LG G2: A Better Smartphone Than the Samsung Galaxy S4

What's This?

By Stewart Wolpin2013-11-16 11:28:20 -0600

Mashable Choice highlights the products and services we've tested and would recommend to others. Consider it Liked, Favorited, +1'ed and Pinned.

It's funny how quickly we get used to ergonomic paradigms. What I mean is, we quickly got used to a smartphone's On/Off button being on the top or right side with the volume button on the left side. Lord help the handset maker who screws with this time-honored six-year old smartphone button arrangement.

Well, Lord help LG, because it has moved all these keys from their usual perimeter positions to the rear of its latest superphone, the G2. In an age of Android androgyny, this shift is jarringly deliberate, designed to clearly differentiate the G2 from other Android superphones, specifically those from LG's mortal enemy, Samsung and its Galaxy S4.

See also: 25 Best Free Android Apps

Oddly, LG needn't have bothered with such an obvious ergonomic deviation. In nearly all everyday usability aspects, the G2 one-ups the Galaxy S4, including ease of calling, camera and battery life.

Rear vs. Side

LG's stated reason for moving the volume and On/Off toggle to a rear array under the camera lens is to make it more natural to raise and lower the volume of conversation while holding the G2 to your ear. And LG is correct — it’s a mite easier to manipulate the up/down buttons from this rear position — but not enough to overcome some of this arrangement's deficiencies.

For starters, the rear buttons makes it more awkward to wake up or put the G2 to sleep. Because the on/off key is wedged between the up/down toggle, because of the G2's lack of a physical home button and because of the G2's girth, it's not as easy to quickly locate the sleep key by feel.

And if you lay the phone on its back while a call is in progress or you're watching a video, you risk hitting the rear sleep key.

Instead of searching for and tapping the rear sleep key, you tap the G2 twice on its black blank screen to wake it up, then tap a blank space on one of the Home screens twice to put it to sleep. While this double-tapping works, it doesn't work all the time, and I often had to resort to locating and tapping the rear key. Having to tap the screen twice instead of a button once presents an unnecessary usage impediment.

Despite possessing a slightly larger screen than the Samsung Galaxy S4 (5.2 inches vs. 5 inches) and a slightly more copious battery (3,000 milliamp-hours vs. 2,600 mAh), the LG's chassis is barely larger (G2: 5.45 x 2.79 x 0.35 inches, GS4: 5.38 x 2.75 x 0.31 inches) and a hardly worth mentioning half-ounce heavier, 5.04 vs. 4.59 ounces.

Like all 5-inch smartphones, it's difficult to manipulate the G2 with one hand. For instance, the dial pad option on the call screen is in the upper left hand corner, making it nearly impossible to tab with your thumb while holding the G2 in your right hand.

Performance Comparison

Inside the G2 is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.26GHz processor, technically superior to the GS4's Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core 1.9GHz brain. In side-by-side comparisons of everyday usage — web surfing and scrolling, checking email, watching videos, downloading apps and booting up — the LG G2 performed its primary functions with more alacrity and efficiency than the Galaxy S4, albeit only slightly.

Both phones have 2GB of RAM, but for the same price LG packs the G2 with 32GB of storage vs. 16GB for the GS4. But the G2 lacks the GS4's microSD card expandability.

While the GS4 is packed with many of Samsung's own specialized apps, widgets and features, LG has added three more useful everyday creature comforts:

Always-lit navigation keys: The backlight on the Back and Menu keys that straddle the physical Home button on the GS4 always fade out, fading them from your mind's muscle memory, too. LG has included its Home, Back and Menu controls on the screen itself, making them always lit and nearly always accessible.

"Call" button as part of contact entry: Instead of having to tap a contact name to get to the phone number(s), the G2 includes the familiar green phone receiver icon for those contacts with phone numbers included. Just tap the green phone icon opposite the contact's name to initiate a call or, if there are multiple phone numbers associated with that contact, get a list of numbers to choose from.

Camera from lock screen: Like the iPhone, the G2 includes a Camera button on its lock screen; just slide up to activate the camera and grab your shot.

Screen Comparison

Making a decision between the G2 and the GS4 based on their screen quality depends on how much video you watch.

Both screens offer full HD (1,920 x 1,080) resolution. The G2 has an IPS (in-plane switching) LCD display with 423 pixels per inch vs. the negligibly greater 441 ppi on the GS4's Super AMOLED. The G2's slightly more generous screen real estate is negated by the inclusion of the Home, Back and Menu controls.

One issue with the GS4 and its AMOLED is a gray tint that discolors nearly every screen, especially pages with white backgrounds. As a result, colors are brighter and contrast is deeper on the G2 for nearly all activities.

But these advantages disappear when watching video (see pic below). Suddenly AMOLED advantages on the GS4 leap to the fore; colors are brighter and blacks deeper on the GS4, with a far wider viewing angle for multi-person watching.

So, for performing everyday smartphone functions, the G2's screen is superior. For video viewing, the GS4 display is tops.

Camera Comparison

Unlike the either/or screen comparison, there's no equivocation in judging the 13-megapixel cameras on each of these phones: The G2 packs the superior snapper.

As with all smartphone cameras, outdoors and sunny is child's play for both, although I found the G2 images contained slightly deeper colors and slightly more detail.

Indoors and/or dim is where the G2's photos excel. With the flash turned off and with optical image stabilization, the G2 focuses better, resulting in fewer blurry shots, with less grain, more color and more detail. It often took several tries to get a clean shot with the GS4 indoors (see sample below — the LG G2's image is on the left; GS4 on the right), while the G2 usually captured a crisp image on the first try.

With flash, the G2 doesn't bleach out subjects as blindingly as does the GS4. The G2's flash is more evenly distributed across the frame, producing a more accurate representation of the scene. Unfortunately, both phones take a nearly ridiculous five seconds to snap a flash photo.

Battery Comparison

Perhaps most importantly of all, G2's more copious battery supplies longer life.

While watching video, the G2 ran for 4.3 hours on a single charge, the GS4 barely 3.75 hours. When extrapolated, the G2 lasts deeper into a long day without requiring a recharge than the GS4.

Summary

For the same price or less, LG's G2 offers more storage and more screen real estate as well as superior performance, superior photos and superior navigation compared to Samsung's Galaxy S4.

The Lowdown

What's Good

What's Bad

Bottom Line

In nearly all aspects of everyday usage — navigation, readability, processing, camera and battery — LG's G2 outperforms the more vaunted Samsung Galaxy S4.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Images: Mashable, Stewart Wolpin

Topics: Android, LG G2, Mashable Choice, Mobile, reviews, smartphone, Tech