LG G5 Smartphone Review
For the original German review, see here.
The G5 is the flagship smartphone from the Korean manufacturer LG with the latest technology and also introduces some basic changes. Contrary to the current trend, the display size has shrunk from 5.5 inches in the LG G4 to 5.3 inches for the new model. On the other hand, the memory has increased to 4 GB and the internal storage can be expanded via microSD. LG uses a completely new chassis. For the first time, it is made of aluminum, but still has a replaceable battery. Although its capacity is reduced, the runtimes are not supposed to be any worse. The modular slot also allows expanding the smartphone with additional modules.
At the heart of the LG G5 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 – one of the fastest SoCs you can currently get. As with many other manufacturers, LG now uses the more modern USB Type-C port. You also get a fast LTE, an Infrared transmitter and for the first time, a fingerprint scanner. The price has increased to 699 Euros (~$796 / RRP). The plastic version of the LG G4 was available for 649 Euros (~$739), while the version with the leather rear cover was 50 Euros (~$57) more expensive.
Among the rivals are the other premium smartphones including the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, the Huawei P9, OnePlus 2, the Motorola Moto X Force, the Google Nexus 6P, the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, the HTC 10, the Apple iPhone 6s Plus or the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium.
Case
The LG G5 has an aluminum unibody chassis with a sophisticated feeling. Only the polished side edge is rather sharp. Despite the smaller display, the dimensions have hardly changed compared to the LG G4. Otherwise, the build quality leaves a very good impression. The gaps are even and twisting attempts are not an issue for the smartphone. You can only hear slight creaking inside the case. Unfortunately, the card tray is made entirely of plastic.
The volume button has been moved from the rear to the left side of the frame. The power button has remained at the back of the smartphone and acts as the fingerprint scanner at the same time. All buttons have well-defined pressure points and can be easily reached. Another button is located on the frame, which releases the lock of the modular slots.
After that you can easily pull it out and like the standard model the battery can be removed. Currently LG offers two additional modules for the G5. The CAM Plus module comes with dedicated control elements for the smartphone camera and provides better grip and also expands the battery capacity by another 1200 mAh. It retails at 99 Euros (~$113). The additional module Hi-Fi Plus retails for 150 Euros (~$171). It is equipped with a 32-bit D/A converter as well as an AMP amplifier and does, among others, work with high-quality headphones.
If you want to change the module, you will have to remove the battery and restart the smartphone after the switch. At least a warm-swap solution would have been nice.
Connectivity
The connectivity of the LG G5 does not leave much to be desired. The device supports Miracast, Wi-Fi Direct, Android Beam and DLNA for wireless media streaming. The USB Type-C port also supports SlimPort, so you can transfer images via HDMI cable when you use the corresponding adapter. OTG is not an issue either, but we only get the old 2.0 standard. NFC, Bluetooth 4.2, FM radio and infrared transmitter are also available.
The card tray carries a Nano-SIM and a microSD-card. If you want to replace the SIM-card, you will notice that it requires a restart of the smartphone. The microSD slot supports all modern cards with capacities up to 2 TB. This is rather confusing since currently the highest capacity is 200 GB, and 2 TB only indicates the technical capability of the SDXC standard. You can only use the microSD-card as an additional storage and cannot combine it with the internal storage. It is not possible to transfer apps (App2SD).
Software
The operating system of the LG G5 is Google Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, which is the latest version as of this writing. LG has also added its own user interface. You will feel right at home if you have used an LG smartphone before. The only new "feature" is the lack of an app drawer; otherwise, there are only visual changes.
Once again, you get the familiar apps such as LG Health, Backup, Quick Remote, Memo+, Smart Doctor and SmartWorld. There are also some third-party apps, including Evernote, Facebook and Instagram, which cannot be deactivated or deleted.
Communication & GPS
According to the specification sheet, not a lot has changed in the communication modules compared to the predecessor. The WLAN module supports the modern IEEE 802.11 standards a/b/g/n/ac in 2.4 as well as 5 GHz networks. The range of the module is very good. The smartphone indicated an average connection of only 12 meters (~39 ft) away from the access point (Devolo dLAN 1200+ Wifi ac), but there were no limitations during HD video streaming or when we browsed the web. Even the reaction times are very low.
