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LG G2

The LG G2 sports not only a unique design that stands out amongst its competitors, it also packs snappy hardware. If you want a similarly specced handset with a more premium feel, however, you may be better off looking at handsets from Sony instead.

LG’s G2 is the company’s newest flagship handset, and it replaces the former model, the Optimus G. Clad in plastic, the G2 has the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor clocked at 2.26GHz. Let’s take a look at what makes this smartphone good.

Design

The first thing you notice when you look at the G2 is the large 5.2-inch full-HD display. While it may be larger than the Optimus G (5-inch), the handset is only 2mm wider. That’s because LG has all but removed the bezels at the side, leaving it with almost no gaps at the side. Because of this, the volume rockers and power buttons have been moved to the rear and are located just below the 13-megapixel camera.

While I was dubious of this design change at first, I quickly got used to using the buttons at the rear. As there are no physical buttons on the front screen as well, you may be wondering just how to turn on the phone when it’s lying flat on the table.

The solution from LG was simple: KnockOn. To turn on the G2, all you need to do is double tap the screen. However, I found this sometimes doesn’t work and I had to re-double tap. Generally speaking though, KnockOn works fine most of the time.

Unlike the Optimus G and its gorgeous looking glass rear, the G2 uses a glossy plastic behind. According to LG, this is because of how the handset was designed. Inside the handset, LG has maximized the space to stack battery cells even at the curved corners of the G2, and chosen plastic instead of premium materials in order to keep the phone light.

At 143g, the G2 is lighter than the Optimus G (145g). Even so, the G2 felt solid in my hands.

Lastly, both the micro-USB port and 3.5mm audio jack are found at the bottom of the G2, while the IR blaster is located at the top.

Features

Running on Android 4.2.2, the G2 comes with some LG customizations. For a start, there’s Slide Aside, which lets you use three fingers to put an app in the background for quick access. You can put up to three apps, and can call them up again by sliding three fingers to the right. On paper it sounds great, but I didn’t find myself using it that much — my apps could be easily accessed from the home screen, so I didn’t see the point.

Guest Mode is another cool feature that you can enable if you use the lock screen. Guest Mode turns on when you draw a different pattern from your usual one, and it locks down apps and access to certain areas of the handset.

The one tweak that I found most useful was the Clip Tray — instead of just copying one thing, it sends many entries to a clipboard, which then pops up at the side when you’re ready to do some pasting.

The older QuickMemo and QSlide tweaks from the previous models are also included in the G2, and can be accessed by sliding up on the Home button.

The keyboard still hasn’t been improved though — like the Optimus G, hitting the backspace button after an autocorrect takes place doesn’t bring back the previous word, so you will have to retype it, and if you don’t tap the word to tell it to keep it, pressing the spacebar to type the next word autocorrects the word again and you’ll then have to hit backspace. Good luck with that infinite loop. It’s probably best to download the default Android keyboard or a third-party solution like Swiftkey.

Like the G Pro and Optimus G, the G2 comes packing a 13-megapixel camera that has various software modes such as a Time Catch (that helps with moving subjects), VR Panorama (similar to Android’s Photo Sphere, a Burst mode, a Beauty mode and a Shot and Clear mode (that lets you scrub away unwanted photobombers).

As for the camera performance, I found that it takes well-saturated shots as well as good low-light pictures. While I noticed some over- and under-sharpening in certain situations, the upside was that photos were relatively noise-free. The shutter was also really fast.

Test images taken using the built-in flash actually turned out a little dim. This actually worked in its favor when I tried it on a human subject as the resulting illumination didn’t look too harsh, which can happen when a flash unit is pointed directly at a subject.

Performance
Powered by a 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, the G2 was fast and snappy. It also has 2GB RAM and comes in either a 16GB or 32GB version. As it has no microSD card slot, you will be stuck with what you buy. On the 3DMark Benchmark test, the G2 easily maxed out the normal Ice Storm test, while scoring 9,258 in the Ice Storm Extreme tests.

I had no issues with voice quality or reception. Calls were clear and the volume of the twin speakers located at the bottom were loud and clear.

Packing a non-removable 3,000mAh battery, the G2 lasted us a little over a full day’s use on moderate to heavy usage. This includes Web browsing, accessing social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, while also having two email accounts on push.

Conclusion
The LG G2 is a worthy follow-up to the Optimus G and G Pro. Set to debut soon in Singapore, the LG handset has the chops to give other handsets a run for their money. Given that the high-end smartphone market is very competitive, it’s quite likely the G2 will have a price tag of around the S$900 mark. That means that you really should be choosing based on specs and functionality, which the G2 can boast of having.

That said, you will likely be spoilt for choice soon — the next iPhone, the Sony Xperia Z1, Samsung Galaxy Note 3 as well as the rumored Nexus 5 should be making their way soon to the market soon, so if you’re in no rush, it might be a good idea to wait it out before making a decision.