't address. If you have a phone that doesn't have a complete factory rom installed from the factory. One would assume that it would but I can say after having different phones that have had issues having a complete wipe done of the phone and reinstalling the os from the carriers stores have seen a drastically different results. Same to with rooting and flashing a different kernel,radio, and new rom...

Now about your review, it's pretty much spot on and what I found when I had my g4 from opening day. It's a really great phone and the battery did exceptionally well.

My issue was with the antennas in them.

Do me a favor... try this and tell me what you find. Be in a area that has full bars for both cell signal and WiFi signal...or close to it. Watching your bars closely.. lay the phone in your opposite hand so that the top of the phone is in the center of your hand and hold the phone with your other hand at the bottom.

Does your signals fade or go completely away? Mine would even if standing next to a router and micro tower on 4g and outside on Lte.

Try it and see what yours does.

Posted from my Samsung S6 Active

Great thanks for letting me know the signal does go down!!! LOL I tried that and sure enough I went from full bars to only 2 bars!
 

MDMcAtee

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Great thanks for letting me know the signal does go down!!! LOL I tried that and sure enough I went from full bars to only 2 bars!

Yup... I know.. a otherwise superb phone with a crippled antenna in it.

I went through hellandback trying to talk to someone at LG about this but couldn't get past their Philippines answering service.

As much as it pains me to say it, and no offense to you or any other fan of the phone as I was.. this is another Antenna Gate, same as what the iPhone had. This is also the reason I no longer have mine.

Now before someone says that it doesn't matter, they are wrong, because it does matter. I went through 5 of these phones at a AT&T corporate store and let me tell you the guys there were at a loss to explain it. 2 of them were actually worse than mine was.

Posted from my Samsung S6 Active
 

jcp007

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Honestly I don't get it how can basically half the people say they have no issues and the other half are like you and me? I would give it another shot with the new moto or wait until the 5.1 update and see if that helps

While those having issues seems large in this forum, it's so small when you include the millions who have the device already. The incidence of issues while not diminishing their severity that are posted is not quite as large as it might seem.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

TechGod2014

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S6 better camera? The g4 camera was voted the best of any phone. Ultimately is irrelevant since your happy

sent from my LG G4 vs986

Agreed. I had the G4 before getting the S6 and in my opinion the G4 camera is way better. I miss it. On another note the battery life I'm getting on the S6 is way better. I'm talking about night and day better.... so go figure.
 

what5k

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Most articles have said the S6.

Posted via the Android Central App

That's what I saw and read in multiple comparison articles and reviews. G4 has brighter photos but the S6 has unrivaled hdr capabilities, which result in more balanced photos. Believe me I was hyped over the G4 and was deadset on buying it but once I started doing a little research I found that the S6 is better suited for what I wanted.
 

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