Mobile World Congress: New LG Smartphone Announced

MWC 2016

Reporting By: Andrew Tropeano

Written By: Nick Gambino

We’re back with more news from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The new LG G5 was unveiled this past Sunday at the official LG launch event.

The LG G5, true to rumor, is a significant departure from the earlier G models. Much like Samsung’s major smartphone upgrade last year with the S6 and S6 Edge, the G5 is LG’s path to competing with the iPhone.

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Because we’re lucky enough to be at MWC we were able to get our hands on the LG G5. The love for the G5 is real, mainly due to its stellar camera and other appealing features. The camera sports the same 16 MP as the LG G4 but has an impressive 8 MP wide-lens. This means you can finally take those wide angle shots from your smartphone and they’ll look good. The camera also records video in 2160p which isn’t too shabby.

Now let’s talk about design real quick as that is honestly one of the major differences over the G4. The G5 has an all-metal body with a fingerprint scanner on the back. This scanner takes up real estate in the spot that used to house the power and volume button combo in earlier G series models.

Speaking of the back, it no longer comes off like in the old days. BUT they still have a microSD slot and the ability to replace the battery. This is contained in the bottom of the phone covered by a cap. While the Galaxy S7 (also just unveiled at MWC) brought back the SD slot, they didn’t bring back the removable battery. Score 1 for LG.

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Also contained under this cap is what LG is calling the “magic slot.” This slot allows you to connect various modules directly to your phone. For example, the camera module allows for a better grip of your phone while taking photos as well as an additional battery and zoom wheel.

LG announced that they would share their details of their proprietary connector so that any accessory manufacturer can design and sell compatible modules.

The screen is 5.3 inches (down from 5.5 inches) and the display has a resolution of 2560p. Similar to the Galaxy S7 is the G5’s always-on display. Basically this means the screen is…wait for it…always on! Shocker, I know.

While you would think this would drain your battery faster, apparently that’s not the case. Because it’s always lit up slightly you don’t need to fully light up the screen every time you want to check the time thus saving battery. Per LG the always-on feature only drains .8% of battery per hour.

Now the battery is smaller than the G4 but if you consider everything we’ve just gone over (have you been paying attention?) then you’ll see this really isn’t a big deal. With a smaller screen, replaceable battery and the always-on display you shouldn’t see much of a difference.

Now for those who learn best through the use of bullet points, here are the specs for the LG G5:

  • QHD display is 5.3 inches
  • Android 6.0 Marshmallow with LG UI
  • 32 GB of storage with expandable microSD storage (up to a hypothetical 2 TB of storage)
  • 16 MP front-facing camera with wide-angle 8 MP
  • 8 MP rear-facing camera
  • Fingerprint scanner on the back
  • Colors: Silver, Titan, Pink and Gold
  • USB Type C
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • Modules currently available: LG Hi-Fi Plus with B&O Play and LG Cam plus

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So there you have it, the brand-new LG G5. They haven’t released any pricing information yet but we can expect the G5 to go on sale some time in early April.

Stay tuned for more news from the Mobile World Congress!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nick Gambino is a regular script writer and tech beat reporter for NewsWatch.  He lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and daughter.

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