Post MWC 2015, people are just now settling down with the recent announcements of two (well, three I guess) of the most popular Android flagships we’ll see this year: the HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6, and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. Now that those devices are starting to officially hit shelves, it’s time to look forward to the next flagship announcement, which will most likely be from LG for the G4.
In comparison to the HTC One M9, the G4 doesn’t have much to live up to. The M9, while still a great phone, experienced an underwhelming response given that it looks so similar to last year’s HTC One M8. HTC followed the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mantra, and received a mixed bag of responses to the decision. The internals of the M9 are where the real changes took place, with HTC addressing the concern of their past use of a 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera on the back of the device. This year they decided to use a traditional 20-megapixel camera on the rear, and moved their UltraPixel camera to the front. That’s really the most noteworthy aspects of the HTC One M9: nearly identical body, better specs, new camera.
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is likely going to be the G4’s biggest problem, as the response to the decision to make a Galaxy S6 Edge alongside the new Galaxy S6 has been rather positive across the Internet. It’s clear that the focus on this year’s Galaxy S6 was meant to be on the design of the device both from a hardware and software standpoint. TouchWiz has undergone certain key changes, and the new design makes the Galaxy S6 look quite appealing. Throw in a couple of edges and you have a trifecta of changes that make the Galaxy S6 worth looking at whether you’ve previously been a Galaxy fan or not.
So far, leaks lead us to believe that the G4 will have two defining features: a curved body and some kind of phenomenal resolution. Resolution-wise, I’ve felt pretty confident that anything past Retina display is unnecessary. That’s not saying that Apple’s display is the only display worth having, it’s just that anything beyond Retina display is unnoticeable for me – that’s the last display I’ve had where I actually noticed the difference between it and other displays. There have since been numerous releases of displays that have better resolutions, and LG has been at the forefront, this time with a rumored 3K resolution for the G4. Obviously the leaks are just rumors at this point, but I think if the G4 really does feature a 3K resolution that it won’t be something a lot of people will really care about.
The curved display, on the other hand, just might work. The curved display that the G4 is rumored to have is one that is similar to the LG G Flex, except for it the leaked renders show more of a Samsung Galaxy Round curvature, which curved from left to right. The LG G Flex curved from top to bottom. The idea is that the slight curvature in the display would make for a more comfortable hold, and possibly better viewing angles. By implementing a curved display in a flagship like the G4 instead of separating the feature into a different device entirely, they could make something of curved displays. This type of curvature may also come to rival Samsung’s curved edge display.
The LG G series has rivaled the HTC One and the Galaxy S line in terms of specs in the past, so I’m not worried that this year would be any different in that aspect.
All in all, it seems like LG is on the right path of trying to change their design. As we can see with the M9, hardly any change at all might not be as ideal as we once thought – even HTC has a hard time telling which phone is which. The question that remains is whether whatever changes LG makes this year will be enough to make people want to choose the G4 over the S6 or the M9.
