A smart phone that's really smart

With a brightly coloured full HD display and a great 13 megapixel camera, the new flagship smart phone from LG, the LG G2, is designed to please.

It’s powered by 2.26 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and is equipped with 2 gigabytes of DDR3 fast memory running at 800 MHz. It has 32 GB of ROM and 16 GB of storage and it runs on the Android 4.2.2 operating system.

Sleek and skinny with a 8.9mm thin profile and a 5.2-inch IPS display with slim bezel, the IPS display with 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution is very good for viewing photos and watching HD video clips.

It has excellent performance too. During the test, I found that its menus and touch screen were very responsive and scrolling was smooth and fast. Applications and HD video also ran fast and smoothly.

Thanks to the Slide Aside and Qslide functions, users will have no trouble multitasking. With Slide Aside, you can use three fingers to sweep an open app to the left side of the screen and have it remain open in the background while you use another app. In fact, you can open several apps then use three fingers to slide them aside on the left and recall them later by tapping and pulling down the status bar on the top of the screen.

QSlide allows you to view an app in a small window on your screen. Several apps can be opened from the QSlide bar and run side by side. Each window can be moved and resized and its transparency can be adjusted.

QSlide apps that can be run in window include Videos player, Internet browser, Phone, Messaging, Calendar, Email client, Memo, File Manager and Calculator.

G2 supports both HSPA+ 3G connection and LTE 4G connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s HSPA+ connection and it ran very fast. I had no problems downloading and installing applications and was able to check and update my Facebook status and read my mails without problems.

When I captured snapshots with the G2, I used Google Cloud storage to backup the photos without any problem.

Unlike other smart phones, the G2 is has its power button and volume up and down keys at the back below the camera’s lens. LG explains that the phone was designed this way because the location of the power button and volume keys is where most people’s index fingers rest while using the phone.

However for those not used to a power button – it’s used to wake up or put the phone into sleep mode or to turn the screen on and off, a gesture function, called Knock On, is available to perform these actions. 

Knock On lets you wake up the phone by tapping the screen of the phone twice. You can also turn the screen off again by tapping a blank area on the screen twice.

G2 also comes with several other useful gesture-based functions. For example, when there is an incoming call, you can raise the phone to your ear to answer it without having to slide the answering key on the screen.

And during an incoming call, the phone will fade out the ring tone when you lift it from the desk.

G2 has good quality camera with 13 megapixel resolution and f/2.4 lens. Moreover, the camera features optical image stabilisation to prevent blurring in photos and reduce shaking in video recording. The camera is capable of recording Full HD videos at the rate of 60 frames per second.

During the test, I found that the camera captured beautiful, sharp and clean shots in most light conditions and was particularly impressed by beautiful night lights.

There are several fun shooting modes, including Intelligent auto, Night, Sports, Shot and Clear, Panorama, Dynamic tone (HDR), Beauty shot and Dual camera as well as Time catch shot mode.

The Shot and Clear mode allows the camera to identify objects you may not want in your photo. After you take a shot, you can tap an outline object to remove it and then save the photo.

The Beauty shot let you capture shots that make your subjects boast a fair and smooth skin tone.

In Time catch shot mode, the camera will prevent you from missing any moment by taking five sequential photos before you tap the shutter button.

You can also fire the shutter with your voice by turning on the Cheese shutter function. Once that’s on, you can take photos just by saying Cheese, Smile, Whisky, Kimchi or LG.

The Dual camera mode is also fun. The mode allows you to take a picture with front and rear cameras at the same time and combine the two shots into one picture. This way you can capture your own face and impose it into the scene of your subjects.

G2 can also serve as a high quality MP3 player. It is designed with the so-called Plug & Pop feature. Once you plug in your stereo headset, the phone will realise it and slide up a bar of apps that invites you to select whether to use a music player, video player, YouTube app or make a phone call.

The music player of the phone really sounds good because it supports decoding 24bit x 192kHz Hi-Fi audio signal.

You can also use G2 as a universal remote control as it comes with infrared port and QuickRemote app. It will control various brands of TV as well as set top boxes, audio systems, Blu-ray players, air conditioners and projectors.

LG G2 has a suggested retail price of Bt19,900.

 

Key specs

_ OS: Android 4.2.2

_ CPU: 2.26GHz Quad core Snapdragon 800

_ Display: 5.2-inch1920x1080 Full HD IPS Display

_ RAM: 2GB LPDDR3 800MHz

_ ROM: 32GB

_ Network: 2G (GSM / EDGE), 3G (HSPA+42Mbps / HSPA+21Mbps), LTE (SVLTE, CSFB, CA, VoLTE, RCS, MIMO) 

_ Audio: 24bit x 192kHz Hi-Fi Sound

_ Camera: 13MP OIS (Optical Image Stabiliser), Sapphire Crystal Glass f/2.4 Lens, Multi-point AF (9 Points), Full HD 60fps Recording

_ Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, DLNA, USB 2.0, Wi-Fi Direct/Miracast

_ Battery Capacity: 3,000mAh / Embedded Li-Polymer

_ Dimensions: 138.5 (L) x 70.9 (W) x 8.9 (D)mm

_ Weight: 143 g