Smartphone war: Can LG make a comeback with G2?

Touted as a counter to HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4, LG G2's display and camera are are its major USPs. However, the camera button placement could be a major put off, writes Meenal Singh.

LG G2 has been officially launched in India recently. This much-talked about device comes at a price of Rs 41,500 for the 16GB variant and Rs 43,500 for the 32GB variant. The device is available with a free QuickWindow case alongside a free offering of 50GB Box of cloud storage - for life.

Body and display

The LG G2 comes loaded with a 5.2-inch full HD screen with a resolution 1080 x 1920 with and 423ppi pixel density. This multi-touch device sports Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection technology to ensure it remains scratch resistant. It runs on 2.26GHz Qualcomm’s quad-core Krait 400 Snapdragon 800 processor and presents itself with 2 GB RAM plus two storage options of 16 and 32GB, respectively.

As mentioned earlier, the price varies based on the variant chosen.

Compact in size, it fits well in hand and is touted to be a counter to HTC One and Samsung's Galaxy S4. It possesses a similar design to the S4. The top edge of this device is clear with no buttons or controls and the bottom edge provides the user with a 3.5mm headset jack, micro-USB port, speaker, and microphone.

The G2 weighs around 143 grams and sports 138.5 x 70.9 x 8.9mm dimensions. It comes encased in a glossy plastic rear cover.

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Design

The volume control and power buttons have been placed under the rear camera module. Though it may be a bit uncomfortable searching for the buttons, the company says, these have been so placed, for the users' fingers would invariably rest there when the phone is being held in hand.

We have to wait and watch for user opinions before passing any judgement. Overall, the body of LG G2 boasts of an attractive look and neat design.

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Interface

LG G2 comes with Android 4.2.2 widgets and five home screens to customise with a few of these widgets wherein, you can access short cuts to the phone, messages, camera, and more functions from the lock screen itself.

The QSlide feature is an exclusive LG multitasking handset feature that aids you to run two apps simultaneously.

One feature shrinks while you are using the second app and you can pull it up after finishing the second app. Though it sounds nice, it may not be of much use on a regular basis.

The QSlide feature can be accessed by pulling the notification tray wherein you can see your notifications and other system shortcuts. You can easily access Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and adjust the brightness too. To download more apps, you could set up your Gmail account and start downloading books, videos, games, and anything that you want from the Google Play Store.

It is easy to navigate and swipe left to right. The delete apps button can also be seen when you tap the gear button in the apps screen by creating folders or rearranging them.

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Performance

The performance of LG G2 is better than expected, thanks to the powerful memory and chipset. Apps open quickly and there are very fewer chances of the system getting stuck or crashing.

Even while multi-tasking, the system performs smooth and fast without any issues.

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Battery life

LG G2 runs on Android Jelly Bean 4.2.2 OS supported by a formidable 3000mAh battery. It holds on its own with relatively heavy work of e-mails, networking, phone calls, messaging, gaming, and many other functions.

Though it is yet to be used for a few days to know its actual life, it looks impressive.

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Camera

LG G2 carries a 13.0MP rear camera with optical image stabilisation. This camera comes good while shooting pictures or videos.

It performs well in low light conditions thus giving you the best of clarity and colour. When you put on the camera, everything goes to auto by default. You can tap to focus on any particular image or it gets clustered to the centre automatically.

There are different types of scenes to choose from like normal, HDR, Panorama, and more. You also have portraits, landscape, sunset, night, etc. The settings offer many customised options.

Photos clicked are natural, sharp, and clear. You will not have any complaint about the camera based on what we normally expect from smartphones. The still images are excellent. Colour and video quality too are very good though the sound quality could have been better.

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Conclusion

We can conclude by saying that LG has made a good come back with its LG G2 smartphone. The display and the camera are the USPs of the device while the button placement could be the major drawback. The smartphone has all the qualities that are required of a smartphone.

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