The LG G4 is an
Android smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...
developed by
LG Electronics
LG Electronics Inc. () is a South Korean multinational electronics company headquartered in Yeouido-dong, Seoul, South Korea. LG Electronics is a part of LG Corporation, the fourth largest '' chaebol'' in South Korea, and often considered ...
as part of the
LG G series
The LG G series was a line of Android devices produced by LG Electronics. The "G" designation was first introduced in 2012 as a branch of the LG Optimus series for flagship devices, but LG announced in July 2013 that the "Optimus" name would be d ...
. Unveiled on 28 April 2015 and first released in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
on 29 April 2015 and widely released in June 2015, as the successor to 2014's
G3. The G4 is primarily an evolution of the G3, with revisions to its overall design, display and camera.
The G4 received mixed to positive reviews; while praising the G4's display quality, camera, and overall performance, critics characterized the G4 as being a robust device that did not contain enough substantial changes or innovation over its predecessor to make the device stand out against its major competitors, but could appeal to power users needing a smartphone with expandable storage and a removable battery due to the exclusion of these features from its main competitor on launch, the
Samsung Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...
.
[
The device also became the subject of criticism due to instances of hardware failure caused by manufacturing defects, deemed " bootloops", which culminated in a class-action lawsuit filed in March 2017.]
Specifications
Hardware
Design
The design of the G4 is an evolution of the G3, maintaining elements such as its rear-located volume and camera buttons. Several back cover options are available, including plastic covers with a diamond pattern and plastic covers coated in leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hog ...
, stitched down the middle. Six leather color options are available.
Display, chipsets, battery
The G4 features a , 1440p
1440p is a family of video display resolutions that have a vertical resolution of 1440 pixels. The ''p'' stands for progressive scan, i.e. non-interlaced. The 1440 pixel vertical resolution is double the vertical resolution of 720p, and one-third ...
"Quantum IPS" display, which LG stated would provide better contrast, color accuracy and energy efficiency over another display that LG did not explicitly specify. The G4 utilizes a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 with 3 GB of RAM, consisting of four low-power Cortex-A53 cores and two Cortex-A57
The ARM Cortex-A57 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings. The Cortex-A57 is an out-of-order superscalar pipeline. It is available as SIP core to licensees, and its design makes it ...
cores.
The G4 includes a removable 3000 mAh battery and supports Qualcomm Quick Charge
Quick Charge (QC) is a proprietary battery charging protocol developed by Qualcomm, used for managing power delivered over USB, mainly by communicating to the power supply and negotiating a voltage.
Quick Charge is supported by devices such as ...
2.0 technology with a compatible AC adapter, which is not included. The G4 comes with 32GB of storage with the option to expand the amount of available storage with a microSD card up to 2 TB in size.
Camera
The rear-facing camera has a 16-megapixel
In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device.
In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...
sensor with a f/1.8 aperture lens, infrared active autofocus, three-axis optical image stabilization
Image stabilization (IS) is a family of techniques that reduce motion blur, blurring associated with the motion of a camera or other imaging device during exposure (photography), exposure.
Generally, it compensates for panning (camera), pan an ...
, and LED flash. A " RGB color spectrum sensor" is located below the flash, which analyzes ambient lighting to optimize the white balance
In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors). An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neu ...
and flash color to generate more natural-looking images. The front-facing camera is 8-megapixels with an aperture of f/2.0.
While main camera is able to record video at 2160p
4K resolution refers to a horizontal display resolution of approximately 4,000 pixels. Digital television and digital cinematography commonly use several different 4K resolutions. In television and consumer media, 38402160 (4K UHD) is the dominan ...
(4K) with 30 fps and 720p (HD) with 120fps, 1080p
1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen ve ...
(Full HD) is unconventionally limited to 30fps, rather than 60fps, as from competing mobile phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...
, the HTC One M9
The HTC One M9 is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by HTC. The third-generation One was officially unveiled in a press conference at Mobile World Congress on March 1, 2015, and it was released worldwide on April 10, 2015. It is t ...
and the iPhone 6
The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are smartphones that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the eighth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S, and were announced on September 9, 2014, and rele ...
.
Software
The G4 is supplied with Android 5.1 "Lollipop", although the overall user experience is relatively similar to that of the G3.[ The camera software was upgraded with raw image support, along with a new manual mode offering the ability to adjust the focus, ]shutter speed
In photography, shutter speed or exposure time is the length of time that the film or digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light (that is, when the camera's shutter is open) when taking a photograph.
The amount of light that rea ...
, ISO and white balance
In photography and image processing, color balance is the global adjustment of the intensities of the colors (typically red, green, and blue primary colors). An important goal of this adjustment is to render specific colors – particularly neu ...
. Optionally, a photo can be taken automatically by double-clicking the lower volume button when the screen is off.[ The "Glance View" feature allows users to view notifications when the display is off by dragging down.]
