LG G2 T-Mobile Review

LG is a very well-established brand with their wide range of consumer electronics and appliances. I bought many LG products like TVs, washing machines or cellphones, however, I am not a fan of this brand at all. The only reason I chose LG is because their products are priced very reasonably compared to competitors.

Regarding smartphone, I tried the LG Optimus G last year but it didn’t meet my expectation as the battery life, UI and design are terrible. Therefore, I’m not really confident with products from LG. Now, I’ve got the chance to review the new LG G2 T-Mobile version. Could this phone change my opinion or it is just another cheap product from LG? Let’s check out my review.

Design

The LG G2 has a very unique design as LG places the power and volume buttons on the back of the phone, right below its rear camera. The rear-key placement is said to offer easy control with your index finger, and I really love the new placement instead of on sides like other smartphones. The change makes the overall look of the phone very clean as there is no visible button on the front.

The back case seems to be non-removable, but actually it can be removed by popping the sim card tray out and pulling the case up. However, there is no microSD card or anything you can find here. The back case is made of plastic but it doesn’t look cheap at all, I am very impressed with its solid build quality. The only thing I hate is that the glossy cover is so easily to catch dirt and finger oil.

The LG G2 features a 5.2-inch screen but it is even thinner than the HTC One because the bezels are reduced significantly. Therefore, the screen is still big enough for you to enjoy the content and it also easily fits into your pocket.

Watch the video below to see the unboxing and initial setup for the device.

Features and User Experience

The 5.2-inch Full HD IPS display reaches the pixel density of 435 ppi and it looks quite amazing. The images are vibrant and colorful. However, when I compared to the iPhone 5S and HTC One, it seems like the display is not as sharp as the others. Also when I change to lower viewing angles, the screen becomes quite dim. The good thing is that it is brighter when you look upfront.

Although the new design brings power button right under my index finger, I actually don’t use it much because the LG G2 has a very interesting feature, KnockON. I simply can wake the device by tapping on the screen twice, then I can turn it off also by tapping twice on any blank space. This is a very convenient feature in my opinion and I use it all the time instead of pressing the power button. Sometimes it doesn’t wake up but I try again and it definitely works, 75% of my taps are successful in the first attempt.

Settings of the phone allows me to configure many things, like the gestures, effects, home screen settings, lock screen settings or system settings.

One thing I am disappointed is the pre-installed apps like Voice Mate or Quick Memo. While the Voice Mate is very slow and sometimes not responding, the Quick Memo app is subpar compared to S-Memo along with S-Pen on Samsung Galaxy Note 3.

The multitasking features QSlide and Slide Aside are very interesting. QSlide allows us to open an app in a small window, make it transparent and still can interact with the screen beneath. The Slide Aside can help us save apps and then we can reopen them again by swiping 3 fingers from left side of the screen. The Slide Aside feature is not really necessary because I prefer using the Android’s Recent Apps menu by double-clicking on the Home button.

Watch this video to learn more about above features:

I am also impressed with performance of the G2. It is one of the fastest smartphones on the market, everything runs smoothly and I hardly see any delay or freeze at all. This must be the result of 2GB of RAM and powerful Qualcomm’s 2.26GHz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor.

Battery Life

This is one of the most important reason why I am using the G2. The 3,000 mAh battery is more than enough to keep the device for 1 day and a half. Even for heavy use, the phone also can easily last until the end of the day.

The 5V-2A charger also helps charge the phone faster. It takes just about 80 minutes for me to charge the phone from 10% to 100%. Overall, the battery really makes my life more comfortable because I don’t have to bring the backup battery or charger anymore (As long as I remember to charge the phone everyday). I didn’t use the phone much at weekends and I’m really impressed as it could last from Friday night to Monday morning.

Camera

The camera features 13MP censor with autofocus, optical image stabilization and LED flash. The camera produces very impressive images in low light conditions, the OIS feature works well even though I am still seeing little blur. The autofocus is quite slow in my test and it leads to shutter lag, it often takes about 1-2 seconds after I tap on the shutter button to capture photos.

On the positive side, quality of images is very accurate, full of details and bright. Check out some image samples below:

The camera also can capture 1080p HD videos with 60 fps. The output video is very clear, colorful and I don’t have any complaint at all. Here is the video sample:

Pros

• Modern design and great build quality.
• Super fast performance.
• Long battery life.
• Good camera.
• Decent big display.

Cons

• Pre-installed apps are almost useless.
• Autofocus of camera is quite slow.
• No microSD card slot.

The LG G2 is available on T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, you can also buy the unlocked version for around $500. This is really a great smartphone that is priced reasonably. TechWalls recommends this product.