Welcome back, and hello G5!

IT’S GREAT to have LG smartphones back on the Thai market – especially now that there’s a new flagship model, the G5, which is truly impressive in quality and has not one but two cameras at the back.

The G series has always been top quality in terms of performance, offering superb alternatives to the more expensive Android phones, so it was disappointing when LG Thailand indefinitely suspended distribution late last year.

“Indefinitely” thankfully turned out to be not too long, however. TG Fone recently became the exclusive dealer of the G5 in Thailand. The model’s been available elsewhere for a while, but for us it proves to be worth the wait. The G5 boasts a premium build, terrific performance, fast data connection, expandability for extra features, and that unique three-camera set-up.

The sleek, 7.7mm-thin aluminium body comes in pink, gold or titanium, nicely curved at the edges and a lightweight 159 grams. The 3D Arc Glass display is also gently bevelled at the top for a seamless overall look.

Users can get at the battery to replace it, which is not the case with most other brands. You just press a button and slide out the bottom cap attached to the 2,800mAh rechargeable battery.

The battery life is excellent thanks to Low Power Location Estimation technology, which boosts efficiency by nearly 42 per cent by improving the way your location-based apps use power.

On top of that, Quick Charge 3.0 uses an intelligent algorithm to replenish the battery 27 per cent quicker and 45 per cent more efficiently than in previous models.

The replaceable battery is part of the plan to make the phone expandable with optional modules called LG Friends that plug into the same place. TG Fone has two add-on modules available for now. 

LG Cam Plus (Bt2,990) adds a camera grip, shutter button, zoom dial and video-record button to the phone, all of which are quite useful. You get that genuine camera feel, including half-pressing the shutter to focus.

LG Hi-Fi Plus (Bt4,990) is a must if you love high-quality music on the go, because it’s a 32-bit Hi-Fi digital-to-analogue converter and headphone amplifier with the signature sound of B&O Play, an outfit renowned for its high-fidelity products.

TG Fone does have another LG Friend, though it’s not modular. LG 360 Cam (Bt8,390) instead links wirelessly to the G5 for 360-degree shots and videos at 13-megapixel resolution that can be shared on Google Street View and YouTube 360.

Soon enough you’ll need the Friends Manager, an application already built in that connects the modules with minimal fuss. The manager automatically detects whatever’s nearby and makes the connection in three simple steps.

The G5’s exceptional performance is due to a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor and an ample four gigabytes of working memory. A lot of phones are using eight-core chips these days, but the G5 has Qualcomm’s quad-core chip, meaning fewer cores than the 810, its predecessor. But LG says this doesn’t affect performance, since most Android apps don’t need eight cores anyway, and the 820, at 64 bits, performs twice as well as the 810. 

The 820 adds Adreno 530 graphics, lower-power Hexagon DSP and Spectra 14-bit dual-image signal processors that deliver high-resolution, DSLR-quality pictures while also saving power. Adreno 530 handles graphics up to 40 per cent faster and more powerfully than the previous generation. 

I found while testing the G5 that the touchscreen and menus were very responsive and both videos and graphic-based games played smoothly, as did high-resolution audio files at FLAC 24bit/192kHz. Even without a Hi-Fi DAC or headphone amp module, the G5 can still be a high-quality digital-music player. I ran the tunes through Sony’s MDR-1ABT headset and found the quality top-notch, with plenty of detail and bass.

With the G5 you also get aptX HD, an enhanced codec for Bluetooth-generated 24-bit sound, so the music remains rich and clear even over a wireless connection when heard through the right headphones (like the optional LG Tone Platinum headphones).

One pre-installed app I love is called LG Health, a tracker for daily activities that can synchronise with Google Fitness. It will log the number of steps taken and duration of cycling outings, power walks, runs and stair climbs.

The G5 is quick in connecting to LTE 4G networks such as TrueMove H’s and uploading photos to the cloud. The Ookla Speedtest app measured downloads at 107.88Mbps, the fastest I’ve seen while testing phones, and uploads at 19.96Mbps.

The 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum display is bright and colourful and there’s a handy “Always-on” feature so you see the time and date even when the phone’s in sleep mode (discretely perfect for business meetings). 

Power consumption is minimised with redesigned display driver IC memory – the backlighting illuminates only one small part of the overall display, so even with Always-on, you’re using just 0.8 per cent of the battery’s full capacity per hour. 

Daylight Mode is a big improvement in outdoor visibility. Light conditions are automatically detected and the brightness of the display is instantaneously increased or decreased.

Now, about the dual cameras at the rear, an outstanding advance in my view: There really are two cameras – not two lenses – each with its own image sensor from Sony. Both get fine pictures, with sharp details and well-saturated colours.

The main camera has 16-megapixel resolution and uses a fast f/1.8-aperture lens with image stabilisation. You have a 78-degree angle of view, similar to most flagship smartphones, but what’s truly amazing is the second rear camera with f/2.4 aperture, 8MP sensor and super-wide-angle 135-degree lens. 

This is 1.7 times wider than anything else found on a phone – and 15 degrees wider than the human eye’s field of view. You can imagine how useful this is getting shots of landscapes, tall buildings and large groups of people. You might never have to “back up” again.

I just had to press an on-screen button and could easily see subjects that didn’t even appear through a normal-angle lens. Plus, you can switch back and forth between rear cameras with another press of a button. Look for the tree icons – one, two or three depending on the angle you want. Zooming in and out automatically switches between wide-angle and general needs.

The G5’s camera app has Multi-view mode for taking shots with each of the phone’s three cameras, which are then combined into a single superior image.

Another fun mode, Pop-out Picture, will frame a photo or video taken through the normal lens within the matching image taken with the wide-angle. The effect can be quite striking. And Film Effect can apply nine different movie textures to an image.

The general-use camera focuses automatically very fast, displaying the auto-focus points on the screen just like a DSLR camera.

Meanwhile the 8MP front camera has a “display flash” function that’s useful when taking selfies in dim surroundings.

You can get the G5 from TG Fone for Bt21,900.

 

Key Specs

- Operating system: Android 6.0 Marshmallow

- Network: 4G LTE: 700, 800, 850, 900, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2300, 2600MHz / 3G UMTS: 850, 900, 1900, 2100MHz / 2G GSM: 850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz

- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / USB Type-C / NFC / Bluetooth 4.2

- Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 Processor

- Display: 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560x1440 / 554ppi)

- Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM

- Storage: 32GB UFS ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)

- Camera: Rear standard 16MP, wide 8MP, front 8MP

- Battery: 2,800mAh, removable

- Size: 149.4x73.9x7.7mm

- Weight: 159 grams