The new LG G4 – available in handcrafted leather

LG Electronics (LG) unveiled their eagerly anticipated LG G4 smartphone last Wednesday at the launch event held at The Singapore ArtScience Museum. Guests from the region gathered to view the new LG G4, the successor to the G3.

Social media was full of buzz about their genuine leather cover. Here’s a first look:

Beautiful isn’t it?

50 lucky participants in Singapore will be receiving the new smartphone prior to market availability. They will be part of LG’s largest-ever consumer experience campaign which involves 4,000 participants across 15 countries to “test drive” the LG G4.

With the G4, LG focused on delivering comfortable elegance, a great visual experience and a human-centric user experience.

The LG G4 camera features a rare-in-smartphones F1.8 aperture lens which allows 80 percent more light to hit the image sensor than in the LG G3. The innovative camera module is paired with the new IPS Quantum Display, outperforming the Quad HD display introduced to the world in the LG G3. The LG G4 sports a Slim Arc exterior design, as well as offers simpler and smarter graphical user interface.

“We are living up to our promise of innovation for a better life with a fashionable, premium smartphone that is more focused on delivering a balanced user experience that can compete with the best of the best,” said Mr. Scott Jung, Managing Director of LG Electronics Singapore.

“We wanted to give consumers a truly human-centric device that combined the analog sensibilities with technologies that delivered real world performance. From the design to the camera to the display to the UX, this is the most ambitious phone we’ve ever created.”

Comfortable & Elegant Design

LG paid special attention to the materials utilised in its newest flagship smartphone. The LG G4 is available in handcrafted, genuine full grain leather in three colors (Black, Brown and Red).

The vegetable tanning process employed is an age-old tradition that requires skilled craftsmen to produce and dye the leather.

LG G4’s leather back cover is claimed to age well, adding character to the smartphone. Vegetable tanned leather is also environmental friendly and can be recycled easily. Other material options for the G4 rear cover include Metallic Gray as well as Shiny Gold.

The fashionable elegance of the LG G4 is a refreshing change from the uniformly flat, full metal designs that have become commonplace in the industry. The LG G4’s design is defined by the Slim Arc, which runs along its entire body, highlighted by a display with a subtle curvature. Slim Arc offers 20 percent better durability than a flat smartphone in face-down drops and gives the smartphone a more comfortable and secure feel in the hand.

The exterior design is also reflected in the smartphone’s user interface, which includes simple and intuitive graphics. In the LG G4, the icon colors are more vibrant and the icons feature rounded corners that are consistent with the Slim Arc design. What’s more, the Smart Notice widget automatically changes its background and text color based on the home screen image selected by the user.

Great Visual Experience

LG designed the 16MP camera in the LG G4 to capture beautiful images, even under poor lighting conditions. The camera module features a wide F1.8 aperture lens that allows 80 percent more light to reach the sensor. LG improved low-light performance even further with OIS 2.0, which doubles the performance of the improved OIS+ by expanding the range of image stabilisation from one degree to two degrees on the X- and Y-axis, and adding a third axis for the first time.

New for G4, Manual Mode allows experienced photographers to directly control the focus, shutter speed, ISO, exposure compensation and white balance for every shot. Advanced photographers can also save their photos in RAW format, in addition to JPEG, for more precise editing with no loss of details.

The advanced camera in the LG G4 is complemented by Color Spectrum Sensor (CSS), the first feature of its kind in a smartphone. CSS improves color accuracy by precisely reading the RGB values of the ambient light in a scene, as well as the infrared light reflected from objects. CSS uses this information to adjust the camera’s white balance and flash color to create images that are as close to what one would see with the naked eye. With Color Spectrum Sensor, no longer will reds appear as bright orange or whites as dull yellow.

