Review: The LG G2, A Gorgeous Phone With Few Drawbacks

The G2 is LG’s latest Android handset making the rounds of all of the major carriers. It sports a sleek, slim design; a wide, bright screen; and lightning-fast LTE connectivity. Let’s see if all of those adjectives add up to a worthwhile phone.

First Impressions

The packaging is minimal. This Verizon branded demo unit came in a box that contained the phone, a manual, a changer and USB cord, and nothing else. The phone is light without feeling flimsy, thanks to a polycarbonate shell. That said, the back of the phone is smooth almost to the point of slipperiness. It took me a while to feel comfortable holding the phone without feeling like I was about to have it slip out of my hand like a large, expensive watermelon seed. A highlight of the G2 is its screen and button layout. The screen is a lush 5.2 inch diagonal 1080p IPS LCD capable of 1920 x 1080 resolution. What does that mean? Colors are bright and clear, video looks fantastic, and pictures taken on the device look great. The G2 is the first, and so far only, smartphone that I feel comfortable reading an ebook on. The screen is big enough for me to read without flipping a page every five seconds, and small enough that I don’t feel like I’m holding a tablet to the side of my face when I make a phone call. The bezels on the sides of the screen are slim enough to be practically nonexistent, which means that the width of the screen doesn’t make the phone difficult to hold. The edges of the phone are also slim. Slim enough that the folks at LG decided to move the volume and power buttons from the sides of the phone to the back. While I enjoy unique hardware layouts, and LG put effort into making the buttons easy to distinguish from each other by touch, I was never comfortable adjusting the volume while actively using the device, for fear that I’d whack the power button and interrupt my video or music.

The Software

While the demo version of the G2 for this review runs Android 4.2.2 (Jellybean), it’s now available running Android 4.4 (Kitkat) from at least some providers. During my use of the demo unit, a carrier specific update became available, and installing it is quick and painless. The phone comes with access to the Google Play store for software and media, which integrates nicely. Of course, you always have the option to transfer your own files from your computer to the phone as well. I found the Mac file transfer utility awkward to use, but that’s Google’s fault, not LG’s. While encrypting the phone’s contents isn’t as simple as it was on my iPhone (set up a passcode and you’re done), it’s easy enough to be done by the layman, and only slightly more time consuming (plug in the phone, set up a passcode, select the encryption option in the security settings, and let the phone sit for an hour or so while it encrypts itself). Decrypting the phone is similarly easy. Additionally, running the phone while encrypted didn’t noticeably affect battery life or performance in any way.

The Verizon branded version of the phone came preloaded with several Verizon-specific apps, such as VZ Navigator, VZ Tunes, VZ Protect, and a mobile hotspot app. The only time this became irritating was when I was presented with the option of performing the same action using either a Google app (like Google Maps) or the Verizon app (VZ Navigator). While the built-in apps can’t be deleted, the Application Manager does give you the option of disabling them.

I found the G2’s Voice Mate search program to be a more difficult-to-access Siri knockoff. Having your phone listen to your request when you say the words “LG Mobile” or “Hello, Genie” would be nice if it could do so at any time. Finding the Voice Mate icon in my app screen, running it, and saying “LG Mobile” feels like several extra steps that just shouldn’t be necessary. That said, having the camera take a picture automatically when it hears the word “cheese” is a nice touch.

Performance

In a word, “fun.” The G2 always felt responsive and fast and only started to get warm after prolonged video viewing or GPS navigation. I found the stock on-screen keyboard to be disappointing, and noticed that I was prone to typos and hitting the comma button almost every time I went for the spacebar. There are plenty of replacement keyboards in the Google Play store though to alleviate this issue.

Battery life is generous, with the G2 easily lasting a full day of use between charges. The only time I found the battery running down quickly was when I spent an afternoon playing Ingress, Google’s location-based ARG. Who would have guessed that running the GPS for several hours with the screen on and the brightness cranked up would make the battery run down more quickly?

The 4G LTE connection clocked in with a speedy 9.74 Mbps download speed (25 percent faster than my in-home broadband), and a 4.08 Mbps upload speed (about 20 percent slower). Of course, connection speeds varied based on my location. When nestled in the cubicle farm of my day job, I barely got a signal at all without WiFi.

The rear camera packs 13 megapixels and is more than adequate for any candid shots. Because a portion of the time I spend reviewing the phone took place while I was on paternity leave, this came in surprisingly handy.

“Hello, Genie, tell me how cute my kid is.”

Strengths and Weaknesses

The strengths of the G2 are plain to see. The gorgeous screen, slim form factor, and strong battery life easily stand out. Unfortunately, the weaknesses of some of the carrier and LG branded apps also stand out as a real weakness in an otherwise strong device.

Pricing and Availability

The LG G2 is available on all major U.S. carriers, including Verizon, Sprint, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Pricing varies based on the carrier and packages they have available. The phone comes in black and white models, with 16 or 32 GB capacities.

I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed using the G2 and am genuinely dismayed to package up my loaner phone and send it back to its mothership. In a market full of cookie-cutter Android phones, the G2 strikes me as a real, reasonably priced standout.