Review: LG G2

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

LG's no slouch in the smartphone department. Last year's LG Optimus G was a powerful and uniquely designed handset that shared a lot of outstanding features with its sibling, the highly popular Google Nexus 4. For 2013, LG's dropped the Optimus monicker and simply gone with LG G2, which at first glance vaguely embraces the familiar look and feel of the products of its rival smartphone maker.

The LG Optimus G may have been unfairly under appreciated. It was powerful, capable and fairly innovative but it didn't click with the masses despite being somewhat unique with its glass construction and holographic finish.

The LG G2, which comes to Rogers, TELUS, Bell, Videotron, SaskTel and Wind in Canada,  looks remarkably like a Samsung Galaxy S4. It is almost as if LG is conceding design to a look and feel that's familiar and popular with many users. While it might be easy to confuse LG's new flagship for Samsung's at first glance, holding the LG G2 in one's hand however reveals it is something entirely different.

Like with recent LG smartphones, the LG G2 is completely sealed in as a result it doesn't feel the least bit flimsy. The rounded corners and contoured shape feel good in the hand and the use of thin bezels give users an unparalleled amount of screen real estate in a relatively compact size.

The display is 5.2-inches and encroaches into phablet territory, but it is designed in such as way that it doesn't feel as massive as other large smartphone (it does look amazing though). The zero bezel approach is appreciated and something I wish more smartphone and tablet makers adopt. Even the TV manufacturers are doing this to come out with sleeker sets.

Another feature unique to the LG G2 is that the power and volume keys are located in the rear of the phone. While this looks, and feels, weird at first - it makes some degree of sense.  This means easy access regardless of whether you're left or right handed and a more seamless and bump-free profile as the rest of the phone is devoid of buttons.

The focus on elegance and refinement isn't just skin deep. LG's packed the G2 with a full menu of what it believes to be a host useful features. Such as a knock-on gesture that wakes the screen or shuts it down with two simple taps. The Plug and Pop feature that brings up various audio options once you plug in earphones. 

The LG G2 also offers some unique features with HD Sound that can play back deliciously detailed high quality audio files. As LG explains, "G2 delivers high quality audio — in both recording and listening — without distortion for Studio Master files, supporting 24-bit, 192 kHz Hi-Fi playback for FLAC and WAV files. Additionally, G2 features multi-mic recording with advanced noise cancellation." This is something new and particular to the LG G2.

We also enjoyed playing with the Audio Zoom feature,  that allows you to zoom in your subject while recording video. Afterwards, you can hear it more clearly during playback. Like LG explains, "his unique feature uses three stereo mikes, which amplify sound from the specified angle and deemphasize the surrounding noise, so you can zoom in on the sounds you want to hear, and tune out those you don’t."

Even higher-end video cameras don't have this feature and it does work although your mileage will vary depending on ambient noise.

The 13-megapixel camera is just okay. There are more settings and features now and while you'll be able to take some great shots in most conditions, the camera hardware and photo quality just doesn't stand out compared to some of the offerings we're getting in today's other smartphone.

Phone performance is above average.  Call quality and volume is great and once you get used to having the volume and power controls in the rear, it is easy enough to adjust (it does pose a bit of an issue when you return to your regular phone).

The battery life on the LG G2 is simply, unquestionably, amazing. Even after putting it through a barrage of tests and using it for email and as a WiFi hotspot, I found that it lasted me almost two days on a single charge. It appeared to have even better battery life than the Moto X, which is currently the celebrated miser on battery life in the Android space. Credit this to the LG G2’s 3,000 mAh SiO+ battery which does a respectable job when you consider the size of the screen it has to power.

LG's user interface and overlay hasn't changed dramatically from what we saw in last year's Optimus G. I think that's unfortunate.

I find the wallpapers, actions and some of the screens and icons look kind of corny and chidlsh. Almost like they were lazily ported from a three year old feature phone and dumped into this flagship device. I think the LG G2 deserves better. While the hardware does feel vastly more modern and rather businesslike, the user interface sometimes just feels misplaced. Too touchy-feely to the point of being a distraction.

Thankfully you can change these settings to reflect a more serious look and feel, but not by much. If I owned the LG G2, i'd likely install a third party launcher.

That said, performance on the LG G2 is quite breathtaking. The 2.26GHz quad core  Qualcomm Snapdragon processor is the apex predator of mobile processors right now and boasts some vast improvements in managing multiple background tasks while distributing workloads between its four processor cores. 2GB of RAM helps manage everything nicely.

If LG has indeed been tasked to create the Nexus 5 as has been hinted by various leaks, I really do hope they build it on the LG G2's hardware. Pure Google (Jelly Bean or KitKat) running on this hardware and with that 5.2-inch screen would be simply amazing.

As for the LG G2, it is now the most powerful Android device you can buy in the market today. LG has focused on some key areas like that lavish 5.2-inch full-IPS display, the new rear volume rocker, a 13-Megapixel camera and the most powerful mobile processor we've seen to date. With this offering, LG has decided to stop playing second fiddle and is shooting for the top of the market. Now, whether or not the total package will entice users to go for the LG G2 as their chosen device, really remains to be seen.

Rating: 4 out of 5