LG has made a legitimate contender out of the G4 with a leather backed case, but the Samsung Galaxy S6 still is the biggest fish in the Android Sea, so which device is better?
When LG announced that they would be putting a leather case on their flagship G4 smartphone, it made a lot of people shake their heads in astonishment. When people think about futuristic phones, or smartphones that are high-end, very few users likely think about leather as being the material of choice. However, LG spent 3 years developing this material – and it takes 3 months just to produce – which means that this is one of the most interesting devices to ever hit the market. That’s what makes the launch of the LG G4 so interesting when there are devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 entering the market in the very same season. That could make choosing between these devices challenging, so we have put together a comparison of the LG G4 and the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Design
Both devices deliver a premium feel. While the glass back of the Samsung Galaxy S6 will remind a lot of consumers of the iPhone, it does deliver a great quality device that can withstand a lot of punishment. The LG G4 has a curved body, and leather case, which gives it both a unique and premium feel – that hasn’t been seen before. The LG G4 is slightly thicker than the Galaxy S6, but it’s not so dramatic that it can’t be tolerated. The LG G4 is also significantly more comfortable to hold, especially if the user is on the phone frequently making calls.
Display
The LG G4 is slightly larger, offering one of the biggest screens of any flagship device. It measures in at 5.5-inches compared to the 5.1-inches of the Samsung Galaxy S6. As far as the quality of the display goes, they’re both nearly identical measuring in at 1,440 x 2,560 pixels. However, the Samsung Galaxy S6 has a slightly higher ppi than the LG G4 – which sits at 557ppi and 534ppi respectively. The only major difference between the two devices would be that LG employs an LCD capacitive touchscreen while Samsung employs a Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen.
Camera
Both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the LG G4 offer 16MP rear-facing shooters, which is great quality. However, the more impressive front-facing camera is the LG G4 – which measures in at 8MP compared to the Galaxy S6’s 5MP front-facing camera. Both of these devices have high-quality camera setups, which would make either choice great – if that is the only factor going into the consumer’s decision.
Call Quality
The call quality for both of these devices has been great with early testing. Neither have any major issues, and as long as the user isn’t in an absolutely rural location with spotty cell phone reception – neither device should disappoint.
Performance
The performance of these two devices is something that will be held against each other for the next year consecutively, in all likelihood. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was celebrated for breaking away from Qualcomm and their Snapdragon processors, which were said to be causing an overheating problem within the devices. Early reports would indicate that users aren’t having any major issues with overheating to this point, which might indicate that Samsung was onto something when they switched to the Exynos processor – which is developed by Samsung. Samsung claims that this processor is just as fast as previous chips that they would have used, but LG went rogue with their processor choice, as well.
Instead of utilizing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor like most of the new Android flagships did this year – or would have been expected to – the company went with a six-core processor. That’s interesting because it’s less than what the company would have been going with, had they used the eight-core Snapdragon 810 processor. LG says though that their smartphone isn’t any slower for the change of processor and performs just as well without it. Both devices bring 3GB of RAM to the table and offer 32GB of internal storage to start.
Software
The software onboard both devices are interesting because they both run Android 5.0 Lollipop. Early indications have been indicating that the Galaxy S6 will slightly outperform the G4, but that could change dramatically over time.
Battery life
Battery life is important with any smartphone today. Both of these devices have larger batteries inside them, and even offering quicker charging times than past models. While only the Galaxy S6 offers wireless charging – this isn’t something that has been widely adopted by tech companies just yet anyway.
Ecosystem
Luckily, any consumers who want to be able to work with a wide range of products within the given ecosystem that they choose – depending on which device they go with – won’t have any shortage of options. Whether we’re talking about wearables or other tech-related gadgets, these two devices will bring plenty of options.
Verdict
Choosing between the two of these devices would be very challenging. However, it’s worth noting that given how much more durable the Samsung Galaxy S6 is, combined with how far the premium feel goes that it delivers with the glass back – it’s hard to choose any device against this particular one. The LG G4 is easily one of the two best Android smartphones on the market this year – but the Galaxy S6 is simply the best.
