LG G4 Android Smartphone Review - Emulation gaming, Manual Camera, Video Tests

The LG G4 is the latest flagship Android phone to hit the market, sporting a 16 megapixel camera with a 1.8 aperture.

Although the camera is the primary feature being touted by LG, it also has a gorgeous 5.5 inch QHD display, excellent performance, and decent overall battery life.

VIDEO INDEX:

00:02 - Hardware overview
00:42 - Web browsing demonstration
01:10 - Removal of back of phone for SD card / battery installation
02:34 - Reicast Dreamcast emulator demonstration
03:37 - Dolphin emulator demonstration
04:00 - 3DMark benchmark results
04:53 - Camera demonstration

08:37 - iPhone photo comparison
09:14 - RAW photo in photoshop
10:30 - Video stabilization problem
10:52 - Battery life discussion
11:30 - Call quality discussion
11:57 - LG UI thoughts and review conclusion

The G4's camera supports almost full manual control over its camera with the exception of aperture settings. But it does allow for shutter manual shutter speed (including long exposures shots as long as 30 seconds) as well as ISO and focus.

Images can output in RAW (DNG format) for editing on Photoshop and other applications. The RAW images have a lot of noise on them that is filtered out with the phone's software, so they'll take a lot of work to get as nice as the JPEG versions.

The big let-down on the camera is the video quality. There's no stabilization even at 1080p, so moving images are going to be far inferior than what can be taken with an iPhone 6 or 5s.

But on balance this is an excellent Android phone that's up to the level of other competing flagship phones.

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DISCLOSURE: LG sent this phone to the show for the purposes of this review.

[lgusamobile]

Hey for demonstrating the use of the G4's manual mode. Great vid!

[MartGameFails]

I have a few things to say:

First, great review your in depth covering of the camera was amazing.
Second, see if you can get your hands on a Galaxy S6, it currently has the best camera on any smartphone out there as of now, (I didn't even used to like Samsung until the S6). Source: Reviews.
Third, to me the best smartphone out there right now (balanced, not just in one area) is the Z2/Z3/Z3Compact, water resistant, amazing performance, amazing battery, great display, great camera (4k, 20.7MP, etc). Source: I had a Z3 Compact but gifted it to my brother.
Fourth, I currently own an HTC One M7 and it has the amazing speakers and from my point of view a better or equal camera than any iPhone(except the 6 plus because of OIS but still, my uncle owns a iPhone 6 and we compared) (not the M8, M9 though those weren't as good). Source: I own one :D ).

Nice vid. hope you can reply,

Cya.

[lyonkennedy]

Thanks so much Lon for posting this video. I debating between the G4 or the Galaxy S6.

[NefariousTribe]

How much internal storage is available to the end user out of the box?

[ruhooze]

Hey lon can you review the Acer Aspire V Nitro black edtion?

[MrBrymstond]

Lon, I love the technology! I've been a Samsung fan, but now they're steering away from the the whole idea that made android great... Now you can't add your own memory or replace the battery like Apple has, The two most important things I want are now removed and sure you can buy the phone with extra memory at a small phenomenal fee, but what happens when your battery will not take a charge anymore? I have a HTC EVO 4G LTE, you can add a sd card but they say the battery is fixed, but it's not, I had that battery out, the battery has a few wires and a mini molex connector, but had no luck buying another.... These new flagship devices can cost up upwards $1, 000, not exactly a throw away when you want to upgrade and give the older phone to a kid or grandchild. So I'm waiting on the Samsung Note 5 I hope... Isn't all of those adjustments for the camera part of the overlay from LG?

[MrSiano]

The G4 camera is much better than the iPhone camera, Apple fanboy.

[francob]

This video is funny when taking a picture on high res and auto on both iphone and sgs6 the picture quality is far superior on the s6 especially when you zoom in on the computer... Not the phone

[GlenfordR]

I found this review lacking, and while I don't take offence to the iPhone comparison, I did find it unnecessary. I would recommend comparing it to other Android smartphones.  I will agree with you on the iPhones hardware, they did put together some damn good pieces of hardware and produce the best balance smartphone.
I can't say the iPhone have the best camera, but it does better with what it has compared to other phones with better cameras. This seem to hold true for most of the iPhone components.

When doing reviews like this one can you go deeper into the hardware.
I will use windows phone as an example but it apply even more so to android phones.

Currently I can buy a Lumia 1520 for 600$ which comes with the standard Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. I can also buy a newer phone, the Lumina 640 XL for 140$ which comes with the standard Bluetooth Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. The differences at first glance appearing to be only in the screen PPI and CPU.

I can take my iPhone, my Galaxy S4 and Lumia 1520 to the other end of my property and the S4 is the first to drop its Wi-Fi signal, the Lumia 1520 struggles to keep its, but the iPhone beats them all. Is this antenna location or chipset? 
when I take all three phones into my room and close the door, the Lumina looses its signal, the S4 struggles to keep its signal but the iPhone holders a steady signal.

What I am trying to get at is weather their is something more to simply Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc.
Is the type of chip used for each components the key to a better overall phone? What chip are they? who is using them?
That 140$ Lumina phone, is it using the same chip for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. As the 600$ lumia? Is all that actually matters is the CPU and the screen PPI?
You can currently buy a cheap windows phone that runs its OS on a lesser CPU as Smoot as the most expensive windows phone with the best possible CPU. This does not seem to apply to my android phones, why?

[XtremeKillah]

i think the g4 beats the iphone 6 but not the 6s. Low light performance for the g4 is amazing

[zennyfrommoga]

The people here calling him a fanboy for liking the i6 camera better... well... you're just being fandroids. In stills, the image quality is mostly subjective, however, there is no doubt that the iPhone's camera had much better stability and overall the colors are a bit deeper to me. - From an android guy

[salvadorsevita]

I just made a quick video, jumped while walking and LG G4 OIS made its job.

[bodrulm]

The general consensus is that the LgG4 and S6 cameras are better than the iPhone 6/6+. Apple aren't the leading camera smartphone by any means

[tonyj]

i know i am years late, but i had bought this phone back in 2016, it was the worst phone i ever had, kept overheating and restarting randomly almost everyday, it stopped working the next day after the 1 year warranty

[hc]

Actually it performed bad on that GameCube emulator because the emulator itself is not that good to begin with

[chrisn]

LG G4 is a bad smartphone that breaks down after 3 ou 4 years.