The LG G5 and LG G5 SE are truly revolutionary smart mobile phones. They surprise with a modular design and amaze the imagination with a third digital camera mounted on the back of the case.

• Content
• Introduction
• Specifications
• Appearance
• Equipment
• Screen
• Camera
• Performance
• Communication options
• conclusions

Introduction

“Do not have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends,” as the well-known proverb says. It is unlikely that people in South Korea are well acquainted with Russian folk proverbs and sayings, but the appearance on the market of LG G5 and LG G5 SE smartphones makes us think otherwise. After all, the concept of new models is the ability to add the so-called "friends" (friends) - modules that expand the functionality of the smartphone. But how many “friends” are needed for complete happiness, it is up to each user to decide individually. The rest - further in our review.

Specifications of LG G5 and LG G5 SE

	LG G5	LG G5 SE
Display	IPS Quantum, 5.3”, 2560×1440	IPS Quantum, 5.3”, 2560×1440
Chipset / Graphics	Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 /	Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 /
RAM / ROM / Flash	4 GB / 32 GB / microSD	3 GB / 32 GB / microSD
cameras	front: 8 MP; rear: 16 MP + 8 MP	front: 8 MP; rear: 16 MP + 8 MP
Communications	WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2LE, USB Type-C, NFC, IrDA	WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2LE, USB Type-C, NFC, IrDA
FM	+	+
networks	2G, 3G, 4G	2G, 3G, 4G
Battery	2800 mAh	2800 mAh
OS		Android 6.0.1 + UX 5.0 shell
SIM	SIM+SIM/microSD	SIM+SIM/microSD
Internet	WAP, EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA	WAP, EDGE, GPRS, HSDPA
Dimensions	149.4×73.9×7.7mm	149.4×73.9×7.7 mm
Weight	159 g	156 g
Price (Yandex Market)	to the Russian market not officially supplied	RUB 42,990

Appearance

Compared to the LG G4, the LG G5 and LG G5 SE models received a smaller display - 5.3 inches versus 5.5 inches. The matte metallized body of the new products is very stylish in appearance, and smooth in terms of tactile sensations. In comparison with the same LG G4, the corners of the novelty are rounded, so they do not crash into the palm. The case is called metallized because a plastic coating is applied to the metal base (anodized aluminum). He, by the way, almost does not collect fingerprints. The 2.5D glass used in reality shows us a smooth curve, and when you slide your finger down to bring up the notification curtain of the operating system, you experience pure pleasure. On the left side, we found a volume rocker. The right end bears a plug, under which a combined slot is hidden - with a tray for two places: one is designed for installing nanoSIM, and the other for installing either a second nanoSIM or a microSD memory card. Included is a special key from the slot lock. The power button of the device has a built-in fingerprint scanner and it is located on the back right in the center. Above the button with the scanner, two cameras and an LED flash are placed at once. We’ll talk about why we needed a second rear camera… Of course, there is also a front camera, so the LG G5 and LG G5 SE have three cameras in total! The bottom end is equipped with a speaker, microphone and (attention!) USB Type-C port. Another surprise "traps" the user in the form of an inconspicuous button in the lower left side of the case. If you press it, then the battery pack will come out from the inside. Accordingly, this default module can be replaced by another. To date, there are several friends gadgets, but only 2 are inserted into the battery slot. These are LG Cam Plus - a module with an additional battery and mechanical camera control buttons, as well as LG Hi-Fi Plus - a module with a built-in digital-to-analog converter for audiophiles. The dimensions of the LG G5 and LG G5 SE are the same - 149.4 × 73.9 × 7.7 mm, but the latter is slightly lighter: 156 g versus 159 g.

This is LG G5

This is LG G5 SE

Equipment

The delivery set consists of a complete adapter, a USB Type A to USB Type C cable, a standard headset, paper documentation, and the smartphone itself.

The photo shows the LG G5 model, which is not supplied to the Russian market, outwardly both modifications of the smartphone are absolutely identical

Screen

The heroes of our review have a 5.3-inch IPS screen with 3D Arc curved glass and a really high resolution - 2560x1440 pixels. It is 0.2 inches smaller than the LG G4 screen. The pixel density is 554 ppi. Protection - glass Gorilla Glass 4. The screen, not words, is good: with wide viewing angles, high contrast and rich color reproduction, but it lacks brightness. On a fine sunny day, this is felt especially strongly. Although there is a special "daylight mode", which automatically measures the lighting parameters and instantly increases or decreases the brightness of the display.

Camera

No words, LG G5 and LG G5 SE surprised with the third camera on the back. It is 8 megapixel. It features a 135-degree lens to provide a wide viewing angle. Thanks to this, during shooting, you can capture much more space in the frame - almost twice as much as conventional smartphones allow. This is especially valuable when traveling, when you want to photograph a solid architectural structure in its entirety, but there is no way to move away from it.

The only drawback is that the wide-angle lens gives perspective distortion. As for the front camera, it is 8-megapixel (f / 2.4 aperture), equipped with a screen backlight and a “face enhancement” option for selfies. The main one is 16-megapixel with f/1.8 aperture. It is armed with laser autofocus, LED flash and optical stabilization. Focal length is 27.88mm (35mm full frame). Switching between cameras is easy - with one click on the corresponding icon on the screen in shooting mode.

Below you can see the original photos taken in various conditions by the cameras of the LG G5 and LG G5 SE, having formed an impression of the photo capabilities of the smartphone. Immediately, we note that the cameras of both modifications of the smartphone are absolutely identical.

To view a full-sized photo, right-click and select "open image"

Sound

Of course, one of the main attractions of the LG G5 and LG G5 SE is the removable LG Hi-Fi Plus module with B&O PLAY. That is, this Hi-Fi audio player was created in collaboration with the most famous player in the audio market - Bang & Olufsen. So there is no doubt that the LG G5 and LG G5 SE will appeal to the true connoisseurs of high-quality sound, because the 32-bit Hi-Fi digital-to-analog converter with oversampling technology (384 kHz/32 bits) reproduces high-definition sound. As for the operation of the main and conversational speakers, we cannot make any complaints about them - everything works perfectly. There is even an FM tuner with the ability to record broadcasts.

Performance

Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 820 chipset is installed inside the LG G5. This chipset is created using a 14nm FinFET (3D structure transistor) process and contains two high-performance cores clocked at 2.2 GHz and two less powerful cores clocked at 1 .6-1.7 GHz. The first cores will be useful for resource-intensive tasks or "heavy" toys, and the second ones - for less demanding processes. Complementing the picture is the Adreno 530 graphics controller with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 2.0 and the Vulcan API; IPS-processor Spectra for image processing; Hexagon 680 DSP digital signal processor and X12 LTE modem. The manufacturer claims that the Snapdragon 820 is twice as fast and also more energy efficient than the Snapdragon 810. There is a lot of RAM installed - 4 GB. Built-in memory even in excess - 32 GB. If there is not enough, then insert a MicroSD memory card into the slot and forget about the lack of space, filling the flash space with music, movies, photos, games and other content. Even the most demanding games will run and fly on the LG G5. Many open applications are also not a problem - the smartphone does not “freeze” from this. As for the LG G5 SE, the hardware is a little simpler here: Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 8-core 64-bit processor (4 ARM Cortex-A72 cores (1.8 GHz) + 4 ARM Cortex-A53 cores (1.4 GHz ), as well as 3 GB of RAM. The graphics subsystem is also slightly weaker - Adreno 510. And here are the results of our tests. In the Geekbench 3.4.1 benchmark, the result for one working core of the LG G5 was 2270 points, and for all four - 5281 points.

But in the 3DMark Sling Shot benchmark, using OpenGL ES 3.1, we got a result of 1988 points, which means literally the following - this smartphone is one of the most productive 3D graphics in the world at the moment. The test in Ice Storm Unlimited showed the same, where the smartphone scored 28964 points.

The results of measuring average FPS at a resolution of 2392x1440 also frankly pleased us - 57.9 in the "high quality" mode, 55.7 in the "ultra high quality" mode and 59.0 in the "high performance" mode. On such a smartphone, you can safely run all modern three-dimensional toys: they will start without lags and other tricks.

Comparative tests on the LG G5 SE are presented below. The performance of the LG G5 SE is expectedly lower compared to the LG G5, but overall it looks very decent.

Software and autonomy

Smartphones come to their owner already with a pre-installed Android 6.0.1 operating system. Of course, all fans of the mobile products of the South Korean giant know that in addition to Android, they will have a proprietary shell. This time it's Optimus UX 5.0. Among the innovations, we note the rejection of a separate application menu. The LG G5 and LG G5 SE install apps directly on the desktop, which evokes iPhone analogies. There was an option to manually adjust the grid for arranging applications on desktops: you can choose from three sizes: 4x4, 4x5 or 5x5. Even in the proprietary shell, you will no longer find annoying smart notifications. And the notification curtain itself “brightened”. The developer was not too lazy and even redrawn the icons. True, now it is impossible to remove or add icons to the quick access toolbar. But the Always On Display function remained. Information about notifications, date and time is displayed on the screen all the time, and you do not have to wake up the display every time. The battery has a decent capacity - 2800 mAh. In economy mode, both models will last the whole day. We note the possibility of fast charging Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 - charging from 0 to 100% in just one hour when using an authentic charger.

Communication options

LG G5 and LG G5 SE support one or two SIM-cards in GSM/GPRS/Edge, UMTS/HSDPA+ and LTE Cat.12 networks. You can access the Internet using a dual-band WiFi a/b/g/n/ac/ad module. There is also a Bluetooth 4.2 module. It is impossible not to mention NFC with an infrared port, the latter allows you to use your smartphone as a universal remote control for household appliances. But the smartphone is connected to a personal computer not through a MicroUSB port, but through a modern and high-speed USB Type-C. And every day it is easier to find such a port in modern computers. Navigation is supported in GPS (A-GPS), BeiDou and in the domestic satellite navigation system GLONASS. Finding satellites occurs in a matter of seconds. Many different sensors: accelerometer, proximity, gyroscope, illumination, compass, magnetic, fingerprint sensor.

conclusions

What can be said in the end? If someone complains about expensive modules for the LG G5 and LG G5 SE, then you don’t have to buy them. But it's nice to know that you have the opportunity to upgrade your mobile device to choose from: you can improve the audio unit, or you can improve the "camera" part of your smartphone. However, not only the modular design and the support of "friends" stand out new items. These models also have a third camera for wider capture of the surrounding world in the frame. In general, cameras are a strong point of smartphones. The hardware "stuffing" is beyond praise - there are powerful chipsets and a lot of RAM (3 or 4 GB). In addition, fast battery charging and microSD support will go. However, there is also the other side of the coin. So, the presence of a removable module still affects the strength of the structure at the point of attachment of the module. The brightness of the display, in our opinion, is insufficient, although this saves battery power. But overall, the LG G5 and LG G5 SE are truly innovative smartphones that oya t of your money.

We award these smartphones with our Editors' Choice Award for their combination of quality, innovation and superior design.

The company's new flagship with replaceable body parts

At the end of April, LG Electronics presented its mobile novelties on the Russian market and on the same day announced the opening of a pre-order for the LG G5 se smartphone. It is curious that in the current economic conditions, LG decided to start in Russia with a simplified version of the LG G5 se and only then bring the flagship LG G5 to the market. In fact, the difference between these two modifications is only in the type of processor and the amount of RAM, and in all other respects, the presented LG G5 se model is practically a copy of its older sister.

