The LG G5: A powerhouse smartphone that lets you play more
Probably one of the most sought-after smartphones that blew away the Mobile World Congress last February 2016 is the LG G5, one of the newest and most powerful smartphones to-date that comes with really cool features and accessories (called LG Friends) that reinforce LG’s theme for this tech beauty — “Life’s Good When You Play More“.
The LG G5 sports a 5.3″screen display, 4GB RAM, 32 GB storage (expandable via micro SD card up to 2TB), 16MP rear cam, and 8MP front cam. It has a 2800 mAh removable battery and comes in the following colors: silver, titan, gold, and pink.
At its launch recently, we learned about some of the great features of the LG G5:
- Always On display – Even with the phone on sleep mode, the time and date are continuously displayed. You need not turn the phone on to see it — an important feature when you need to always be mindful of the time as a busy person.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor – This powerful, yet energy-efficient, processor delivers high-resolution DSLR-quality images and power savings. It has an integrated modem that supports Category 12 download speeds up to 600 Mbps and LTE Category 13 uplink speeds up to 150 Mbps.
- aptX HD Hi-Fi Wireless Audio – This is an enhanced codec that supports 24-bit sound over Bluetooth. What does that mean? It means rich and clear sounds over wireless connections without any degradation — Hi-Fi sound that is very close to the original sound.
- Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 – Who doesn’t love quick charging? I do! Well, the LG G5 is incredibly fast in this category. In this article, the reviewer said this about his test of the quick charge feature of the G5: “The G5 was half-charged after just 26 minutes and charging didn’t slow until we hit the 90 percent mark at 56 minutes. The G5 then took a further twenty minutes to charge the final 10 percent, hitting a full battery charge at one hour and 16 minutes.“
- Low Power Location Estimation (LPLE) Technology – Even if 2800mAh seems like a very low battery capacity, the efficiency of the LG G5 is such that battery efficiency is enhanced by as much as 41.9%. This is achieved because the power consumption from location-based apps has been greatly improved.
That’s not all! The LG G5 comes with awesome accessories (LG Friends) that really expanded the functionality of the smartphone by transforming it into a digital camera, Hi-Fi player, and much more. A display area outside the media launch ballroom gave us a chance to experience these ourselves. Here are some of what I tried:
- The LG 360 VR – The VR goggles connects to the G5 via a dedicated cable and simulates a 130-inch TV viewed from two meters away. The goggles can be folded, making it portable and easy to view VR content anytime. It only weighs 134g and delivers very realistic resolution. I went on a virtual rollercoaster ride that took me first around the rollercoaster, then around skyscrapers, then diving down into the depths of the sea using the LG 360 VR feature. It felt so real, I have to say, I felt dizzy afterwards!
- LG Tone Platinum – This is a Bluetooth headset that gives out superior sound quality that it has earned the Harman Kardon Platinum grade. It is also the first Bluetooth headset equipped with aptX HDcodec for great Hi-Fi sound in a wireless device.
- LG 360 Cam – This is a compact 360-degree angle camera equipped with two 13-megapixel 200-degree wide-angle cameras, a 1200mAh battery, and 4GB internal memory which can also be supplemented by a micro SD card. Images taken with this cam can be uploaded to Google Street View and YouTube360 and can be viewed on the LG 360 VR or other devices that can show 360-degree content.
- LG Rolling Bot – This ball reminds me of BB8 in the recent Star Wars movie. With the LG G5, you can control the LG Bot, let it roll around the house, and it sends back real-time video of what is going on in different rooms of your home with its 8-megapixel camera. You can even control this remotely to monitor your home. Here’s a short video of what it can do.
There are still many more LG Friends that extend the functionality of the LG G5 like the LG CAM Plus, LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play, H3 by B&O Play, and LG Friends Manager (a hub application that lets the G5 connect with LG Friends easily.The LG G5 is now available in the Philippines. SRP is PhP 34,990.
For more details about LG smartphones, visit:
Website: lg.com.ph
Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/LGPhilippines
Twitter and Instagram: @LGPhilippines
