LG’s latest, and slightly unconventional phone received lackluster applause after it was announced. However, LG’s G2 may actually be one of the best Android devices to come out this year.
For years, LG had been at the front of the phone market with hits like the En-V, but the company has since become less popular in the smartphone market due to powerhouses like Apple and Samsung taking over. In an attempt to break out into the spotlight once again, LG came up with the G2. The G2 is similar in many ways to a traditional Android smartphone but its button placement is far from usual.
Instead of conforming to the normal smartphone design, LG decided to put the G2’s main buttons on the back of the device, instead of on the front or side.
Buy the LG G2 HERE
LG left no stone unturned when it came to specs. The G2 is an absolute powerhouse and can handle just about anything that you can imagine. First of all, the G2’s screen is beautiful and one of the best that I have seen in the past six months. The 5.2-inch 1920×1080 display is extremely bright and is amazingly accurate when it comes to color reproduction. Watching movies or playing games on the G2 is great just with the display and even more so when you throw in its powerful CPU and numerous other features.
The G2 is running a quad-core 2.3 GHz Snapdragon 800 processor which allows pretty much anything from the Google Play store to run without any issues. With such a high-end CPU, it was surprising that the G2’s camera app was actually a bit laggy and a pain to use when trying to capture photos.
Outside of the CPU, the G2 is fairly similar to other Android devices currently on the market, with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of Memory. One of the slightly annoying things about the G2 is that it lacks a MicroSD slot meaning that you are stuck with whatever storage you start off with.
When it comes to bloatware, the phone is not as bas as some that we have seen but there are quite a few pre-installed apps. For the most part, these apps are not “in the way” but on some versions of the G2, there are as many as 60 apps that come with the phone.
Buy the LG G2 HERE
LG really focussed on the back buttons which can be used when taking a picture, turning on the phone, or adjusting the volume. Many people (including myself) thought that the button placement was a bit silly, but after using the G2 for a while, I actually grew to like them. Although I do not prefer the back buttons more than if they were on the side of the phone, the placement is not annoying by any means.
Lastly, the G2’s battery life was superb. By no means is the battery itself significantly larger than the ones you would fine on the HTC One or Galaxy S4, but when it comes to real world use, I was able to use the G2 for nearly 20 hours. A lot of the time, I would use the phone for two days straight before plugging it in. Battery life will vary depending on how much you use your phone, but with consistent web browsing, I saw no issues with the G2’s battery life.
Whether or not you should pick up the G2 over another Android phone really comes down to how nice of a screen you need and whether or not the back buttons are something that interest you. For me, the G2 is one of the best phones to come out this year, especially since the 1080p screen made for great video playback. However, if you prefer smaller phones or are not interested in the button placement, then there are other, more traditional Android phone to choose from.
Rating: 8.5/10