LG G4 Ships, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Hits Test Track Versus Samsung And Apple
LG officially lifted the veil on their G4 flagship Android phone this week and the buzz has been fairly strong in anticipation for how it measures up versus stiff competition from Samsung and Apple. LG's display prowess is well known, along with their ability to pack a ton of screen real estate into a smaller frame with very little bezel, as they did with the previous generation G3.
However, what's under the hood of the new LG G4 is probably just as interesting for some folks, as the build quality and display of LG's new flagship. On board the LG G4 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, the six-core little brother of the powerful and power-hungry Snapdragon 810 that's found in HTC's One M9. The One M9 is currently one of the fastest Android handsets out there currently but its battery life suffers as a result.
So with a six-core Snapdragon and a slightly more tame Adreno 418 graphics engine on board, an interesting question with the LG G4 is, "does LG's bet on balancing horsepower with efficiency pay off?" Today we can show you the horsepower metrics but be sure to check back for our full review with battery life data. For now, let's look at some preliminary benchmark numbers with the LG G4 and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808.
However, what's under the hood of the new LG G4 is probably just as interesting for some folks, as the build quality and display of LG's new flagship. On board the LG G4 is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, the six-core little brother of the powerful and power-hungry Snapdragon 810 that's found in HTC's One M9. The One M9 is currently one of the fastest Android handsets out there currently but its battery life suffers as a result.
So with a six-core Snapdragon and a slightly more tame Adreno 418 graphics engine on board, an interesting question with the LG G4 is, "does LG's bet on balancing horsepower with efficiency pay off?" Today we can show you the horsepower metrics but be sure to check back for our full review with battery life data. For now, let's look at some preliminary benchmark numbers with the LG G4 and the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808.
Geekbench tells an interesting tale of straight CPU throughput in single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. In this test, nothing competes with Samsung's powerful 8-core Exynos 7420, though the octa-core Snapdragon 810 in the HTC One M9 is within sniffing distance. However, the Snapdragon 808 in the LG G4 actually puts up a very respectable showing here, despite its two core disadvantage. In fact, it puts a hurtin' on the iPhone 6 Plus' A8 SoC and just beats out the Snapdragon 805 in the Google Nexus 6 by Motorola.
In graphics and gaming, the LG G4 and its Adreno 418 GPU is much more middle of the pack and it's bested by both the iPhone 6, Galaxy S6, HTC One M9 and even the Nexus 6, by a hair. Anecdotally, we will say that the LG G4 certainly doesn't feel "slow" in this regard and is easily capable of nimble renderings on its QHD 2560X1440 display, as well as any game we threw at in our short time testing thus far. However, the numbers are the numbers.
The real interesting take is going to be how the LG G4 handles in battery life, which we suspect will be very strong given its large 3000 mAh battery, which, by the way, is also user-serviceable. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for the full review on that as we haven't had a chance to put the G4 through its paces in our battery test suite just yet.
We will say the new LG G4 certainly feels good in the hand and it's super light. However, build quality here doesn't measure up to the Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge or the iPhone 6. It's one of the downsides of the convenience of that accessible battery cover on the G4's backside. It's made of high tensile strength plastic but it's still just plastic -- nicely metalic-finished and stylish plastic, thankfully.
More with the LG G4 in the days ahead, so stick around and we'll toss back a couple with LG's new flagship Android device.
More with the LG G4 in the days ahead, so stick around and we'll toss back a couple with LG's new flagship Android device.
