As Aaron highlights LG's new G Pad tablet in a video today, the LG G2 is your #3 fan favorite for this week on the Official Smartphone Rankings. That means we get to highlight a feature user review this Wednesday October 23, 2013.
"Put this phone on your short list." By PAUL DECELLES on October 16, 2013
I've had the VZ version for three weeks. The display is bright without being over saturated and very high quality. It is much like looking at the HTC one display only bigger. Could be brighter outdoors and that is the only down side with the display.
phone reception is good. With my old bionic I could not get a signal in my office. Now I can. Call quality is good and clear but sometimes a little muffled. As for music, the speakers are OK but that's not a big deal since I use earbuds anyway. I did buy LG+s strange Bluetooth tone+ which yokes around your neck and allows you hands free calls and music listening. I have not tried it for calls but the tonal quality is quite good for music. Also I can put the phone on it's inductive charger, be on the opposite side of my house, and one floor down and get a good signal.
Battery life is outstanding. For instance I am on 33 hours of moderate use-texting web browsing and pictures and oh yes phone calls and I still have 45% of my charge left.
People have complained the design is boring-well with this phone the displays the thing and those thin bezels really make the phone screen stand out. Also in spite of the 5.2 screen the phone fits nicely in hand and in the pocket.
The VZ version has inductive charging which is maybe 50% slower than charging with the usb but it is very convenient. One down side with the VZ version is that because of the inductive charging mechanism the phone is a bit thicker than the other carriers' versions and I had difficulty finding a case for this phone. I have not been impressed that the cases out there are that much better than the VZ silicon case which is what I have now.
As for the rear buttons, I don't find them to be particularly natural to use, but with LG's knock on/off feature I really don't use them except the few times I have had to do a soft reboot.
The camera and camera software is very good with lots of options. The camera really shines with close up shots. Colors are generally pretty good though sometimes the camera will over expose. One disappointment is that the HDR option is not very good but a third party app such as HDR camera+ or HDR studio can fix that. One really cool camera feature is that when you are composing a shot you can touch different areas of the scene and the camera will meter the light at based on that spot on the fly. This is really slick and very useful.
Upsides of this phone for me: Great display, nice pocketable size, great camera, inductive charging (on VZ only)
Downsides of this phone-plastic build, not many good case options for the VZ version. The button placement is not natural for me...but none of these are a deal breaker for me.
Display 5/5
Battery Life 5/5
Apps & Media Support 5/5
Reception & Call Quality 4/5
Design/Form Factor 4/5
Overall 4.6
