LG G4 review - hands on

Released last year, the LG G3 was a surprisingly good phone, with the highest resolution screen that we'd ever seen. The question is, what can LG do to make the G4 even more desirable? Well, unlike every other top-end smartphone this year, LG's answer is to go full leather, eschewing the widely expected full metal chassis that's now become commonplace on handsets like the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and HTC One M9 and announcing the world's first genuine leather handset. 

It's a strange choice, to be sure, but it certainly makes the LG G4 stand out from the crowd. There will also be metallic and ceramic models available, but these feel quite cheap and plasticky by comparison and the leather really does make it feel like a classy, elegant handset.

LG G4 DESIGN

LG apparently spent three months inventing a new method to make the leather back a reality and we can certainly see where the effort's gone. Using real vegetable tanned, full grain double leather stacking and high quality threads from Germany for the stitching, it's a beautifully designed phone and it comes in either a smooth red or brown version, or a more textured, gritty black, blue or light brown one. 

^ The tan leather has a much smoother texture compared to the rough black model

The G4 is surprisingly comfortable to hold, too, providing a great level of grip and its curved rear sits naturally in your palm. Measuring 149x75x8.9mm thick, it's not the slimmest of phones, but LG said that its customers were more than willing to sacrifice a few extra millimetres for a more ergonomic and easy-to-hold smartphone. We'd be inclined to agree. 

What's more, the G4 has a removable 3,000mAh battery, giving it a huge advantage over the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge and HTC One M9. LG didn't go into specifics of how long the G4 might last, but we'll be testing the phone's battery life as soon as we get our hands on a review sample.

^ The leather versions of the G4 come in various different colours

LG G4 DISPLAY

The 5.5in QHD (2,560x1,440) display was the stand-out feature of the LG G3, so it's no surprise that LG has reprised this resolution for the G4. The resolution isn't quite as special as it once was, though, as both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge now have 2,560x1,440 resolution displays as well. What's more, they both have a higher pixel densities of 576 pixels-per-inch (PPI) thanks to their smaller 5.1in screens, beating the G4's PPI of 534 by quite some margin.

^ LG's IPS Quantum display vs the iPhone 6 Plus, the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG's own Quantum Dot technology

LG may not have the sharpest screen in the business any more, then, but its secret weapon is undoubtedly its brand new IPS Quantum panel. According to LG, this is 25% brighter and has 50% higher contrast than the G3's display and has 20% better colour reproduction than competing LCDs. 

While we've yet to test the G4's display in full, it made a great first impression. Colours were rich and vibrant, and the screen's high brightness levels really made them jump out of the screen. If we didn't know any better, we could almost mistake it for an OLED panel, so we'll be interested to see how it compares when we get one in for review. 

LG G4 CAMERA

Once again, one of the G4's headline features is its 16-megapixel rear camera. It's the world's first smartphone to have a colour spectrum sensor on the back, which LG says is able to read and interpret colours in exactly the same way as your own eyeballs. It can read both the RGB spectrum and infrared, and will automatically adjust the white balance to make objects look more life-like. 

^ That's not a dual LED flash next to the camera - that's the G4's colour spectrum sensor

It has a wide f1.8 aperture lens and a huge 1/2.6in sensor, too, allowing it to let in up to 80% more light than you average smartphone snapper and take more accurate pictures in low lighting conditions. LG's also improved the camera's optical image stabilisation and the laser auto-focus first introduced on the G3 makes a welcome return. 

We couldn't take away any of our test shots, but we were impressed with the level of detail present in our fairly dimly-lit demo space. There was quite a lot of noise cancelling present when we zoomed in up close onscreen, but this should be easily corrected using the camera's brand new Manual mode.

^ Manual mode gives you a huge degree of control over your images

Here, you can control the white balance, shutter speed and ISO, giving you a similar level of control to a DSLR-level camera. You can save photos in both RAW and JPG, and shutter speed times can vary from 1 second right up to 15 or 30 seconds, allowing you to get a bit creative with light streams, waterfalls and cityscapes. 

To help you capture that split-second moment, you can launch the camera and take a snapshot by simply double-tapping the phone's rear volume key. LG says it can do this in just 0.6 seconds, and it will even work when the phone is in sleep mode, as it will wake the phone automatically and quickly snap off a picture so you don't have to fiddle about trying to find the camera app. Likewise, its laser auto focus can hone in on a subject in a mere 0.276 seconds, so should help keep motion blur to an absolute minimum. 

^ The G4's low shutter speed features can capture light trails far more effectively than the competition 

As for the front camera, this has an 8-megapixel sensor and LG's new Gesture Shot feature will let you take four selfies two seconds apart by opening and closing your fist twice. 

LG G4 SPECS

We initially thought the G4 would use the same octa-core 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset as LG's own G Flex 2 and the HTC One M9, but LG has actually chosen the slightly slower hexa-core 1.8GHz Snapdragon 808 chip instead.

This should still provide plenty of speed, though, and its 3GB of RAM should be more than enough for handling multiple apps simultaneously. The phone will also have 32GB of onboard storage, but you'll be able to expand this with a microSD card. 

LG UX 4.0 & ANDROID 5.0

LG has been very open about the software improvements it's made to the G4, and we've already had our first glimpse of LG's new Android 5.0 UX 4.0 skin thanks to two pre-launch videos.

In the flesh, LG's UX 4.0 is certainly a lot cleaner than the G3's interface, and the revamped Smart Notices are much better integrated into the main time and weather widget on the primary home screen.

Likewise, Gallery Memories will automatically organise your photos and videos by time and where they were taken, making them much easier to find. You can also organise them by day, month and year, with thumbnails shrinking or gaining in size to aid scrolling through all your shots. 

Smart Power Saving will warn you when apps are using too much power as well, letting you shut them down to help save battery. Likewise, the G4's graphics RAM will put the CPU to sleep when there's nothing happening on the display, helping you squeeze a few more hours out of it when the phone is locked. 

Ringtone ID is another new feature. This lets the LG G4 compose a unique ringtone for each of your favourite contacts, so you can hear who's calling without having to lift up your phone. Most handsets will let you assign a ringtone to a contact, but LG's system does it automatically.

Finally, Quick Memo+ lets you save the contents of web pages for later, stripping out the adverts so that you've got only the text. To see all the features in action, watch the video below:

LG G4 RELEASE DATE

There's still no word on when the phone will arrive in the UK or how much it will cost yet, but LG has officially confirmed that the phone will go on sale on 29th April in Korea. That means we shouldn't have to wait too long before we get the phone in the UK, but we'll bring you more details as we have them.

LG G4 CONCLUSION

The G4 may be coming slightly late to the flagship smartphone race, but it's certainly got a wealth of features to help it stand out from the competition. Its leather back is surprisingly classy, and its unique colour spectrum sensor will no doubt give Samsung's Galaxy S6 a run for its money. Likewise, its gorgeous display already looks far more accurate and punchy than the HTC One M9, and we have every hope that it could go head to head with Samsung's Super AMOLED displays as well.

We'll have to wait and see how it fares in our performance and battery life tests, though, before we can make the final call. We also don't know how much the phone will cost yet either - and we don't expect that German stitching to come cheap either. While we doubt it will cost as much as the eye-watering Galaxy S6 Edge, we wouldn't be surprised if it came near the £600 mark SIM-free and around £40 a month on contract, putting it in close competition with the normal S6. 

Still, from what we've seen so far, the LG G4 is easily one of the most interesting handsets of the year, and we can't wait to get one in for a full review.