LG G5 review - the modular wonderphone

They all said it couldn't be done. There was simply no way you could have a smartphone with a full metal unibody and an interchangeable battery – it just wasn't possible. HTC couldn't do it with the One M9, and even Samsung couldn't bring it back for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge. And yet, here we have the LG G5, a smartphone with a gorgeous aluminium unibody and a fully removable, user-replaceable battery.

How has LG achieved such a feat of technical wizardry? The key lies in a small button on the left hand side of the handset. Press this, and you'll quickly notice that the whole lower section of the phone beneath the main display has just become a little looser, revealing the ingenious master stroke of the G5's design. For unlike other flagship smartphones you'll see this year, the LG G5 is an altogether different kind of handset – it's modular.

Modular design

It's by no means the first smartphone to incorporate interchangeable modules into its design – Google's Project Ara has that particular honour – but it's still the first modular phone from a major manufacturer that you can actually buy and use like a normal handset. Admittedly, LG has only announced two modules for the G5 so far – the £80 Cam Plus, a camera grip that adds physical buttons and a zoom wheel, and the £150 Hi-Fi Plus, a Bang & Olufsen-made portable Hi-Fi player that supports 32-bit 384KHz high-definition audio and B&O Play – but more are sure to follow later in the year.

Of course, having to carry around extra (and quite expensive) attachments all the time might not be very convenient in the long run, but each module is pretty tiny. LG hasn't provided me with final units just yet, but I did go hands on with both of them at this year's MWC, where the G5 was launched. The Hi-Fi Plus doesn't add any extra bulk to the phone whatsoever, instead taking the exact same shape as the default lower section.

The same can't be said of the Cam Plus, but this one isn't designed to be discrete. Instead, this wedge-like add-on is intended to provide a greater amount of grip when taking pictures, with its physical shutter, video record and zoom buttons making the G5 feel more akin to a traditional camera.

I can't say it felt particularly comfy during my short time with it at MWC, but the extra 1,200mAh battery it comes attached to will no doubt be a big help when you're out snapping shots all-day on holiday, preserving the power in your main phone battery for later.

This brings us to what's arguably the G5's most compelling proposition. Even if the additional module functions end up falling completely flat with consumers, the fact you can buy additional batteries and simply slot them in as and when you please is a pretty big coup when you compare it to the rest of the G5's flagship competition this year. Yes, the S7 and S7 Edge might have stonking battery lives without the need for additional batteries, but for those who like the added security of having essentially another smartphone's worth of power in their back pocket, the G5 starts to look like a pretty convincing alternative.

Battery Life

In our continuous video playback test, for instance, the G5's 2,800mah battery lasted 11h 10m when we set the screen brightness to our standard measurement of 170cd/m2. While not fantastic compared to the 17h 48m I got from the S7 – which, to be fair, has a larger 3,000mAh battery – anyone with another G5 battery module at their disposal could theoretically extend that to 22h 20m, providing more than enough juice to get you through the day and long into the next.

It's also exceedingly quick to charge. In testing, I got a 30% charge in just 15 minutes, and it only took 30 minutes to reach 50%, making it incredibly easy to top up during the day. At least, it is provided you remember to bring the bundled USB-C cable with you, as LG's opted for a USB-C port on the G5 rather than a regular Micro USB. Still, at least it comes with a USB-C to USB-A cable in the box unlike LG's Nexus 5X, which only came with a USB-C to USB-C cable. With a USB-C to A cable, this means you can still use it with existing USB plugs as well as connect it to your PC or laptop to easily transfer files and photos.

Performance

The modular design isn't the only interesting thing about the G5, though, as it's also the first smartphone I've seen that comes with Qualcomm's brand-new Snapdragon 820 chip. Unlike the octa-core 2.0GHz Snapdragon 810, which powered almost every major smartphone in 2015, the Snapdragon 820 is a quad-core chip with a maximum clock speed of 2.2GHz. More cores doesn't necessarily mean better performance, though, as the G5 proved to be significantly faster in our benchmark tests.

Paired with 4GB of RAM, the G5 scored an impressive 2,325 in Geekbench 3's single core test and a massive 5,422 in the multicore test. The latter isn't quite as high as the S7's score of 6,437, but the G5's single core score is almost 200 points faster, showing it can beat the S7 at some tasks.

The Snapdragon 820's GPU also provides a big step up in graphics performance. In GFX Bench GL's offscreen Manhattan 3.0 test, for instance, the G5 produced 2,844 frames, which translates to a super smooth 46fps. This is significantly higher than both the S7 and S7 Edge, which only managed around 37fps in the same test. In practice, it handled complex games like Hearthstone beautifully.

The same goes for web browsing. With a Peacekeeper score of 1,514, the G5 handled media and ad-heavy web pages with ease. At times, there were still a few signs of initial stutter while pages were loading, but otherwise we were able to browse the web without any speed hitches whatsoever.

Display

The G5 does more than match the S7's performance, too, as its 5.3in, 2,560x1,440 Quantum IPS display also has a built-in always-on feature. It's similar to what I've seen from Motorola in the past, as the G5's always-on display can show the time, date and notification icons.