As with the G4, mobile Internet connections are possible via HSPA+ or LTE Cat. 6 (up to 50 Mbps upstream, 300 Mbps downstream). We would have liked to see a faster standard, especially since the integrated SoC is already equipped with an LTE X12 modem. At least, LG supports more frequencies this time, so frequent travellers will not find any nasty surprises. We did not notice any problems in the metropolitan network of Vodafone and O2.
The LG G5 can be located via satellite networks, GPS and GLONASS. The location detection is also quite fast indoors and accurate down to 15 meters (~49 ft). The accuracy has improved to 3 meters (~10 ft) in the outdoors – a very good result.
We also wanted to test the smartphone on a quick bicycle ride and compared the results with the bicycle navigation device Garmin Edge 500. The performance of the review unit is good, but the measured track length is 120 meters (~131 yd) shorter with the smartphone. A pretty small deviation, but a closer look reveals the smartphone had some issues at the turning point in particular. Nevertheless, the G5 should work well both for navigation purposes as well as Geotagging.
Telephone & Voice Quality
LG has improved the voice quality of the LG G5 significantly. It is very good on both sides when you hold the device to your ear and even the suppression of ambient noise works well. As soon as we activate the speaker, the voice of the call partner is very loud and ambient noise is slightly muffled, but you can still hear them. There are also distinct echoes. Nevertheless, the LG G5 is a good choice when you just use the hands-free feature occasionally.
Cameras
Just like the predecessor LG G4, the front camera of the G5 has an 8 MP camera (2448x3264 pixels, 4:3) in combination with a fixed focus and auto-HDR. The sensor works well for selfies, because as well as a gesture and voice trigger, you can once again use the volume down button to create a continuous shoot with four pictures. A Beauty mode is also available and will apply a nine-stage soft-focus across wrinkles. The quality is very good, but we would finally like to see an autofocus.
The hardware of the main camera lens at the back has not changed. You still get a 16 MP sensor (up to 5312x2988 pixels, 16:9) or 12 MP (3984x2988 pixels, 4:3) respectively, so it is one of the few cameras with a higher resolution in the 16:9 aspect ratio compared to 4:3. Once again, the familiar laser autofocus and the color spectrum sensor are available, as well as the optical image stabilizer 2.0. The aperture (f/1.8) has not changed.
The quality of the pictures is still impressive and seems to be identical to the camera of the LG G4. Once again, we can see a slight haze (scene 2), which can be avoided when you use the Pro mode. The latter offers manual controls for all settings such as the light sensitivity (ISO 50-3200), exposure time (1/4000 up to 30 seconds) as well as white balance (2300-7500 K) and even manual focusing is possible. Furthermore, the live-view for long exposure times of up to around 5 seconds is visibly more reliable compared to the P9 or the Galaxy S7 Edge. However, the G5 is not perfect in this respect either. You can also create additional RAW files in the Pro mode.
The pictures are otherwise very sharp and have a good dynamic range, but you can notice that there has not been any further development since last year. Instead, competitors such as Huawei with its P-series, which had worse cameras last year, have closed the gap. You still get a really good camera, even in 2016.
The actual highlight in terms of photography is the second camera at the back, which has a 135-degree wide-angle. However, the resolution of 5 MP (2880x2160, 4:3) is also much lower. This lens is more appropriate for objects that are further away or landscapes, because the distortions caused by the curvature are very obvious at close ups. Still, you will like this possibility if you want to get a lot of content in the picture, especially since the switching between the two lenses is very easy with two icons at the upper edge. The following two comparison shots were taken from the same spot.
The video features of the LG G5 are identical to those of the G4 and offer a good quality all the way up to the Ultra-HD resolution (3840x2160 pixels, 30 fps, 48 Mbps). Unfortunately, Full HD is limited to 60 fps and slow-motions are only possible in the small HD resolution at 107 fps. Time-lapses are possible in 1080p with 10x up to 60x the speed. The voice quality has also improved and there is only a little noise now.
We also had a closer look at the performance of the two rear-facing cameras under controlled lighting conditions. First, we took a picture of the ColorChecker Passport to evaluate the color representation. The pictures were not edited afterwards and there was no white balance. While the colors of the 16 MP sensor are slightly pale and the grayscale is quite dark, the colors of the wide-angle camera are very rich and saturated.