Key Features of LG G5 se (Model LG-H845)

• SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM8976), 8 cores: 4×1.8 GHz (ARM Cortex-A72) + 4×1.4 GHz (ARM Cortex-A53)
• GPU Adreno 510 @600 MHz
• Operating system Android 6.0
• Touch display IPS 5.3″, 2560 × 1440, 554 ppi
• Random access memory (RAM) 3 GB, internal memory 32 GB
• SIM cards: Nano-SIM (2 pcs.)
• Support for microSD memory cards up to 2 TB
• GSM networks 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• WCDMA 900/2100 MHz networks
• LTE networks FDD Band 3/7/20, TDD Band 38/40
• Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Concurrency
• DLNA, Miracast
• Bluetooth 4.2, NFC
• USB 2.0 Type C, OTG
• GPS/A-GPS, Glonass, BDS
• Direction, proximity, lighting sensors, accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer, magnetic compass, infrared transmitter, fingerprint reader
• FM radio, plug-ins
• Camera, two modules: 16 MP, f/1.8 and 8 MP, f/2.4; autofocus, LED flash
• Front camera 8 MP, f/2.0
• Battery 2800 mAh
• Quick Charge 3.0
• Dimensions 149×74×7.7 mm
• Weight 157 g

Since the hero of the review differs from the older LG G5 model only by a less powerful SoC, it is quite possible to outline the main competitors for the LG flagship:

	LG G5 se	LG G4	Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	Apple iPhone 6s Plus
Screen	5.3″ IPS, 2560×1440, 554ppi	5.5″ IPS 2560×1440, 534ppi	5.5″ Super AMOLED, curved on both sides, 2560×1440, 534 ppi	5.5″ IPS, 1920×1080, 401ppi
SoC (processor)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (4x Cortex-A72 @1.8GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @1.4GHz)	Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (2x Cortex-A57 @1.8GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @1.5GHz)	Samsung Exynos 8890 Octa (4x Mongoose @2.6GHz + 4x Cortex-A53 @1.6GHz)	Apple A9 (2 cores @1.8 GHz)
GPU	Adreno 510	Adreno 418	Mali-T880	Apple A9
Flash memory	32 GB	32 GB	32 GB	16/64/128 GB
Connectors	Micro-USB Type C (OTG capable), 3.5mm headset jack		Micro-USB (OTG capable), 3.5mm headset jack	Lightning dock connector, 3.5mm headset jack
Memory card support	microSD (up to 2TB)	microSD (up to 2TB)	microSD (up to 200 GB)	No
RAM	3 GB	3 GB	4 GB	2 GB
cameras	rear (16/8 MP; 4K video), front (8 MP)	rear (16 MP; video 4K), front (8 MP)		rear (12 MP; video 4K), front (5 MP)
LTE support	There is	There is	There is	There is
Battery capacity (mAh)	2800	3000	3600	2750
operating system	Google Android 6.0.1	Google Android 5.1	Google Android 6.0.1	Apple iOS 9.0 (upgradable to 9.2.1)
Dimensions (mm)*	149×74×7.7	149×76×9.8	151×73×7.7	158×78×7.3
Weight (g)	157	155	157	190
average price	T-13804120	T-12466715	T-13485518	T-12858631
Retail offers LG G5 se	L-13804120-10

Left - LG G5 se, right - LG G4

Appearance and usability

Since the described modification of the LG G5 se does not differ from the flagship G5 in terms of design, in this case we can talk about both models. The new flagship received a body that is surprisingly different from all previous models of the G line. If in the same G4 the back wall had an arched bend and noticeably narrowed towards the ends, then here the wall itself is flat, like the sidewalls. But there are no right angles either: all the elements have received small roundings, so that the body as a whole resembles pebbles turned from all sides.

Many complain that due to such a “simplification”, the new LG flagship has lost its individuality, the design has become ordinary and boring. Especially attractive handsome LG G5 se really can not be called. The smartphone does not look catchy and expensive, and, of course, it is noticeably inferior in terms of wow effect to its predecessor with its natural multi-colored leather covers.

The dimensions of the smartphone are quite standard. Its body is not record thin and not so small in size, the frame around the screen also has a quite standard width. The case is made entirely of plastic with a metallized coating.

There is no real metal here, and there are complaints about the quality of workmanship: a thin shiny bezel on the test sample had noticeably peeled off and peeled off in places, which is why the case immediately lost its attractiveness.

All surfaces have a matte hard coating and are virtually imperceptible to fingerprints. In dry hands, such a rough coating can be quite slippery.

The case of the new LG flagship is unusual, although we have already seen something similar in the HTC Legend and One V models. Here, too, the bottom cover is a removable element, the battery is hidden under it.

The modular structure of the novelty provides not only the replacement of a dead battery, but also the installation of additionally purchased digital camera modules or a Hi-Fi player in this place. All this, of course, is not included in the main package.

To remove the bottom cover on the left side face, there is a small button below, which is barely noticeable and does not protrude beyond the surface at all. However, handling it is quite simple: it is easily pressed inward, while the cover is detached and installed in place without any problems. This element is securely held on the body, no cracks are visible, there is no backlash, the assembly does not cause complaints.

The rest of the buttons on the case are also unusually located: earlier, LG had volume and power combined on the back side in a single block, and now you can find only one round power button there. The volume has moved to the left side, and all this is quite confusing at first. The side key is large enough and well groped blindly.

The round platform located on the back side of the power button with a fingerprint scanner inscribed in it, on the contrary, is groped rather poorly. It is not recessed inward and does not protrude outward; you can feel its presence only by the thin rim around it. The scanner inscribed in the platform clearly works out the recognition of fingertips, you can bring your finger at any angle.

The module with a dual camera, a laser rangefinder and a flash, located right next to it, also does not protrude beyond the surface. Thus, with a smartphone lying on a hard surface, you can work quite comfortably: it does not sway when you touch the screen.

The front panel is almost completely, with the exception of the lower removable segment, covered with a darkened protective glass, slightly curved at the top end. Proximity and light sensors, a front camera window, as well as an LED event indicator are habitually placed above the screen. The operation of the indicator is configured in the corresponding section of the menu.

There are no touch buttons at the bottom, they are virtual here, their order and number can be changed at your discretion in the settings section. This is quite an important point, since the rightmost button in LG smartphones is responsible for quickly changing the leading SIM card from which the call will be made. You can click on it by accident, changing the order of using SIM cards and without even noticing it, so it's very good that in this case it is possible to change the position of this button in a row and even completely hide it. In total, up to five different buttons can be displayed simultaneously in the bottom row, this block can be hidden and called back by swiping gestures across the screen.

SIM-cards are installed in the side slot on a plastic flexible sled, they can fit two Nano-SIM cards or replace one of them with a memory card. The slides are interesting: they are made of elastic plastic, so the cards are held firmly in them, there is no need to hold them with your fingers when sliding them into the slot of the case. To extract the sled, a metal key-clip is used as standard. Cards cannot be changed without rebooting the device, hot swapping is not supported.

The speaker is displayed on the lower end of the removable part. There is also a USB Type C connector and a spoken microphone. The Micro-USB connector here supports not only connecting third-party devices in USB OTG mode, but also charging them using the appropriate OTG adapter. That is, from the LG G5 se, you can charge, for example, another smartphone.

There are no less elements on the top end: there is a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a second auxiliary microphone for noise reduction, and an infrared transmitter for remote control emulation. Using the pre-installed familiar QuickRemote program, you can control home appliances from your smartphone: with an old Philips TV, for example, the program coped without problems.

There are no plugs on the connectors, there are no fasteners for a strap on the case either. The device did not receive protection from moisture and dust. As for the colors of the case, here the buyer is given a choice of three options: dark gray (“titanium”), pink, and also golden.

Screen

The smartphone is equipped with an IPS touch screen with a protective glass curved from one edge. It's still the same type of display LG itself calls IPS Quantum. The developers dubbed the display glass "3D Arc glass", but in fact it is completely flat here for the most part. The glass does not look convex, just one of its ends is slightly bent in accordance with the shape of the case itself.

The physical dimensions of the display are 66 × 117 mm, the diagonal is 5.3 inches. The screen resolution is 2560×1440, the dot density is 554 ppi. The frame around the screen is quite standard, and you definitely can’t call it narrow: a little less than 4 mm on the sides and 16 mm on top and bottom.

The display brightness is automatically adjusted based on a light sensor. There is also a proximity sensor that blocks the screen when you bring the smartphone to your ear. Multi-touch technology allows you to handle 10 simultaneous touches. You can activate the screen by double tapping on the glass. There is also an Always-on Display feature that allows you to keep abreast of the latest notifications, check the time, date and other information without activating the smartphone display. In standby mode, the backlight illuminates only a small part of the screen, conserving battery power, using only 0.8% of battery power per hour. Also, a special daylight mode Daylight Mode automatically detects the lighting parameters and independently increases or decreases the brightness of the display.

A detailed examination using measuring instruments was carried out by the editor of the "Monitors" and "Projectors and TV" sections Alexey Kudryavtsev. Here is his expert opinion on the screen of the test sample.

The front surface of the screen is made in the form of a glass plate with a mirror-smooth surface, resistant to scratches. Judging by the reflection of objects, the anti-glare properties of the screen are better than the screen of the Google Nexus 7 (2013) (hereinafter simply Nexus 7). For clarity, here is a photo in which a white surface is reflected in the off screens (on the left - Nexus 7, on the right - LG G5 se, then they can be distinguished by size):

The screen of the LG G5 se is noticeably darker (brightness in photos is 100 versus 115 for the Nexus 7). The ghosting of reflected objects in the LG G5 se screen is very weak, which indicates that there is no air gap between the screen layers (more specifically, between the outer glass and the LCD matrix surface) (OGS type screen - One Glass Solution). Due to the smaller number of borders (glass/air type) with very different refractive indices, such screens look better in conditions of strong external illumination, but their repair in case of cracked external glass is much more expensive, since the entire screen has to be changed. On the outer surface of the screen there is a special oleophobic (grease-repellent) coating (effective, even better than the Nexus 7), so fingerprints are removed much easier, and appear at a slower rate than in the case of ordinary glass.

With manual brightness control and with a white field displayed in full screen, the maximum brightness value was 430 cd / m², the minimum was 4.1 cd / m². The maximum brightness is quite high, which means that, given the excellent anti-glare properties of the screen, readability even on a sunny day outdoors should be at a good level. In complete darkness, the brightness can be reduced to a comfortable value. There is an automatic brightness control according to the light sensor (it is located to the left of the front speaker slot). In automatic mode, when the ambient light conditions change, the screen brightness both increases and decreases. The operation of this function depends on the position of the brightness adjustment slider, with which the user can try to set the desired brightness level under the current conditions. If you do not intervene, then in complete darkness, the automatic brightness adjustment function reduces the brightness to 4.1 cd / m² (too dark), in an artificially lit office (about 400 lux) sets it to 100 cd / m² (normal), in a very bright environment (corresponding to a clear day outdoors, but without direct sunlight - 20,000 lux or a little more) increases to 430 cd/m² (sufficient). For total darkness conditions, we adjusted the brightness to a comfortable level, while getting the following values ​​for the three lighting conditions mentioned above: 11, 180-240 (depending on whether the environment brightness is increased or decreased) and 430 cd / m². This option of automatic adjustment suits us. But that's not all, the device has a special mode daylight mode. Its function is that in very, very bright light (in fact, under direct sunlight), the screen brightness rises to a fantastic 835 cd / m², which will certainly ensure a good perception of information even in such conditions. True, we did not check how long a smartphone can work with such a screen brightness and what happens first: the device overheats, the battery runs out, or the LG G5 se prudently reduces the brightness to a normal level. At any brightness level, there is no significant backlight modulation, so there is no screen flicker.

This smartphone uses an IPS type matrix. Micrographs (if you look closely) show a typical IPS subpixel structure:

For comparison, you can see the gallery of microphotographs of screens used in mobile technology.

The screen has good viewing angles without significant color shift even at large deviations of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen and without inverting shades. For comparison, here are photographs in which the same images are displayed on the screens of LG G5 se and Nexus 7, while the brightness of the screens was initially set to about 200 cd / m², and the color balance on the camera was forcibly switched to 6500 K. A white field is perpendicular to the screens:

Note the good uniformity of brightness and color tone of the white field. And a test picture:

Saturation in the case of the LG G5 se is clearly too high. As additional tests have shown, this overestimation is achieved due to both wide coverage and a slight increase in color contrast. Also note that the red color has a slightly unnatural hue (visually it is noticeably better than in the photo). In addition, the images show that the contour sharpness is also increased to some extent. Apparently, this image processing is performed at a very low level programmatically, since its result is visible in all tested programs that display bitmap images. Now at an angle of about 45 degrees to the plane and to the side of the screen:

It can be seen that the colors did not change much on both screens, the contrast on the LG G5 se screen remained at a good level. And the white box:

The brightness at an angle at the screens decreased (at least five times, based on the difference in shutter speed), but in the case of the LG G5 se, the brightness decreased more. The black field, when deviated diagonally, is lightened weakly and acquires a slight bluish tint. The photos below demonstrate this (the brightness of the white areas in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the screens is approximately the same for the screens!):

And from another angle:

With a perpendicular view, the uniformity of the black field is average, since the brightness of black in places noticeably increases (in the photo below, we additionally increased the backlight brightness of the LG G5 se):

Contrast (approximately in the center of the screen) is high - about 1370:1. The response time for the black-white-black transition is 16 ms (8 ms on + 8 ms off). The transition between grayscale 25% and 75% (according to the numerical value of the color) and back in total takes 31 ms. The gamma curve constructed from 32 points with an equal interval according to the numerical value of the shade of gray did not reveal a blockage either in the highlights or in the shadows. The approximate exponent is 2.26, which is slightly higher than the standard value of 2.2. In this case, the real gamma curve noticeably deviates from the power dependence:

This smartphone has a non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the brightness of the backlight in accordance with the nature of the displayed image. Therefore, a number of tests - determining the contrast and response time, comparing black flare at angles - we carried out when displaying special patterns with a constant average brightness, and not monochromatic fields in full screen. Let us show the dependence of brightness (vertical axis) on time when switching from a black field to a white field in half of the screen alternately, while the average brightness does not change and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does not work (graph 50%/50% ). And the same dependence, but with alternate display of fields in full screen (chart 100% ), while the average brightness is already changing and dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness does its job:

In general, such a non-switchable brightness correction does nothing but harm, since a constant change in screen brightness can at least cause some discomfort, reduce the visibility of gradations in the shadows in the case of dark images and readability of the screen in bright light.

