LG unveils new G4 smartphone, with improved camera and choice of leather styles

Now that Samsung and HTC have rolled out their new flagship smartphones this year, it’s LG’s turn. The company today announced its newest flagship phone at an event in New York City — the G4.

The G4’s two main selling points, perhaps, are a much improved camera, a brilliant display, and a new leather-backed look.

The G4 includes a 16-megapixel rear camera that features an F1.8 lens aperture. The aperture number refers to the diameter of the lens opening (the larger the diameter of the aperture, the more light reaches the image sensor). The lower that aperture number is, the greater the lens area. The G4’s F1.8 aperture compares to the F2.2 aperture in both the iPhone 6 and the HTC One M9.

In addition to an automatic mode, the G4 adds a manual mode that gives users control of white balance, exposure, and shutter speeds — a set of features other phone makers have been experimenting with this year. LG is also adding a button on the back of the phone called ‘Quick Shot’ that allows users to take a quick pic with a double tap.

The higher megapixel count and lower aperture number, LG says, will create sharper and brighter images, compared to its earlier phone cameras. The G4 also features an 8-megapixel front-facing “selfie” camera.

The idea here is to build up the smart phone as a camera “So you can share your personal experiences exactly as you see it,” says president of LG’s mobile communications business Juno Cho.

LG tries to pump up the “premium” look of the new phones by putting leather on their backs — six colors to choose from, to be exact. The large seem running down the middle of the back is meant to lend the phone a rustic, authentic look. For those who don’t like leather, three plastic-backed phones are available in silver, bronze, and white.

LG has already bragged a lot about the display used on the device. It’s a QuadHD display with something called Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) technology, which allows the display to detect finger touches even when it’s wet. LG also says the display is 50 percent brighter than those of its competitors. We’ll have to see it up close to be sure of that, and we’ll also be interested to see what all that brightness does to the battery.

LG G4 runs on the Snapdragon 808 chip, which runs cooler, but is less powerful than the Snapdragon 810. In regards to the battery, LG’s G4 has a 3,000mAh removable battery that you can swap out rather than recharge, as well as an SD card slot.

With this latest phone, LG is eschewing the flat-style of smart phone in favor of curved surfaces, a feature which the company says makes the phone more durable.

Developing…