Yeah, I was surprised by how much hate this phone has been getting. Its really nice, though there are a couple of things that would bug me, overall it seems solid.
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Phones LG G5
- Thread starter jamezr
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I've decided to trial the G5 after being offered one for £300 which is about what I think it's worth (won't lose out if I sell it). Interested to see how the camera performs as it seems to be well-received and the wide angle second camera is a useful option.
I've no interest in the friends, even a second battery as I think Quickcharge is enough for me these days. So my opinions will be based on it being a £300 device. I'm just hoping the join at the bottom is reasonably well-aligned and finished unlike the demo models I saw.
I've no interest in the friends, even a second battery as I think Quickcharge is enough for me these days. So my opinions will be based on it being a £300 device. I'm just hoping the join at the bottom is reasonably well-aligned and finished unlike the demo models I saw.
I was offered one for €450 which was tempting, will look forward to your feedback on it
Received mine yesterday so these are some initial thoughts:
Solid build, if a bit fake-metal. Not keen on the potential for issues with the friends, especially dust and dirt getting inside. However, due to the protruding camera, I've already cased it with Ringke Slim. This also prevents the battery from ever loosening and dirt.
Screen is nice. The blacks seem darker than usual for an IPS display. Always on is now always off as I don't really need that function. Not tested sound to any great degree yet but it's not crucial to me.
The camera is very nice and gets good results. I need to test it further on my fast-moving five year-old to confirm it's as sharp as the SE and ultra-reliable. That'll have to wait until he's free from chicken pox I will definitely make use of the wide angle second shooter - that much is certain.
The skin is meh... Just not necessary really. Sure there are a few tweaks but overall I would prefer stock or near-stock. A theme would be beneficial I feel. At least it doesn't seem to affect performance which is top notch.
Battery remains to be seen but I don't envisage issues with 2,800mAh and as a light-medium user it'll easily last me a day barring a hardware fault. QC3 is already an obvious boon if needed in emergency.
More to come in a few days but, for £300 I'm leaning to keeping it. Wouldn't spend more not invest in friends, though.
Solid build, if a bit fake-metal. Not keen on the potential for issues with the friends, especially dust and dirt getting inside. However, due to the protruding camera, I've already cased it with Ringke Slim. This also prevents the battery from ever loosening and dirt.
Screen is nice. The blacks seem darker than usual for an IPS display. Always on is now always off as I don't really need that function. Not tested sound to any great degree yet but it's not crucial to me.
The camera is very nice and gets good results. I need to test it further on my fast-moving five year-old to confirm it's as sharp as the SE and ultra-reliable. That'll have to wait until he's free from chicken pox
I will definitely make use of the wide angle second shooter - that much is certain.The skin is meh... Just not necessary really. Sure there are a few tweaks but overall I would prefer stock or near-stock. A theme would be beneficial I feel. At least it doesn't seem to affect performance which is top notch.
Battery remains to be seen but I don't envisage issues with 2,800mAh and as a light-medium user it'll easily last me a day barring a hardware fault. QC3 is already an obvious boon if needed in emergency.
More to come in a few days but, for £300 I'm leaning to keeping it. Wouldn't spend more not invest in friends, though.
Thanks for your thoughts! Sorry to hear about your sonReceived mine yesterday so these are some initial thoughts:
Solid build, if a bit fake-metal. Not keen on the potential for issues with the friends, especially dust and dirt getting inside. However, due to the protruding camera, I've already cased it with Ringke Slim. This also prevents the battery from ever loosening and dirt.
Screen is nice. The blacks seem darker than usual for an IPS display. Always on is now always off as I don't really need that function. Not tested sound to any great degree yet but it's not crucial to me.
The camera is very nice and gets good results. I need to test it further on my fast-moving five year-old to confirm it's as sharp as the SE and ultra-reliable. That'll have to wait until he's free from chicken pox
The skin is meh... Just not necessary really. Sure there are a few tweaks but overall I would prefer stock or near-stock. A theme would be beneficial I feel. At least it doesn't seem to affect performance which is top notch.
Battery remains to be seen but I don't envisage issues with 2,800mAh and as a light-medium user it'll easily last me a day barring a hardware fault. QC3 is already an obvious boon if needed in emergency.
More to come in a few days but, for £300 I'm leaning to keeping it. Wouldn't spend more not invest in friends, though.
Hate it when the little ones are sick. But at least he won't get chicken pox as an adult.
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Thanks - yep, that's one thing good thing about them striking now. Apparently there are eight kids in his class off school so not much chance of him avoiding them.Thanks for your thoughts! Sorry to hear about your son
Forgot to say that G5 is the first phone I've tried with the rear finger scanner. It works well in terms of accuracy and not accidentally smudging the camera lense but I probably prefer the front ones for convenience when the phone is lying flat. There's still knock code + pattern though, which is something.
