LG G2 and MSM8974 Snapdragon 800 - Mini Review
by Brian Klug on September 7, 2013 1:11 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- LG
- Mobile
- LG G2
- Android 4.2
- MSM8974
- Snapdragon 800
Conclusions
I've been using the G2 as my daily since getting it, and have been really quite impressed with the device. LG's battery size is large, and the battery life tests back up the subjectively long longevity that I've noticed. Obviously the process improvements from 28nm HPM and power saving features in the G2 like GRAM/PSR make an improvement here. It seems like with Snapdragon 800 we may be ushering in a new generation of battery performance, despite the lack of a traditional process node shrink. It just goes to show you that there can be benefits other than more performance from using a high-end phone. The G2 is the first device we've seen with 28nm HPM silicon inside, which Qualcomm will be on for while.
There are, of course, performance benefits to talk about as well. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974), delivers solid improvements relative to Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064T). Although in some tests the G2's performance isn't quite near the MDP/T we tested a while back, that's due in part to the thermal constraints of being in a phone and also the still not quite final software on the G2 that LG wanted to get to us quickly.
LG took a bold risk by putting the volume and power buttons on the back of the G2, something I initially suspected would be awkward and cumbersome. However it actually makes a lot of sense and allows the G2 to further decrease the edge bezel thickness and prevent the device from getting too wide, which is what I find affects in-hand fatigue quite a lot. After a day or so the back buttons are basically second nature, and I've been using the volume down to launch camera shortcut quite a bit. I'd take a back mounted power button over a top mounted power button anytime after using the G2.
The G2's large display doesn't really add to the overall dimensions of the device, thanks to its unique design decisions. The panel also seems to come reasonably well calibrated out of the box, generally equaling the color accuracy we've seen from the iPhone 5 and HTC One. I can't help but be happy that we're finally seeing color accuracy taken seriously by some Android vendors.
On the camera side, having another Android phone with OIS is an awesome bonus. I love that we're getting more devices now with OIS and better emphasis on camera, and the results out of the G2 with the combination of that feature and 13 MP CMOS look very impressive in all but challenging low light situations. There's definitely OIS performance differences between the players that have it now, and room for further tuning and improvement, but it's already a huge help especially in handheld video. Likewise, finally having 1080p60 on a flagship device is absolutely awesome, now if only YouTube and other sharing mediums would follow suit with 60 FPS support.
Overall LG's G2 is surprisingly good. It's built on a great platform, with great battery life and includes a number of design decisions that show honest to goodness innovative thinking on LG's part. We'll wait to give our final recommendation on the G2 until we get an LTE version with final software, but if you're looking for an Android phone with a ~5" display this fall the G2 looks like it could be high on your list.
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Impulses - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
I've got an EVO LTE but I'm on a similar boat, furthermore, this is the first tine in three years where I'm just not in a hurry to upgrade. Going to dual cores and 1GB of RAM was huge (EVO to EVO 3D), going from qHD to 720p and a much thinner device last year was also huge (not to mention ICS/JB)... Right now there's no hugely compelling hardware/software reason urging me to upgrade tho. I still might if this comes out as a Nexus 5 for $350 tho...RollingCamel - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
What about the audio codecs LG claimed support for? Did you try FLAC on it?maglito - Monday, September 9, 2013 - link
FLAC has native support on every 4.X android device.shackanaw - Monday, September 9, 2013 - link
He's referring to the 24-bit/192khz support and other improvements mentioned in the G2 hands on: http://www.anandtech.com/show/7205/hands-on-with-t..."LG has made audio in the line-out sense a priority for the G2. We’ve seen a lot of emphasis from other OEMs on speaker quality and stereo sound, with the G2 LG has put time into rewriting part of the ALSA stack and Android framework to support higher sampling and bit depth. The inability of the Android platform to support different sampling rates for different applications remains a big limitation for OEMs, one LG wrote around, and with the G2 up to 24 bit 192 kHz FLAC/WAV playback is supported in the stock player, and LG says it will make an API available for other apps to take advantage of this higher definition audio support to foster a better 24-bit ecosystem on Android.
"I asked about what codec the G2 uses, and it turns out this is the latest Qualcomm WCD part, which I believe is WCD9320 for the MSM8974 platform. LG says that although the previous WCD9310 device had limitations, the WCD9320 platform offers considerably better audio performance and quality that enables them to expose these higher quality modes and get good output. The entire audio chain (software, hardware codec, and headphone amplifier) have been optimized for good quality and support for these higher bit depths, I’m told. I didn’t get a chance to listen to line out audio, but hopefully in testing this emphasis will play itself out."
tuxRoller - Tuesday, September 10, 2013 - link
24bit playback is a gimmick since even the studio equipment, apparently, doesn't handle the full 24bit. Aside from that, you just don't need that much sample accuracy unless you're superman.http://xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
ssj3gohan - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Why are the iPhone raw triangle/fill rate tests so much better than any other phone, yet does it perform middle of the pack in gfxbench and such? I was under the impression that they basically had the best graphics solution around, paired with awesomely optimized software.et20 - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
Apparently they didn't optimize for gfxbench.UpSpin - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
The meaningless synthetic benchmarks always favored iOS. The reason many people think that iPhones are magnitudes more powerful than Android devices.The only meaningful benchmarks are normal 3D scenes.
I don't understand why Anandtech still posts those meaningless benchmarks. Or can you read something out of them? NO! They are in no way a measurement for performance. They are basically useless. That's the reason we don't see them on desktop GPU comparisons.
tuxRoller - Saturday, September 7, 2013 - link
They give you a good idea of the device's capabilities in specific areas. Useful for doing a deep dive to determine what the make-up of the device is.For realworld use, you are absolutely right, and, imho, such synthetics only belong in articles where there are new components (like this one), but for the next snapdragon-800, I don't think those particular benchmarks need be run..
Krysto - Sunday, September 8, 2013 - link
Sunspider also seems pretty pointless at this point. Kraken and Octane seem to give more accurate results in terms of chip performance.