Battery
The battery is one area that won’t let the company properly compete in today’s smartphone world.
Let’s just get this out of the way, because it needs to be said and chances are you agree, especially if you read GadgetGuy on a regular basis: 2015 was a bit of a joke as far as battery life was concerned.
Last year, the norm was for a phone to come off charge at 7am and need to go back on at 7pm. That’s a mere 12 hours of life. Twelve freakin’ hours.
That was the norm, and what we expected from most phones. Battery life in phone reviews was marked as “good” last year because a smartphone could reach half a day.
Publications like us would recommend carrying a power brick with you in case you used your phone as a power user and the thing conked out before the 12 hour day mark, and so many of us now have one of these carried with us at all times, too.
The norm didn’t allow for many people to operate without one of these, and while we had hoped for a norm of one to two days, it didn’t really eventuate, and everyone — from Samsung to LG to HTC to Microsoft to Sony — was pretty much hitting the same 12-15 hour mark as each other.
This year, though the norm has changed, and thank goodness for that. In 2016, the norm is now a full 24 hours.
Yes people, we’ve doubled to what we should be getting from a smartphone, because it should last a full day of life without needing to run to a wall or power brick. It should be able to even reach into a bit of the next day, when you suddenly realise that “oh no, you forgot to plug it in” and ultra low power saving modes are your only hope.
So, 24 hours is the target. Can LG nail it?
Yes and no, but it’s a little more complicated than either a one or three word answer can achieve.
With the standard battery thrown in, it seems as those 12 to 15 hours is still a standard battery life for an LG phone, and we found with wired headphones that we couldn’t manage more than that.
Specifically, that was a day off charge at 6am with web surfing, picture taking, email checking, phone call making, social network yakking, and a whole lot of other smartphone capable connected phrases ending with “ing” until around 10pm where the phone life had dropped to around 7 percent.
Not amazing life on par with the other flagship “norms”, but not terrible all the same, lasting a work day, just not a full day, which we semi-expected out of a 2800mAh battery.
With 3000mAh becoming the norm in Android phones of this size, we have to wonder if the extra 200mAh would have made the phone go the distance.
There is an upside amidst this, however, and it’s one no other 2016 phone can lay claim to: the battery is replaceable.
Provided you pony up $70 per battery you’ll be able to slot out the battery in there and stick a new one in, and LG is even suggesting a recharge box with a battery inside will be made available shortly, making this less of a pain.
So while the “norm” isn’t quite matched with this phone, there is at least a workaround to get it up to “norm” levels.
Fun with “friends” and the quest for expandability
Looking at the LG G5, it’s easy to see the inspiration from previous LG-built phones, provided you’re familiar with them.
The front of the LG G3 is here on the front go the G5, while the back is reminiscent of what LG did with Google over on the Nexus 5X last year, while the whole phone feels as well built as the glass bodied LG Optimus G, the very first of the G range, except in metal.
We’re delighted to see a change to a more premium material, and we’re sure you are too, but LG isn’t just evolving the aesthetics in the design here.
No, it wants to make phones more interesting.
That’s the idea, at least, behind LG’s “Friends” concept, an idea that sees the LG G5 come apart when you tell it to, allowing you to add accessories or extra functionality by plugging in a new component, delivering a greater experience to the G5 handset.
It’s an interesting concept, that’s for sure, and one that presents itself in a few ways.
The most obvious is a replaceable battery, because some people may still want one of these, and the LG G5 grants this in an easy way: push the button along the bottom left edge and slide out the bottom of the phone, revealing a battery pre-mounted to the butt of the phone. If you have a spare, you can slide it right in, and voila, more battery life.
You do need to power it back on — because there’s no spare temporary battery inside the phone to keep it running while you change batteries — but at least the battery is super easy to switch out.
There’s more than just another battery, though, and LG will also be making the “CamPlus” battery pack, which is a grip you need to move your phone battery into with some advanced camera controls, letting you hold and use the LG G5 like a real camera.
Sort of, anyway.
The phrase “like a real camera” is intentional, because you get a grip and a control wheel and a shutter, but it’s quite clear you’re still holding a phone.
It is kind of awkward getting your phone battery into the camera grip, so you’re probably going to want to buy another battery and leave it in the device. Seriously, getting the battery out involves pulling the two apart at a slight angle, which will separate the two and let you load one battery into the other, not something you can do remarkably quickly on the go.
But something is better than nothing, and if you’re an avid phone-ographer, it might be a cool gimmick to dial into, much like Nokia’s 1020 with the functional camera grip.
You do get a scroll wheel to zoom in, and zooming out far enough will switch you over to the wide-angle lens on the G5. Even the secondary button next to the main shutter records video, which could be super handy.
It’s a little uncomfortable to throw in your pocket with this equipped, thanks to that bulky grip, and it doesn’t even sit balanced on the table.