The S7, S7e, iPhone, and M10 will usually beat it on build and design (subjective), which is a big advantage when first impressions are concerned. I'm convinced that, if taken in isolation, it's a very decent phone that ticks most boxes for most people. As others have said, Android flagships are more well-rounded with minimal differences between them technically this year and it's hard to make a bad choice.
At £300-350, LG would compete better against the others which are £450-500+ and they might be able to sell more Friends as augmented purchases. I've had the S7, 6S, and felt they were a bit toppy... Same for the M10... I like it but just not at £500+ (especially when HTC are selling for less than £350 in Asian markets).
Last year was a wash with the SD810 (S6/N5 aside) but with the 820, all-round better cameras, and the return of HTC, we're spoilt for choice a bit.
Just picked up a brand new T-Mobile G5 yesterday, traded in my Note 5, using the JoD program, I still have 1 more "Jump" available for this year. Might not have been the smartest switching of phones, but I was getting bored of the Note 5, and wanted to try something fresh and different, never having owned an LG phone before. The Note 5 was a nice phone, I was just done with it.
Was between the HTC 10 or LG G5, and the G5 had a ton of promos going for it, and was cheaper, than the 10.
First impressions;
- It really is a better looking phone than pictures do it justice, looks pretty sleek and very modern. It surprised me actually, thought it would be an ugly phone, but it really is unique and cool looking.
- Overall size is very nice, smaller than the Note 5, like an in-between size, not a small 4.7" iPhone 6S size, but also not a large phablet size either, the G5 is a good middle ground size. Feels good in the hand, rests comfortably in the hand, and lays flat on a table, which I like, not a fan of the canoe type phone, that rock back and forth when on the desk.
- Screen is a bit dimmer in brightness, doesn't seem to get as bright as I would like. Even inside the Office on auto, it's too dim, and if I manually adjust, it needs to be set to like 70%, whereas the Note 5 never needed to be set that high in the office, it was more like 50% at most. Outdoors both the Note 5 and G5 are still hard to see in the sunlight. Overall the screen seems ok to me, not bad, but not great either.
- Speed, this thing flies, very smooth, very fluid, really no issue with performance.
- Battery ? Too early to say, but hot damn the Quick Charge 3.0 is insanely fast. Just plug it in for like 20 minutes, and I get 50% charged, it's shockingly fast at how much battery % gets charged up so quick.
- I rooted the phone, and running Xposed with some battery friendly mods, and all AdAway type stuff. As well as a debloating zip to wipe all the bloat and crap, and Titanium Backup to delete a lot of stock LG crap.
- LG UI isn't that bad, but I run Nova launcher, and a ton of stock Google apps, so I don't see a lot of the stock LG stuff, but for what it is, the LG UI is just fine, no issues with it whatsoever.
So overall this seems to be a nice phone, but I do wish the screen was brighter and of higher quality, and we'll see about battery life ? The build quality seems very good, and I do like the unique style of the phone. But to be honest, since I do have 1 more "Jump" left this year through T-Mobile, I will save that for either the Note 6 or possibly the HTC Nexus line, rumored to be back with carriers this year. No sense wasting a "Jump" on the HTC 10 or S7 Edge right now, may as well wait till Aug / Sept see those upcoming phones first. The S7 Edge does look great, but the T-Mobile version is locked down, zero rooting, which is a deal breaker for me.
Was between the HTC 10 or LG G5, and the G5 had a ton of promos going for it, and was cheaper, than the 10.
First impressions;
- It really is a better looking phone than pictures do it justice, looks pretty sleek and very modern. It surprised me actually, thought it would be an ugly phone, but it really is unique and cool looking.
- Overall size is very nice, smaller than the Note 5, like an in-between size, not a small 4.7" iPhone 6S size, but also not a large phablet size either, the G5 is a good middle ground size. Feels good in the hand, rests comfortably in the hand, and lays flat on a table, which I like, not a fan of the canoe type phone, that rock back and forth when on the desk.
- Screen is a bit dimmer in brightness, doesn't seem to get as bright as I would like. Even inside the Office on auto, it's too dim, and if I manually adjust, it needs to be set to like 70%, whereas the Note 5 never needed to be set that high in the office, it was more like 50% at most. Outdoors both the Note 5 and G5 are still hard to see in the sunlight. Overall the screen seems ok to me, not bad, but not great either.
- Speed, this thing flies, very smooth, very fluid, really no issue with performance.
- Battery ? Too early to say, but hot damn the Quick Charge 3.0 is insanely fast. Just plug it in for like 20 minutes, and I get 50% charged, it's shockingly fast at how much battery % gets charged up so quick.
- I rooted the phone, and running Xposed with some battery friendly mods, and all AdAway type stuff. As well as a debloating zip to wipe all the bloat and crap, and Titanium Backup to delete a lot of stock LG crap.
