Life with the LG G2 (aka a review)

[TopWargamer]

So I've my LG G2 for a whopping...2 days at the time of posting this. Tinkered around with it, and now I think I can write up a little review on the phone. If you're friends with me here on LTT, you've already seen me rant and rave about the G2, but uh...you know...you should still at least skim through my review.

 

Hardware

 

The G2 is one the fastest phones out right now. The only phones that can compare to it (as of my knowledge) are the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, the soon-to-be-released Xiaomi Mi3, and the soon-to-be-announced Google Nexus 5. The G2 packs a 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chip that has Adreno 330 graphics, 2GB of RAM, a humongous 3000mAH battery, 13MP camera, and last but not least, a 5.2 inch 1080p screen. 

 

The Snapdragon 800 is a beast of a CPU, no doubt about that, but LG's UI for Android 4.2 makes the entire phone seem...sluggish, and that's no bueno. LG's UI uses up roughly 1.4GB of the 2GB of RAM, which is insane. I often find myself clearing out the RAM to keep the phone as speedy as it can be, but the UI is just...bad.

 

(Phone's free RAM AFTER clearing it out.)

 

Today I only cleared out my phone's RAM 2 or 3 times. Before writing up this review, I went to go take a picture. So I had to unlock my phone, open up the camera, take the picture, then open up the gallery, because I wanted to share the picture. You know how when your phone has a battery life of 10% or less and your phone starts to slow down to save on battery life? That's how it felt, except it was slower than that. I think I've made my point here.

 

Now onto the camera. Unlike LG's UI, the camera is actually really good. I recommend using LG's stock camera app, because I noticed that when using a different camera app, Focal for example, it'll make the quality of the image look not as good, at least in my experience. Here's a few images from the camera along with a video. 

Fun fact: The G2's camera can shoot in 1080p at 60 FPS.

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XotA9Z1i_E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XotA9Z1i_E

 

Features

 

Other than the pre-installed bloatware, the G2 does have some nice features. The one I like the most is called Knock-On. This lets you double tap on the screen to turn it on or put it to sleep. The less you have to touch those buttons on the back, the better. The buttons on the back really are not a big deal though. Don't worry about it. 

 

Another nifty feature is the ability to save an app state. To do this, you have to swipe with 3 fingers from right to left. This then saves the app state for use at a later time (aka nomming on that little RAM left). So let's say you're playing Fruit Ninja and you're score is at 8990. You're so close to getting over 9000, but you need to go take some pictures of your dinner to put on Instagram, because priorities. So you can save the app state, pull up your camera, do your thing, and then do a 3 finger swipe from left to right to pull up any and all app states saved. You can then select Fruit Ninja and continue your quest to get that over 9000 score. 

 

Rooting

 

This was the first time I have ever rooted one of my phones, and to be honest, the process was very, very simple. All you have to do is

 

1) Plug your phone into your computer

2) Download this program that does the rooting for you, and follow its instructions

 

The entire process took less than 5 minutes. If you want to root your G2, go to this XDA thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=45692679#post45692679

Oh, and there's an unroot process: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2448960&highlight=unroot

 

The only downside to rooting your G2 is that on the Verizon G2s, and only the Verizon G2s, in the about phone section under settings, it shows the rooted status of your phone (aka unrooted or rooted). And this is why it's important that there's the unroot process. 

 

 

 

 

So should you get this phone? Yes, but install a custom ROM such as Cyanogenmod to get a much smoother experience, which is what I will be doing once the CM noob-friendly installer comes out. 

 

I believe I covered the essentials. If there are any questions, ask them away and I'll answer them as best as I can. 

[EChondo]

I have a LG G2 as well, very nice phone. The Verizon version is very nice because the buttons on the back are much more smaller(which is preferred by me).

 

The UI could be better in my opinion, but that's what ROM's are for!

 

Nice review, it's a very nice phone(shouldn't this be moved to Member Reviews though?).

[TopWargamer]

Nice review, it's a very nice phone(shouldn't this be moved to Member Reviews though?).

I forgot that there was a forum section for that...

This is what I get for typing up a review at 1 in the morning.

;_;

[naca1227]

Nice review btw. 

[beebskadoo]

Thanks for sharing. Did you notice a drop in camera quality with the custom ROM?

Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk

[TopWargamer]

Thanks for sharing. Did you notice a drop in camera quality with the custom ROM?

I haven't installed Cyanogenmod yet, so I can't say. Again, I'm waiting for CM to come out with their simple installer. 

[Youbetternot]

Lol Nope

[Mr. Brovahkiin]

I have an HTC One but god damn if I don't want the fuck out of this phone. It's shiny

[Focux]

Just bought one online yesterday. Yet to be delivered till Wednesday..=\