LG G5 review

Name: LG G5 review
Item: LG G5 review
Rating: 3.50
Author: By IDG News Service staff

With an improved battery swapping system, the LG G5 isn't a bad phone, per se. But various other features probably looked better in the R&D lab than they do in real life.

By IDG News Service staff

PC World

13/04/16

Expert Rating

3.50 / 5

Pros

Innovative
Great screen
Fast

Cons

Feels half-baked
Build quality issues

Bottom Line

The innovative features are flawed to one degree or another, casting a dark shadow on a phone that otherwise does have a lot of offer.

Would you buy this?

Yes 3
No 3

Price
$ 1,099.00 (AUD)

Is a wide-angle camera a real innovation?

One of the best features of last year’s G4 is its 16-megapixel rear camera with f/1.8 aperture and laser autofocus. The sensor itself is great, but the phone’s manual software controls are even better. The G4 lets you manually adjust white balance, focus, exposure, ISO, and shutter speed—from 1/3200ths to an insane 30 seconds. You can even save your shots as RAW files. The upshot is that you can execute a wide range of effects and treatments with editing software that were heretofore only available in expensive stand-alone cameras.

The camera package is one of the reasons I recommended the G4 so highly. And now that very same package is back in the G5. But this time it’s augmented by a second rear camera... which is more gimmicky and one-dimensional than impressive.

lg g5 adjusting iso — **The LG G5’s manual camera controls give you DSLR-caliber options, like controlling ISO.**

The second camera is only 8-megapixels and the aperture drops down in quality to f/2.4. But where the standard rear camera is limited to a 78-degree field of view, the second camera can capture a more panoramic image with a field of view of 135 degrees. Both cameras share a single software interface, and you switch from one to the other by pinch-zooming on your camera preview screen.

lg g5 standard lens — **The front straight at Laguna Seca, shot from the flag station with the LG G5’s standard 16-megapixel camera at its widest (78 degrees) field of view.**

It’s an easy system to use, but the wide-angle camera introduces significant fish-eye distortion, and has limited applications. LG suggests using it to get more people into a group shot, but your friends on the edges of the photo will look like they’re being stretched by a fun-house mirror.

lg g5 wide angle lens — **The front straight at Laguna Seca shot with the LG G5’s 8-megapixel wide-angle lens at its widest (135 degrees) field of view. Note the distortion of the white line in the lower left.**

You can also use both cameras together to create “pop-out pictures” where an image from the wide-angle camera is surrounded by an image from the standard camera. Add in wacky filters like Fish Eye and Lens Blur, and you have the kind of horrible decoupage that only appears in third-grade art projects. It’s another feature that would have made Steve Jobs apoplectic.

The dual-camera feature feels like another missed opportunity—or wild shot in the dark—from LG’s engineering team. You can tell they’re trying hard to innovate, but the results just aren’t classy.

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