- LG UI isn't that bad, but I run Nova launcher, and a ton of stock Google apps, so I don't see a lot of the stock LG stuff, but for what it is, the LG UI is just fine, no issues with it whatsoever.
So overall this seems to be a nice phone, but I do wish the screen was brighter and of higher quality, and we'll see about battery life ? The build quality seems very good, and I do like the unique style of the phone. But to be honest, since I do have 1 more "Jump" left this year through T-Mobile, I will save that for either the Note 6 or possibly the HTC Nexus line, rumored to be back with carriers this year. No sense wasting a "Jump" on the HTC 10 or S7 Edge right now, may as well wait till Aug / Sept see those upcoming phones first. The S7 Edge does look great, but the T-Mobile version is locked down, zero rooting, which is a deal breaker for me.
Well I decided to let mine go. Unfortunately, even with me being a light-medium user, the battery was a major let down. And I have no interest in buying and carrying a spare.
I could get 4 to 4.5 hours SOT on wifi (some with a real dim display in the evenings) but on 4G it struggled to get 3 hours. Web browsing and taking photos were a real drainer. Probably because I had to ramp the brightness up to make it more legible outside taking pictures. In direct sun it struggled.
Bit of a shame as it's an otherwise nice phone. Sure I could do without the skin but the modular idea compromised the battery capacity too much. A G5 with 3,500mAh would have been a real challenger.
I could get 4 to 4.5 hours SOT on wifi (some with a real dim display in the evenings) but on 4G it struggled to get 3 hours. Web browsing and taking photos were a real drainer. Probably because I had to ramp the brightness up to make it more legible outside taking pictures. In direct sun it struggled.
Bit of a shame as it's an otherwise nice phone. Sure I could do without the skin but the modular idea compromised the battery capacity too much. A G5 with 3,500mAh would have been a real challenger.
So what phone will you switch too ? HTC 10 ?
I have my new G5 rooted and running the FluenceSEVEN patch, with Xposed apps like Amplify and Greenify to help battery stamina, as well as deleted the carrier IQ crap and debloated a lot of LG apps known for battery draining, and I dont have Facebook installed, etc... I do use auto brightness.
So I did some pretty extreme debloating, and Xposed stuff to really conserve the battery.
Right now, unplugged the phone off the charger at 6:30am and it is 2:30pm, and I have been on the 4G network all day, no WiFi, my battery stats showing 75% left, Screen On time of 1h 53m, with Screen taking up 44%, and then Phone Idle next on the list at 15%.
Maybe I hit the lottery jackpot for having blessed great hardware and battery, but I am SUPER impressed with my battery life today, my first full workday using this phone. Mostly on 4G network, only being on WiFi now for a couple of hours.
Battery @ 39% left, been off the charger since 6:30am it is now 9:00pm, and Screen taking up the most use with 47%, and with a Time on 4h 9m, so far. Next on the list is phone idle at 13%.
Battery @ 39% left, been off the charger since 6:30am it is now 9:00pm, and Screen taking up the most use with 47%, and with a Time on 4h 9m, so far. Next on the list is phone idle at 13%.
Sounds like you have it tweaked to perfection. I think my rooting days are over, especially on still-in-warranty phones. My fundamental requirements are a reliable camera coupled with decent battery life. Chrome on the G5 on 4G really drained the battery. I didn't even get chance to try Bluetooth with a smart watch (which I usually go with).
The SE is my daily whilst I wait for either the M10 to drop a bit or I may chance the OP3. Further out it's the HTC Nexus and Note 6/7.
I do have a Nexus 6 to mess around with for my Android fix but aside from in-car navigation, I don't rely on it too much. Plus, it's monstrously sized.
After having a G5 it's probably underrated and up against stiff competition. Close to excellence and, as you've proved, it can probably be just that if one is prepared to root and tweak.
Wow that's great @Tig Bitties ! I think the battery is solid on it's own but to eek out an extra 15-20% would be great. Need to root soon. I'm hoping that after i root the battery drainage on "Phone Idle" will improve. Sometimes the battery drainage is similar to the Screen On time.
Today had pretty heavy usage. Tons of phone calls. GPS Navigation to two different job sites. Lots of texts, and surfing Chrome. Some YouTube.
Unplugged at 6:30am, it is now 8:30pm. Battery life down to 31% left, with 4h 52m Screen Time on, so far.
I'd say that's pretty darn good battery life so far ?
Unplugged at 6:30am, it is now 8:30pm. Battery life down to 31% left, with 4h 52m Screen Time on, so far.
I'd say that's pretty darn good battery life so far ?
That's very good. What brightness settings are you utilising and do you have google location history turned on or off ?
It's sadly a case however that most of us just don't have the experience or more important 'confidence' to go through the amount of customising and modifications which you make to your device with ROMs and kernels.
