LG G5

At the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, mobile manufacturer LG has officially unveiled the LG G5. This device is quite a large departure from the G3 and G4 handsets that came before.

There’s a new design, a shift in focus and a number of innovative features that LG hopes will help the G5 hit the big time.

See below the breakdown of the LG G5.

Design

The LG G5 is the first handset by LG to have a metal unibody which is a design shift away from LG’s trusted plastics of past generations.

The phone which is about 7.7mm thick has its power button with embedded fingerprint scanner on the back, its volume control are present on its side and has no nature-inspired curve unlike previous handsets.

The handset is a beauty to behold with its soft curves that makes it comfortable to hold, and a luscious curve at the top of the display that looks great. It is modular in nature also and the battery can be removed by depressing a small button on the side.

The phone is designed in a way that it has a removable section that can be switched to add different modules, called Friends, to change the skills of the LG G5.

Display

The LG G5 has a fantastic resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution, 554ppi and features a 5.3-inch display.

As compared to previous LG phones that have an AMOLED display, the G5 has a IPS LCD panel, which LG says is important for the Always-on feature that the G5 offers. This will give you information on the display without you having to wake it up. Having an Always-on feature on an AMOLED display will lead to a burn out.

The Always-on function of the LG G5 doesn’t make use of the phone’s application processor, hence it keeps power consumption to a minimum. LG says that the display will only use 0.8 per cent battery per hour in Always-on mode.

Cameras

The LG G5 sports and amazing camera of 16-megapixel sensor with a second 8-megapixel sensor. It retains the normal laser auto-focusing, but looks to offer a range of new functions with this new pairing of cameras.

The 16-megapixel camera will operate as a standard camera, taking your high resolution shots while the second camera has a 135-degree lens, so will take wide angle photos.

Switching between both cameras is easy with the aid of the new the new app.

There are also a range of additional functions offered that use both cameras such as recording video and stills at the same time, you can also have a number of different framing effects and plenty more.

Hardware and Specs

The LG G5 features the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 octo-core chipset with 4GB of RAM. It also has a 32GB of internal storage, along with a microSD card slot for expansion.

The LG G5 has a removable battery with capacity of 2800mAh.

There’s no wireless charging on offer, however there is a Quick Charge 3.0 and USBType-C. It alaso has a fingerprint scanner on the rear of the handset.

The big play with the G5 is in the domain of accessories. Using that removable bottom section, you’ll be able to change the skill set of your phone by swapping modules.

There’s the LG Cam Pro which is designed to enhance the camera experience. With it in place,  you have a range of additional features. Firstly it expands the battery to 4000mAh for all-day shooting, but it also adds buttons and a better grip, for a more natural camera experience.

The LG Hi-Fi Pro is a module developed in partnership with B&O Play, offering a 32-bit DAC and amp, designed to give you an audiophile experience from your handset. This module allows for better quality audio.

The above modules can be used by simply removing the bottom of the phone and put the Cam Pro module or Hi-Fi Pro module in its place.

The LG G5 also comes with accessories.

The LG 360 Cam is a 360 camera, using dual 13-megapixel cameras back to back. It connects wirelessly to the G% to allow you preview, save and share your 360-degree world. It captures both video and stills, and is perfect for making your own VR content. It is also fully compatible with YouTube 360 video and Google Street View.

The LG 360 VR headset is a VR headset in the form of glasses that you wear. It connects to the phone via USB. It contains a display for each eye, offering 960 x 720 pixels each. You can connect a set of headphones to the VR headset to get audio. It works with Google Cardboard and YouTube 360 video content, as well as LG offering its own hub within the headset.

The LG Rolling Bot is a cute ball that carries a camera, speaker and mic and connects to your home Wi-Fi network. You can control it using your G5, driving around your house. It also contains a laser pointer, designed to entertain your cat or dog.

There’s no word on pricing for any of the LG Friends presently.

LG G5 Software

The LG G5 launches on Android 6.0 Marshmallow with all the app shortcuts appearing on home pages. You still get to make folders and move things around, but there will no longer be a shortcut to tap to take you through to your selection of apps.

There will be added software support for the LG Friends, with a Manager app to take care of those connected devices.

Release date and price

The LG G5 was unveiled on 21 February 2016 at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Though  the exact launch date for the new handset has not been confirmed, LG has said that it will be appearing in retail in “key markets” in early-April. We’d want to believe that its key markets will include Korea, USA and parts of Europe, but we’re still awaiting confirmation.

LG has also not announced the price for the LG G5 or any of the accessories.

UK operator EE has confirmed that pre-orders for the LG G5 will start from 17 March and it will be available with WiFi Calling and 4G Calling, although the company has yet to date when the phone will be in your pocket.  The carrier also claims that those that pre-order will get an “exclusive pre-order offer” which will be announced nearer the time.

Vodafone has also confirmed that it will be offering the handset, but hasn’t given any details on pricing, availability or whether it will be offering any exclusive freebies to entice you to sign up.

O2 has also said that it too will be stocking the new modular smartphone, however also doesn’t have any concrete details to share at this time.

 Specifications

• Available versions: H850 (Europe); Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, Vodafone
• Technology: GSM / HSPA / LTE
  • 2G bands: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – SIM 1 & SIM 2 (optional)
  • 3G bands: HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 – H850
  • 4G bands: LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 4(1700/2100), 5(850), 7(2600), 8(900), 12(700), 17(700), 20(800), 28(700), 38(2600), 40(2300) – H850
  • Speed: HSPA 42.2/5.76 Mbps, LTE Cat6 300/50 Mbps or LTE Cat9 450/50 Mbps
• GPRS: Yes
• EDGE: Yes
• Date Announced: February 2016
• Expected Release: April 2016
• Dimensions: 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm (5.88 x 2.91 x 0.30 in)
• Weight: 159 g (5.61 oz)
• SIM: Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by)
• Display Type: IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Size: 3 inches (~70.1% screen-to-body ratio)
• Resolution: 1440 x 2560 pixels (~554 ppi pixel density)
• Multitouch: Yes
• Protection: Corning Gorilla Glass 4
  • Always-on display
  • LG Optimus UX 5.0 UI

• OS: Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow)
• Chipset: Qualcomm MSM8996 Snapdragon 820
• CPU: Dual-core 2.15 GHz Kryo & dual-core 1.6 GHz Kryo
• GPU: Adreno 530
• Memory Card slot: microSD, up to 200 GB (dedicated slot)
• Internal Memory: 32 GB, 4 GB RAM
• Primary Camera: 16 MP (f/1.8) + 8 MP (f/2.4), laser autofocus, OIS, LED flash
• Features: Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR
• Video: 2160p@30fps, 1080p@60fps, HDR, stereo sound rec.
• Secondary Camera: 8 MP, f/2.0, 1080p@30fps
• Sound Alert types: Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones
• Loudspeaker: Yes
• 5mm jack: Yes
• WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, hotspot
• Bluetooth: v4.2, A2DP, LE, apt-X
• GPS: Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS
• NFC: Yes
• Infrared port: Yes
• Radio: FM radio
• USB: v3.0, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, USB On-The-Go
• Sensors: Fingerprint, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, color spectrum
• Messaging: SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Mail, IM
• Browser: HTML5
• Java: No
• Battery: Removable Li-Ion 2800 mAh battery
• Colors: Silver, Titan, Gold, Pink
  • Fast battery charging: 83% in 30 min (Quick Charge 3.0)
  • Optional Wireless Charging (Qi-enabled)
  • Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
  • MP4/DviX/XviD/H.264/WMV player
  • MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/WMA player
  • Photo/video editor
  • Document editor

Let us have your comments about the phone.