The test chart was also photographed under the same conditions. The main camera is conveniently sharp all the way up to the edges, but the intensity of the shot fades slightly. Lines and curves are very detailed in the center, but some of the fonts on the colored surfaces show minor errors when you enlarge the picture. These errors are visible without the zoom in the picture of the wide-angle lens. The picture has a lower contrast and is slightly blurrier in general. You can also see the curvature of the lens very well on the sample picture, but this is a result of the short distance.
LG CAM Plus
LG was kind enough to provide us with a CAM Plus module for this review. The optional component tips the scale at 55 grams (~2 oz) and also provides some additional physical buttons. The small lever can launch the camera from standby, the smaller trigger launches video recordings, the slightly larger one next to it has two stages and can focus pictures or take a picture, respectively. The zoom wheel at the corner allows a continuous camera zoom, which uses a digital zoom. Once you zoom far enough, the smartphone will automatically change to the wide-angle lens. It is easy to operate with one hand without having to fear losing grip. The zoom wheel is very smooth, but also loud, because the two plastic elements rub against each other audibly. This is also audible in video recordings, since one of the microphones is in close proximity.
The additional battery is very practical and provides another 1200 mAh, increasing the total capacity to 4000 mAh. The two batteries will drain simultaneously in a ratio of about 2:1, so the additional battery will be empty sooner than the internal one. The buttons of the CAM Plus are locked as soon as you plug in a USB cable into the smartphone, so it is impossible to use an external battery or storage simultaneously with the module – this solution is rather unfortunate. However, if you take a lot of pictures with your smartphone, the additional module might be an interesting gadget.
Accessories and Warranty
The LG G5 comes with a modular power adapter with a nominal output of 9 watts (5V, 1.8 A) and a USB cable. Unfortunately, the corresponding headset was not included with our review unit.
LG offers a 24-month warranty for its smartphone.
Input Devices & Handling
The capacitive touchscreen of the LG G5 has very good gliding capabilities and inputs are executed quickly and reliably. We could not notice any restrictions towards the edges either. Up to ten inputs are recognized simultaneously.
The virtual keyboard will be familiar for users of the G3 or G4, since LG has not changed it. It supports automatic word predictions, swipe, as well as voice inputs and works great for typing. You can also install other layouts from the Play Store.
For the first time, LG has implemented a fingerprint scanner into its premium model. It is located at the back of the chassis and is integrated into the power button. Setting up the scanner is quick and easy and the detection rate is good. Unlocking the device is a quick process.
Display
The LG G5 has a 5.3-inch Quantum IPS display with a high resolution of 1560x1440 pixels. This results in a pixel density of around 554 PPI, so the contents are sharp. Only the Sony Xperia Z5 Premium (801 PPI) manages a much higher pixel density within the comparison.
We measured the display luminance with the activated brightness sensor, because the smartphone does not reach its full potential otherwise. We can measure up to 809 cd/m² and still around 700 cd/m² with an even distribution of bright and dark areas (APL 50). This means that the device will not be quite as bright in practice as advertised by LG. If you prefer the manual control, you are restricted to 400 CD/m². It is fortunate that the black level remains constant in all scenarios. 0.43 cd/m² is a decent result and allows a great contrast ratio of 1823:1.
The brightness distribution is very even at 91% and we cannot notice clouding on the LG G5 even with a completely black picture.