The color gamut is noticeably wider than sRGB:

Let's look at the spectra:

They are not typical, but we have already seen them in the case of the Sony Xperia Z2, the previous G-series smartphone and other devices. The manufacturer indicates that this screen uses quantum dot technology to expand the color gamut, presenting this fact as an indisputable advantage. This is a marketing ploy aimed at the layman who believes that more is always better. In fact, it’s not better, because as a result, the colors of images - drawings, photographs and films - oriented to the sRGB space (and the vast majority of them) have unnatural saturation. This is especially noticeable on recognizable shades, such as skin tones. The result is shown in the photo above.

The balance of shades on the gray scale is average, since the color temperature is noticeably higher than 6500 K, and the deviation from the black body spectrum (ΔE) is more than 10, which is considered a bad indicator even for a consumer device. It’s good that at the same time the color temperature and ΔE change little from shade to shade - this has a positive effect on the visual assessment of color balance. (The darkest areas of the gray scale can be ignored, since the color balance does not matter much there, and the measurement error of color characteristics at low brightness is large.)

Due to the wide gamut, the colors are unnatural, this is exacerbated by a slight increase in color contrast, distorted color balance, unswitchable peaking and dynamic backlight brightness adjustment. As a result, not so much remains of the original image - but it is bright, clear and colorful.

To summarize: the screen has a fairly high maximum brightness and has excellent anti-glare properties, so the device can be used outdoors without any problems even on a sunny summer day. In complete darkness, the brightness can be lowered to a comfortable level. The automatic brightness adjustment function works more or less adequately and allows the user to adjust its operation, while in direct sunlight the screen brightness rises to a very high value, which ensures good readability even in such conditions. The advantages of the screen include the presence of an effective oleophobic coating, high contrast, the absence of an air gap in the layers of the screen and flicker, as well as high black stability to the deviation of the gaze from the perpendicular to the screen plane. Among the significant shortcomings, we rank the low uniformity of the black field, the average color quality, as well as the non-switchable dynamic adjustment of the backlight brightness. Nevertheless, taking into account the importance of the characteristics for this particular class of devices, the screen quality can be considered high.

Sound

The sound of the LG G5 se is generally good, but this is not a solution for music lovers. At least in terms of the sound of the speaker: it is quite clear and loud, but still dominated by high frequencies. There is no need to wait for the width of the range, the backgrounds merge, the sound is bright, but the same type and too high, besides, not so crystal clear. In high-quality headphones, everything is better: bass appears, a lot can be adjusted with manual settings. Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) is supported, an advanced audio compression format that provides high quality sound for 7.1 channels. The sound is generally clear, the volume reserve is enough for any environment. There are no complaints about the sensitivity of the voice recorder and the operation of the noise reduction system. The smartphone can record telephone conversations from the line using regular means, which is convenient.

There are no particular complaints about the speaker and microphone either: the intonation and timbre of a familiar voice remain recognizable, there are practically no extraneous noises, and a light, barely noticeable background noise can always be attributed to the quality of the communication line itself. FM radio is present in the smartphone, it works as usual, only with headphones connected as an antenna.

And finally, it is worth noting that for lovers of high-quality sound, an option is provided to expand the musical capabilities of the device by connecting an additional module with a dedicated DAC, but this is a completely different story. In addition, additional modules have not yet arrived on the Russian market, so we are still talking about them.

Camera

The new LG flagship is equipped not with two in the usual sense, but with three cameras: two rear and one front. The front camera has an 8-megapixel sensor and an f / 2.0 lens without autofocus and its own flash. The flash here is replaced by the screen illumination around the viewfinder window, which is familiar to LG smartphones, which really illuminates the face of the shooter a little.

The front camera produces good quality pictures, bright, bright and sharp. The color rendition is a little embellished, but in general, for the level of a selfie, everything here is quite high quality. Shooting can be done by pressing the volume button, as well as using gestures and voice commands. There is a smile detection function. The user also has the ability to choose between direct and mirror images of the resulting selfie image (sometimes it is more important that the inscriptions on the photo remain readable).

The main camera is equipped with two modules: one has a resolution of 16 megapixels and a lens with an aperture of f / 1.8, the other is 8 megapixels and a wide-angle lens with a shooting angle of 135 ° and an aperture of f / 2.4. There is a laser rangefinder for autofocus and a very bright LED flash. Autofocus is quite fast, works clearly, does not make mistakes, there is optical stabilization. Shooting can be done in several ways, from voice commands and gestures to using the hardware volume key on the side of the case. By double pressing this button, by the way, you can activate the camera with subsequent shooting even from a sleeping state.

A separate wide-angle lens, as conceived by the creators, should help photograph panoramic landscapes, tall buildings or groups of people without having to move a long distance from the subject. Also, the combination of standard and wide-angle cameras allows you not only to quickly switch the shooting mode, but also to scale the image. Additional possibilities for using two cameras have also been invented - for example, combining pictures taken with a standard lens and a wide-angle lens to create the effect of "Photo in the frame".

Quick switching between the two modes is carried out by choosing from two icons with Christmas trees (one or three) that are constantly present on the screen.

The camera control menu hasn't changed much from the LG G4. It still unfolds into several translucent strips with icons right on top of the viewfinder picture. There are three shooting modes: simple, basic and manual. In simple mode, there are no settings at all; in manual mode, you can independently control focus, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation and white balance. It is possible to transfer camera control to third-party applications using the Camera2 API without restrictions, as well as save pictures in RAW.

The video camera can shoot at resolutions up to 3840 × 2160 (4K UHD), it is possible to record slo-mo in 720p resolution at 120 frames per second. There is an optical stabilization function (OIS), its work is well felt when shooting on the go, the image really becomes smooth. On the whole, the camera copes well with shooting video: the image is sharp, bright, without noticeable artifacts, with good color reproduction, albeit a little unnatural. At the same time, the sound is also recorded with high quality, the noise reduction system copes with wind noise adequately.

• Clip #1 (77 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)
• Movie #2 (30 MB, 1920×1080 @30 fps)
• Movie #3 (53 MB, 1280×720 @120 fps, slo-mo)

It is possible to record the same thing with the help of a second, wide-angle lens, then you get such a panoramic video:

• Clip #4 (74 MB, 3840×2160 @30 fps)

	Good attention to detail, but noticeable noise reduction work.
	Slight distortion at the right edge of the frame, but otherwise the field sharpness is good.
	Good detail in medium shots. There is a barely noticeable sharpening on the wires.
	Good sharpness across the frame.
	HDR works well for the camera. In this case, the sharpness with the removal of the plan falls quite smoothly.
	The text is well done.
	Excellent detail even in the distance.
	Noise reduction, although noticeable, practically does not harm the details.
	Macro photography is good for the camera.

We also tested the camera on a laboratory bench according to our methodology.

standard angle	wide angle
Lighting ≈3200 lux.
Lighting ≈1400 lux.
Lighting ≈130 lux.
Lighting ≈130 lux, flash.
Lighting<1 люкс, вспышка.

LG continues to delight us with interesting cameras. Perhaps the camera can be called a flagship with almost no reservations. Although, to be stricter, we can note small areas of blur, from time to time slipping at the right edge of the frame. And also not always accurate noise reduction and strange work of exposure metering. And if everything is clear enough with the first two points (sloppy shooting, a test sample and other possible excuses), then everything is not very clear with exposure metering. However, we can hope that it will work better in the final firmware. In the meantime, the camera chooses critically long shutter speeds for shooting in not the darkest time, with which even the native stabilizer does not cope well. This inevitably entails a considerable percentage of marriage: for a flagship, this is one blurry shot out of three. Let's say, in comparison with the iPhone 6, LG G5 se, having a large aperture, for some reason exposes longer shutter speeds in the same conditions.

LG G5 se	Apple iPhone 6

Despite minor shortcomings, the camera provides a very high resolution, and in both modes - standard and wide-angle. Perhaps she will do an excellent job with artistic and documentary photography.

The presence of a second camera is a controversial point, since its purpose is not completely clear. However, past attempts to “shove” several cameras into a smartphone looked even more strange. Here, the user is offered only the second camera as a wide-angle one. As far as this is a nice bonus, everyone decides for himself. The resolution of a wide-angle camera is half that of a normal camera, and its angle of view is almost twice as large.

standard angle	wide angle

One of the scenarios for using two cameras is collage, when we embed "a picture with a higher resolution in a picture with a smaller one." The perimeter frame can be decorated with one of the following effects: vignette, blur, fisheye, black and white, or all at once. It looks, of course, funny, but in most cases tasteless. However, we will not argue about this.

Telephone part and communications

The smartphone can operate standardly in most bands of 2G GSM and 3G WCDMA networks, and also has support for fourth-generation LTE FDD networks. The Snapdragon 652 SoC used here has an integrated X8 LTE modem, supporting download speeds up to 300Mbps and upload speeds up to 100Mbps. The smartphone supports all three of the most common LTE FDD bands among domestic operators (B3, B7 and B20), but can also function in the LTE TDD Band 38/40 bands. In general, the LG G5 se liked both the connection speed in 4G networks and the work with cellular networks in general: the smartphone instantly reconnects after a break, does not lose connection in areas of uncertain reception, gives the highest speeds in 4G in test places where competitors show much worse results. In terms of communication capabilities, the hero of the review is on top of everything.

The device also has support for Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, dual Wi-Fi bands (2.4 and 5 GHz) MU-MIMO, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi Display, you can organize a wireless access point via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth channels . The USB Type C connector supports the USB 2.0 specification and the connection of external devices in USB OTG mode. The NFC module demonstrates compatibility with the Mifare Classic protocol, which is necessary for the successful operation of the "" application with the Troika transport card.

The phone application supports Smart Dial, that is, while dialing a phone number, a search is immediately carried out by the first letters in contacts, there is also support for continuous input such as Swype. It is possible to reduce the size of the working area of ​​the virtual keyboard for the convenience of controlling the fingers of one hand.

The smartphone provides work with two SIM-cards according to the Dual SIM Dual Standby standard. Everything is familiar here: apart from a special button for quickly changing the priority SIM card, the implementation of working with two SIM cards is generally standard for this platform. There is only one radio module, so there can only be one active conversation. A SIM card in any slot can work with 3G / 4G networks, however, only one of the cards can work in this mode at the same time (the second one will work only in 2G). The choice between two SIM-cards for making a call, sending SMS, etc. traditionally for LG devices is carried out using a separate button for quickly switching the priority card, located in a row of virtual control buttons.

OS and software

Earlier in the spring press releases, LG announced that the release of the LG G5 smartphone to world markets is accompanied by the simultaneous premiere of a new version of the mobile interface - UX 5.0. This advanced interface in case of LG G5 se is based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow platform.

One of the main innovations is the appearance of the universal LG Friends Manager application, which allows you to manage additional modules and accessories of LG smartphones by automatically detecting nearby devices: connects them to your smartphone, helps you download and install the applications necessary for their operation from the Google Play Store. As for the LG Friends plug-in modules and accessories, they will gradually appear in Russia, and the sale of each device will be announced later.

Performance

The hardware platform of the LG G5 se is based on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 octa-core SoC (formerly known as the Snapdragon 620). This SoC is made using not the most advanced 28-nanometer technology. It consists of four productive 64-bit ARM Cortex-A72 cores with a frequency of up to 1.8 GHz, which are complemented by four simpler 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of up to 1.4 GHz. The Adreno 510 video accelerator with an operating frequency of up to 600 MHz is responsible for processing graphics in the SoC.

The amount of RAM of the smartphone is 3 GB, the amount of built-in flash memory is 32 GB (of which the user is left with about 23 GB of free space). This volume can be increased by microSD cards, but then you have to remove one of the SIM cards. It is also possible to connect external flash drives to the USB port in OTG mode and even charge devices connected via USB. MicroSD cards are supported up to 2TB, in practice our 128GB Transcend Premium microSDXC UHS-1 test card was recognized by the device with confidence.

