Considering G4 to replace iPhone 6. How do they compare in actual use?

[donovan1983]

I'm a pretty big fan of the Apple ecosystem. Currently I have a MacBook Air, iPad Air, and an iPhone 6. They generally work together pretty well and for iOS in particular, the apps available are second-to-none. The apps available are why I even got the iPad again. Too bad iOS is turning into a pile of crap and I can say that the iPhone 6 is the worst flagship smartphone I've used in years. The iPhone 4s was amazing and the 3GS was a tank and along with the Galaxy Note II are the best smartphones I've had and I've been using smartphones since 2006. My specific complaints on the iPhone 6, and by extension iOS 8, are:

The battery life is atrocious if I want to use the phone for things like web browsing or maps apps, yet it streams Netflix over LTE with comparatively little battery usage even if I crank up the screen brightness a bit.

The touchscreen misses taps and misreads scrolling gestures a lot. The OS has random lags in all sorts of places in stock apps and dropped frames are frequent in even the stock apps. Typing on the keyboard is often being a frustrating experience due to missed letters and lagging behind by sometimes whole phrases.

Random app crashes are a near daily occurrence and sometimes the phone reboots for no reason, and I'm only counting stock apps for this.

Apple loves only making the lowest storage capacity iPhones widely available for months after launch. In the past I've been fine with 16GB devices. Now I have to decide what apps I really, really want to use (I don't use games) and have missed moments with the camera due to being out of storage. The apps are extremely bloated and are only getting more so over time.

The camera may do better in low light (as far as brightness) than past iPhones and capture photos much faster, but the quality of the images in okay to good lighting are the worst of the 3 8MP iPhones I've had. The brighter low light pics are generally very grainy and the pics in good lighting suffer from excess sharpening and excess compression.

And finally, the reception. iPhones have never been reception champs and while the 6 is a little better than the 5s I had, it's still terrible. It loves latching on to EDGE and HSPA in LTE areas, hangs on to near useless signals too long, and often takes frustrating long to even acquire a signal. The 5s at least liked LTE more.

In light of all this and more I'm planning to replace the iPhone when my JUMP upgrade comes up early next month. My choices have been narrowed to the Galaxy S6, Nexus 6, and the G4. I've read that neither battery life nor reception are very good on the S6 so it's in third place. The Nexus 6 seems good overall and my husband likes his a lot but the slowness of the camera gives me pause. The G4 seems to have a good and fast camera, is reported to have decent to good battery life, and apparently much better reception than the Galaxy S6. If any of you here have had both an iPhone 6 and G4 that you used for at least a few days each, how did your experience with the two compare?

TL;DR: Loathe the iPhone 6 I have and wish to know actual user experiences of how it compares to the G4.

 

[oldschoolsig]

I will do a dBm check on my wife's ip6 's my g4 this afternoon and report back.
As for your other points,as long as the size works for you....I think you will be happy.

Sent from my LG-H810 using Tapatalk

 

[Bobbman]

While the iPhone is not everyone's cup of tea (especially in theses forums) it has been a while since I have seen such a scathing review of the iPhone 6. You pretty much bashed it on every level. I am not sure you will like the G4 more or not, expectations play a large part of the satisfaction of the phone. Good luck!!

 

[scottysize]

I'm a pretty big fan of the Apple ecosystem. Currently I have a MacBook Air, iPad Air, and an iPhone 6. They generally work together pretty well and for iOS in particular, the apps available are second-to-none. The apps available are why I even got the iPad again. Too bad iOS is turning into a pile of crap and I can say that the iPhone 6 is the worst flagship smartphone I've used in years. The iPhone 4s was amazing and the 3GS was a tank and along with the Galaxy Note II are the best smartphones I've had and I've been using smartphones since 2006. My specific complaints on the iPhone 6, and by extension iOS 8, are:

The battery life is atrocious if I want to use the phone for things like web browsing or maps apps, yet it streams Netflix over LTE with comparatively little battery usage even if I crank up the screen brightness a bit.