|
Brightness Distribution: 91 %
Center on Battery: 784 cd/m²
Contrast: 1823:1 (Black: 0.43 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.5 | 0.5-29.43 Ø5
ΔE Greyscale 8 | 0.57-98 Ø5.3
97.46% sRGB (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
68.08% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 1.6.3 3D)
73.5% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
97.4% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
74.7% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.22
LG G5 IPS Quantum, 2560x1440, 5.30, 16:9 | LG G4 Quantum-IPS, 2560x1440, 5.50, 16:9 | Sony Xperia Z5 Premium IPS, 3840x2160, 5.50, 16:9 | OnePlus 2 IPS, 1920x1080, 5.50, 16:9 | Apple iPhone 6S Plus IPS, 1920x1080, 5.50, 16:9 | Huawei P9 IPS-NEO, JDI, 1920x1080, 5.20, 16:9 | Google Nexus 6P AMOLED, 2560x1440, 5.70, 16:9 | Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge Super AMOLED, 2560x1440, 5.50, 16:9 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Screen | -9% | -22% | -1% | -1% | 7% | 9% | 25% | |
Brightness middle | 784 | 566 -28% | 560 -29% | 451 -42% | 583 -26% | 582 -26% | 363 -54% | 554 -29% |
Brightness | 774 | 536 -31% | 541 -30% | 446 -42% | 560 -28% | 563 -27% | 365 -53% | 552 -29% |
Brightness Distribution | 91 | 90 -1% | 85 -7% | 90 -1% | 91 0% | 91 0% | 90 -1% | 96 5% |
Black Level * | 0.43 | 0.47 -9% | 0.45 -5% | 0.3 30% | 0.46 -7% | 0.38 12% | ||
Contrast | 1823 | 1204 -34% | 1244 -32% | 1503 -18% | 1267 -30% | 1532 -16% | ||
Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 6.5 | 6.17 5% | 9.19 -41% | 3.84 41% | 3.55 45% | 4.4 32% | 2.34 64% | 1.59 76% |
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 11.7 | 15.01 -28% | 7.4 37% | 2.56 78% | ||||
Greyscale dE 2000 * | 8 | 6.26 22% | 10.58 -32% | 3.97 50% | 3.88 51% | 4.8 40% | 1.03 87% | 2.01 75% |
Gamma | 2.22 99% | 2.48 89% | 2.7 81% | 2.46 89% | 2.2 100% | 2.2 100% | 2.23 99% | 2.01 109% |
CCT | 8699 75% | 8171 80% | 9760 67% | 7283 89% | 7280 89% | 6175 105% | 6429 101% | 6321 103% |
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998) | 68.08 | 65.48 -4% | 73.19 8% | 58.07 -15% | 59.05 -13% | 77.78 14% | 82.12 21% | |
Color Space (Percent of sRGB) | 97.46 | 98.63 1% | 90.14 -8% | 92.8 -5% | 99.44 2% | 99.98 3% |
* ... smaller is better
We used a spectrophotometer and the analysis software CalMAN for further display measurements of the LG G5. While the brightness and contrast are on a great level, there is still room for improvements in term of colors. The grayscale shows a distinct blue cast in bright areas, so the picture appears pretty cool. Colors perform slightly better, but all of them show significant deviations from their ideal values. Yellow tones tend towards green and red colors slightly towards magenta. However, this is not an issue in practice.
The color space coverage itself is very good and the sRGB reference is almost completely covered.
The LG G5 is ideally equipped for outdoor usage: High contrast and a high maximum luminance. But a direct comparison with the Huawei P9 and the HTC 10 shows that the display is darker and harder to read than the rivals, despite the technical specifications. Possibly, this will be a result of the calibration of the ambient light sensor, because it will only use the maximum luminance under direct light. This is probably to save battery capacity. The outdoor capabilities of the LG G5 are still good, but stay short of its own possibilities.
Display Response Times
↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
---|---|---|
24 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 10 ms rise | |
↘ 14 ms fall | ||
The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 48 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (21.6 ms). | ||
↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
41 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 24 ms rise | |
↘ 17 ms fall | ||
The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.2 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 59 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is worse than the average of all tested devices (33.9 ms). |
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
Screen flickering / PWM detected | 2273 Hz | ≤ 34 % brightness setting | |
The display backlight flickers at 2273 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 34 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting. The frequency of 2273 Hz is quite high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 18100 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured. |
The viewing angle stability of the LG G5's Quantum IPS display is very good. We can only notice a very small brightness drop from very flat angles. There are no color inversions or ghost effects.
Performance
The LG G5 is the first smartphone in review with the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996. After its processor based on the big.LITTLE concept from ARM with eight cores, Qualcomm now uses its own Kryo cores and reduces the SoC to a quad-core. It consists of two clusters. The cores of the power-saving cluster are clocked at up to 1.6 GHz and the performance cores at up to 2.15 GHz. The GPU, Adreno 530, and the LG G5 has 4 GB LPDDR4-RAM. We have already had the chance to perform some benchmarks with a reference platform, which are listed in the compare element, but the review unit cannot keep up with these results.