The results of testing the new platform in complex tests turned out to be very impressive, approximately at the level of the top solutions of the last season, such as Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 or Mediatek MT6795T. The new SoC can even be compared in this sense with the Exynos 7420, although in terms of graphics, the novelty is still far from the Samsung platform. At the same time, Snapdragon 652, in general, is not positioned as a flagship - rather, it is Qualcomm's answer to the very successful MT6752 of competing MediaTek, although the new Snapdragon 652 platform has even caught up with the flagship MT6795T in terms of performance. However, all these comparisons are made with the top platforms of past years, but new flagships will show themselves in the new season, and then Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 will confidently take its place in the mid-upper segment.

In any case, the capabilities of this SoC at the moment should be more than enough to perform all tasks without exception, including demanding games. You can comfortably play World of Tanks at 40-45 fps. The rest of the games also do not show noticeable delays. The platform is new and clearly has some headroom for future upgrades.

Testing in the latest versions of AnTuTu and GeekBench 3 comprehensive benchmarks:

For convenience, we have summarized all the results obtained by us when testing a smartphone in the latest versions of popular benchmarks in tables. Several other devices from various segments are usually added to the table, also tested on similar latest versions of benchmarks (this is done only for a visual assessment of the obtained dry numbers). Unfortunately, within the framework of one comparison, it is impossible to present the results from different versions of benchmarks, so many worthy and relevant models remain “behind the scenes” due to the fact that they once passed the “obstacle course” on previous versions of test programs.

Testing the graphics subsystem in 3DMark gaming tests, GFXBenchmark and Bonsai Benchmark:

When testing in 3DMark for the highest performing smartphones, it is now possible to run the application in Unlimited mode, where the rendering resolution is fixed at 720p and VSync is disabled (due to which the speed can rise above 60 fps).

	LG G5 se (Qualcomm Snapdragon 652)	Moto X Force (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810)	Meizu Pro 5 (Exynos 7420)	Huawei Mate S (HiSilicon Kirin 935)	Letv1s (Mediatek MT6795T)
3DMark Ice Storm Extreme (more is better)	8847	Maxed out!	Maxed out!	6292	10162
3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited (more is better)	15108	23849	25770	12553	16574
3DMark Ice Storm Sling Shot (more is better)	738	1098	1340	—	542
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Onscreen)	19 fps	40 fps	52 fps	16 fps	26 fps
GFXBenchmark T-Rex HD (C24Z16 Offscreen)	25 fps	53 fps	57 fps	12 fps	27 fps
Bonsai Benchmark	3515 (50 fps)	3810 (54fps)	4130 (59 fps)	3396 (48 fps)	3785 (54 fps)

Browser cross-platform tests:

As for benchmarks for evaluating the speed of the javascript engine, you should always make allowances for the fact that the results in them depend significantly on the browser in which they are launched, so that the comparison can only be truly correct on the same OS and browsers, and this possibility is available when testing not always. In the case of Android OS, we always try to use Google Chrome.

thermal images

Below is a thermal image of the back surface, obtained after 10 minutes of running a battery test in the GFXBenchmark program (the lighter, the higher the temperature):

It can be seen that the heating is localized just above the center and closer to the right edge, which apparently corresponds to the location of the SoC chip. According to the heat chamber, the maximum heating was 37 degrees (at an ambient temperature of 24 degrees), this is not very much.

Video playback

To test the "omnivorous" when playing video (including support for various codecs, containers and special features, such as subtitles), we used the most common formats, which make up the bulk of the content available on the Web. Note that for mobile devices it is important to have support for hardware video decoding at the chip level, since it is most often impossible to process modern versions using processor cores alone. Also, do not expect everything from a mobile device to decode everything, since the leadership in flexibility belongs to the PC, and no one is going to challenge it. All results are summarized in a single table.

According to the test results, the subject was equipped with all the necessary decoders that are needed for the full playback of most of the most common multimedia files on the network, including audio files (AC3 codec). To successfully play them, you don’t even need to resort to the help of a third-party player - the regular one easily coped with all the test files. But even in MX Player you don't have to change settings and manually install additional custom codecs, here the AC3 audio format is also automatically supported.

Further testing of video playback performed Alexey Kudryavtsev.

We were unable to verify support for SlimPort (or Mobility DisplayPort) adapters due to the lack of an adapter option that connects to the USB Type C port. Using a set of test files with an arrow and a rectangle moving one division per frame video signal display Version 1 (for mobile devices) ”), we checked how the video is displayed on the smartphone screen. Screen shots with a shutter speed of 1 s helped determine the nature of the output frames of video files with various parameters: the resolution varied 1280 by 720 (720p), 1920 by 1080 (1080p) and 3840 by 2160 (4K) pixels and a frame rate of 24, 25, 30, 50 and 60 fps. In this test, we used the MX Player video player in Hardware mode. The results of this test are summarized in the table:

Note: If both columns Uniformity And Passes green ratings are given, this means that, most likely, when watching movies, artifacts caused by uneven interleaving and dropping frames will either not be visible at all, or their number and visibility will not affect viewing comfort. Red marks indicate possible problems with the playback of the respective files.

According to the criteria for displaying frames, the quality of playing video files on the screen of the smartphone itself is good, since frames (or groups of frames) can be displayed with more or less uniform alternation of intervals and without frame drops. When playing video files with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p) on a smartphone screen, the image of the video file itself is displayed exactly along the border of the screen, however, on test worlds, it can be seen that the clarity is slightly reduced due to interpolation to the screen resolution. However, for the sake of experiment, you can switch to the one-to-one mode by pixels, there will be no interpolation, but the image will also be smaller than the working area of ​​​​the screen. The brightness range displayed on the screen corresponds to the standard range of 16-235 - all gradations of shades are displayed in the shadows and in the highlights.

Battery life

The capacity of the removable battery installed in the LG G5 se is 2800 mAh. This is far from a record volume for modern flagships, but still not so small. Thanks to many years of experience of LG Chem's own division in creating high-quality batteries, this worthy amount was able to fit into a battery of rather modest dimensions. Probably, it would be possible to install a larger battery in a smartphone, but, obviously, the decision was made taking into account the unusual modular structure of the novelty case. Be that as it may, the LG G5 se does not impress with the battery life, but the level of autonomy cannot be called a failure. Everything is at a decent average level, the device quite confidently lives up to the evening charge, but does not break records. Most of the most notable modern models show the best battery life.

Testing, as usual, was carried out without using any power-saving modes, although, of course, there are such in the device.

	Battery capacity	Reading mode	Video mode	3D game mode
LG G5 se	2800 mAh	13h 20m	8:30 a.m.	4h 20m
Alcatel Idol 4s	3000 mAh	12:00 p.m.	8 a.m.	4 a.m.
Moto X Force	3760 mAh	4:30 p.m.	10:00 a.m.	4h 40m
Huawei Nexus 6P	3450 mAh	15:00	8:30 a.m.	4h 30m
LG Nexus 5X	2700 mAh	2:30 p.m.	6 a.m.	4 a.m.
LG G4	3000 mAh	17:00	9 a.m.	3 a.m.
One Plus 2	3300 mAh	14:00	11:20	4h 30m
Google Nexus 6	3220 mAh	18:00	10:30	3h 40m
Meizu Pro 5	3050 mAh	5:30 p.m.	12:30 pm	3h 15m

Continuous reading in the Moon + Reader program (with a standard, light theme, with auto scrolling) at a minimum comfortable brightness level (brightness was set to 100 cd / m²) lasted less than 13.5 hours to a full discharge. When continuously watching videos from Youtube in high quality (720p) with the same level of brightness through a home Wi-Fi network, the device lasted 8.5 hours, which is not so much. In the 3D gaming mode, the smartphone functions confidently for more than 4 hours.

Unfortunately, the test copy arrived to us for testing without a complete charger, and this is sad, since the smartphone should be charged extremely quickly from it. LG G5 se is one of the first flagships to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology. From a conventional charger with a maximum output current of 2 A (at 5 V), the device is charged in approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes with a current of 1 A. The device does not support wireless charging.

Outcome

The LG G5 se smartphone, although it is not formally considered a flagship, is by most characteristics a top-end device: it has a high-quality screen, excellent cameras, a good sound system and very decent communication equipment. As for the hardware platform, it is really not a flagship one here, and moreover, its performance in all tests without exception turned out to be lower than that of the previously tested Alcatel Idol 4s on exactly the same SoC. Apparently, the manufacturer still carried out some kind of optimization - perhaps in order to avoid overheating of the system. But if we abstract from the dry numbers of tests, then the platform as a whole is quite worthy, although, of course, it is far from the level of flagships.

And finally, the most important thing: with all this, the LG G5 se will cost like a real flagship, its official price in Russian retail is set at 50 thousand rubles. It's scary to even think how much LG will appreciate its flagship G5. In general, the device from the Koreans turned out to be worthy, but the price upset. At this price, many competitors are able to offer real flagship products even in the current conditions. Moreover, it was LG's top smartphones of the G family that, until recently, favorably differed in democratic prices, but now, apparently, LG is losing this trump card.

Despite the fact that it is LG that owns the very successful Nexus 5 and , the Korean company has not yet been able to get into the first echelon of smartphone manufacturers - everything is occupied by the Chinese, as well as Samsung and Apple. Realizing the situation, LG is taking a step towards unusual and niche devices - this movement is also confirmed by the gradual phasing out of the Nexus 5X, which could not repeat the success of its predecessor. LG G5 at least aroused serious interest and gossip: will this design be flimsy? Is it really necessary to have two main cameras?

In Russia, another topic for discussion was added to this: at the start of sales, the LG G5 will be delivered in a simplified se version, which is distinguished by the use of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 system-on-a-chip instead of Snapdragon 820 and 3 GB of RAM instead of 4. This is the difference, in fact , are exhausted - but the image suffers somewhat. The fact is that the lite version costs the same 50,000 rubles - the same as the Samsung Galaxy S7 or Apple iPhone 6s in "full" versions. Is it really that important?

⇡ Specifications

	LG G5 SE (H845)	LG G4	LG V10	Huawei P9	Samsung GALAXY S7
Display	5.3 inches, IPS, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 554 ppi, capacitive multi-touch	5.5 inches, IPS, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 538 ppi, capacitive multi-touch	5.7 inches, 2560 × 1440, IPS, 515 ppi, capacitive multi-touch	5.2 inches, IPS, 1920 × 1080 pixels, 424 ppi, capacitive multi-touch	5.1 inches, AMOLED, 2560 × 1440 pixels, 575.9 ppi, capacitive multi-touch
Air gap	No	No	No	No	No
Protective glass	Corning Gorilla Glass 4	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	Corning Gorilla Glass 4	Corning Gorilla Glass (version not specified) on both sides
CPU	Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A72, 1.8GHz + quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.4GHz)		Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 (quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, 1.4GHz + dual ARM Cortex-A57, 1.82GHz)	Huawei Kirin 955 (four ARM Cortex-A57, 2.5 GHz; four ARM Cortex-A53, 1.8 GHz)	Exynos 8890 Octa (4x ARM Cortex-A57, 2.6GHz; 4x ARM Cortex-A53, 1.6GHz)
Graphics controller	Adreno 510, 550 MHz	Adreno 418, 600 MHz	Adreno 418, 600 MHz	Mali-T880 MP4, 900 MHz	Mali-T880 MP12, 650 MHz
RAM	3 GB	3 GB	4 GB	3/4 GB	4 GB
Flash memory	32 GB	32 GB	64 GB	32/64 GB	32/64 GB
Memory card support	Eat	Eat	Eat	Eat	Yes, in the S7 Duos version - a combined slot for a memory card and a SIM card
Connectors	USB Type-C, mini jack 3.5 mm	microUSB, 3.5 mm minijack	microUSB, 3.5 mm minijack	USB Type-C, mini jack 3.5 mm	microUSB, 3.5 mm minijack
SIM cards	Two nanoSIMs	One micro SIM	Two nanoSIMs	One nanoSIM / two nanoSIMs	One nanoSIM / two nanoSIMs
Cellular 2G		GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Cellular 3G	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz	HSDPA 850/900/1900/2100 MHz	HSDPA 800/850/900/1700/ 1800/1900/2100 MHz	HSPA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 MHz
Cellular 4G	LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 20, 28, 38, 40	LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 17, 20, 28	LTE Cat. 4 (up to 150 Mbps), bands 1, 3, 7	LTE Cat. 6 (up to 300 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26, 28, 38, 39, 40	Support for LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600/50 Mbps): bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 13, 20
WiFi	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac	802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Bluetooth	4.2	4.1	4.1	4.2	4.2
NFC	Eat	Eat	Eat	Eat	Eat
Navigation	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou	GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou
Sensors	Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer, pedometer, IR sensor	Light, proximity, pressure, accelerometer / gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer, IR sensor		Illumination, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass)	Light, proximity, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), barometer, heart rate
			Ambient light, proximity sensor, pressure sensor, accelerometer/gyroscope, magnetometer (digital compass), pedometer, IR sensor
Fingerprint's scanner	Eat	Eat	Eat	Eat	Eat
Main camera	Dual camera: 16 MP, f/1.8 + 8 MP, f/2.4, laser autofocus, optical stabilization, 4K video recording		16 MP, ƒ/1.8, laser autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, Full HD video recording	Leica, dual module, 12 megapixels, f/2.2, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, 4K video recording	12 MP, ƒ/1.7, phase detection autofocus, LED flash, optical stabilization, 4K video recording
Front-camera	8 MP, fixed focus	8 MP, fixed focus	5 MP fixed focus 80° FOV + 5 MP fixed focus 120° FOV	8 MP, fixed focus	5 MP, fixed focus
Nutrition	Removable 10.8 Wh battery (2800 mAh, 3.85 V)		Removable 11.4 Wh battery (3000 mAh, 3.8 V)		11.4 Wh non-removable battery (3000 mAh, 3.8 V)
Size	149.4×73.9×7.3mm	149×76×9.8mm	160×80×8.6mm	145×70.9×7mm	142.4×69.6×7.9mm
Weight	156 grams	155 grams	192 grams	144 grams	152 grams
Hull protection	No	No	No	No	IP68 Up to half an hour at a depth of up to 1.5 m
operating system	Android 6.0 Marshmallow, LG Optimus UX 5.0 UI skin		Android 6.0 Marshmallow, LG Optimus UX 4.0 UI skin	Android 6.0 Marshmallow, native EMUI 4.1 skin	Android 6.0 Marshmallow, Samsung's own TouchWiz skin
Actual price, rub.	49 990	30 000	35 000	Approximately 50,000	From 49 990

