Smartphones shouldn’t have to be made with metal. Though it’s the standard we’ve all come to expect (mainly because it makes a lot of sense), LG has decided to go a different route with its new flagship smartphone, the LG G4, by opting for a leather design.
Typically if you want your phone to look like one of The Ramones’ jackets you need to buy a separate case, but the G4 is leather-bound straight out of the box. It’s certainly a unique design choice, and it’s one that will undoubtedly prove to be controversial, but it will certainly allow it to stand out from the crowd aesthetically and in a post-iPhone 6 world, that is undoubtedly necessary.
A camera “close to replicating the human eye”
But it’s the specs that matter, and perhaps more so than any other smartphone unveiling, LG focused heavily upon the capabilities of the device’s camera during its reveal. With a quick shot of 0.6 seconds (that’s 0.1 seconds faster than the Samsung Galaxy S6, in case you’re counting), the LG G4 also has an aperture of 1.8, meaning that it will be perfect for low-light photographs, along with laser autofocus, which LG rather hyperbolically claiming that it’s the closest humanity has come to “replicating what we see with the human eye.”
It is, however, the first smartphone camera to have a color spectrum sensor, allowing the camera to recognize both light and objects, with all photos being able to be saved in RAW format to increase their quality. The company said that it replicates the quality of the photos you can take on professional cameras, though that’s what they all say. It also has an 8MB front-facing cameras for selfies, which proved to be a big talking point in the company’s presentation.
Removable battery and microSD
LG also stated that it would feature 15GB of storage, a removable 3,000 mAh battery and microSD slot, inclusions which have been big talking points in the industry given how many companies are opting for built-in batteries and storage, with it also reportedly having a battery life that is 11% greater than the LG G3. I can’t remember many people congratulating the G3 on its battery life, though, so this may not be that much of an improvement.
LG also seems to have struck up a friendly partnership with Google, offering 100GB of Google Drive storage alongside a pre-loaded Office suite including Docs, Sheets and Slides.
It will be running on the Snapdragon 808 chipset, with it boasting a 5.5-inch display with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels, along with 3GB of RAM. It’s also packing Android 5.1 Lollipop that is powered by a 64-bit Hexa-Core processor to make it extra speedy.
Oh, and as for the leather? It’s “high-grade” according to LG, and there will be many different colors that you can choose from. Take a look:
Unfortunately no price or release date has yet been given, though it is set to launch in South Korea soon. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs:
- Size: 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 – 9.8mm
- Weight: 155g
- 5.5-inch Quad HD LCD display (2560 x 1440 resolution and 538ppi)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor
- 3GB of DDR3 RAM
- 32GB eMMC flash memory
- microSD support
- 16-megapixel main camera with f/1.8 aperture, color spectrum and optical image stabilization (OIS)
- 8-megapixel front-facing camera with f/1.8 aperture
- LTE-Advanced support
- 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi
- Bluetooth 4.1
- NFC
- 3,000 mAh user replaceable battery (440 hours of standby and 14 hours of talk time)
- Wireless charging support
- Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG UX 4.0 on top
Android lover’s dream
All in all, the LG G4 sounds good. Its focus upon selling the quality of its camera may have seemed a little bit like overkill, but it allowing the storage of RAW files along with offering a removable battery and microSD are great selling points, each of which will make this a worthy purchase for those who mainly use their smartphone to take photos.
While the features announced aren’t likely to court those who are unimpressed with Android smartphones, for those who are fans of the OS the G4 appears to be composed of everything they love about it. If you’re an Android phone owner, this should be put on your radar immediately.