Geekbench nicely shows the improvements in the per-MHz performance of the new high-end SoC. The LG G5 is between 79 and 90% faster than devices with the Snapdragon 810 in the single-core test. It is only beaten by the iPhone 6s Plus (Apple A9). You can notice the four missing cores in the multi-core test: Nevertheless, the new chip is faster, even though the performance gains are not that big. Only the Galaxy S7 Edge (Exynos 8890) and the Huawei P9 (Kirin 955) are even better in this test.
The Adreno 530 performs very well and dominates the competition in all the modern benchmarks, even the very powerful iPhone is beaten in the majority of the tests. Only in Basemark ES 3.1 does it lag short of the expectations. This is a very time-consuming benchmark, so this could be a first indicator of the throttling of the SoC.
The system performance is also great. The system runs very smoothly in practice and there is no cause for criticism. The PCMark score supports this as well, only the P9 is better in this respect.
PCMark for Android - Work performance score (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
LG G4 | |
Google Nexus 6P | |
Motorola Moto X Force | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
GFXBench 3.1 | |
on screen Manhattan ES 3.1 Onscreen (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
LG G4 | |
Google Nexus 6P | |
Motorola Moto X Force | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
Apple iPhone 6S Plus | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP | |
1920x1080 Manhattan ES 3.1 Offscreen (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
LG G4 | |
Google Nexus 6P | |
Motorola Moto X Force | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
Apple iPhone 6S Plus | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
GFXBench | |
on screen Car Chase Onscreen (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
Motorola Moto X Force | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP | |
1920x1080 Car Chase Offscreen (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
Motorola Moto X Force | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
Basemark ES 3.1 / Metal - offscreen Overall Score (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
Apple iPhone 6S Plus | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 |
Basemark X 1.1 - High Quality (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
Lightmark - 1920x1080 1080p (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
LG G4 | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
We performed the browser tests with the preloaded Google Chrome browser (version 49). Subjectively, web browsing on the LG G5 is fast and there is no cause for criticism. The benchmarks, however, show that the performance of the review unit is rather average within the comparison group.
Vellamo 3.x - Browser (sort by value) | |
LG G5 | |
LG G4 | |
Sony Xperia Z5 Premium | |
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge | |
OnePlus 2 | |
Huawei P9 | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP | |
Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MDP |
* ... smaller is better
The internal flash storage of the LG G5 is really fast and is almost on par with the Galaxy S7 Edge. The latter is rather faster in sequential read and write transfers, but the G5 is slightly ahead in the test with small files. Only the P9 and the Moto X Force are a bit faster in the 4K write test. About 23 GB of the 32 GB is available for the user.
The microSD slot of the LG G5 is also one of the faster modules, but cannot utilize the full potential of our reference card Toshiba Exceria Pro M401. It is therefore not surprising that LG has decided against the combination with the internal storage, because the performance differences are just too great.
Games
The LG G5 is suitably equipped for gaming, because the Adreno 530 is one of the fastest GPUs you can currently get in a mobile device, and it already supports the new Vulkan API. Unfortunately, GameBench could not be activated on the smartphone, so we cannot show you any benchmark results at this point. The performance is still more than sufficient for any game from the Play Store, even at the highest settings.
The touchscreen and the good position sensors ensure handling without any problems. However, the speaker can be easily covered by the hands when you play in landscape mode.
Emissions
Temperature
The surface temperatures of the LG G5 will reach up to 34.7 °C (~94 °F) at the front while idling. The difference compared to the results under sustained load is surprisingly small, because we can only measure up to 37.7 °C (~100 °F), which is comparatively low.
We use the GFXBench Battery Test to check how the smartphone manages the heat development of the SoC. We used the classic test with the T-Rex test as well as the version Manhattan 3.1, which requires more performance. Both tests are repeated thirty times and the app logs the battery capacity as well as the frame rates. The situation is quite good in the classic test. We can see performance drops starting with the 12th run, but the difference is not that big at up to 11%. The situation changes with the more challenging Manhattan test, which uses the OpenGL ES 3.1 API. We can already see a similar performance drop after the 7th run and even a 30% drop compared to the initial performance after run number 21. This also explains the surprisingly bad Basemark ES 3.1 result.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 37.7 °C / 100 F, compared to the average of 35 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 56 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 35.8 °C / 96 F, compared to the average of 33.8 °C / 93 F
(±) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 32.6 °C / 91 F, compared to the device average of 32.7 °C / 91 F.
