I recently bought a new smartphone in the form of a LG G5. It’s only been a year since I bought my LG G4, and I got a new phone because the G4 broke and became a paperweight. Actually, the G4 that broke was a refurb that I bought to replace the first one (which was a brand new unit) that I lost in a lake… No more refurb phones without warranties ever again. So far the new G5 has worked quite well, and hopefully the decision to go with another LG won’t come and bite me in the behind. Here are just my impressions and some pictures of this previous generation LG flagship.
The LG G5 came in a nice box as most high-end smartphones do these days. The G5 is known of its modular design where the battery is attached to the bottom of the phone, and the box reflects that. The white top gives way to the actual green box. Inside the box was the phone, the USB-C cable and charger (with Quickcharge), and the usual quick start guide and warranty info.
Compared the G4, the G5 has a slightly smaller screen, but it’s still a 1440 x 2560 high resolution LCD that looks quite pretty. As mentioned before, the battery is attached to the bottom of the phone, which is different from the G4 where you pry open the back. The SIM and microSD card goes in a tray on the right side of the phone on the G5, and they supply a pin tool to pop open the tray.
Among the upgrades, the G5 now has a metal body, a fingerprint sensor integrated into the power/lock button on the back, and dual rear cameras. This is the first phone I used with a fingerprint sensor, and it works pretty well most of the time. No more swiping patterns on the screen to unlock the phone, although you do have to set a pattern as a backup way of unlocking. Unlike the older LGs, the volume up and down button are now on the left edge of the phone, but I got used to this pretty quickly since many other smartphones have their volume buttons in the same location.
The dual cameras on the back of the phone are both 16 MP. The difference between the two is that one has a regular lens, while the other has a wide-angle lens. You can easily switch between the two in the camera app. After using this phone for a bit and taking it on a road trip, I find myself liking the wide-angle camera especially for scenery shots. With a regular lens, I would have to do a panorama which takes a bit more effort. Below are two pictures showing the difference in field of view between the two rear cameras. The G5 also has a 8 MP front facing cameras for selfies and video calling.
Thus far, the LG G5 has been pretty nice to use. With the G5’s hardware, Android and all the apps are very responsive. The phone has 32 GB of internal storage, which I complemented with a 32 GB microSD card, and that should be plenty of storage for my purposes. Hopefully this phone will last a good number of years unlike my refurb G4.
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