LG G5 se - information about the filling according to the Droid Info application

⇡ Appearance and ergonomics

If the LG G3 and LG G4 were similar to each other with their cat-like "back" and textured back surface (in the case of the G4, even leather was used), then the LG G5 se is like a step into the world of traditional values. The flat back panel is made of metal, and the volume rocker is back on the side. However, the power button, combined with a fingerprint scanner, remained behind. In the company of two camera eyes, she creates an image that resembles a shocked smiley - and really, how many smartphones have you seen with two cameras at once?

LG G5 se, front panel: earpiece, status indicator, front camera and light sensor are located above the display

However, Huawei with Honor 6 Plus and the brand new P9 asks to calm down - they also have two main cameras, albeit used for other purposes. Back to design. Due to the metal, rather than leather back, the smartphone does not cling to the palm so much - but the matte metal cannot be called slippery either. But the smartphone has become much thinner (7.3 mm versus 9.8 mm) and slightly narrower - there is also a smaller display: 5.3 inches versus 5.5 inches for the G4. As a result, it is difficult to say which smartphone is more comfortable to use - everyone has their own trump cards. Although the G5 has a "wild card" - a beveled surface above the display, it is very pleasant to slide your finger along it, pulling down the notification bar.

LG G5 se, rear panel: dual-lens camera unit, dual LED flash and laser autofocus eye, below is the power button combined with a fingerprint scanner

The display dimensions are quite comfortable - it is no longer too small (although 4-4.5-inch smartphones do not bother me personally), but still quite suitable for one-handed operation. Even if it is difficult to fit, even I, the owner of very long fingers, have to reach the corners of the screen. Girls, for example, will have to connect the second hand. However, 5.3 inches is still a very reasonable compromise in this age of tossing.

The smartphone is offered in three colors: gold, pink and gray. Again, there was no black case - it seems that the times of “black bricks” have really sunk into oblivion. We tested gray - the simplest and, I think, the mass option.

The back button, like the camera block, slightly protrudes above the body - if the cameras simply could not be placed entirely in a thin body, then the slight swelling of the key allows you to quickly feel for it blindly.

It’s hard to talk about build quality and weaknesses based on the results of a week of testing, but there is an obvious point - since the smartphone is modular, it means it’s definitely not monolithic. In the photographs, you can see that the bottom panel is unevenly attached to the body, this is especially noticeable in the picture of the left side. And there is a very serious possibility that it is in this place that the case can become loose with the constant change of modules: at MWC 2016, the LG booth was strewn with smartphones with large gaps between the display and the bottom panel. On the other hand, it improves maintainability in case of battery failure.

The power button has a built-in fingerprint scanner. Programmatically, everything is as usual: the scanner is configured in a standard way, it helps to unlock the device or confirm payment on Google Play, and by combining it with the power button, it can activate the smartphone in one motion. But either the sensor itself does not work very accurately, or the problem is that you put your finger on the back button at an unusual angle - he did not always recognize me on the first try.

⇡ Modules

A likely source of housing reliability problems and the main distinguishing feature of the LG G5 (and LG G5 se) is the modular design.

The lower part comes unfastened in one movement - just pull it by holding a small button on the left side. The button, by the way, does not protrude above the case and has a very tight move, so that accidental pressing is excluded. By default, in this way we get access to the battery - in which case it can be easily changed without contacting the service. The smartphone, of course, turns off - such gadgets have not yet learned how to work without power.

So far, there are two modules with which you can improve your smartphone: LG CAM Plus and LG Hi-Fi Plus. The LG CAM Plus is essentially a protrusion for gripping a smartphone like a camera, with a built-in 1200 mAh battery and additional controls: a shutter button, camera activation, video recording and a zoom wheel. It slightly extends the battery life of the device and facilitates shooting in horizontal orientation - it is more comfortable to hold a smartphone with it, your hands do not tremble so much and you can set longer shutter speeds when shooting in the dark. LG CAM Plus will cost about $85.

Characteristics of the LG G5 SE

• Body materials: plastic, metal, glass
• Operating system: Android 6.0, LG UX 5.0
• Network: GSM/EDGE, WCDMA, LTE (nanoSIM)
• Screen: IPS LCD, 5.3", capacitive, 2560x1440 pixels (QuadHD), 554 ppi, automatic backlight control, Gorilla Glass 4
• Platform: Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM8992)
• Processor: Quad-core 1.2 GHz (Cortex-A53) and dual-core 1.8 GHz (Cortex-A72)
• Graphics system: Adreno 510
• RAM: 3 GB
• Storage Memory: 32 GB, microSD card slot
• Primary camera: 16 MP, f/1.8 and 8 MP, f/2.4 (wide angle), laser focus, 3-axis optical image stabilization (OIS), LED flash
• Front camera: 8 MP, f/2.0
• Interfaces: Wi-Fi (a/b/g/n/ac) Dual-Band, Bluetooth 4.2 (A2DP, LE, Apt-X), USB Type-C (USB 2.0) for charge/sync, 3.5 mm for headset , NFC, Infrared
• Navigation: GPS/Glonass (A-GPS support)
• Extras: FM radio, fingerprint scanner, fast charging (Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0), Always-on display technology
• Sensors: accelerometer, position sensor, light sensor, gyroscope, barometer
• Battery: removable, Li-Ion, 2800 mAh
• Dimensions: 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.3mm
• Weight: 156 grams

The South Korean LG is one of the few companies in the smartphone manufacturing market who are not afraid to experiment in the upper price segment, in other words, constantly invent something new for their flagships. Usually the situation is reversed - companies try to keep top-end devices identical to each other for as long as possible from year to year, tightening the characteristics and occasionally refreshing the design. Examples are plentiful, from Apple, Samsung and HTC to the most striking Sony, where the design of devices in the upper price range has hardly changed since the Xperia Z1, released in 2013.

For LG, flagships are a field of experimentation. In the LG G2 smartphone, the company tested a solution with control buttons located on the “back” of the case, and made the frames as thin as possible. The LG G3 took the path of increasing the screen diagonal for the flagship (5.5” versus 5.2” in the LG G2), redesigned the camera and decided to “play around” with the metallized plastic texture, giving the smartphone a more expensive look. The next flagship, the LG G4, was in many ways an improved version of the G3, but it completely changed in appearance: they abandoned metal-like plastic, invented replaceable covers made of genuine leather, and made a display slightly curved inside the case to protect it from damage when dropped. For my taste, in terms of design and ergonomics, the LG G4 was not a role model, otherwise it turned out to be comparable with competitors, but in one it was literally ahead of everyone - in photo quality. This smartphone still takes the best photos in low light and at night (it's not about the speed of photographing, but about the quality), surpassing both the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and Apple devices in this respect.

The next flagship - LG G5 - again became an object for experimentation. The company again completely redesigned the design, moved some of the keys from the "back" to the ends, added a scanner, came up with a system of interchangeable modules and a slightly simplified version of the device - LG G5 SE on a simpler platform. The rest of the devices are identical. In this review, I will tell you about all the features of the LG G5 on the example of a simplified version - LG G5 SE. Go.

Design

LG G4 and LG G5 have practically no external resemblance, the company has once again "went through" the design. The smartphone turned out to be more strict and, at the same time, more simple and calm than its predecessor. For some, the lack of bright details is a plus. For some - a minus, it's a matter of personal preference.

The front panel with a protective glass curved at the top, a dual-camera module on the back, and the bottom end with a system of interchangeable modules attract attention, but in general, the new LG G5 looks simple. Perhaps this is the case when I have nothing special to write about the design, it is so simple here.

The smartphone is available in four colors: silver, gold, pink and gray. In any variation, these are shades of the indicated colors, the case remains approximately monophonic and dim. Again, some will like it, some won't.

Housing materials

An interesting feature is connected with the materials in the LG G5 SE. The fact is that at all presentations and on the official website the device is called a smartphone in a metal case. At the same time, when you pick up the device, the metal is not felt at all. Moreover, if the smartphone is accidentally scratched or dropped and chipped, then you will most likely see characteristic traces of peeled paint and plastic underneath on the back. And yet - the case is really made of metal.

I don’t know why LG decided to use this solution, there is no visible benefit from it, but it is what it is. The base of the body in the LG G5 SE is made of aluminum, in particular, the entire "bath" in which the electronic filling is located, and the ribs. However, from the outside, the case is covered with a thick layer of plastic, on top of which a “metal-like” coating is applied. This explains the fact that if you take scissors and scrape along the lid, then, having erased the primary layer, you will most likely decide that the body is made of plastic. To get to the base of the metal, you need to literally pick open several layers of the cover.

Painted plastic over metal causes another problem (besides not feeling like you're holding an expensive device). Along the edge of the case there is a “chrome-like” color, and in these places the paint begins to peel off the fastest, so that after a month or two, gaps in the plastic will appear on the device. It's not too noticeable if you don't pay attention, but it's still annoying.

The front panel is Gorilla Glass 4 curved in a special way. Unlike the 2.5D glass that is now fashionable, in the LG G5 it curves at the top, creating a smooth platform for conveniently calling the notification curtain. When you need to open it, the finger does not cling to the end, but comfortably slides down. The solution turned out to be not only beautiful (like a simple glass with a 2.5D effect), but also useful from a practical point of view.

Assembly

There are almost no complaints about the assembly of the device. With the exception of the lower replacement element, designed to accommodate modules. When you take the device out of the box and just use it - no problem, the base module with the battery sits securely in its place, there is no play and so on. But judging by the samples of the LG G5 SE, which have been in use for more than one month, after some time and after frequent changes in modules, the mount can become loose. To paraphrase, perhaps it will come loose, or maybe not, everything will depend on specific use cases, the frequency of changing modules and other things.

Dimensions

The size of the new LG G5 almost completely repeats last year's model. Due to the smooth curves and rounded edges, the device fits comfortably in the hand, it is comfortable to hold and use it. At the same time, calling a smartphone small, of course, will not work. With a diagonal of 5.3"", the device, to put it mildly, is not a champion in size and is comparable to models where the diagonal is higher - 5.5"".

• Apple iPhone 6S Plus(5.5"") - 158.2 x 77.9 x 7.3 mm, 192 grams
• LG G5(5.5"") - 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.3 mm, 156 grams
• LG G4(5.5"") - 148.9 x 76.1 x 9.8 mm, 155 grams
• Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge(5.5”) - 150.9 x 72.6 x 7.7 mm, 157 grams
• HTC 10(5.2"") - 145.9 x 71.9 x 9 mm, 161 grams

A year ago, I would have focused on the dimensions of a smartphone more seriously, but, in my opinion, now devices with a diagonal of 5.5” have become familiar and any model that fits in the dimensions of popular devices in this category is perceived normally.