Speakers
The mono speaker of the LG G5 is integrated at the lower edge of the chassis. This has an advantage, since you can put the smartphone on a table, for example, without covering the speaker. The sound quality is surprisingly good, but there is – as expected – too much emphasis on the high tones. They are so dominant that the medium tones are basically non-existing. You can actually notice some sort of bass, which is perceptible as muffled booming. The high tones are pretty linear, but very high tones and voices in particular distort rather quickly. The maximum volume is decent at 86.4 dB(A).
There is very little noise when you use the integrated 3.5 mm stereo jack and subjectively, there is no criticism.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The power consumption of the LG G5 is on a good level and the smartphone is quite frugal. A small outlier is the maximum idle consumption. However, we tested it with the activated ambient light sensor and the highest luminance settings, so we get the full 800 cd/m². This clearly shows why LG has restricted the manual brightness control.
The LG G5 supports Quick Charge and the smartphone is charged by 27% within 15 minutes. 50% is reached after 27 minutes and 80% after 48 minutes. A full recharge of the battery takes 82 minutes. The output of the power adapter does not leave much headroom, but it is sufficient. However, it is frugal and consumes only 0.01 watts at the socket if you do not use it.
Similar to the Galaxy S7 Edge or the Lumia 950 XL, the LG G5 also supports the Always-On display. It will increase the standby consumption to 0.34 watts and is therefore comparatively frugal.
Off / Standby | 0 / 0.22 Watt |
Idle | 0.55 / 1.37 / 2.25 Watt |
Load |
6.24 / 9.12 Watt |
Battery Runtime
Despite the smaller battery capacity of 2800 mAh compared to the LG G4, the current premium smartphone from the Koreans can actually manage better runtimes. The LG G5 also performs very well within the comparison. Better runtimes are achieved by the Moto X Force and particularly the Galaxy S7 Edge, but it also has a much larger battery. The tests with an adjusted display brightness of 150 cd/m² are more important, where the Huawei P9 shows more stamina.
If you have the CAM Plus module, you will get another 1200 mAh, so the LG G5 is on par with the Mate 8 (4000 mAh). The latter is more efficient in the Wi-Fi test and lasts almost 14.5 hours, whereas the LG G5 with the additional module shuts down after 12 hours and 36 minutes.
LG G5 10.78 Wh | LG G4 12 Wh | Apple iPhone 6S Plus 10 Wh | Huawei P9 11.46 Wh | Motorola Moto X Force Wh | Sony Xperia Z5 Premium 13 Wh | Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 13.86 Wh | Microsoft Lumia 950 XL 13 Wh | Huawei Mate 8 Wh | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Battery Runtime | -25% | 4% | 1% | 10% | -22% | 45% | -19% | 46% | |
Reader / Idle | 1833 | 1654 -10% | 1655 -10% | 1514 -17% | 1610 -12% | 1277 -30% | 1663 -9% | 1078 -41% | 1872 2% |
H.264 | 600 | 501 -16% | 714 19% | 568 -5% | 710 18% | 411 -31% | 914 52% | 611 2% | 963 61% |
WiFi v1.3 | 387 | 326 -16% | 513 33% | 569 47% | 426 10% | 372 -4% | 732 89% | 369 -5% | 865 124% |
Load | 267 | 114 -57% | 197 -26% | 206 -23% | 330 24% | 210 -21% | 392 47% | 179 -33% | 256 -4% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
LG has been really creative this year to get the attention of customers and we think the Korean company offers a successful overall package. The combination of a good display, proven camera and decent battery runtimes is a solid foundation. We really like the new design and the modular concept of the LG G5 offers interesting additional modules.
LG should improve the calibration of the ambient light sensor with an update, because the contents appear rather dark outdoors. The camera offers a performance similar to the predecessor, the idea of a second wide-angle lens will certainly find some friends and we liked it during the review, despite the low resolution.
The LG G5 is a modern premium smartphone with a good dual-camera. Thanks to the modular slot, the smartphone is a very individual companion, but it also comes at a price.
The LG G5 does not reveal any major issues, so it is one of the best smartphones you can currently get and it is also suitably equipped for upcoming trends such as virtual reality. The additions by LG Friends are great possibilities that also expand over the products from LG.
LG G5
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05/04/2016 v5.1(old)
Daniel Schmidt