LG G2

Price

At a starting price of Rs. 41,500 (for the 16GB version)

Design

The two things that strike you when you first hold the LG G2 are its almost bezel-free display panel and lightweight nature.The phone doesn't feel bulky and fits in the hand despite sporting a rather large screen.

The 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera, a notification LED and the sensor array are located above the LG G2's display.

The power / screen lock key and the volume rocker keys are located at the back just below the 13-megapixel camera lens and LED flash. 

The power key of the LG G2 also features a light surrounding it that glows up while making a call. The two keys are metallic and offer good tactile feedback. The Volume-up key also doubles up as a shortcut key to launch the Quickmemo app on long press and the Volume-down key acts as a camera shortcut key on long press when the phone is locked.

Display

The LG G2 sports a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) IPS LCD display, with a pixel density of 423 pixels-per-inch (ppi). The G2's display comes with Corning 's Gorilla Glass 3 protection making it resistant to scratches.

Software/User Interface (UI)

The LG G2 runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean, which is a disappointment as we expected LG to ship Android 4.3, the latest iteration of the OS at this time, with the phone. 

LG has added its own Optimus UI layer on top, majorly changing the look and feel of the interface and enabling users to customise the phone according to their liking.

LG even allows you to customise the onscreen Android navigation buttons on the G2, allowing users to choose a colour theme, and transparency, and put custom buttons for launching the notification panel or QuickMemo.

LG has also skinned the G2's notification tray, including toggles for various settings such as for sound, data, NFC, Quick remote, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Hotspot among others. It also features shortcuts for invoking QSlide apps, and controls for changing screen brightness and the phone's call volume.

Another new software feature that the LG G2 offers is Slide Aside, a way to multitask by moving between three apps at once via a three-finger swipe gesture. This is similar to the iPad's or Mac's three finger app switch gesture but limited to three apps. The apps are listed under a notification tapping on which stacks  and brings all the three apps together, at the front. We don't see how this solution is better than the built-in app switcher.

Camera

The LG G2 sports a 13-megapixel rear camera and a 2.1-megapixel front facing camera. The phone features LG's own Camera app which features controls for switching between the front and rear cameras, turning the flash on or off, selecting between the Normal, HDR, Panorama, VR Panorama, Burst shot, Beauty shot, Intelligent Auto, Shot & Clear,Dynamic Tone, Night, Time Catch and Dual camera photo modes and for accessing the camera settings.
 

The LG G2's 2.1-megapixel front-facing camera also takes good quality pictures and combining it with the Beauty mode will satisfy the needs of most narcissists. it also does a good job for making video calls and supports 1080p video capture.

Performance/Battery Life

The LG G2 sports top of the line hardware (at this point in time), as it is powered by a 2.26GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor with 2GB RAM, and an Adreno 330 chip for processing graphics. Our review unit had 32GB of built-in storage (a 16GB variant is also available), out of which 24.8GB is available to the user. The phone doesn't offer a microSD card slot for expandable storage. 

The speaker on the LG G2 delivers good quality sound at high volume levels and the sound doesn't get muffled when the phone lies on its back as the speaker is located at the bottom edge.

The G2 comes with a giant 3000mAh battery.

Pros

Brilliant display
Great performance
Good battery back-up

Cons

Awkward hardware key placement
Plastic back