LG G4 worth buy ?

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sqlpro

516 posts

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#191426 3-Feb-2016 22:06

Hi Guys

need advise on LG G4 please ? Currently Harvey normal running a sale $642. i have been waiting for a good deal and this seems to be it.

Is this device worth buying now ? i seem to be finding mixed results online so preferably advise from some one actively using this phone would be appreciated.

BTW i am currently using LG G2. I am quite happy with the device but hate lollipop on this. I lost half a day battery life because of that cell standby bug.

Thanks.

MartinGZ

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#1485991 5-Feb-2016 15:31

Been using the G4 for sometime and can find nothing wrong with it, nor is the much else I would want from it. But I guess that just depends on what you want. I upgraded from a Galaxy S3 and the advantages I found were: excellent camera, better GSM radio, much better readability in sunshine, bigger screen (but hard on pocket realestate!). Other than that it was just something a bit newer and a bit faster. Lots of discussion in the LG G4 thread & I expand on this page LG G4

Loads of reviews grumble about not having the buttons on the sides of the phone, but I find that good - no more accidentally turning the sound off when taking photos. Does take a bit of getting used to though.

Software OK, no grumbles. I have Nova installed, but now never use it, just stick with the LG interface.

The one from HN will be a H815T-Aus. That means it is an Aussie version of the Hong Kong phone. It's up to date for security updates but will/is lag behind the H615 for Marshmallow upgrade. It doesn't worry me anyway, as I see from the Telstra website that they have delayed the update because of software issues.

Would I buy one again? Yup especially for $642! Don't forget the G5 is around the corner, but I guess it will be a while before it is available for $600.

Nokia 6110, 6210, 6234, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1, Huawei Ideos X5 (Windows Mobile), Samsung Galaxy SIII, LG G4, OnePlus 5, iPhone Xs Max (briefly), S21 Ultra. And I thought I hadn't had many phones - but the first one around 1997.

hairy1

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#1486008 5-Feb-2016 15:42

I got mine on Boxing day for $688. I came from the OnePlus One. Same form factor. Slightly worse battery life however I feel as though that is the skinned version of Android it is running. The camera is stellar. No regrets. Buttons do take some getting used to. I thought it was good value at that price.

Cheers, Matt.

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sqlpro

516 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1486011 5-Feb-2016 15:46

Thank you for taking time to post this. I see mixed opinions about battery life in online reviews. Any comments there?

For my use, I used to get 2 days battery on g2 but since lollipop it's only a day!

MartinGZ

359 posts

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#1486041 5-Feb-2016 16:03

> battery life.

How long is a bit of string?

About 50/50 I charge mine every second day or each night, i.e get a full 24 hours plus out of it. If I'm using it a lot, then it will have to be charged at the end of the working day. I guess that is similar to most of the phones at this level. Biggest use of battery is the screen, typically 40-60%. My main uses browsing, emails, collecting data (spreadsheets & pdfs), work photos, and, shock horror, making phone calls.

dafman

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#1486048 5-Feb-2016 16:14

The G4 is being heavily discounted around the globe ahead of the G5 launch later this month.

jonathan18

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#1486058 5-Feb-2016 16:23

I've a G3, not a G4, but really I think that the post two above gets it right on battery life generally - it's just so dependent on usage on any given day. Some days I'll go back from work with the battery at 90%, other times it may be 30 or lower.

I think a key advantage to the G series is a removable battery - I just bought one off eBay and keep it in my pack just in case. Only ever needed to use it a few times, but so good knowing this option's there.

Personally, I'm not looking at upgrading to the G4, given my G3's still going fine, but at this stage I'd stick with the same series' phone; in the OP's case, an upgrade from a G2 to a G4 may be worth it, especially now it's come down to such an affordable price (is that a 32GB model?). That's just what I did last time (paid about the same for my G3), and would do next time too - too many other things to spend my money on than to pay over a grand for a phone!

stevenz

2802 posts

Uber Geek

#1488551 10-Feb-2016 09:04

"Delayed because of software issues" aka "Delayed in the hope people will buy the new model instead of waiting". </conspiracy>

I quite like my G4, good solid device, gets a bit laggy at times, their implementation of Marshmallow doesn't offer anything positive over Lollipop and has resulted in notably poorer battery life, I've gone from comfortably getting 2 days out of it to being down to 30% at the end of one day.

The camera is excellent.

The G4 doesn't appear to be compatible with Semble should you happen to want to use it, presumably due to no NZ-TelCo provided firmware.

For <$700 it's an excellent deal, especially once you stick a decent sized MicroSD into it.

@KnightNZ

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hairy1

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#1488573 10-Feb-2016 09:08

I'm using Semble on it. Works well.

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sqlpro

516 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1488579 10-Feb-2016 09:33

I was hoping marshmallow would improve battery life and since time was running out I gave in and bought on the last day.

We will see how it goes. Thanks for all your advise guys.

stevenz

2802 posts

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#1488619 10-Feb-2016 10:42

hairy1:I'm using Semble on it. Works well.

What TelCo? Mine doesn't work with Spark, but it may be because I upgraded to Marshmallow, didn't try beforehand.

@KnightNZ

MartinGZ

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#1488629 10-Feb-2016 11:08

stevenz:

" </conspiracy> "

Ahh, I love a good conspiracy theory. Did you hear the one about .... ;-)

Just checked with the telstra site again (it's quite useful as they list the status of all their device updates. I don't know why others don't provide such useful info) https://crowdsupport.telstra.com.au/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/23310

Marshmallow for the LG G4

11/12/15. Status - testing. Expected Deployment - 28 Dec 15

15/1/16. Status - Retracted by vendor (LG). Expected Deployment - TBA. "LG Have retracted the test submission due to an issue they have identified in their testing."

5/2/16. Status - Scheduling. Expected Deployment 22-Feb-16.

So it looks as though it will come out later this month.

Not that I'm exactly hanging out for the update as it works perfectly well with 5.1, especially given Steve's experience with the battery life. Slightly easier to control permissions in Marshmallow, but managed to to that in the Kitkat version anyway by getting the permission manager to run.

hairy1

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#1489776 10-Feb-2016 14:38

stevenz:

hairy1:I'm using Semble on it. Works well.

What TelCo? Mine doesn't work with Spark, but it may be because I upgraded to Marshmallow, didn't try beforehand

Vodafone. No Marshmallow for me yet. The Sim came from another device but the Semble app installed without issue.

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stevenz

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#1489827 10-Feb-2016 16:23

The one MM feature that actually sounded appealing was the ability to use your MicroSD as "internal" memory, LG's implementation doesn't provide that option, and they've inexplicably renamed the device from "ext_sd" to "0000".

Going by comments on the Semble app, it sounds like it should work fine with MM, but they're not going to "allow" it to work until the local TelCo's release MM for the G4. I shan't be holding my breath.

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