LG G5 review

If the LG G5 was just another Android rectangle, I could end this review right now with the words “buy the Galaxy S7 Edge.” LG’s riposte to Samsung is, however, more ambitious than a single phone. The G5’s intrigue stems from a set of extra accessories that plug directly into its bottom, augmenting its battery life, camera controls, and audio performance. Think of it as a Game Boy with functionality cartridges, if you will.

Modularity holds out the promise of greater versatility than a regular smartphone, and it also offers a route to upgrading and improving the G5 long after its initial purchase. In a market full of mostly cosmetic or battery-enhancing accessories, a phone that can truly be augmented with plug-in extras stands out as a tantalizing proposition.



In one important way, the G5 is already a winner for LG. This phone swept everyone up in a happy whirlwind of hype during Mobile World Congress, collecting the organizers’ prize for best new mobile device and eliciting praise from fans and critics for the boldness of its design. People, it turns out, are still in love with the idea of modular gadgets. After decades of convergence being the organizing principle of tech innovation, we’re now seeing a renewed interest in physical objects, and LG’s G5 is perfectly timed to crest that wave of nostalgia.



Without consideration of its Friends, the LG G5 reminds me of a smaller Nexus 6P. It’s built out of a similar aluminum, has a similar camera bump (albeit with two cameras rather than one), and has an identically positioned fingerprint reader at the back. The G5 integrates the power button and fingerprint sensor into one, however, which has an annoying side effect: very often, I would go to press the power button to turn on the phone, but it would recognize my fingerprint first, unlock, and then immediately switch off at my actual press of the button.



The major physical difference between LG’s G5 and the 5.7-inch Nexus 6P is in the width of the two devices. Single-handed use is typically a chore on the 6P and other devices in its size class (like LG’s own V10), but it’s quite comfortable on the G5. LG has improved the shape and ergonomics from the 5.5-inch G4 as well, with the new, narrower phone feeling more natural and easy to hold.

The thing that LG design continues to lack, however, is refinement. The rear edge around the sides of the phone is chamfered (with a couple of unsightly breaks at the top) and weirdly sharp. That light-catching chamfer makes little sense when you consider that it has no design coherence with either of LG’s plug-in modules — it just serves to highlight the dissonance between the handset and the module jacked into it. Another sharp edge can be found at the bottom of the G5 when no Friends are connected, as the detachable "chin" of the phone doesn’t sit perfectly flush with it. I’m inclined to take some sanding paper to the whole thing to make it suitable for human use. So yes, the LG G5 is an ergonomic advancement over the G4, but it introduces its own imperfections in moving to this modular design.



The action of swapping the Friends modules can, at its best, feel delightful. LG deliberately made the process reminiscent of swapping out a gun magazine, and when you manage to do everything right, it feels pretty seamless. But it’s the battery that causes the most friction, as most of the time you’ll be struggling to detach it, wondering if you really should be pulling with quite so much force, or reinserting it the wrong way around.

THE FRIEND MODULES SACRIFICE THE G5'S FORM IN ORDER TO ADD MORE FUNCTIONALITY
As to the Friends themselves, let’s start with the 32-bit DAC2 (digital-to-analog converter) and amplifier contained within the Bang & Olufsen-branded Hi-Fi Plus module. It’s an upgrade over the Hi-Fi DAC contained in LG’s V10 from last year, which supported only a limited number of music apps. This new part upscales and prettifies all audio coming from the LG G5’s headphone jack, and I like what I’m hearing. Not everyone will be blown away by the difference between the G5’s integrated audio components and the Hi-Fi Plus, but once you plug in a more demanding headphone such as Audeze’s EL-8, the difference becomes easily recognizable. Where the G5 by itself sounds hollow and lifeless, the B&O module restores vitality and dynamism — this Friend can actually drive big and powerful headphones, though not to a very high volume. Overall, I like it and would make use of it, but I must reiterate my aesthetic complaint from above: the black plastic Hi-Fi Plus module looks like a pair of casual sneakers worn with the smart aluminum suit of the G5 itself.



LG’s Cam Plus bumps the G5’s battery from 2,800mAh to 4,000mAh and adds a two-stage shutter key, a video recording button, and a zooming jog dial. Its stated purpose is to make single-handed photography a breeze, though it doesn’t quite live up to its aspirations. Trying to use the Cam Plus with just one hand invariably leads to issues about where to put my thumb, which gravitates toward the G5’s screen, resulting in accidental taps. The zooming dial on the Cam Plus is frictionless and has no discrete stages, so it feels unpleasant and imprecise when I’m trying to adjust it. On the positive side of things, it does switch automatically between the two rear-mounted cameras on the G5, depending on how wide I want the shot to be.