The touchscreen misses taps and misreads scrolling gestures a lot. The OS has random lags in all sorts of places in stock apps and dropped frames are frequent in even the stock apps. Typing on the keyboard is often being a frustrating experience due to missed letters and lagging behind by sometimes whole phrases.

Random app crashes are a near daily occurrence and sometimes the phone reboots for no reason, and I'm only counting stock apps for this.

Apple loves only making the lowest storage capacity iPhones widely available for months after launch. In the past I've been fine with 16GB devices. Now I have to decide what apps I really, really want to use (I don't use games) and have missed moments with the camera due to being out of storage. The apps are extremely bloated and are only getting more so over time.

The camera may do better in low light (as far as brightness) than past iPhones and capture photos much faster, but the quality of the images in okay to good lighting are the worst of the 3 8MP iPhones I've had. The brighter low light pics are generally very grainy and the pics in good lighting suffer from excess sharpening and excess compression.

And finally, the reception. iPhones have never been reception champs and while the 6 is a little better than the 5s I had, it's still terrible. It loves latching on to EDGE and HSPA in LTE areas, hangs on to near useless signals too long, and often takes frustrating long to even acquire a signal. The 5s at least liked LTE more.

In light of all this and more I'm planning to replace the iPhone when my JUMP upgrade comes up early next month. My choices have been narrowed to the Galaxy S6, Nexus 6, and the G4. I've read that neither battery life nor reception are very good on the S6 so it's in third place. The Nexus 6 seems good overall and my husband likes his a lot but the slowness of the camera gives me pause. The G4 seems to have a good and fast camera, is reported to have decent to good battery life, and apparently much better reception than the Galaxy S6. If any of you here have had both an iPhone 6 and G4 that you used for at least a few days each, how did your experience with the two compare?

TL;DR: Loathe the iPhone 6 I have and wish to know actual user experiences of how it compares to the G4.

Wow. I had to got to advanced to reply to your post. First off, if you've done your updates from Apple, then you got a bad iPhone 6. Plain and simple. I had an iPhone 6 last year and my main carry phone is an iPhone 6 Plus. I also had an iPhone 5, so I have some experience here.

The battery life on the iPhone 6 was ok. Nothing spectacular, but it lasted longer than the Droid Turbo. (If you recall, the Turbo had the 3 something or other hundred battery in it.) With my iPhone 6, I could last all day on a single charge and that was with 2 hours of NetFlix and normal everyday use. The Turbo I was limping into home hoping to have to not put it on the charger until I made it there. Most of the time I had to charge on the way home from work. Now, battery life on the iPhone 6 Plus. OGM. No SmartPhone on earth touches it. I took mine off the charger yesterday morning at 0340. It's currently sitting at 47% with about 2 hours of NetFlix and I was using it as a hotspot last night. (I know, you don't have the Plus, but you should look into one IMO.)

Screen presses are not hit or miss with my iPhone. In fact, I type faster on the iPhone than I do on Android phones with less mistakes. The "built-in" lag for Android really pisses you off and causes you to double tap on accident and causes you to miss things. Waiting for an App to open, even if it's' only 1 or 2 seconds is crap IMO. Try scrolling through anything and you'll see the lag perfectly. There is no smoothness when scrolling on any Android devices. Those who don't see it, have never used an iPhone, or they scroll like a little old lady drives. The Lag is why the iPhone 6 Plus is my main carry device and why I keep going back to iPhones.

I've only had a few apps crash and it's always fixed with an App update. It's never been the fault of the OS in my case. This is for the most part identical to Android. I've had just as many App crashes on Android as iOS. Even more after an Android major update. Not as much on an iPhone.

Yes. Apple makes money off their Cloud Storage, or bigger storage on their devices. It's their marketing plan. I'd never ever even consider a 16GB. I'd shell out the extra $100 and pick up the 32GB, or as in my case, the extra $250 and pick up the 128GB.

Cameras are hit or miss with the Android phones. The LG G4 has the best camera I've ever seen. I mean, I'm actually under selling it. It takes, dare I say it, DSLR quality photos. Go ahead you photo-snobs. Put me down, but you cannot say it takes anything less than spectacular photos. In contrast, my iPhone 6 takes good photos. They are decent and much better than my wife's Sammy S5. So I'm happy with the iPhone camera and quality, but no, it's not even in the same realm as the G4.

I have to disagree with reception. I plugged in the AT&T SIM card in my iPhone 6 Plus and got the same dBm rating on the iPhone 6 Plus as I did with the LG G4. I see no difference in reception.

Drop the Samsung S6 from your conversation. It's not up to par with the LG G4. Since the new Nexus will be out shortly. If you are leaning towards a Nexus 6, I'd wait until the new one was released. We don't know a whole lot about it now though.

So, coming from an Android Guy that uses an iPhone 6 Plus, please note that while I did receive an International version of the LG G4 for testing purposes, it is not my main carry device and I haven't run out and picked 1 up to replace my iPhone 6 Plus. (The International version will not work on Verizon.) The only thing my iPhone can't do is allow my home Network to connect and use the Hotspot. Since I live in the country, I cannot get decent Internet, so we have to use our cellphones as hotspots. For this reason, I swap out my SIM every weekend and plug it into a LG G2. If not for that problem, I would even own an Android phone for myself. I've toyed with the idea of picking up a Verizon LG G4, but that's all it's been is a thought. The camera is the only reason I'm even considering it, and I doubt I'll do it though. The price is another reason. I could sell my iPhone now for $150 more than the brand new G4 would cost me. So far I haven't pulled the trigger. While the G4 is great, it's not perfect. No phone is.

I still think you got a rotten Apple with your iPhone 6. If I was you, I'd add the iPhone 6 Plus into your phone choices. Especially since you are living in the iOS world already. I own a MacBook Pro, iPad Air 2, and I have a Mac-Mini as my home server. For the most part, I live in the iOS world, so the iPhone makes more sense. That doesn't mean that the Android phone won't work, because it does. It's just an easier transition going from those devices to an iPhone.

What you should do is go look at the G4 and 6+. Forget the S6.

My opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

 

[tx_tuff]

My wife has an iPhone 6, I don't really use it but can tell you a little.

First I don't think her keyboard has any lag, she types fast as hell on it.

She complains about the battery so I bought her a external battery to charge her phone when she is out and about. I would say the G4 is better but not hours better.

Some shops around where we live don't have great service but my G4 does stay on LTE better than her iPhone.

Anytime she wants a great photo she will ask me to take a picture, this even goes back to my G2. But he iPhone doesn't take bad pictures.

Over all its just what you like. I wouldn't want the iPhone and even though the G4 is better at some things she doesn't want an Android OS phone.

 

[eao1991]

Coming from an owner of the devices you're considering, here's how I would rank them:

1: S6
2: G4
3: Nexus 6

It's a tough one for me between the G4 and Nexus 6. Positives of the G4 over the Nexus are a far superior camera, more manageable size, better battery life, and of course the removable battery + SD card if you value those things. Since the next Nexus will likely be due out in a few months, I'd just wait for that if you really want the Nexus experience.

Not sure what scotty has against the S6, but I would not drop it from consideration. I've had the S6 since release and am still amazed by it. Build quality is amazing, the camera is excellent, and I have experienced no lag with it. It's running encrypted and still provides a noticeably smoother experience than the G4. I've never had any reception issues with it (VZW customer). Reception for me is just as good as the G4.

I do agree with scotty though that the iPhone 6 Plus should be on your list. That phone left me impressed. I didn't need to micromanage my settings like I have to do on Android in order to get decent battery life. I could leave things enabled and the 6+ would still last me well into the 2nd day. Camera is obviously great and never had touchscreen issues with it. I did experience some app crashes, but it's not like those don't happen on Android as well. Still a bit bummed I ended up selling the 6+, but I think I would put it ahead of the S6 on my ranking.

 

[donovan1983]

Wow. I had to got to advanced to reply to your post. First off, if you've done your updates from Apple, then you got a bad iPhone 6. Plain and simple. I had an iPhone 6 last year and my main carry phone is an iPhone 6 Plus. I also had an iPhone 5, so I have some experience here.

The battery life on the iPhone 6 was ok. Nothing spectacular, but it lasted longer than the Droid Turbo. (If you recall, the Turbo had the 3 something or other hundred battery in it.) With my iPhone 6, I could last all day on a single charge and that was with 2 hours of NetFlix and normal everyday use. The Turbo I was limping into home hoping to have to not put it on the charger until I made it there. Most of the time I had to charge on the way home from work. Now, battery life on the iPhone 6 Plus. OGM. No SmartPhone on earth touches it. I took mine off the charger yesterday morning at 0340. It's currently sitting at 47% with about 2 hours of NetFlix and I was using it as a hotspot last night. (I know, you don't have the Plus, but you should look into one IMO.)

Screen presses are not hit or miss with my iPhone. In fact, I type faster on the iPhone than I do on Android phones with less mistakes. The "built-in" lag for Android really pisses you off and causes you to double tap on accident and causes you to miss things. Waiting for an App to open, even if it's' only 1 or 2 seconds is crap IMO. Try scrolling through anything and you'll see the lag perfectly. There is no smoothness when scrolling on any Android devices. Those who don't see it, have never used an iPhone, or they scroll like a little old lady drives. The Lag is why the iPhone 6 Plus is my main carry device and why I keep going back to iPhones.

I've only had a few apps crash and it's always fixed with an App update. It's never been the fault of the OS in my case. This is for the most part identical to Android. I've had just as many App crashes on Android as iOS. Even more after an Android major update. Not as much on an iPhone.

Yes. Apple makes money off their Cloud Storage, or bigger storage on their devices. It's their marketing plan. I'd never ever even consider a 16GB. I'd shell out the extra $100 and pick up the 32GB, or as in my case, the extra $250 and pick up the 128GB.

Cameras are hit or miss with the Android phones. The LG G4 has the best camera I've ever seen. I mean, I'm actually under selling it. It takes, dare I say it, DSLR quality photos. Go ahead you photo-snobs. Put me down, but you cannot say it takes anything less than spectacular photos. In contrast, my iPhone 6 takes good photos. They are decent and much better than my wife's Sammy S5. So I'm happy with the iPhone camera and quality, but no, it's not even in the same realm as the G4.

I have to disagree with reception. I plugged in the AT&T SIM card in my iPhone 6 Plus and got the same dBm rating on the iPhone 6 Plus as I did with the LG G4. I see no difference in reception.

Drop the Samsung S6 from your conversation. It's not up to par with the LG G4. Since the new Nexus will be out shortly. If you are leaning towards a Nexus 6, I'd wait until the new one was released. We don't know a whole lot about it now though.

So, coming from an Android Guy that uses an iPhone 6 Plus, please note that while I did receive an International version of the LG G4 for testing purposes, it is not my main carry device and I haven't run out and picked 1 up to replace my iPhone 6 Plus. (The International version will not work on Verizon.) The only thing my iPhone can't do is allow my home Network to connect and use the Hotspot. Since I live in the country, I cannot get decent Internet, so we have to use our cellphones as hotspots. For this reason, I swap out my SIM every weekend and plug it into a LG G2. If not for that problem, I would even own an Android phone for myself. I've toyed with the idea of picking up a Verizon LG G4, but that's all it's been is a thought. The camera is the only reason I'm even considering it, and I doubt I'll do it though. The price is another reason. I could sell my iPhone now for $150 more than the brand new G4 would cost me. So far I haven't pulled the trigger. While the G4 is great, it's not perfect. No phone is.

I still think you got a rotten Apple with your iPhone 6. If I was you, I'd add the iPhone 6 Plus into your phone choices. Especially since you are living in the iOS world already. I own a MacBook Pro, iPad Air 2, and I have a Mac-Mini as my home server. For the most part, I live in the iOS world, so the iPhone makes more sense. That doesn't mean that the Android phone won't work, because it does. It's just an easier transition going from those devices to an iPhone.