You can't interact with those notification icons, sadly, but the G5 does have the added benefit of showing this information all the time instead of just when you pick it up or wave your hand over the screen like Motorola's Moto X handsets. Even better, LG says it will only drain 0.8% of the phone's battery every hour, too, so it shouldn't have too much of an impact on battery life over the course of the day.

The screen itself looks superb thanks to LG's Quantum IPS panel. First introduced on the LG G4 last year, Quantum IPS uses a slightly different liquid crystal structure to normal IPS panels, which LG says is meant to enhance brightness and the screen's overall colour accuracy.

Indeed, the G5'ssRGB gamut coverage of 97.1% meant that images looked stunning, as colours were both rich and vibrant without looking too oversaturated. Its black levels are also super low for an IPS display, measuring just 0.19cd/m2. Combine this with an excellent contrast ratio of 1,621:1, and the G5 definitely has one of the best IPS displays you can currently buy.

The only slight niggle I have with the G5's display is its overall brightness levels, as our colour calibrator recorded a maximum brightness of just 354.05cd/m2. This is pretty below average for an IPS screen, and is more akin to what I'd expect to see from an AMOLED panel, such as those found on the Galaxy S7.

It's still bright enough to use outside, but direct sunlight can prove a little tricky. Luckily, LG's planned around this by introducing a brand-new Daylight mode on the G5, whichreally pumps up the brightness when you take it outside. I simulated this by shining a torch in front of the light sensor, and it (albeit briefly) jumped right up to 717cd/m2. This is by far the brightest reading I've ever seen on a smartphone, although the speed with which it dropped back down again suggests that it might not be able to sustain this level of brightness for very long. Still, it's good to know it's there as a temporary backup.

Camera

LG's made some pretty great smartphone cameras in the past, but the G5 goes one step further by having two sensors instead of one. Again, dual cameras isn't a new idea, but the G5 uses them to great effect, particularly when it has optical image stabilisation at its disposal. One is a large 16-megapixel sensor, and the other is a wide-angle 135 degree 8-megapixel sensor.

With the wide angle sensor enabled, which is activated with a simple tap of the triple tree icon at the top of the camera app's UI, it’s surprising just how much more you can fit in the frame. You not only get a lot more height and width, making it a great fit for wide-sweeping landscapes and large crowds of people, but it can also create quite a distinct fish-eye effect, something that more artistic types will no doubt have a lot of fun with. It works with third-party apps like Twitter, too, as you can simply use the in-app toggle button to cycle through the G5's three different sensors (standard, wide and front).

Admittedly, the quality of my 8-megapixel test shots wasn't great. Colours were accurate and it coped well with capturing a decent amount of sky and cloud detail without making darker objects too dingy, but the whole image was often a bit soft and lacking in detail.

^ Using the 16-megapixel sensor (above), images can feel a little cramped, but switch to the wide angle 8-megapixel sensor (below) and you can cram a lot more into each photo

The 16-megapixel camera, on the other hand, was excellent. Detail levels were extremely high across the frame, and only the tops of passing clouds were overexposed – putting it slightly ahead of the S7 in this respect. Admittedly, images were perhaps a little dark in places when shooting in bright sunshine, but things improved immeasurably when I switched on HDR mode, as this produced wonderfully exposed images with plenty of bright, rich colours as well as lots of contrast and shadow detail.

^ Photos could be a tad dark in bright sunshine, but detail levels are still very high

^ With HDR mode enabled, the G5's camera really comes into its own, producing bright, vivid shots with excellent contrast

Indoor shots were arguably even better, as it not only captured loads of fine texture detail in our still life arrangement, but noise was kept to an absolute minimum as well. In low light, there was plenty of contrast on show, and colours arguably looked more natural and neutral than the photos I took on the S7.

The S7 was a fraction sharper in places, perhaps helped by its ever-so-slightly faster shutter speed of 1/25 seconds compared to the G5's 1/24 seconds, but the G5's snapper is still a highly accomplished camera that certainly won't disappoint anyone who comes to use it.

^ Indoors, the G5 can produce excellent shots, even in low lighting conditions

That's not all, either, as the LG's Pro camera mode also makes a return here. This lets you adjust the white balance, focus points, exposure compensation, ISO values, shutter speed, and shoot in RAW as well as JPG on both cameras. There's also a handful of additional modes which make use of all three of the G5's cameras – letting you take collage shots as well as pop-out pictures with a different image in the centre of the frame. There's also Snap Video mode, which lets you record short clips and assemble them into a 60-second film, as well as slow-mo and time-lapse options.

Of course, shooting in RAW and taking lots of videos will quickly use up the G5's 32GB of default storage, but luckily there's a microSD slot on hand that can take cards up to a whopping 2TB in theory, though you can only buy cards up to 200GB at present. Either way, even the heaviest of media creators should be well-catered for on this front.

