You have to hand it to LG. The South Korean company has never been afraid to take bold design decisions with its smartphones.
The G5 continues this tradition for quirkiness. At first glance it’s an attractive if unremarkable smartphone – a metal body with a fingerprint scanner on the back, 5.3 inch quad HD screen and running Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow).
But then it goes all Transformers on you.
Unlike any other phone, the bottom of the G5 slides off to expose an expansion port and the battery. This modular design gives G5 owners the ability to slot in a variety of aftermarket modules to deliver the smartphone equivalent of superpowers.
Need more juice? Slide in the battery module and, bam, you’ve got enough to go all day and all night. If you’re a photography buff, the photo module delivers a beefier battery and a palm-fitting grip with a dedicated shutter button and zoom wheel.
LG calls these modules “friends”. Apart from the aforementioned camera and battery modules, there is a virtual reality (VR) headset and a 360-degree camera you can use to create content to view and share in VR.
My impressions were generally pretty positive, although I did feel they were a tad rough around the edges in their implementation.
For example, the VR headset plugs into the phone via a cord, so its refreshingly lightweight compared to Samsung’s GearVR which you slot your phone into to use. But the VR experience was not great.
The virtual roller-coaster ride I tried out would have been quite spectacular, were it not for the fact that I could see out of the bottom of the headset to the real world, which rather ruined the effect.
The Hi-Fi Plus module, a partnership with audio specialists Bang & Olufsen, was more impressive. The stylish and compact B&O headphones fitted comfortably and the music sample I listened to sounded pretty darn good.
The 360 camera looks intriguing and I’d be keen to compare it to Samsung’s version when they both become available later in the year.
Bear in mind that these “friends” are optional extras and not all of them are available yet.
The good news is that at R11 799, the LG G5 is slightly cheaper than heavyweight competitors like the iPhone 6S and Samsung S7 (both R12 999) and BlackBerry Priv (R13 999). So you’ll have a bit of spare cash to buy your G5 a little friend.
But how does the G5 stack up as a smartphone without its friends to back it up? I recently got to spend a few weeks with a friendless review unit and the short answer is pretty well.
It looks great, with the screen curving subtly to meet the aluminium body – The G5 is LG’s first metal-bodied flagship smartphone.
I was concerned the slide-out battery may start to loosen up with use, but in the month or so I had the G5, it remained locked in tight without a hint of movement or rattle. The rounded edges make it really easy to hold and to slip in and out of a pocket.
One thing that detracted from the otherwise excellent build quality was the slight, but noticeable to the touch, lip running around the phone where the back joins the sides. A minor niggle, but not something you expect in a premium device.
Performance-wise, the LG G5 has enough processing punch to take on any of the flagships from Samsung, HTC, Huawei and Apple.
The top-end Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor combined with 4GB of RAM made for effortless multitasking and glitch-free mobile gaming.
Battery life was acceptable if unremarkable.
Power users or road warriors would probably want to invest in a spare battery module and the ability to quickly swop out power cells is something that sets the G5 apart from its competitors and a big drawcard in my books.
There’s also a microSD card slot so you’ll be able to beef up the 32GB of on-board storage by up to 200GB.
The rear-mounted fingerprint scanner/power button is quick and responsive, if not quite as lightning fast as that on Huawei’s P9.
Another big plus is G5’s innovative dual rear camera configuration. LG has kitted out the G5 with one regular 16 megapixel camera and one 8 megapixel wide-angle camera.
Semi pro features in the camera app like manual controls and RAW support will appeal to more serious photographers and, coupled with the after-market photo module, would make for an ideal back-up snapper for situations when a bulky DSLR camera would be impractical.
Selfie fans haven’t been left out, with the 8 megapixel front-facing camera up there with the best.
If you’re in the market for a premium smartphone with a difference, be sure to check out the LG G5.
Follow Alan Cooper on Twitter @alanqcooper.