Compared to Galaxy S7 Edge

Compared to Huawei P9

Controls

Here I want to grumble a little. Experiments are good, but I think there should be some kind of limit, some things, points that, having been accepted once and promoted, should not be changed after a short period of time. Yes, I'm talking about controls, specifically the power and volume keys. It would seem a trifle, but I do not think so. With the LG G2 smartphone, the company began to promote the idea of ​​a key block on the back of the smartphone. Three buttons were located on the back of the device in the upper area, near the main camera. Unusual, but generally comfortable, and the company made the right accents, promoting this idea. Then there were LG G3 and LG G4, as well as intermediate models (like LG V10) with the same key layout logic.

And here comes the LG G5. The volume buttons are on the left edge, the power key is on the back and is combined with a fingerprint scanner. Is there any logic here, a general principle? To be honest, I don't see it. Yes, I personally quickly got used to that arrangement, but the approach itself is confusing, because the entire block of buttons on the back of the device was a great idea.

You can unlock your smartphone (turn on the screen) in three ways - by pressing the power key on the back of the device, by double tapping on the display surface, or by touching the power button (fingerprint scanner on it). At the same time, the third method is convenient in that you do not need to press the power button (as in the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, for example, where you need to press the Home key), just touch it.

The scanner allows you to save up to five prints, it works quickly and accurately, I have not had any complaints about this element for a month of using the device (unlike the scanner in the Samsung Galaxy S Edge, which for some reason "stupid" for me).

As in other smartphones of the company, there is a gesture system:

• Automatically answer a call when you hold your smartphone to your ear (even if a Bluetooth headset is connected to the device)
• Muting the ringer volume when you pick up your smartphone from the surface of a table, shelf, or something else
• Switch to silent mode during an incoming call when you turn your smartphone over
• Stop the alarm or set it to sound again when you turn your smartphone over
• Pause video playback when you flip your smartphone

Now about the location of the elements and connectors. At the top there is an infrared port, an additional microphone and a 3.5 mm mini-jack. On the bottom - USB Type-C, the main microphone and speaker.

On the front side, in the upper part, there is a speaker, light and proximity sensors, as well as a light indicator and an 8 MP front camera eye. The tray for two nanoSIM cards or one nanoSIM card and a memory card is located on the right edge.

Screen

The LG G5 has a 5.3" diagonal IPS-matrix (IPS Quantum) screen. Display resolution - 2560x1440 pixels (554 ppi). According to the characteristics, the screen resembles that in the LG G4 - that is, good. There is a margin of brightness, viewing angles are maximum. Even if you tilt the screen diagonally, there will be absolutely no distortion of the picture in color or brightness. Automatic screen backlight sometimes works to save battery power, that is, it sets the backlight level below the one you want to see, but during the day its work is quite correct. The color temperature is set up successfully, in my opinion, and from the shortcomings I will only note the inability to change it.

The screen is covered with protective glass Gorilla Glass 4 and has a high-quality oleophobic coating, so that the few prints and marks that appear on the display can be easily removed.

Like the flagships of Samsung, the LG G5 supports Always-on technology, when some useful information is constantly displayed on the screen. In G5, you can display the time, date and string of new notifications (system), as well as some arbitrary signature.

Again, like Samsung, LG notes the extremely low power consumption of this thing, but, like Samsung, if running time is important to you, it’s better to forget about Always-on. And although Samsung uses a more efficient AMOLED screen for this scenario, and here IPS, I turned off the option both there and there (in the S7 Edge and in the G5 SE).

Camera

The main cameras in the LG G5 are two - one with a resolution of 16 MP, f / 1.8 aperture, a color spectrum sensor, a three-axis optical stabilization system (OIS) and a laser focusing system. The second is wide-angle, with a resolution of 8 MP and f / 2.4 aperture.

The idea is that for the usual scenarios you use a 16-megapixel camera, but if you need to take a photo covering the maximum space (a general photo at a holiday, some beautiful landscape, etc.), switch to a wide-angle camera.

You might think that this is such a publicity stunt and in fact the cameras in the LG G5 do not differ too much in shooting angle, but this is not so. The second camera is really wide-angle and allows you to get several times more information in the frame than the main one. Here's what it looks like in reality:

Main camera (16 MP)	Wide camera (8 MP)

The quality of the photo from the wide-angle camera is worse than from the main one, but it seems to me that it is quite sufficient for my tasks. You won't be able to use it all the time. So let's talk about the main camera.

As in the LG G4, the main camera module here is equipped with an optical stabilization system and laser focusing. The focusing speed in the G5 is about the same as the LG G4. The quality of the photo on the first firmware, to be honest, is not as high as I expected, although it is good in general. But now the company is preparing new firmware, and with each next camera it will improve, so we can expect progress in this regard.

Below is a small comparison of the cameras in LG G4 and LG G5:

LG G4	LG G5

In my opinion, during the day, the devices shoot about the same, in low light conditions, the LG G4 looks stronger.

Now let's take a look at comparative examples of shots at night, there will already be three devices: LG G4, LG G5 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

LG G4	LG G5	Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

Here I would distribute the devices as follows: LG G4 produces the highest quality and closest to reality picture, I believe that this smartphone is still out of competition when it comes to shooting at night, there are simply no better devices so far. In second place is the LG G5 - the picture is not as sharp and natural, but in general it is still close to what you actually see with your own eyes. The Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge is the latest - yes, the smartphone shoots instantly even at night, against its background both the LG G4 and the LG G5 focus for eternity, but the pictures themselves on the S7 Edge are too artificial: oversharpening, overexposed, everything looks completely different in the photos, as a matter of fact.

Examples of photos in good weather

Now briefly about the interface. Like the LG G4, there are three shooting modes (for both cameras): simple, basic and manual. The first one is simple, there are no elements and information on the screen at all, you just touch the screen at any point, and the smartphone takes a photo.

The second is basic, with all settings displayed. In this case, to shoot, you need to press the key, here you can also change various parameters, from the resolution of the image to the shooting mode.

Finally, the third and most important mode is manual. In this mode, you can shoot with automatic settings, but with the creation of two files at once: RAW (DNG extension) and JPEG, as well as in full manual mode. In the second case, you can adjust the white balance, exposure value (from +2 to -2), shutter speed (from 1/3200 to 30 seconds), ISO (from 50 to 3200) and adjust the focal length. In a word, this is a full-fledged manual mode, as detailed as it is now generally required in a smartphone camera.

Shooting on the LG G5 in manual mode is a different story. Even taking into account the fact that the first firmware does not reveal the potential of the camera (I'm sure this will be fixed in the future), the manual mode allows you to take cool shots in a variety of situations and conditions. Perhaps someday I will make a separate material with examples of shots on the LG G5 SE in manual mode.

If we compare the cameras in the LG G4 and LG G5, the main difference comes down to the appearance of an additional wide-angle module. There are slight differences in automatic mode, but in general, in good conditions, the G4 and G5 give comparable results. At night, the G4 still shoots better, but I hope that this moment will be corrected in future firmware and the G5 will become better.

Video. The maximum recording quality is UltraHD (3840x2160 pixels), the standard is FullHD (1920x1080), in addition to recording at 30 or 60 frames per second, there is recording at up to 120 fps. In movie recording mode, tracking autofocus works. The quality of the recorded video is good, however, you can check out the sample videos yourself.

Front-camera. The front camera with a resolution of 8 MP and f/2.0 aperture allows you to take good shots, but nothing more. To be honest, I expected a lot more from the front camera in the LG G5. As in its time and from the camera in the G4. During the day on a sunny day, the quality can be called acceptable, when conditions worsen or in the dark, the photos turn into “soap” with a very noticeable post-processing.

LG G4	LG G5

Offline work

The LG G5 SE has a removable 2800 mAh Li-Ion battery, slightly weaker than that used in the LG G3 and G4.

My LG G5 SE sample worked on average until the evening, being completely discharged by 17-18 hours under heavy load (for example, my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge lasts up to about 20 hours in this mode, but I still have to use an external battery). The difference in operating time under normal conditions between the LG G5 SE and last year's LG G4 is within the margin of error, with active use both smartphones sit down in the evening, with moderate use they work all day.

I can’t say that everything is fine, I personally expected progress from the new flagship just in terms of battery life, because the LG G4 was by no means a champion in this regard, but, alas, there is no progress here. Like other manufacturers, unfortunately, they are not in a hurry to move in this direction at all.

In the power settings, you can turn on the "power saving" mode when the charge level drops below 5 or below 15 percent. In this mode, the brightness is reduced, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, vibration, auto-sync services and the indicator light are turned off.

platform, memory

The smartphone is built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 (MSM 8976) platform with an eight-core processor: four Cortex-A72 cores with a frequency of 1.8 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. Graphics system (GPU) - Adreno 510. The device has 3 GB of RAM and 32 GB of internal memory, as well as a slot for a microSD memory card. Actually, this is, in fact, the only thing that distinguishes the "stripped down" LG G5 SE from the flagship LG G5 - the platform. The flagship runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, has Adreno 530 graphics and 4 GB of RAM on board.

If in the case of the LG G4, the company simply opted for a non-top platform for a number of reasons, then for the LG G5 they made two versions - the regular G5 and the slightly simplified G5 SE. The latest model is available in Russia, and the Snapdragon 652 platform in it provides a good level of performance, although it is inferior to other flagships on top platforms in synthetic tests.

Interfaces

The smartphone works in GSM, HSDPA and LTE networks. For LTE, there is support for all common bands and frequencies; in Russian networks of the fourth generation, the device works without problems. The smartphone has one radio module and two slots for SIM-cards.

USB. For synchronization with a PC and data transfer, the included USB Type-C cable is used. USB 2.0 interface (in LG G5 - USB 3.0). USB-OTG and USB-Host standards are supported - you can connect flash drives and other drives to your smartphone via an adapter, for example, a camera to transfer pictures from it to the device's memory.

Bluetooth. Built-in Bluetooth 4.2 module with support for A2DP, LE (low energy) and Apt-X profiles.

Wi-Fi (802.11а/ac/b/g/n). The LG G5 SE uses a dual-band Wi-Fi module, this interface works flawlessly. Like any other modern Android smartphone, G5 SE supports the function of sharing mobile Internet via Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi router), as well as DLNA and Wi-Fi Direct standards.

NFC. The standard interface for any flagship based on Android since 2013 is also found in the LG G5 SE. Enabled and disabled in the settings, in the "Sharing and connection" menu.

Navigation

The smartphone supports GPS / A-GPS and Glonass, it takes a minimum amount of time to search for satellites. There is no special navigation software in Android smartphones, and manufacturers usually limit themselves to pre-installed Google Maps, LG G4 is no exception in this sense.

Software features and software

The smartphone runs on Android 6.0 with a proprietary interface LG UX 5.0. Most of the settings and the shell as a whole have not changed much compared to UX 4.0 in the LG G4. Of course, outwardly, the new interface has become even smoother, neater and calmer in design.

One of the innovations of the fifth version of LG UX is that now the application icons are located on the desktop, and the application menu is no longer there, that is, the company has switched to the interface logic “like in iOS”. Important, if you wish, you can switch to the usual interface display mode with a separate application menu, as it was before.

In the rest - the familiar interface and a set of programs, almost unchanged in comparison with the LG G4.

Lock screen. The lock screen displays new notifications and the time in one line, and a number of shortcuts are available in the lower area for quick access to applications. The set of shortcuts can be changed in the settings, and it will not necessarily be the same as the shortcuts in the bottom bar on the desktop.

The thing that bothered me most about the LG G3 and G4 was the weird and illogical system of transitioning from notifications on the lock screen to the apps that generated them. For example, I receive a notification about a new message in Telegram or WhatsApp, I click on it to open the program, but before I get into the program, I need to swipe again to unlock the screen. Believe it or not, this system is back in place in the LG G5! And this despite the fact that in Android 6.0, to go from the notification card on the lock screen to the notification itself, you just need to tap twice on the card and that's it. There are no words.

Preinstalled software. The smartphone has a convenient file manager with the ability to view files by category or in the general storage, search and sort by criteria. A weather app with animated graphics when not running as a widget. Calculator, voice recorder, radio - all these programs are made in the same graphic style as the rest of the interface.

The QuickMemo+ application allows you to create text notes or handwritten notes.

Like the LG G4, it has a clock and weather widget with a Smart Notice notification bar attached to it. The idea is simple - in the form of short notifications, remind the user of important things: weather changes, calendar events, missed notifications, and so on. True, the functionality of Smart Notice is still limited to just a few types of notifications: weather and new events, as well as tips.

The LG G5 SE has an LG Health service that counts the distance traveled, the number of steps and the calories burned.