What you should do is go look at the G4 and 6+. Forget the S6.

My opinion. Take it for what it's worth.

I do want to give a sincere thank you for such a detailed response. It definitely gives me some things to think about.

You and other posters bring up a lot of very good points and I certainly agree that there is no "perfect" phone for me. The iPhone 6+ is on my list (it was my original upgrade choice) but I'm not leaning towards it at this time. It may be that my specific 6 has hardware issues (it was one of the early batches) so any newer iPhone 6 or 6+ may be better for that fact alone. I am happy to read that so many here think so highly of the iPhone 6 and 6+ even if they are dedicated Android users since it makes those users' opinions of the G4 (and N6 and S6) much more even as far as the strengths and weaknesses of each. It helps temper my expectations for what a new device may or may not do for me.

 

[alexsd123]

Went from an iPhone 5 to the LG G4. Thought it was going to be my segway away from iOS but it didn't live up to standards. I really enjoyed some aspects of it like the screen, the camera and the OS, but issues came with it like poor battery life and random lag. I ended up returning it. I do really miss some aspects and could see myself using it, but I didn't see myself enjoying it for 2 years. Personally, I'm going to jailbreak the iPhone 6s or iPhone 7 (whichever comes out next). I really don't suggest android if a tiny bit of lag can bother you, as the scrolling on webpages and such is not as smooth as iOS.

 

[MDMcAtee]

I am forced to use the iPhone 6 at work and own the g4.

My g4 out performs the 6 in every aspect.

It's that simple.

I have nothing against Apple and own a new iMac and use a MacBook pro at times and have owned 2 iPhones before myself, but would never try to use one as my daily driver again.

Posted with my awesome LG g4

 

[Duncan1982]

When the Iphone 6+ was released i was tempted being that Apple upped the screen size.

Went into store looked at it and impressions were great. I held off as i have always been with Android.

My mate then had one so i could get a proper feel and look around untethered.

I was really impressed in many area's the performance & Camera being the main ones but there were others.

However it just didn't sit right and the reason why its not Android.

For me i just couldn't stray away and there issue's with iPhone's to namely every one has one the go to device. See i like having options and Android provides.

And the notion that Android= Lag and Apple=Perfection is not true.

We all have our preferences and mine is Android and its Linux base.

Apple can keep there locked in ecosystem that just ain't for me.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[scottysize]

Coming from an owner of the devices you're considering, here's how I would rank them:

1: S6
2: G4
3: Nexus 6

It's a tough one for me between the G4 and Nexus 6. Positives of the G4 over the Nexus are a far superior camera, more manageable size, better battery life, and of course the removable battery + SD card if you value those things. Since the next Nexus will likely be due out in a few months, I'd just wait for that if you really want the Nexus experience.

Not sure what scotty has against the S6, but I would not drop it from consideration. I've had the S6 since release and am still amazed by it. Build quality is amazing, the camera is excellent, and I have experienced no lag with it. It's running encrypted and still provides a noticeably smoother experience than the G4. I've never had any reception issues with it (VZW customer). Reception for me is just as good as the G4.

I do agree with scotty though that the iPhone 6 Plus should be on your list. That phone left me impressed. I didn't need to micromanage my settings like I have to do on Android in order to get decent battery life. I could leave things enabled and the 6+ would still last me well into the 2nd day. Camera is obviously great and never had touchscreen issues with it. I did experience some app crashes, but it's not like those don't happen on Android as well. Still a bit bummed I ended up selling the 6+, but I think I would put it ahead of the S6 on my ranking.

I'm not a fan of Sammy prods, but if she's having problems with the iPhone 6 battery life, she'll hate the S6's. That's why I said she should remove it from consideration. It was battery related.