For example although I read how to change my HTC 10 from one region to another and flash a firmware etc.. all the stuff like s-on/s-off, Cid, mid, custom recovery, tamper flags and such act as massive barriers for me that I am too nervous to approach let alone attempt to climb over as much as I would like to.
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I have auto brightness enabled most time. And have turned off Location services and GPS always off, only used when running Navigation of course.
As far as root and ROM's, they really aren't as scary as they seem, really. I'm no computer programmer, and don't know software stuff, I'm just a regular guy, and follow the YouTube videos and guides on XDA. Guys like Max Lee / Zedomax make such amazing tutorials to watch, as well as a website with step by step instructions it's so dumbed down and easy to follow. I've done that on every phone and not screwed one up, and I am not a IT guy whatsoever.
My only gripes or issues with the G5 are;
- Screen / Display seems average at best, and very dim, even on auto brightness. And if I manually set it brighter it looks washed out. It seems to be on par with my old OnePlus One screen, which was no award winner.
It's the viewing angles that kill this display, looking at it from a slight angle and it's very dim and dark looking, but head on it's much brighter. But still, not digging this display.
- Build quality feels weird, doesn't feel high end like and HTC One or iPhone. And there are some shaky wiggle sounds with this phone. The G5 doesn't feel cheap no, but certainly not high end build quality either.
- Still having hard time used to no power button on the side, and I tap the bottom of the phone thinking there's a home button.
That's it for now.
- Screen / Display seems average at best, and very dim, even on auto brightness. And if I manually set it brighter it looks washed out. It seems to be on par with my old OnePlus One screen, which was no award winner.
It's the viewing angles that kill this display, looking at it from a slight angle and it's very dim and dark looking, but head on it's much brighter. But still, not digging this display.
- Build quality feels weird, doesn't feel high end like and HTC One or iPhone. And there are some shaky wiggle sounds with this phone. The G5 doesn't feel cheap no, but certainly not high end build quality either.
- Still having hard time used to no power button on the side, and I tap the bottom of the phone thinking there's a home button.
That's it for now.
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One of the top reasons I returned the G5 for the HTC 10;
- Screen: The display was very dim and poor quality to me. The G5's displays always seems very low in brightness, with terrible viewing angles. Even on XDA there were lots of threads asking how to turn up the brightness, and make the screen better. And when you manually cranked it up to like 75% + it looked too bright in a bad way, meaning washed out and just not right. And outdoor visibility was pretty poor on a sunny day.
- Smoothness / Lag: Even with the G5 rooted with some extra performance tweaks, I don't know how to put it, but there were some very fine lag or hiccups just once in a while throughout settings, or pulling down the notification shade, or the lock screen. Only seemed to be there like 10% of the time, but once in a while it did slow down for like 1/2 a second or hiccup in basic system tasks. Whereas the HTC 10, not even rooted or ROM'd yet, just stock out of the box, somehow feels way smoother already, just fluid like flowing water, never once a slowdown yet
- Screen: The display was very dim and poor quality to me. The G5's displays always seems very low in brightness, with terrible viewing angles. Even on XDA there were lots of threads asking how to turn up the brightness, and make the screen better. And when you manually cranked it up to like 75% + it looked too bright in a bad way, meaning washed out and just not right. And outdoor visibility was pretty poor on a sunny day.
- Smoothness / Lag: Even with the G5 rooted with some extra performance tweaks, I don't know how to put it, but there were some very fine lag or hiccups just once in a while throughout settings, or pulling down the notification shade, or the lock screen. Only seemed to be there like 10% of the time, but once in a while it did slow down for like 1/2 a second or hiccup in basic system tasks. Whereas the HTC 10, not even rooted or ROM'd yet, just stock out of the box, somehow feels way smoother already, just fluid like flowing water, never once a slowdown yet
I'll let you be the guinea pig for rooting and such with the 10 and you never know I may get brave at some point
how's the lag in (optimized rooted) G5 compared to (optimized rooted) Note 5 in your opinion?
I would say the Note 5, rooted and ROM'd like I had, was a tad bit smoother overall, than the G5. A ROM'd Note 5 was a beast, I was just getting a little tired of the size, even though for a 5.7" screen device, it's as compact as you can get for a phablet, I just need a size downgrade for a bit, and choose the HTC 10.
The G5 was a nice feeling phone, but the dim screen was a deal breaker, just couldn't get used to the low brightness, and terrible viewing angles of the display. For LG being a display company, making the best OLED TV's in the market, it shocks me their phones use such piss poor screen tech. Put that OLED tech onto the phones too, and they could rival Samsung's.
The HTC 10's screen is light years ahead of the G5, just way nicer, it's much brighter, has great viewing angles, more vivid, overall night and day better on the HTC.