Pluggable modules

The main feature of LG G5 and LG G5 SE is replaceable modules. The bottom block is removed, and instead of it you can install a special module that expands the capabilities of the device. The base module with a battery can be considered standard, in addition, there are two more - with an amplifier for better music quality and with camera control keys (and an additional battery inside).

This is how beautiful the smartphone looks with the removed module!

Now a little more.

The first module is a massive block with camera control keys: a shooting button, a zoom wheel and a few more elements. It also has an extra battery built in. It looks something like this:

The second module - with a separate DAC, branded by Bang and Olufsen, is needed in order to get better sound on your smartphone. As in the case of the first module, this one increases the dimensions of the smartphone, albeit not so much.

The very idea of ​​modules is interesting and I personally like it, but so far its implementation raises a lot of questions, from the very beginning to specific modules. Why is it necessary to remove the battery to replace the module, thereby interrupting the operation of the smartphone? If I want to connect a camera module at an important moment, then for half a minute I will simply be left without a working device, this is inconvenient. The modules themselves are large. Why make the camera module so massive? How useful is it? The same goes for the sound module. Finally, why did the company manage to prepare only two modules for the start of sales of the flagship? Were there no ideas? To be honest, I don't believe it.

Conclusion

I had no complaints about the quality of signal reception for almost a month of using the LG G5 SE. The loudspeaker volume is slightly above average, one speaker is used. In most situations, it is well audible if you set the volume to maximum. The speaker volume is also at a good level, there is a small margin for conversations in noisy rooms. The vibrating alert is average in strength.

The official cost of the LG G5 SE in Russia is 50,000 rubles (49,990), which is comparable to the Samsung Galaxy S7, Sony Xperia X Performance, HTC 10 and other flagships. Each of these smartphones has its strengths and weaknesses, of course, as does the LG G5 SE. My main complaint about the new LG smartphone comes down to one thing - it turned out to be vague. The company went too far into experiments, came up with replaceable modules, but did not develop this idea fully enough (two modules for release is not serious). Perhaps there will be new modules, but for now everything is like this. In the LG G4, there was an emphasis on interchangeable leather covers, a cool camera, in the LG G3 - on a high screen resolution, in the LG G2 - on thin bezels and compact dimensions. I used each of these devices as the main one for more than six months, which for a person who has the opportunity to change a smartphone literally once a week is a tangible period, you must agree. “Tubes” from LG I liked precisely their completeness. For my taste, this is exactly what the LG G5 SE lacks. There is a good screen, moderate dimensions, performance sufficient for work (although in SE tests it is inferior to all flagships on top platforms), battery life comparable to competitors, a very high-quality main camera, comparable to the LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S7, as well as an additional wide-angle camera for different situations, which is generally not yet available from other manufacturers. But still something is missing from this smartphone. Perhaps I waited too long for the neat work of improving the LG G4 in the new flagship, but received a completely different device, and my conclusions are connected with this. Don't know.

Fifth complete conversion of the flagship LG.

Introduction

The LG G5 is a solid change of pace for the South Korean company. The manufacturer has finally done away with the cheap plastic and leather trim of the LG G4 in favor of an all-metal body, while retaining all the features that fans love so much, including a removable battery and a microSD memory card.

And it's a big step, because Samsung disappointed the vast majority of its fans when it ditched the replaceable battery and storage expansion with the release of the metal Galaxy S6, it took a full year for the manufacturer to return microSD support to the Galaxy S7 Edge a year later.

And while the LG G5 may not look as ornate as the glass and metal of a Samsung smartphone or the aluminum Apple iPhone 6S, it's a step in the right direction after the dubious styling of the LG G4.

Moreover, the manufacturer makes it easier for advanced users to use the smartphone, for example, by offering access to the battery through a cartridge-type installation, so you do not have to remove the back panel of the device.

Its "magic slot" (Magic Slot) is located at the bottom of the smartphone, it is also used as an additional port. Add-ons are limited to a camera module with physical controls and a Hi-Fi Audio module for now.

• Stunning screen;
• Excellent performance;
• Wide angle camera lens;

• Questionable design;
• No app tray
• Battery could be better;

In fact, you don't need any of these accessories to enjoy camera capabilities or quality audio. The LG G5 offers an excellent dual camera on the back with a single lens that can capture wide-angle photos.

The front panel of the device is built around a 5.3-inch display. It never goes to sleep, constantly showing the time, date, and notification icons when the phone is turned off.

When it comes to price, we talk about $650 (about 44,000 rubles) for a brand new LG G5, which puts the smartphone just behind the Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S - although they are all in about the same price category.

The LG G5 smartphone now includes many parts, but if you put them together, can it get into? Let's see how he shows himself under a closer look. LG G5 review more…

LG G5 design

The look of the LG G5 is strikingly different from last year's LG G4, thanks in large part to the metal casing that easily pushes the plastic to the curb.

The metal body feels great in the hands, but the LG G5 struggles to look like the premium iPhone 6S and Samsung Galaxy S7. The problem is the thick paint layer that LG used for the G5.

Initially it looks like the LG G5 is made of plastic, but it's not, the solid aluminum frame becomes more and more evident the longer you use the smartphone. This doesn't mean that the LG G5 feels too cheap, nothing like that, but the final finish does not evoke soulful feelings.

The thin metal bezel that rounds the edges of the phone and the back adds to the appeal and impact of the phone, but I found it to be overly harsh. And while everything is not as bad as on the preliminary models of the smartphone, it could be done better.

Unlike Apple's smartphone, the LG G5 does not display antenna lines. You will not find unattractive stripes on the body, instead, the smartphone relies on a micro design that hides the contact inserts for the antenna signal.

This solution allows you to fully enjoy the color of the device, and in the case of the G5, you can choose from four colors: silver, titanium (gray), pink and gold. Our editorial staff visited a pre-release pink smartphone, which looked rather subdued. It's not nearly as dazzling as Apple's rose gold, but it looks passable.

The tint will likely appeal to some users, but nothing special for my taste. For a full review, the LG G5 came in silver, which is much more pleasing to the eye.

Another big design difference between the LG G5 and its predecessor is the ditching of the curved design.

Gone is the curved and distinctive style of the LG G4, as well as its acclaimed cousin, the LG G Flex 2, returning to the flat back that has been, and remains, the norm in the mobile market.

The reason LG has ditched the curved bezel is simple - consumers have preferred the flat designs of competing smartphones. And I agree, the new LG G5 feels much more balanced in the hand and is much easier to slip into your pocket.

Downsizing from the G4's 5.5-inch screen to a 5.3-inch screen, with a similar reduction in bezel thickness, makes the LG G5 lighter at 159 grams, which is very comfortable to hold thanks to 149.4 x 73.9 x 7 .7 mm.

I can get to any app across the entire screen without having to use a second hand, which fits in with the company's policy and promise to make a smartphone easier to use so you can recommend it to dad or mom. Comfort of course depends on the size of your palm, users with small hands will still find the G5 a bit large.

In fact, the new LG G5 is nearly identical in size to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, which, despite its large 5.5-inch display, manages to keep the dimensions of the smartphone to a minimum.

The LG G5's twin volume rocker has migrated to the left side of the frame, ending the company's unique decision to place buttons on the back of flagship smartphones.

And while I've gotten used to the quirky rear button layout and clean ribs with the early LG G2, G3, and G4 models, LG's signature feature has remained a drawback for many users.

And while I'm indifferent to the new volume rocker located on the side, changing the volume is much easier when the device is on the table. Unfortunately, you can't quite use the fingerprint scanner just as easily yet.

The power button still doubles as the G5's fingerprint scanner, and while it's better than the dubious LG V10 experiment, it's undersized.

Like the Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P, the scanner can turn on the smartphone and quickly unlock the screen without having to press a button. There is no two step process like press and hold like on the LG V10.

The soft bump that houses the power button also makes the scanner easier to find, but we'd like to see a slightly larger landing pad for this feature. But the location of the scanner on the back is the smartphone's Achilles' heel.

Typically, my phone is on my desktop, face up, and if I want to unlock my phone to read a message, I'll have to type in a code - ugh, how slow - or pick up my phone to put my finger on the scanner.

With Galaxy S7 and iPhone 6S, which have scanners located on the front of the smartphone, unlocking the device is much easier. Even the Sony Xperia Z5, with its side-mounted scanner, is much better in this regard.

Take a look at the back of the LG G5, this is exactly the area where most people will be able to unequivocally decide whether they like the design or hate the look of the smartphone. The protruding power button sits below a much stronger protruding area that houses the G5's dual-lens camera, LED flash, and laser autofocus.

The camera block has a significant presence on the back of the device, and some might be put off by a couple of nasty bumps on the back of the LG G5. On the other hand, as the review showed, the protrusions are minimal, and if you take a model in a darker, titanium color, for example, they seem much less obvious.

What I really didn't like was the headphone jack and speaker placement on the new LG G5. Headphones connect at the top of the smartphone, and if you have a 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC module, then you get a second headphone jack at the bottom. Strange.

Even worse, the speaker is located at the bottom. I sincerely hoped the LG G5 would get a pair of upgraded front speakers for stereo sound without resorting to headphones. Not this time.

LG has redesigned the bottom port, however. The smartphone now uses USB Type-C, which renders your Micro USB cables useless. Advantages? This is a reversible port, unlike other forms of USB.

This is a huge win for those who like to plug their smartphone into the charger in the dark. Just be prepared to carry both cables with you at all times as the Micro USB is likely to be used for every other device and accessory you own. The situation will not change in the next few years.

LG G5 Display

The LG G5 isn't trying to squeeze even more pixels out of its 5.3-inch panel, which is something I'm actually happy to see as the QHD resolution (2560 x 1440) is a smartphone ceiling that no one should break.

Reducing the screen diagonal, however, makes some difference. With a smaller size, the pixel density rises to 554 ppi, but everything else looks the same, including brightness.

The display isn't quite as bright as Samsung's Super AMOLED, but colors are still strong and there's enough brightness to provide a proper viewing experience.

Instead, LG includes an always-on screen feature with its LCD IPS panel, but you won't notice this feature until the phone goes to sleep.

The display panel curves at the top.

The active panel keeps most of the screen in the dark, but displays minimal information in the center, including the time, date, and notification icons.

After using the new Samsungs for a long time, I found the lack of a battery icon frustrating, sometimes I had to strain my eyes to make out the information on the active screen, because it was too dim.

However, the LG G5 has one major advantage over the Samsung - notifications. And while the Galaxy S7 duo only pops up icons for missed calls and text messages, the LG G5's active display pops up all your notification icons.

Here you can see the time, date and notification icons when the smartphone is sleeping.

This decision makes the G5's active display much more useful, as it lets you decide whether to light up the battery-hungry display to respond to a WhatsApp chat, or postpone it until the next use of the smartphone.

This is very useful because when I'm not wearing my smartwatch, I check my smartphone at least 100 times a day for various notifications. LG says that some users can do this more than 150 times a day.

Regardless of the purpose of viewing the phone, the active display delivers the essentials so you don't have to scan your fingerprint and wake up its power-hungry processor.

Since we are dealing with a QHD panel, the update is quite useful with the screen turned off.

The Moto X Style display does something similar, but the LG G5 delivers the information you need without the need for gestures and a bunch of IR sensors.

In terms of battery consumption, LG says this feature consumes about 0.8% extra charge per hour, which seems like a big trade-off at first glance.

But this solution consumes only 19.2% of the battery in 24 hours. Perhaps there is no need for this feature (you can turn it off) if you do not need to peek into your smartphone.

FriendsLGG5

The LG G5 is not alone. It actually comes with a range of accessories dubbed "LG Friends".

These Friends are a range of accessories designed to take your smartphone to the next level. I like the idea of ​​each of them, but at an early stage the relevance of the solution may be questionable.

There are currently only two modules available on the market that you can physically connect to the LG G5, they are Cam Plus and Hi-Fi Plus, the rest will come soon.

There are also accessories that don't rely on the G5's modular design. For example, the LG 360 VR headset, which allows you to record and watch videos in 360 degrees, as well as the cute robot LG Rolling Bot, a toy with a built-in security camera for the home.

All "friends" can be managed through the LG Friends app preinstalled on the G5.

Accessory LG Cam Plus

The LG Cam Plus replaces the G5's metal chin with a camera module with a rubber grip. The module offers a physical shutter button, a dedicated video recording key, a zoom wheel, and a built-in 1200 mAh battery.

Flip the LG G5 into landscape mode to take a photo and Cam Plus immediately comes into its own as it makes it easy to grab your smartphone in the right position and quickly take a picture without worrying about dropping your smartphone.

