Interest Concentrated: Week 2 with a G2

So, I'm running into my second week with my new G2. To summarise, it's been great. All below you'll see me going on about how great the G2 has been. I honestly didn't find many drawbacks to it. So, let's go through it under small sub headings.

Screen:

The screen, in my opinion is amazing. It's incredibly sharp, very vibrant and very quick and responsive. Sure, the 2k and 4k screens of 2015 will easily best it, but other than that, it's almost perfect display. Notice I said almost. That's partly because it can be bested in brightness by AMOLED 1080p displays and partly because of something I noticed while using it. The display has a slight paper yellow tinge to it. I don't know if it is just my device, but it's something I noticed when compared to the Display of The Sony Z3C. For me, it's rather an advantage, because it makes reading books much easier and web browsing less hard on the eye. But it's not very nice if you want to see complete white. Sunlight legibility is not a problem on a hot summer day, the screen going up-to the necessary brightness to overcome the effect.

Feeling/Ergonomics:

This was always something problematic about the G2 for me. The back looks like it doesn't belong. I'll get onto it.
From the front of the phone, it looks stunning, with the gorgeous display and shimmering curved glass. I love how the screen feels so soft to the touch, almost like satin. But it does of course have it's drawbacks. Firstly, fingerprints. It's fingerprint hoarder. For me, it couldn't get worse. I'm always wiping the screen. Second: It scratches easily. I kept my phone face down one night, while charging, and when I picked it up, my gorgeous, gorgeous screen had scratches all over the edges. Mind you, these were created by the everyday movement of picking the phone of the edge of the table. Just two weeks in too. It's distressing to say the least. And lastly, what happens when you drop it. Thankfully, I haven't dropped mine (yet?), but with the easily scratching curved glass, I'd hate to think what'll happen.
Nothing is likely to happen to mine, because I've kitted it up with a Spigen SlimArmor and Tempered Glass screen protector.
Now, moving onto the back of the phone. This, in my opinion, is pretty much the only thing I hate about this phone. I can't say I dislike the curvy edges of the sides, because they make gripping the phone much easier. But what I do hate is the materials texture. You might have expected me to say I hate the plastic because it feels cheap, but no, it's not that bad. Sure, it would be better to have metal or glass, but this isn't as cheap and disgusting as its made out to be. But I hate how the plastic is so slippery, is a fingerprint magnet and how it collects the condensing moisture of your hand and eventually ends up feeling like soap. This is honestly a rather irritating problem. So, like the screen, after about 20 minutes reading, watching or playing games, I'm made to wipe the whole phone over before using it again and repeating the cycle.
But now that I'm using the case, it's not such a big deal. The case doesn't pick up fingerprints, isn't slippery and gives a nice chunky (albeit heavier) feel to the phone. And I don't much feel inclined to remove it either, it's not as is it's very good looking from the back. If you want your G2 to feel good, invest in a nice case, it's better than way. My Spigen is very good looking! It does grace to the amazing stuff inside this monster.

Performance:

The G2 excels in doing all the daily tasks in my opinion. It has never lagged down or crashed on me, and I'm a rather demanding user too. I've done some rather performance demanding games, and it's never broken a sweat.

When the G2 was released, all the reviewers went on about how the G2 doesn't even know the meaning of lag, and actually, in my usage, I think so too. Sure the newer flagships of today have much better benchmarks than the G2, with the S6E+ scoring 5000+ scores on Geekbench while the G2 only has 2500 to 2800 scores (both multicore), but in real day to day terms, it hardly makes a difference. Go past 2500 and whether you're browsing YouTube or scrolling through the home-pages, you are unlikely to see any lag (unless, of course, you are on year old Samsung).

I mentioned gaming, and I think I need to clarify. I don't have much of a gaming know-how. The most power/graphics hungry games I played were RipTide, Goat Simulator and Asphalt 8 and in my usage the only problem I experienced was something I'll get onto in a minute. Of course, there are people are who've done better, more power hungry games and you might want to check some of those videos on Youtube for further clarification.

Handling Minecraft or Clash Of Clans is almost nothing for the G2, as is for most normal phones, with the G2 munching through Minecraft explosions and ordinary graphics easily.

Overall the G2 exceeds my expectations for performance, and in daily usage you'd notice almost no

difference between this and a 2015 flagship.

Stuff like browser benchmarks don't really make any difference to the end user, so I'm not going onto those. If you do however, you might want to check out GSMArena's or PhoneArena's reviews.

Now onto the one problem I've experienced performance-wise on the G2. Now, really, it's probably not something to do with the phone. Rather it's to do with Developers not optimising their games and apps properly.

The G2 heats up quickly.

I don't really know why, but when I'm about 10 minutes into Minecraft, for example, this heat becomes evident near the top of the phone, under the camera. Before I put on my Spigen case, I found it almost impossible to go past 15 minutes of gaming. The top end gets really hot, which makes my hands get sweaty, which makes it impossible, combined with the slippery back, to get a grip on the phone.

Now, I can't say it only happens on the G2. It's same on the Xperia Z3C when I use it. That gets hot after just 1 hour or two of browsing the web or watching Youtube!

And of course, it's same with a lot of modern phones too. These things get hot! I guess it's something to live with.

With the case, like I said, it's far less apparent, and the case also offers good grip on the phone. But when it does get too hot, I always remove the app from the RAM and power-off and restart to get it cooled quickly (though I recommend you just leave it to cool out, rather than restarting).

Battery:

This, by far, is the best thing about the G2 compared to most 2015 flagships.

