LG has finally taken off the veil on LG G5 during the Play Begins event at the 2016 Mobile World Congress. This phone, aimed to challenge Apple's iPhone 7 and Samsung's Galaxy S7, rocks a removable battery, microSD slot, all-metal body and more.
All-Metal Body – The LG G5 has its housing made entirely of metal, putting the device head-to-head with its strong competitors from Samsung and Apple.
Removable Battery – This handset houses a large, removable 2,800 mAh battery. This means smartphone heavy users can just simply remove the battery and replace it with a new one in only a few seconds.
Always-On Display – This feature enables users to check the battery status, time and notifications without the need to wake the device. The company says that this is made possible by the display's backlight that only illuminates a small part of the entire display. This feature only eats 0.8 percent of the handset's battery every hour.
Extra Modules – LG introduced some additional modules for its newest smartphone, which it calls LG Friends.
These two modules were highlighted by LG during the event:
1. CAM Plus – This is a special camera accessory built for the phone. It does not only offer an enlarged camera grip for single-handed photography, but it also provides additional battery power as well.
2. Hi-Fi Plus With B&O Play – This module transforms the phone into a Hi-Fi audio player. It supports 32-bit 384 KHz high-definition audio files.
Other Features And Specs
The LG G5 comes with a 5.3-inch display and 2,560 x 1,440 resolution at 554 ppi. This premium smartphone is powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 820 chip, as LG confirmed a couple of days ago. It includes a 4 GB of RAM and a 32 GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 2 TB via a microSD slot. On top of that, the phone also runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
The G5 rocks two rear cameras: a 16-megapixel standard 78-degree lens, plus an 8-megapixel 135-degree wide angle lens. The wide angle lens is specifically beneficial when capturing tall buildings, landscapes and large groups. The phone also has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera.
The USB Type-C port on the phone is compatible with USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC and Wi-Fi 802.11 a,b,g,n, ac.
Customers have four color options to select from - Pink, Gold, Silver and Titan.
What Experts Are Saying
BGR believes that if ever there was a smartphone that is well deserved to grab a little attention from Samsung at the MWC 2016, "this could be it."
"The G5 marks a major improvement for LG and bodes well for Android competition in the year ahead." It even calls it "one of the more memorable devices of MWC 2016," says The Verge.
While Gizmodo says that the LG G5 seems like the prototype of a smartphone from the future, it says, however, that the device "falls short on the looks." It also adds that the user interface of the G5 has some "blemishes." One of which is the ditching of the apps drawer.
"Now, every app you download will take up display real estate on the home screen, like on iOS," it says. "LG says this makes the smartphone clean, but I feel exactly the opposite."
The LG G5 and its friends are going to be released across the globe starting April of this year.
