The LG G4 Review
by Joshua Ho on July 30, 2015 10:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Qualcomm
- LG
- Mobile
- Snapdragon 808
- LG G4
System Performance Cont'd
While we’ve seen how the LG G4 performs in some general system workloads, in the interest of focusing a bit more strongly on GPU performance and gaming workloads we’ve also run a suite of benchmarks that are closer to mobile games in terms of workload and more strongly emphasize GPU performance. These tests are usually representative of burst/turbo performance. Those interested in steady-state performance can take a look at our extended rundown tests in the battery life section.
In GFXBench, we can see that the Adreno 418 GPU is a definite step up from the Adreno 330 in the Snapdragon 801, but not quite at the level of the Snapdragon 805's Adreno 420. As a result, on-screen performance is similar to the Snapdragon 800's Adreno 330. This seems to hold in both tests, which suggests that the balance between shader hardware and texturing hardware is relatively similar to the Adreno 330.
3DMark is a bit of an odd test in the sense that the factors that influence performance in the test are generally hard to predict, but we see a significant deficit in the physics test as it seems to be strongly influenced by main memory latency as the test is cache-unfriendly. The graphics test also indicates a minor improvement over the Snapdragon 801, likely due to differences in architecture from the Adreno 330 to 418 that are coming through in this test. At any rate, the end result is that the G4 ends up around the same level as Snapdragon 801 devices.
In this test we see that the G4 has a noticeable uplift relative to various Snapdragon 801 devices, but the improvement continues to be slim enough that in on-screen performance the 418 is really comparable to the Adreno 330 in the Snapdragon 800 rather than the Snapdragon 801, which puts it just below the Adreno 420. Overall, the LG G4 is definitely fast enough to enable a good user experience, although the somewhat weaker burst GPU performance leaves it at a handicap relative to anything equipped with an Exynos 7420. Given some of the issues we've seen with the Snapdragon 810, it seems that LG's choice was a wise one.
NAND Performance
Although NAND performance has always been important, until the Nexus 7 (2012) it wasn’t really an area that received a lot of scrutiny. For the most part, people didn’t really pay attention to storage beyond how much storage was available. As a result, this aspect of the device was often subject to aggressive cost control, often to the detriment of performance. However, in the case of the Nexus 7 we really started to see how cutting too far could make a device almost unusable instead of just slow and frustrating.
In the interest of testing this aspect of device performance, we use Androbench with some minor modifications to test settings to get a rough idea for how fast the internal storage solution is. In the case of the LG G4, it seems that Toshiba manufactures this NAND, named 032G74, but there’s otherwise not much information publicly available on this eMMC solution.
As far as I can tell, the LG G4 has relatively similar NAND performance relative to the G3, but the tuning appears to be somewhat different as the G3 is faster in random reads but the G4 is faster in random writes. Either way, the storage solution in the G4 is sufficient for good performance, although not quite as fast as the Galaxy S6. I suspect that in the absence of an SLC caching system similar to the variant of iPhone 6 that we tested that sequential reads/writes will continue to be relatively low.
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djc208 - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
I had the original Optimus G, and it was a great phone hardware wise, but my biggest problem with LG has been their software support. It's getting better but still miserable. They move to new phones so fast that most are barely supported for software for a year. Meanwhile I think Samsung has done a better job of updating and supporting older phones, plus they're so popular the ROMs are more plentiful and well supported. I just couldn't get over the Samsung bloatware, but if you can, they're so close it would probably tip me toward the Samsung based on better software support long term.djw39 - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
For the software, if they would just allow for the notification toggles to be hidden by default and appear with a second swipe down, I think that would go a long way. Maybe also give us a normal lockscreen clock too.phoenix_rizzen - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
That's my biggest complaint with LG's UI: the lack of usable space on the notification drop-down. There's a scrollable row of quick-toggles, then the volume slide, then the brightness slider, then the shortcuts bar for their quick apps (or whatever they call them), and then, using the last inch of the screen, the actual notifications list!I've tried running the LG stock version of Android on my G2, and always get frustrated with it within a week. Tried the ported ROMs from the LG G3; same frustrations within a week. Even tried the latest ported ROM from the G4; didn't last more than 3 days.
The AOSP-based ROMs have some stability issues, and don't have access to all the camera features, but usability-wise, they are light-years ahead of LG. Even the minimalist ParanoidAndroid provides a better experience than LG, with BlissPop and AICP being even better.
ThisIsChrisKim - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
At least on the G4, you can disable all but the quick toggles row. That's how I have mine configured.cjb110 - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
As I bought one of these yesterday (once the Moto X was announced as 5.7"), this was a very interesting read. One of the other reviews mentioned that due to the thinness of the bezels its not that hard to hold, which I'd agree. I'd also say LG did a reasonable job on the OS side, most of the crap can be turned off (like taking the picture), and rest is useful (smart settings is a simple but capable 'automation' job. I have replaced the launcher with Google Now, mainly as LG's far left page didn't seem to really do anything useful. One thing I didn't see mentioned that their circle cases (with a watch'esq gap on the front) replace the back and Add wireless charging, BUT you can't get one of these cases in the leather.ZeDestructor - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
And still no Xperia Z* review :(piroroadkill - Thursday, July 30, 2015 - link
Heh, right? I'd /still/ buy a Z3 Compact over anything else.BMNify - Friday, July 31, 2015 - link
Sony does not send review samples to Anandtech, so you won't get Xperia reviews.ZeDestructor - Friday, July 31, 2015 - link
Maybe, but sometimes you have to pay up from your own pocket and buy your own review samples, or get a loaner device from somewhere. I mean, GSMarena gets samples, as does arstechnica, so I don't see why AT can't.Personally, if I were in the US, I'd actually happily have sent in my Xperia Z and Z2 when they were freshly released and new for review... Hell, I'd even do it now if there is interest, but nobody wants to see the review for a phone over a year old (nevermind that none of the new flagships bring any useful improvements over it...).
BMNify - Friday, July 31, 2015 - link
You cannot expect Anandtech to buy devices as they review loads of things in different digital/tech sectors often costing thousands of dollars, so they stick to the single site-wide policy of review samples which every major company sends them, only Sony does not send devices to Anandtech.It will be awesome if you can send new devices to Anandtech, i am sure they will appreciate it and even return after few weeks, hope you do send the next Sony xperia, specially the compact ones.