LG has made no secret that it is launching the new G5 at Mobile World Congress and true enough, the company has totally made true to its promise. Built with metal unibody, what made the new flagship smartphone rather interesting is that it features a modular design.
By modular design, we don’t mean it in a way similar to Project Ara but more like in the form of a removable expansion slot that allows users to attach optional accessories that are design to extend G5’s capabilities.
One such accessory is called LG CAM Plus which provide additional physical control button to the smartphone’s camera including shutter, and zoom. It is also designed to provide better grip for photo taking, and additional 1,200mAh built-in battery to extend G5’s battery life.
The expansion slot also supports B&O PLAY Hi-Fi audio player that allows G5 to deliver hi-fidelity audio. Interestingly, it can also be used as a separate Hi-Fi DAC player for PC or other smartphone. For now, these are the only two accessories designed to take advantage of G5’s modular design but we pretty sure there will be more from LG soon.
Another interesting characteristics of the G5 is its two separate 16-megapixels and 8-megapixels cameras at the back. While it is rather odd to have two distinctively different cameras on one phone, the 16MP camera with its 78-degree lens is meant for general scenario while the 8MP camera is meant for situations that requires wider angle lens with the help of its 135-degree lens. At the same time, the G5 also comes with an 8-megapixels front camera.
Not to forget, the much touted Always-On Display feature for G5 is also shown for the first time at the launch event. Through the feature, the G5 will always be showing time and date even though the phone is in sleep mode. LG claimed that this feature only takes 0.8-percent of the battery’s capacity per hour, thanks to redesigned display driver IC memory and power management that allows the display to illuminate just a small section of G5’s display.
In terms of other specifications, the LG G5 is built with 5.3-inch QHD (2,560 x 1,440) IPS display and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor. It also comes with 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and microSD card slot that supports card of up to 2TB. Last but not least, a 2,800 mAh battery with the support for Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0, and USB Type-C port completed G5’s hardware packages.
Set to be released throughout the world in April (don’t forget Malaysia please, LG!), the company promised that the G5 is the most exciting smartphone at MWC 2016 which is a tall order indeed. Nevertheless, let’s see how G5 is able to stand by that promise once other companies begin to show off their new devices at MWC this year.
(Image: LG Mobile webcast)
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