Internet is now full of reviews of the coming and old smartphones. Smartphone reviews are popular not only because they inform people of what’s coming with the upcoming phones but also let them decide on which phones to buy that are already available on the market. These reviews also help people know what their favorite brands are up to. And while “fanboy” term has earned all the negative connotation it could in the past few years, people still don’t mind being fans of their favorite brands despite all the heat coming from the fanboys of other brands.

Apple and Samsung have been long in the brawl to become the best smartphone making companies of the world and there issues are no secret for the world. However, LG has recently stepped up its game in smartphone manufacturing and it won’t be wrong to say that LG is doing wonderful things out there. The problem is that Samsung and Apple occupy so much of the space on the stage of fame that LG often goes unnoticed despite its great innovative new smartphones. Just recently at the MWC 2016, LG has announced the LG G5.

The LG G5

LG G5 has been unveiled at MWC 2016 in Barcelona but it is not available for public to buy as of yet. This is the first modular smartphone in the market since the inception of smartphones and it comes with great features and even greater possibilities in future for smartphones. This is the first full metal body flagship phone from LG and while expert reviewers have admired the phone overall, many users have bashed the phone for its design. In most cases, people have focused so much on the design that they have completely forgotten the big things this phone has come with.

The Features Of LG G5

LG G5 is a midsized phone with a 5.3” screen size and the LG logo located right at the bottom. The front bottom part of the phone looks a lot like G3. It has a 2800mAh battery inside it that can be removed and replaced any time you want. There is a 16MP camera on the back accompanied by a wider field 8MP camera right beside it. The front camera is another impressive 8MP. The phone is going to come with the latest Android Marshmallow operating system and is expected to come in your hands in April 2016.

The phone gives you the option of not only swapping batteries but also expanding the memory with a memory card slot available for cards of up to 2TB of capacity. Of course, an external card that huge is not available as of yet but the slot is there to support one. Most importantly, the phone carries the eagerly awaited Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. It gets more power from 4GB of RAM and to make your world even brighter it comes with the IPS display which might not be as bright as the AMOLED from Samsung but amazingly impressive.

The 554dpi pixel density makes the display finer than mirror and there is the Corning Gorilla glass 4 protecting the display from scratches and hits. One of the major improvements on this phone is the availability of USB Type-C that allows you to connect your charger without worrying about which way you need to insert the pin into the jack. The fast charging option is available so you can charge your battery up to 83% in just half an hour. The colors the phone is expected to be available in include pink, gold, titan and silver.

The Highlights Of The Phone

The biggest highlight of the phone is that it still offers a removable battery despite its full metal body design. LG has not been known for making metal body flagship phones and the fact that it was company’s first attempt and it was still able to support a changeable battery through the modular design makes LG the first one to do so. The module section is at the bottom of the phone that will come out as you press a button located on the left side of the phone. The module comes out and allows you to insert further modules.

The fingerprint sensor is there on the back and resembles a lot with the fingerprint sensor on Google’s Nexus 6P. The two cameras on the back are another factor that makes this phone different from the rest. While the 16MP camera is an impresser due to its quality, the 8MP shooter with wider field allows you to capture more scenery within a picture than your eyes can see. It’s like every shot will be a panoramic shot with this secondary back camera. Quick charging is a big highlight since many people were not happy with the 2800mAh battery. You will have full battery in less than an hour of charging.

The screen is even brighter than the previous flagship phones from LG so outdoor performance will be great. Snapdragon 820 processor has been receiving some kudos from online reviewers for its smooth performance. The phone also comes with compatibility with many of its “friends”. These friends are a rolling ball robot, virtual reality wearable gadget and a 360-degree shooting camera. Lastly, it must not go without mentioning that LG still allows users to change batteries and insert an external card to expand their memory sizes.

Fighting LG’s Case Against Most Common Critiques

The new phone has been criticized for many things but it can be said safely that most of this criticism does not make the phone any less impressive or valuable.

• The Phone Looks Ugly

This argument is invalid per se. Beauty is a subjective issue. The answer lies in the comments given on the phone’s reviews as well. There are people who have loved its design and they are not small in number. Most people have criticized the looks of the back of the phone. The camera section looks to many like wall-e – an animated movie character. On the other hand, most people have forgotten to give LG the props for keeping the antenna bands hidden – something that Apple was hugely criticized for in iPhone 6’s design.

• The Design Is A Fail

People have argued that its design should have been something of an upgrade of LG G4’s design. Here, they completely forget that even LG G4 was immensely criticized for its design when it was launched. LG has changed the design, taken away the curved screen, removed the plastic and moved the back volume buttons to the side. Of course, it is a big change for those who have been using LG flagship phones but it is only a matter of getting used to the new changes. The overall metal body design is not a fail at all.

• The Battery Is Smaller

LG V10 was criticized for not giving enough screen on time with the 3000mAh battery. Now the LG G5 comes with a 2800mAh battery. Of course the battery is smaller but we are forgetting the newer chipset and processor that is on board this time. The whole assembly of processor and chips should be consuming less power and giving a good battery timing. Not to mention the removability of the battery.

• The App Drawer Has Been Removed

This was a huge shock for the LG and overall Android fans when they heard that there was no app drawer on the phone. By default, yes, there is no app drawer. It’s just that it is hidden when you turn the phone on for the first time. Double tap the home button and change the home screen mode and you have the app drawer back. In short, the app drawer has not been removed but hidden from view by default.

• The Modules Are Bulky And Useless

There are times when people criticize innovations for not being the way they expected them to be. It has to be admitted that modules are not “very” attractive at the moment. However, that’s not even the important part of it all. The important part is the fact that these modules have opened up a completely new door for smartphone improvements. There is no doubt that it seemed in recent days that smartphones had come to stagnation with nothing new and old features being removed and put back. The camera module is bulky and there are two reasons for that. First, it was deliberately made bulky because it is supposed to turn your phone into a point and shoot camera. Second, it adds 1200mAh of extra battery to your already 2800mAh battery making it 4000mAh. Lastly, going deeper into modular designs you discover that future smartphones might allow you to upgrade your processors, RAMs etc. through modules.

Final Words

There are literally dozens of options for people to buy new smartphones now and every user has his/her favorites. However, there is no denial that LG is presently the only company looking at the innovative side of smartphones and coming up with things that give smartphones a new meaning and life, and LG G5 is just the first step of “maybe” a new breed of smartphones.

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