In trying to take a photo in portrait mode, however, things get awkward. Since the Cam Plus goes to the bottom of the smartphone, it's harder to hold and typing and general use is quite annoying. The power brick is a neat solution to keep the G5 going all day long, but I'd rather carry a charging cable with me.

Sure, it's nice to be able to use auto focus halfway down the shutter button, but it's not enough to make me grab the new LG G5 and run after the weird camera - especially since the module costs $69.99 ($4,700), a bit pricey, not find?

LGHi-fiPlus

The same can be said about Hi-Fi Plus. This is a portable Hi-Fi digital-to-audio converter that, although small, still increases the size of the smartphone by replacing the metal chin when installed, and it costs $200 (13,500 rubles). You can get a decent entry-level smartphone for the money.

The module adds a bit of extra length to the G5, but it's much less intrusive than the camera module, the phone still sits well in the hand and slips into a pocket without issue.

Tuned by Bang & Olufsen, LG monopolizes the 32-bit Hi-Fi DAC market in the mobile world. The manufacturer did a good job in this direction with the LG V10, but its large phablet received a built-in solution, not a separate accessory.

The module has its own headphone input, which means that if you use the Hi-Fi Plus module, the LG G5 will get two headphone jacks - one on the top and one on the bottom. This is not the biggest problem, but it seems like a miscalculation by LG.

The connection is simple, the sound is great, but I found playback from the original headphone jack to be poor. A small icon appears in the notification bar during playback, indicating enhanced audio capabilities.

I've switched between the two ports many times to appreciate the difference, and while the Hi-Fi Plus does deliver the best sound, I wouldn't say there's a big gap between the two.

The more sophisticated audiophiles among users would probably appreciate the performance of the Hi-Fi Plus, but for someone like me, it's hard to justify such a significant extra expense.

Features and performance of the LG G5

The specifications of the LG G5 keep pace with the Samsung Galaxy S7 by using Qualcomm's latest processor and 4GB of RAM, a must-have for 2016's flagship Android smartphones.

Inside the smartphone, you will find the Snapdragon 820, which contrasts very strongly with the LG G4 when it comes to dry performance.

A year ago, the company deliberately refrained from using the fickle Snapdragon 810 in favor of the more robust Snapdragon 808. Samsung easily beat LG's flagships in terms of performance, just like the others.

Now we're getting a much more relevant player on the pitch between these two South Korean mobile giants, at least in the US, where Samsung is using the same Qualcomm chip. The advantage of LG is the fact of using the MicroSD slot.

With the extra memory, we get the 32GB expandability, like on the G4, up to a theoretical 2TB, although someone should release an XXL microSD card first.

LG's user interface has become significantly brighter, but this is not an overhaul, only cosmetics. The icons seem a little more rounded, and the quick settings menu is not as monotonous.

This is all paired with Android 6.0 Marshmallow, a new version of the OS that should prove useful for saving battery life.

Scrolling through menus on the LG G5 felt smooth and incredibly fast, even with all the apps loaded on the device.

I was careful since LG got rid of the app tray so the entire home screen was filled with apps. As with the iPhone, all apps are stored on the home screens, and folders remain the only solution to this mess.

The solution gets easier, but not necessarily better. After hearing those complaints, LG reversed its drastic decision a few days before the release, pushing the app tray to the far corner - though you'll have to download an older version of the UI to bring it back.

Pull down the notification bar and you'll be greeted with a series of quick settings.

Unlike vanilla Android and Samsung's latest iteration of TouchWiz, you won't be able to swipe down again to expand the menu. Instead, you should scroll through the icons on the side to see more settings.

By clicking on the pencil icon, you can reorder, remove or add settings to the panel - but this will only make the menu a little more intuitive.

The LG G5's built-in on-screen keyboard isn't impressive. While it responds properly, throughout my review of the LG G5, I noticed poor accuracy, and the word prediction engine is nowhere near as good as third-party manufacturers like SwiftKey, for example.

A run of the flagship LG G5 on GeekBench 3 returned an average multi-core test score of 5386, which is very good, on par with the Galaxy S7 (on Snapdragon) - 5398 points.

However, the new LG G5 smartphone is forced to follow Samsung's flagship Exynos chipset (in Russia), which squeezes out 6542 points, but the G5 effortlessly outperforms the iPhone 6S (4417) and Sony Xperia Z5 (4015).

What does all of this mean? Great performance, that's what. Apps load quickly, navigation is very smooth, and I also found that the G5 can handle any task that the user throws at it.

Compare it to the competition, because when it comes to performance, the new LG G5 is not going to give up.

LG G5 Camera

What I like about LG smartphones is the perpetual risk taking with new technologies, which happened a lot before the manufacturer implemented the LG G5 dual camera.

Unlike previous smartphones like the HTC One M8 and Honor 6 Plus that used dual lenses to create a single photo with added depth, the LG G5 wants to use each camera independently.

Around the back, you'll find a 16MP camera and an 8MP wide-angle camera. Switching between them from the application is very simple. Simply click on the tree rectangle to use the 16MP camera, or on the three tree rectangle to switch to the wide angle.

The dual camera is another unique LG concept.

And while the second camera seems to be the weakest by default, due to the smaller number of megapixels, I like it more, thanks to the wide-angle lens.

With a stunning 135 degrees, the camera actually sees more than the human eye (roughly 120 to 124 degrees). With this field of view, the camera can capture everything you see and a little more.

This means that an iconic high-rise building, a wide beach or a long spaceship behind you can be photographed on the first try, without the need for panorama mode.

And while the LG G5's wide-angle camera captures everything you could want, I noticed a drop in quality between the 16MP and 8MP sensors when viewed on a computer.

To be fair, photos from the 8MP camera can look a bit washed out, while the 16MP camera delivers vibrant colors and depth.

You can resort to panoramic photography, but it takes time, and not everyone gets a panorama. If I want to photograph myself, my loved ones and everything else in the frame, this is the easiest way.

When I photographed the landscape on the beach, I was able to capture the entire horizon from end to end, and not just a small segment. There is a slight fisheye effect, but the photos look good, even if the practicality of this decision is limited to a few scenarios, the wide-angle lens is very good.

The use of two cameras is not without drawbacks, on the other hand, WhatsApp, for example, opts for a wide-angle 8-megapixel camera with a fisheye effect by default. This didn't happen with other apps like FaceBook, Twitter and Snapchat, they used a 16MP lens by default.

This could be a software quirk as the LG G5 review isn't the final production model, so let's keep our fingers crossed. It would be nice to be able to switch between cameras from third-party applications - but such a solution is not to be expected.

What the smartphone lacks is a selfie camera with a wide-angle lens. The wide-angle front camera worked great on the LG V10, but its all-seeing camera didn't find its way onto the LG G5. There are alternatives in the execution of the software, but it is too early to talk about them.

Battery life

The LG G5 is a rare breed of smartphone these days as it offers a removable battery.

A few years ago, this was commonplace as you could remove the battery from your phone, buy a spare, and change them when one battery ran out. However, smartphones have become demanding in terms of style and fashion, so the days of removable batteries are numbered.

LG is one of the latest strongholds in the battle for removable batteries - a button on the left side of the G5 lets you pull the bottom bezel out of the phone when pressed. The sliding part of this panel includes a power supply from LG, which you can remove with a lot of force.

I was worried that I might damage the connectors, it takes so much effort to remove the battery and I'm afraid this may be the weak point of the new LG G5 in the long run.

The new G5 comes with a 2800mAh battery pack, which is actually smaller than the LG G4 and Samsung Galaxy S7 batteries - both of which use a 3000mAh battery.

Not only are these disappointing numbers, they are, unfortunately, hurting the results. With moderate to heavy use, I found the LG G5 didn't make it through the day.

I was forced to regularly charge my smartphone before leaving the office if I wanted the review LG G5 to last until the end of the day, and with a USB Type-C connection and no wireless charging, the process becomes even more difficult.

It's not that I'm complaining about the use of a USB Type-C port - this is a new technology that is being found on phones more and more often. This is a great solution, but while I have a huge amount of microUSB cables, I am quite limited when it comes to a new connector.

You need to remember to carry your charger with you if you use it moderately or heavily, as the G5 needs to be topped up at some point during the workday.

Digging deeper into battery usage, the main culprits are the screen (not surprising) and idling (much more surprising).

In fact, standby power can drain up to 20% of your battery capacity, daily. The numbers are incredibly high considering the smartphone is idle most of the time.

Start using the G5 and heavy games like Real Racing 3 and your battery will go down the drain, but even normal web browsing and social networking consumes too much power.

I could sometimes drain my battery by more than 25% in a morning, literally in the first three hours, which involves streaming Spotify music, a few rounds of Royale Clan, and checking email.

The LG G5's specs are no worse than the Galaxy S7's, but it easily lasts a full day, even with heavy use.

There is a power saver mode that helps reduce power consumption by lowering background activity and screen brightness, allowing you to last a little longer, but ideally I wouldn't want to use power saver modes in the middle of the day.

Imagine my surprise when I ran a traditional battery test on the G5 with video looping and it only lost 9% of power - an impressive result.

The test involves playing 90 minutes of HD video at full brightness with Wi-Fi active, and syncing in the background.

Battery consumption is better than the Galaxy S7 (13%), which has a smaller display, as well as LG G4 (15%). Its performance is also better than the iPhone 6S (30%) and Sony Xperia Z5 (25%).

The way to bypass the stock battery is by investing in the G5's LG Cam Plus module, which boasts a built-in 1200mAh battery, as well as a shutter key, zoom wheel, record button and manual grip.

At $69.99, this is not the easiest fix and, as I wrote in the previous review section, the module significantly increases the size of the tube, making it impractical to use once you stop filming.

Using the LG G5 for several days with the Cam Plus module, I was able to easily get a full day of work from the phone, and under certain conditions, I could increase this period to a day and a half.

Verdict

LG always offers something slightly different from other flagship smartphones. Curved displays and self-healing coatings, leather trims and modular designs, the South Korean firm loves to roam uncharted paths.

And I love it. In a market dominated by almost indistinguishable glass and metal tiles, LG brings a touch of intrigue - though the company's solutions don't always fully pay off.

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge offer the perfect blend of features, design and performance - and while the LG G5 is great, it just doesn't feel complete.

We liked: The performance of the LG G5 is beyond praise. Snapdragon 820 and 4 GB of RAM form a perfect tandem, any tasks on the smartphone are performed quickly and easily.

I've become a fan of the QHD display, which at 5.3 inches is perfect for watching Netflix or gaming sessions - though it's not nearly as good as Samsung's Super AMOLED.

The dual cameras on the back of the G5 are also a great addition - with the 8MP wide-angle lens, you get a truly useful feature that's easy to use and capable of capturing impressive shots. The 16-megapixel camera is not far behind, even in automatic mode it can take amazing pictures.

Let's not forget the modularity of the G5, an area that has excited all tech geeks and is currently in need of development. Someone had to pioneer this technology, but the costly Cam Plus and Hi-Fi Plus modules are not ideal.

It is hoped that third-party developers will roll out some really amazing modules next year to further develop the LG G5. For now though, you'll be limited to what's available if you buy the LG G5.

We didn't like: The main stumbling block of the LG G5, for my taste, was battery life. After the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, the LG G5 just can't compete, which is a real shame.

Too often, the smartphone died when I left work, and completely turned off shortly after returning home - this means that additional charging during the day becomes a must for those who see themselves as a moderate or heavy user.

The always-on display is a welcome addition, mimicking Samsung's offering, this solution makes notifications available but feels too dim. Although, given the G5's suspicious battery drain, I'm afraid that the brightness of the secondary screen will be increased with a firmware update, which could hurt the smartphone's battery life.

It's nice to finally see LG use an all-metal body for its flagship smartphone, but the thick coat of primer/paint washes all the shine of the premium materials off the phone. It doesn't look like a Galaxy S7, HTC One M9 or iPhone 6S in hand - another stone in the LG G5 garden.

Final verdict

The LG G5 is an exceptional and slightly funny smartphone. It gives us a glimpse of the future thanks to its modular design, but the true potential of this solution has yet to be realized and will remain so for some time until new and exciting modular components are introduced.

What now? This is a well-constructed smartphone with a premium design - although not as premium as the competition - a huge amount of power and a smart dual camera on the back.

This is not to say that the smartphone suffers from a lack of any functional solutions, but somehow the G5 is not quite complete. Nothing critical, but the battery could be better, lacking a little more attention from the manufacturer to make the G5 fit into a neat package.

If you're looking for a new Android smartphone, the Galaxy S7 still offers the best and most comprehensive experience, but for those looking for something a little different, the LG G5 has a few options to whet your appetite.

Fine!

The G5 shows LG's next step towards its flagship series, with metal construction, side-mounted buttons and, as always, a new display.