LG G2 mini vs Apple iPhone 5s: first look

LG brought the newly-announced mini version of the G2 at the MWC expo, to showcase for the world to see. It is a far cry from the G2 flagship, though, despite bearing its name, and we pegged the smaller handset against the even smaller iPhone 5s we carried handy in our pockets, and here's what we found.

Display

LG's new midranger sports a 4.7" display, which is much larger than the 4" panel of the iPhone 5s, yet comes with much worse 234ppi pixel density, as it carries qHD resolution with 540x960 pixels. It's still of the IPS variety, just like on the iPhone, though, ensuring good viewing angles. Apple has proven many times that its phone display panels flaunt almost perfect color representation, and are also extremely bright, which the LG G2 mini has yet to show for itself.

Interface

The G2 mini runs LG's Optimus UI on top of Android 4.4 KitKat, which means we get to have LG's QSlide suite of floating apps, and swipeable connectivity toggles in the status bar. The iPhone runs the latest iOS 7, with its command and notification centers, with widgets notably missing from the scene.

Processor and memory

The G2 mini is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 fumes, and the chipset is clocked at 1.2 GHz, while a Tegra 4i version is also in store, with LTE connectivity. Just like the iPhone 5s, it sports 1 GB of RAM, but Apple has a much faster, A7 processing chip in its handset. The 5s also offers 16 GB of internal memory from the box, while G2 mini makes do with 8 GB, but offers a microSD slot for more.

Camera

Both phones come with 8 MP cameras on the back, that also sport an LED flash, as well as front-facing shooters. Given our numerous camera comparisons, though, we'd wager to guess Apple's unit would produce much better results than the shooter on the G2 mini, although on paper both allow 1080p video footage, captured at fluid 30fps.

The LG G2 mini seems to be flying on the wings of the popular G2 flagship, but scales down too much in terms of specs and design, whereas the iPhone 5s is crafted much more premium, possesses a much faster processor, and a more capable camera, so it's an easy pick before the G2 mini, if not for the price.