On October 14, 2015, LG announced that the G4 would be upgraded to Android 6.0 "Marshmallow", with its release beginning in Poland the following week. followed by releases in other European countries, South Korea, and in the U.S. on Sprint. It enables new features such as "Google Now on Tap
Google Now was a feature of Google Search of the Google app for Android and iOS. Google Now proactively delivered information to users to predict (based on search habits and other factors) information they may need in the form of informational ...
", which allows users to perform searches within the context of information currently being displayed on-screen, and "Doze", which optimizes battery usage when the device is not being physically handled. By February 2016, it had reached wider distribution, such as in Canada. Android 7.0 "Nougat" became available for selected models in July 2017.
Reception
The G4 was met with mixed to positive reception from critics. ''The Verge
''The Verge'' is an American technology news website operated by Vox Media, publishing news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.
The website launched on November 1, 2011, and uses Vox Media ...
'' felt that the G4 could appeal to power users alienated by the removal of expandable storage and replaceable batteries on the then-recently released Samsung Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...
. The display was praised for its improved color accuracy and energy efficiency over the G3, remarking that it was "as good, if not better", than the S6. The G4's rear camera was praised for its quality and color reproduction, along with its "comprehensive" manual mode and its "uncommon" ability to save raw images, but it was noted that its autofocus sometimes missed focus or took long to achieve focus, and that the manual mode did not offer saturation or sharpness controls. LG's software was criticized for being relatively unchanged from the G3, and for suffering from feature creep
Feature creep is the excessive ongoing expansion or addition of new features in a product, especially in computer software, video games and consumer and business electronics. These extra features go beyond the basic function of the product an ...
and "ugly" aesthetics. The G4 given a 7.9 out of 10, concluding that it "actually functions just fine — but you're not going to see it in the hands of every person at the state fair this summer."
The performance of the LG G4 was contrasted to devices that utilize Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 (such as the LG G Flex 2
LG Corporation (or LG Group) (), formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995 (Korean: ''Leokki Geumseong''; ), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is ...
), which was known to have overheating problems. ''Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sc ...
'' felt that the need to throttle CPU-intensive tasks to prevent overheating had a negative effect on the 810's performance, arguing that as a result, the G4's Snapdragon 808 performed better in some cases than the 810 (represented in comparison testing by the HTC One M9
The HTC One M9 is an Android smartphone manufactured and marketed by HTC. The third-generation One was officially unveiled in a press conference at Mobile World Congress on March 1, 2015, and it was released worldwide on April 10, 2015. It is t ...
), but that the Exynos
Exynos, formerly Hummingbird (), is a series of ARM-based system-on-chips developed by Samsung Electronics' System LSI division and manufactured by Samsung Foundry. It is a continuation of Samsung's earlier S3C, S5L and S5P line of SoCs.
E ...
processor of the Galaxy S6 had better overall performance than the two Snapdragon chips on benchmarks. Considering its camera to be the best part of the device, ''Ars Technica'' concluded that the G4 was "a perfectly competent smartphone, but doesn't really stand out much."
Technical problems
Touchscreen problems
Some users reported inconsistencies in the performance of the G4's touchscreen, with some units—particularly U.S. T-Mobile and Verizon variants—having problems registering quick taps and swipes. LG released an update to fix the problem in its keyboard app in June 2015, followed by Verizon releasing a major OTA update in November 2015 to fix the touchscreen problems and address other problems with the device.
"Bootloop" hardware failure
In January 2016, LG confirmed that some G4 units had a manufacturing defect that eventually caused them to enter an unrecoverable reboot loop, resulting from "loose contact between components". The company stated that it would repair or replace affected devices under warranty at no charge.
In March 2017, a class-action lawsuit was filed against LG Electronics in the U.S. state of California, alleging that despite acknowledging its existence, LG continued to produce units of the G4 and its sister model, the V10, with the defect, and distributed phones that could succumb to the defects as warranty replacements. The lawsuit stated that LG did not recall
Recall may refer to:
* Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop
* Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure
* ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted language learning
* Recall (memory)
* ''Recall'' (Overwatc ...
or "offer an adequate remedy to consumers" who bought the two models, nor provide any remedy for devices that fell outside of the one-year warranty period. The lawsuit was never certified as a class action
A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...
, and was sent to arbitration
Arbitration is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) that resolves disputes outside the judiciary courts. The dispute will be decided by one or more persons (the 'arbitrators', 'arbiters' or 'arbitral tribunal'), which renders the ...
. In January 2018, LG agreed to pay the participants in the lawsuit a $700 credit towards the purchase of a LG smartphone or $425.[ Since the lawsuit was not certified as a class action, consumers not actually participating in the lawsuit did not receive any payment.
]
See also
* Comparison of smartphones
This is a comparison of the various internal components and features of many smartphones.
Hardware and OS
2020s 2022
2021
2020
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2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
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References
External links
*
{{Android smartphones
Android (operating system) devices
G4
Smartphones
Mobile phones introduced in 2015
Mobile phones with user-replaceable battery
Mobile phones with 4K video recording
Discontinued smartphones
Mobile phones with infrared transmitter