For selfie enthusiasts, LG included a 8MP front-facing camera for sharp, detailed portraits and group shots. Gesture Interval Shot improves on the original Gesture Shot feature by taking four shots spaced two seconds apart, increasing the chance of getting that perfect shot. Triggering the shutter is as simple as opening and closing one’s hand twice in front of the camera.

Taking a quantum leap in display technology, the LG G4 is the first smartphone to use LG Display’s new 5.5-inch IPS Quantum Display, which offers 20 percent greater color reproduction, 25 percent improvement in brightness and 50 percent greater contrast. It is the first Quad HD display to employ Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) technology, which combines the LCD and touch sensor into a single layer to provide better color reproduction and touch sensitivity. This new display is calibrated for DCI (Digital Cinema Initiatives) standards for color expression, championed by top Hollywood studios.

Power and Performance

With G4, the higher quality display does not come at the expense of battery life. The LG G4 is equipped with a high-capacity 3,000mAh removable battery, a rare feature in today’s high-end smartphones. Combined with the benefits offered by the snappy yet energy-saving Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with X10 LTE, the LG G4 can typically last a full day of normal use. In fact, the LG G4 is estimated to last 20 percent longer than the G3, from the same capacity battery.

Human-Centric UX

The LG G4 is the first phone to utilise the new human-centric UX 4.0 that promises to be simpler and more intuitive to better understand and respond to the needs of each user. The improved UX eliminates unnecessary steps while providing more configuration options for advanced users.

• Quick Shot allows customers to take pictures without opening the camera app by double tapping the phone’s Rear Key while the display is off. LG G4 also has an incredibly fast camera startup time of just six-tenths of a second.
• The new Gallery makes it extremely fast to scroll through thousands of pictures and view them on a timeline. The Memories feature automatically organises photos and videos into event albums based on the time and place they were taken, without having to upload to the cloud.
• Event Pocket allows users to create one, unified calendar by dragging and dropping appointments and activities from multiple calendars and social media sites. After the initial setup, there is no need to log into multiple calendars.
• The improved Smart Notice provides more personalised notifications for weather, travel and more by analysing habits, such as how a user commutes to work. This allows Smart Notice to issue personalised messages such as, “Make sure to take an umbrella on your way to the subway.”
• Quick Help allows users to search for instant answers to any questions about operating the LG G4, right in the Smart Notice widget. Quick Help can guide users through the LG G4’s settings and even schedule a call with customer service.

Enhancing the overall user experience of the G4, the LG G4 comes with Google Office pre-installed for easy collaboration on-the-go and G4 owners will receive an additional 100GB of Google Drive storage free for two years.

The LG G4 will be available at the end of May, retailing for S$998 (Genuine Leather) and S$928 (Metallic) from M1, Singtel, StarHub and authorised LG Mobile retailers. Customers will receive an additional LG G4 battery and battery charger worth S$126 when they purchase an LG G4. Consumers can register their interest at the websites of the respective telecommunication companies from 15 May 2015 to 24 May 2015.

Key Specifications:

• Chipset: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 808 Processor with X10 LTE
• Display: 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS Quantum Display (2560 x 1440, 538ppi)
• Memory: 32GB eMMC ROM, 3GB LPDDR3 RAM / microSD slot
• Camera: Rear 16MP with F1.8 Aperture / OIS 2.0 / Front 8MP with F2.0 Aperture
• Battery: 3,000mAh (removable)
• Operating System: Android 5.1 Lollipop
• Size: 148.9 x 76.1 x 6.3 – 9.8 mm
• Weight: 155g (with battery)
• Network: 4G – LTE Cat6 (Up to 300Mbps)/ 3G -DC-HSPA+ (Up to 42Mbps)
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g, n, ac / Bluetooth 4.1LE / NFC / USB 2.0
• Colors: [Genuine Leather] Black/Brown/Red, [Metallic] Metallic Gray/Shiny Gold
• Other: Manual Mode / Gesture Interval Shot / Quick Shot

For more information about LG G4, please visit www.lg.com/sg.