 

[eao1991]

I'm not a fan of Sammy prods, but if she's having problems with the iPhone 6 battery life, she'll hate the S6's. That's why I said she should remove it from consideration. It was battery related.

I'm barely on my fourth day with the G4 so I still can't state whether its's better or worse than the S6. However, in these 4 days, I've noticed I'm getting basically the same battery life as the S6. Screen time with the G4 gets me about 3.5-4hrs and 24-36hrs between charges. The longest screen on time I've had with the S6 was about 4.5hrs, but it's usually in the 3.5-4hr range. From the reviews/comparisons I've seen, reviewers seem to be split when it comes to which device provides the better battery life. I've seen some go with the G4 and others the S6. I have yet to own a device running Lollipop that gets me battery life I'm excited about.

 

[msm0511]

Quick question OP: Are you having the keyboard problems with the stock keyboard or with 3rd party ones? To be honest, I don't have even one of the problems you have with the 6 that I have. I use both Android and iOS because I like both OS's, but overall I'm fairly happy with my 6. The battery life isn't the greatest for some purposes, but for others it blows most Android phones away. Standby is insane on iPhones compared to the Android devices I have. The G4 does pique my interest though.

 

[donovan1983]

Quick question OP: Are you having the keyboard problems with the stock keyboard or with 3rd party ones? To be honest, I don't have even one of the problems you have with the 6 that I have. I use both Android and iOS because I like both OS's, but overall I'm fairly happy with my 6. The battery life isn't the greatest for some purposes, but for others it blows most Android phones away. Standby is insane on iPhones compared to the Android devices I have. The G4 does pique my interest though.

I've only ever used the stock keyboard on my iOS devices.

I was admittedly a bit harsh on the iPhone 6 in my initial post. It reflects a bit of the frustration I've had using it these past few months but did not reflect that I know it's just a phone. Hopefully nobody imagines due to my rhetoric that I'm scowling every time I merely look in the direction of the thing, let alone pick it up. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it but the frustrations have added up sufficiently to outweigh the positives.

 

[msm0511]

I've only ever used the stock keyboard on my iOS devices.

I was admittedly a bit harsh on the iPhone 6 in my initial post. It reflects a bit of the frustration I've had using it these past few months but did not reflect that I know it's just a phone. Hopefully nobody imagines due to my rhetoric that I'm scowling every time I merely look in the direction of the thing, let alone pick it up. I've gotten a lot of enjoyment out of it but the frustrations have added up sufficiently to outweigh the positives.

Just curious because 3rd party keyboards are the only times I've really had issues with the keyboard recently. It's definitely not perfect, but I wouldn't call it a bad phone. I got a M9 in April, and I really like it, but decided a couple days ago to put my SIM back in my 6 just because it's been a while since I used it. I think I'm gonna go check out the G4 today, but I've forbidden myself to buy another flagship phone until at least fall. LOL

 

[Gazella]

I am a long time user of Apple products. I have iPads, MacBooks, iMac, iPhones, iPods, not to mention the accessories and peripherals from Apple. I have to admit, Apple makes great products however, I'm noticing lately they care a lot more about the outside (design) rather than the inside (OS).

My Apple devices unfortunately do not work seamlessly anymore ever since that huge update that changed the UI and everything else. Software quality has fallen so very much. Their OS is so full of bugs and using an Apple device has become no fun anymore. I have an iPhone 6 and the issues the OP is experiencing has nothing to do with the hardware, in other words, exchanging for a new iPhone 6 will not help because it's the software to blame.

The iPhone 6 has very poor battery life. Reception is not bad but not great either. For instance, I would make a call, it starts to ring and then it would stop all of a sudden, I look at the signal and see GPRS or no signal even though I am in an area with excellent signal. Has happened many times and it's annoying. As for lag, I don't experience a lot but the keyboard did lag on me quite a few times and when jumping from one app to another. And Reachability (iPhone 6 and 6+ only) doesn't work well because double tapping on the Home button does not register most of the time and when it does and the screen shifts down it gets stuck for a few seconds, however this has happened only three times so far. And don't get me started on Spotlight. Lots of other small bugs here and there.

That said I still use my iPhone 6 however not for long. I bought an LG G4 only a few days ago and I'm making the transition. I'm installing and syncing everything and customizing it to my liking. I really love the G4. It's a great piece of hardware and I can't wait to fully move to Android. Plus, the G4's battery is a lot better than my iPhone 6. I'm very impressed with the G4!

 

[donovan1983]

Wanted to provide a followup to this thread. I got the G4 last Wednesday and have so far been very pleased with it.

I'm quite impressed with the build quality on this phone. It feels very solid yet lightweight and I really wish I didn't have a need to use a case with it since it fits my hand very well. The buttons on the back were surprisingly easy to get used to. The curvature of the screen was noticeable for a couple of days but now I don't really notice it. The screen itself is simply fantastic and the best thing I can say about it is that it simply disappears in usage. There is absolutely no pixelation and IPS glow around the edges is minimal. My iPhone 6 had awful IPS glow and it did get distracting. The size of the phone was easy to get used to and my small hands (for a guy) meant that the iPhone was a two-handed device anyway.

The camera is better than the iPhone but with some caveats. The iPhone's HDR processing is a bit better than the G4's. Colors are generally less saturated on the G4 which makes photos a bit more realistic. Overly aggressive noise reduction and over-sharpening are big issues on the G4 though it doesn't obliterate details to quite the same extent as the iPhone. Given how much I see these mentioned for modern smartphones I guess this is just the norm now, sadly. I wish the sensor was 4:3 instead of 16:9 though I can always crop later. Of course the feature that really sets it apart is the raw DNG capture. This is the first camera I've ever had with that capability and I'm simply amazed at how much information is captured by the sensor. It really makes me wonder how many bad shots I've discarded over the years that may have been able to be turned into decent or even good shots.

I do have an issue with battery life. I keep playing with the phone so I am having to recharge it a couple times a day Kidding aside, battery life is quite decent. It drains maybe a percent or two an hour in standby despite leaving all radios except bluetooth on. Looking at the battery stats it seems that an average of 5 or maybe 6 hours of screen on time is what I can expect. The camera of course drains the battery like no other and I'd say battery life when using the camera is similar to the iPhone, maybe just a tiny bit better. Simply surfing the web drains far less battery than on the iPhone whether on wifi or LTE. Overall I'm happy with it.

Reception is definitely better than the iPhone. The band 12 addition alone gives me reception in areas where I simply didn't have it before such as inside the gym at my university. In areas where band 2 or 4 are used my data seems at least a bit more reliable. I guess the most significant thing is that I'm noticing fewer spots where I can't use my phone due to reception, whether data or voice/SMS. It also seems my reception is slightly better than on my husband's Nexus 6.

I've been content with the speed and responsiveness of the G4. In general use I'd say this thing is more responsive than my iPhone or my iPad Air. Screen taps are more reliably registered and the stock keyboard generally does a better job keeping up with me. Scrolling in many apps is not as smooth as in the iOS versions of those apps yet scrolling in Chrome on this thing is often smoother than in Safari. I've definitely noticed the extra RAM and I spend far less time waiting for apps or browser tabs to reload than I did before. This makes a huge difference in use since I very frequently switch between apps and browser tabs.

There are some things I miss from the iPhone. The biggest thing is Touch ID since it actually got me to use a screen lock on my phone. The step counter on the iPhone actually works quite well while the one on the G4 is nearly useless.

Overall I'm very glad I got the G4 and again I thank you all for your help.

 

[tardus]

Wanted to provide a followup to this thread. I got the G4 last Wednesday and have so far been very pleased with it.

I'm quite impressed with the build quality on this phone...

Glad it worked out! I was following this thread and wasn't optimistic that you'd like the G4. I love mine, but never had and iPhone. And friends that have an iPhone 6 are convinced it's superior in every way to any Android phone. So go figure!

 

[MDMcAtee]

Wanted to provide a followup to this thread. I got the G4 last Wednesday and have so far been very pleased with it.

