[G4 General] poczynek:
OK my short review from having the LG G4 for 6 days now! Just as background, I luckily got the phone through a workmate i know in South Korea so the one i have is the South Korean model. Also, the South Korean version gives you something that is a bloody lifesaver and just so useful and you wish you'd always had one: an extra battery. More on that later.

So I have been using the Nexus 6 since launch and love it. To me at least it's been great – big screen, big development on XDA (I love custom roms/kernels and flashing in general) and over all a phone that i have loved. The only issues i have had really are: the screen is ok but could be better, the camera is ok and could be better and it is heavy and hefty so I use it one-handed but only just. It's a monster!

So last few months have been looking for something not quite as big with a better camera and better screen. I tried both the S6 and S6 Edge and sold them within a few days. Mostly because i think they are just too small and poky or something. S6 Edge was too sharp for me.

Along comes the G4! And if you don't want to read the boring detail below then in short: I love it and haven't really seen any faults at all.

Boring Detail:

Battery:

Here's a tricky one as i have always had decent battery on all phones i get. And all i do is read the same thing over and again on battery threads everywhere: 'i get only 2 hours Screen on Time help!' and then 'i get 7 hours Screen on Time and i'm amazing!'. The problem is the same: every person's usage pattern and apps and mobile reception is different so this all accounts for differing Screen on Time. So – FOR ME – i am getting consistently around 5 to 5.5 hours Screen on Time which is perfectly fine. So i reckon on MOST of the current flag ships you'd be getting pretty similar SOT.

However the one big bloody glaring thing about the South Korean model is that extra battery and that right there should solve pretty much ALL battery issues. So I just have the extra battery in the charging case attached to a USB cable on my computer. If I have gotten low on a day where i have the used phone a lot then 38 seconds later i have swapped batteries for the new 100% one! How good is that! Do yourself a favour and get a spare battery! No doubt they will be available shortly.

Two things that reviews are singling out as ‘cons’ which I think is just silly.

Wireless charging. I love wireless charging and until you use it a lot you don’t realise how convenient it is. I also have two Tylt Vu chargers and they are expensive so i want a device that uses wireless charging! Ok so the G4 has wireless charging CAPABILITY meaning that you need a different back than the one that comes with it and it will work.

Already LG has said that the G4 circle case will have that. So all I will be doing is waiting for the inevitable Shenzen rip off sticker that you stick inside your case that gives me wireless charging. I will give it 4 weeks max before they are on Ebay for $5.

Quick charging. There’s this boring debate that the G4 did not include Quick Charging 2.0 even though Qualcom have it in their chip. Big deal! What you do get is the 1.8 Quick Charge which isn’t quite as good but is still perfectly acceptable! In my testing it charges a bit over 1% per minute. Which is just fine.

Feel:

Sorry about the pretentious term ‘feel’ but it’s the best way of describing a major kick ass thing this phone has! It is just the BEST weight, feel and hold of any phone i’ve owned. It’s not light, it’s not heavy. It’s not small and it’s not phablety big. It is juuuuuuuust right. Dunno what it exactly is – maybe the slight bend? But it’s great.

Leather. I would never in a squillion years think i would own a leather phone or that the leather would work. But it does. Looks good, feels great, is great. Photos do not do it justice. I got the black weather which i love but if i was to buy it again the brown/tan i think could be the pick. If you get the plastic to save a few bucks then, um, don’t!

Camera:

Not going to go into detail because every review already has and i am not a manual camera person. I am Mr Point and Shoot. Suffice to say it takes very good photos. Had it over the weekend at Adelaide with relatives and photos turned out great.

Lag/Stutter/UI Blah:

Ok so on EVERY phone i own i remove the stock launcher and install an aftermarket one because guess why? They’re better. Don’t understand why people cry about the OEM launcher when the aftermarket ones are installed within 16 seconds and are better anyway.

Stutter/lag – again this is another topic that i don’t understand. I really haven’t had a phone that suffered at all from this. I ALWAYS change the animation three options to 0.5 in Developer Options and this often is more than enough. Don’t need to be rooted and takes 14 seconds – why wouldn’t you do it? In general though, i have not had stutter or lag in this phone at all.

The Knock Code to turn on screen. Sorry but every phone that doesn’t have this should get that as a ‘con’. It is just soooo convenient. Love it.

Notification shade works well. Lots of options, lots of shortcuts to choose.

Notification light – a no brainer and dunno why the Nexus 6 didn’t have it and i had to install a custom ROM to get it. It works and works fine.

Ability to change nav bar buttons around and add a couple more. Love this as i always like my back button on the right not the left.

These little customisations are what really makes the UI i think. So handy.

Display:

Great. Bright and similar when i had the S6 as a stand out. Reviews have covered it pretty well too – is an excellent colourful display. LG got it right.

Sound:

Decent! I just don’t use my phone to listen to stuff except for headphones but is loud and ok. Not as good as HTC but good for a phone.

Weird big bloody LCD density:

Here’s a weird thing which no review has mentioned which is the only thing that really annoyed me: the density is 620! Meaning that things are huge! Everything looked like a huge fonted behemoth! And without root i wasn’t able to use the easy way of changing the density via build.prop and eventually had to do it via hooking it to the PC and using Android SDK tools and change it to 540.

Overall:

Found a phone that for me at least satisfied most of what i want in a phone very well. And i haven’t even missed using a custom rom because you can’t root it yet! Never thought i’d say that. So once everyone has it in a month then hopefully development will mean it is even better!

Oh and get the effin leather purlease!!