G5 Friends

If all that wasn't enough, the G5 will also be compatible with several 'companion' devices as well. Again, I haven't had a chance to test the G5 with these just yet, but the first 'Friend' that will be available is the LG 360 Cam, which connects to the G5 for shooting 360 degree video. It looks rather like the Ricoh Theta, and its two 13-megapixel lenses can shoot up to 2K video and record in 5.1 surround sound. Even better, you can upload your footage to Google StreetView and have it stored at its original resolution for free.

There's also LG's 360 VR headset, which works exclusively with the G5. Made possible by its Snapdragon 820 processor, the headset attaches to the G5 via its USB Type-C cable. You can then slip the phone into your pocket and slide the goggles over your eyes like a pair of oversized sunglasses. There's no all-encompassing chassis and LG's hoping it will be light and portable enough to watch VR content on the move.

However, I'm not quite convinced it's going to make anyone whip it out on the train, and having tried it out for myself at MWC, I was surprised by just how blurry and soft the 360 degree footage was. It’s still early days yet, of course, but as far as accompanying VR headsets go, I don't think Samsung's Gear VR has anything to worry about here.

Other companion devices include a pair of LG's Tone Platinum Bluetooth headphones, a smart controller accessory for controlling drones straight from your G5, and a set of B&O H3 headphones for more high-res listening. However, the one that really caught my eye at MWC was the LG Rolling Bot. This BB-8 style ball camera can roll across the floor, capturing images and videos with its built-in IP camera. It connects to the G5 via Wi-Fi, and LG says it can even be used as a home security system, a pet care companion (it even has a laser to help entertain your pets from afar) or remote control for compatible smart home appliances.

All of the companion devices can be controlled via the G5's LG Friends Manager app, which will only work on the G5 and will automatically link with these Friend devices when they're nearby. They can all be set up in 'three simple taps', according to LG, and it's hoping that none of them will be too complicated to use. There will be 'no settings' either, but I'll update this review with more in-depth testing as soon as review units arrive.

Android 6.0 and LG UX 5.0

The only slightly worrying thing about the G5's is LG's new UX 5.0 interface. At first, it doesn't look too dissimilar from LG's UX 4.0 on the G4, but it doesn't take long to notice that it's lacking one key feature – the app tray. According to LG, this is so users can have everything they need right there on the home screen, but to me, it rather smacks of Huawei's dreaded Emotion UI.

Indeed, the design of LG's app icons isn't too far removed from Huawei's simple, flat, rounded lozenges, but at least LG doesn't mess with the appearance of third party apps to the same degree as Huawei, as these still look like exactly like they should instead of being crammed into the same horrible lozenge shapes as Huawei's first-party apps.

You can easily bring the app tray back, but you have to settle for LG's Easy Home-style interface at the same time. This has larger app icons and a bigger font than the traditional Home layout, but you can, at least, change the font to something more subtle using the Display settings. Another option is to download the LG Home 4.0 launcher from the LG SmartWorld app, which retains the LG feel of the phone while restoring the app store.

Otherwise, the rest of LG's UX 5.0 interface is pretty inoffensive. While not my favourite version of Android Marshmallow, the settings menu still has a sensible layout, and the notification tray has a great range of customisable shortcut buttons. I particularly like how the brightness bar actually slides down the percentage scale when you switch it to auto as well. It's just a shame you can't also have the app tray when using the traditional Home layout.

Conclusion

UI flaws aside, there's no denying that the G5 is an incredibly ambitious device from LG, and it's by far the most unique smartphone I've ever tested. Initially, I had my doubts over whether departing from the G4's handsome leather looks was a wise move, but the G5's surprisingly attractive when you get up close, and its smooth metallic coating feels great in the hand. The grey model I had for review might not look quite as shiny or flashy as either of Samsung's handsets, but at least the G5's matt finish means it doesn't pick up any dirty fingerprints, which is a welcome relief after the grubby Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge.

Of course, some might find the G5's looks a little dull compared to Samsung's handsets, but LG's handset delivers where it counts, as it not only has a fantastically flexible camera, but its speed and raw processing power make it just as capable, if not better, than its Samsung rivals. It's also got a beautiful display and its interchangeable batteries give it a big advantage over its sealed competitors.

Admittedly, this could all change when HTC announces the M10 next week, but right now, the G5 has just as much right to sit alongside the S7 and S7 Edge as one of the best Android smartphones you can buy today – particularly when several UK networks are also throwing in a pair of B&O's H3 headphones for free when you sign up for a contract, which normally cost around £150. This makes the G5 better value than the S7 overall, particularly when the cost of each phone practically neck-and-neck. At £500, the G5 is slightly cheaper SIM-free than the £539 S7, but a contract will still set you back at least £36-per-month on top of an initial fee upfront.

You can expect similar levels of performance across both phones and there's little to divide their displays. As a result, which phone you go for will ultimately come down to a matter of personal preference. For most the convenience of a long battery life on the S7 will trump the replaceable battery of the G5. However, the latter is a good bet in the long term as the S7's sealed battery will inevitably fade, plus I love the wide-angle camera, superior gaming performance and the potential of those interchangeable modules. All that makes the LG G5 just as much of a Best Buy as its Samsung counterpart.