I'm quite impressed with the build quality on this phone. It feels very solid yet lightweight and I really wish I didn't have a need to use a case with it since it fits my hand very well. The buttons on the back were surprisingly easy to get used to. The curvature of the screen was noticeable for a couple of days but now I don't really notice it. The screen itself is simply fantastic and the best thing I can say about it is that it simply disappears in usage. There is absolutely no pixelation and IPS glow around the edges is minimal. My iPhone 6 had awful IPS glow and it did get distracting. The size of the phone was easy to get used to and my small hands (for a guy) meant that the iPhone was a two-handed device anyway.

The camera is better than the iPhone but with some caveats. The iPhone's HDR processing is a bit better than the G4's. Colors are generally less saturated on the G4 which makes photos a bit more realistic. Overly aggressive noise reduction and over-sharpening are big issues on the G4 though it doesn't obliterate details to quite the same extent as the iPhone. Given how much I see these mentioned for modern smartphones I guess this is just the norm now, sadly. I wish the sensor was 4:3 instead of 16:9 though I can always crop later. Of course the feature that really sets it apart is the raw DNG capture. This is the first camera I've ever had with that capability and I'm simply amazed at how much information is captured by the sensor. It really makes me wonder how many bad shots I've discarded over the years that may have been able to be turned into decent or even good shots.

I do have an issue with battery life. I keep playing with the phone so I am having to recharge it a couple times a day Kidding aside, battery life is quite decent. It drains maybe a percent or two an hour in standby despite leaving all radios except bluetooth on. Looking at the battery stats it seems that an average of 5 or maybe 6 hours of screen on time is what I can expect. The camera of course drains the battery like no other and I'd say battery life when using the camera is similar to the iPhone, maybe just a tiny bit better. Simply surfing the web drains far less battery than on the iPhone whether on wifi or LTE. Overall I'm happy with it.

Reception is definitely better than the iPhone. The band 12 addition alone gives me reception in areas where I simply didn't have it before such as inside the gym at my university. In areas where band 2 or 4 are used my data seems at least a bit more reliable. I guess the most significant thing is that I'm noticing fewer spots where I can't use my phone due to reception, whether data or voice/SMS. It also seems my reception is slightly better than on my husband's Nexus 6.

I've been content with the speed and responsiveness of the G4. In general use I'd say this thing is more responsive than my iPhone or my iPad Air. Screen taps are more reliably registered and the stock keyboard generally does a better job keeping up with me. Scrolling in many apps is not as smooth as in the iOS versions of those apps yet scrolling in Chrome on this thing is often smoother than in Safari. I've definitely noticed the extra RAM and I spend far less time waiting for apps or browser tabs to reload than I did before. This makes a huge difference in use since I very frequently switch between apps and browser tabs.

There are some things I miss from the iPhone. The biggest thing is Touch ID since it actually got me to use a screen lock on my phone. The step counter on the iPhone actually works quite well while the one on the G4 is nearly useless.

Overall I'm very glad I got the G4 and again I thank you all for your help.

Well awesome. Personally I knew that you would like it better. The Apple experience isn't everything that it is cracked up to be for many people now as opposed to the past. Seeing how you rated the Note II as high led me to believe this......it was one of my favorite phones too even though it took rooting and a custom rom to make it so.

Check out the battery life thread for tips and tricks to really make your g4 sing.

Posted from my Samsung S6 Active

 

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The biggest thing is Touch ID since it actually got me to use a screen lock on my phone.

That's one thing that Apple has leaps and bounds over Android is Touch ID. I even updated my Air to the 2 because of touch ID. Love it. However, I really dig LG's knock to wake up and I don't lock my Android phones, so I don't miss it on the Android phone as much as I would if I had to type in my code to open the phone all the time. Those who have a Sammy and think that is how touch ID works, they've never tried an iPhone.

Overall, if you don't mind the Android environment, you'll love the G4. It's the best Android on the market right now in my opinion. Congrates on the purchase!