It's just purely amazing! On my G2, running LG OS Android 5.0.2, I nearly always get 4.5 to 5 hours screen on time! And it only reduces to 4.5 and under if I use some power-hungry game (Minecraft) or app.

I always keep WIFI on through the day and I've noticed it hardly does anything to the battery life. Sometimes I prefer to keep AirPlane mode on, and the results vary but don't make much of a difference, 15 minutes more of SOC at maximum on AP mode over normal cellular.

And with the results shown by my friends over at the LG G2 owners community, some have managed to get even better results with different usage patterns and several custom ROMs.

I use Greenify on my G2 (which I may add is rooted), and to tell the truth, I don't really think it's made much of a difference.

And with Android Marshmallow said to arrive (one day....), I think the G2 can become a very very efficient phone!

Quick tip: Charge your phone on AirPlane mode, it's almost as quick as Qualcomm Quickcharging on mine; 1 percent per ~1.5 minutes.

UI:

This is a quick run through of something I've noticed LG is getting a lot of flak from; it's UI. In my opinion, I don't at all think it's horrible and cluttered! I mean have they even used Touchwiz on the S6? LG interface is so much more pure than that. As for cluttered, the only thing that is cluttered is the native homescreen. But who in reality, unless you're a 80 year old grandmother (no offence intended), actually uses the native homescreen? I mean the only native homescreen I've ever found to be good is HTC Sense, Google Now Launcher on the Nexus and Sony UI. Use Nova Launcher for gods sake! LG's UI is one of the most out-of-the-box customisable UIs. No other OEM UI allows you to decide where your home, recent apps, and back button goes! The Settings App looks really nice, the notification bar, though not as stock android as I'd like is much, much better than Samsung's Touchwiz, and the addition of Knock Code is really sweet! (Knock Code is amazing! If you don't know what it is search it. You'll really want it after you see how easy it is)

Camera:

This is probably the least used feature of my G2. I hardly ever use the camera. The only photos on my phone are ones I took just see how good the camera quality is. And it's good. Yes, I've seen better, and the OIS isn't as useful as I'd like, but my father (who is well-versed in the art of anything camera) actually prefers the G2 in some cases over his Sony Z3C (the Z3C always oversharpening while the G2 is relatively soft) , while I'm of the opposite opinion. On thing I can say is, other than in conditions of extremely good lighting, you will always see the infamous traces of grainy 'sound'. I find that a letdown, considering most of the photos I've taken are rather grainy. But the camera is always colour accurate, as far as I've seen

So when it comes to this, I'm afraid I can't really give a verdict on what I think of the camera. It's rather nice, and it's pretty good if all you want to do is point and shoot. (The Manual mode doesn't offer much.)

Here are some pictures I took so you can decide if it's good for you:

In case you wanted, here's some from the front facing camera, something which I rarely, if ever use:

Conclusion:

I love the G2. It's truly and honestly one of the best around for the price! Oh wait. The price! I didn't get onto that did I? Well, if you don't know already, the G2 comes at an amazing price! In the UK, it's only £115 on eBay! That is a shocking price in my opinion. Compared to the other newer phones around today, it's just too much value for money! The seemingly only advantage the newer phones have is that their processors are 64 bit, while the Snapdragon 800 on the G2 is 'only' 32 bit. But honestly that's a just a tiny tiny letdown compared to what the G2 offers to the Motorola Moto X! This even performances better in gaming,in the camera department and display! So, what's the verdict? In my daily usage, the G2 has never let me down, and has always been consistent in its performance, battery life, and doing the daily jobs I require it to do. If your out looking for a phone to bug, but don't have the biggest of budgets, and still want great performance, look no further than this!

Note:

I know I should have added call quality and call handling, but how many people actually care about it? It's just an after thought isn't it? Well, if you wanted to know, the G2 handles it all perfectly well, with the call quality being rather good too! It always keeps the call connected (I've never experienced drop offs) and the phone always stays connected to the network.

Here's some pictures of my G2 (with and without case), for you look at:

How did you like my review? Anything I haven't covered? Anything I didn't cover well enough? Did you like it? Or not? Please do leave a comment below! Any feedback is appreciated! I'd also really appreciate it if you could +1 this and share this! It only takes a click of a button! It helps! :-) To be notified of every new post first, don't forget to follow my blog, by just submitting your email in the gadget above this post!
So, what's next? Well, during the time I was reviewing this, I got a new addition to the family! The Sony Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact! I've only had it for two days now, but I am absolutely loving it! It's a really amazing tablet! (The photos of the G2 were taken from it)
And that's what's next! Look forward to a review of the Z3TC from my point of view in the following weeks (~two weeks~)!
In the meantime, why don't check out the other stuff on this blog? There are lots of stories and poems on this that I'm sure you'll enjoy! Given below are all the links you should be checking out!
Thanks for Reading!

FunFact:
Pretty much half of this article was written on the phone itself, while the other later half I wrote on the Z3TC. Only this last part and the addition of the photos were done on the computer!

Read More:

The Poems Concentrated Series:

Edition 1: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated.html

Edition 2: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/p/poems-concentrated-ed-2.html

Edition 3: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed3.html

Edition 4: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed4.html

Edition 5: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poetry-concentrated-ed5.html

Edition 6: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/poems-concentrated-ed-6.html

Edition 7: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed-7.html

Edition 8: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed8.html

Edition 9: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-ed9.html

Edition 10: http://interestconcentrated.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/poems-concentrated-edition-10.html

Check out my stories: