LG G4 vs Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Introduction

LG's newest flagship, the LG G4, is no longer a subject of rumors and hearsay – it's already official and poised to hit the market later this month, relieving the LG G3 from its flagship duties. The phone will certainly play a pretty important role in LG's portfolio, because it needs to further solidify the already-established market positions of the second-largest South-Korean manufacturer. In order to do so, the new 5.5” Android gladiator will have to clash with another pretty successful device that races in the same display-size lane – the Apple iPhone 6 Plus.

Design

In terms of exterior, the two devices differ from one another in many key areas. The LG G4 comes in two different versions, one with a regular plastic back that employs a 3D diamond-shaped pattern and another one with a genuine leather back, which comes with a signature stitching through the middle of the back. The iPhone 6 Plus, on the other hand, comes with an aluminum unibody with a smooth finish and rounded edges.

Size-wise, the G4 and the Apple phablet are also rather different, albeit they have displays with similar sizes. Despite being way thicker than the iPhone 6 Plus, the LG flagship is both shorter and narrower, all the while tipping the scales significantly less than the Apple phablet; it's better screen-to-body size ratio makes it the more compact device.

The rear cover, as well as the battery of the LG G4, are both removable, giving access to the SIM card and microSD card slots of the flagship. The iPhone, as you might expect, does not come with such features – the only thing you can take in and out of the phone is the tray out of the nano SIM slot.

It's worth mentioning that the LG G4 aims to provide a new level of ergonomics and is slightly curved to the front (similarly to the G Flex/G Flex 2), while the iPhone 6 Plus is a completely flat phone (save for the protruding iSight camera). The positioning of the hardware buttons is also different – similar to the G3, the G4 has a set of rear-positioned keys (power button & volume rocker); meanwhile, the iPhone has a classic setup – hardware home button with an embedded fingerprint scanner, power button on the right side, and a volume rocker, as well as a hardware mute switch on the left one.

The loudspeaker of the G4 can be found at the lower-left quadrant of the phone's rear, which means that you could potentially muffle it with your palm from time to time. There are no such concerns with the iPhone 6 Plus – it's loudspeaker is positioned on the very bottom of the phone.

Display

As we mentioned before, both smartphones have 5.5-inch displays... and this is where the majority of similarities ends. The G4 comes with a Quad HD IPS 'Quantum Display' that boasts a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. This commands a pixel density of 538ppi, paving the way for a detailed and sharp display. Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 Plus comes with the sharpest display Apple has ever put in a smartphone – the 1080p IPS LCD one on the phone flaunts a pixel density of 401ppi. While this is noticeably lower than the G4's one, the difference shouldn't be a grave issue for most consumers.

When it comes to realistic color reproduction, the iPhone 6 Plus performs better than the LG G4 – it is more accurate and natural; the different color nuances and shades of iPhone 6 Plus' display also match up with most of the color targets on the sRGB color chart. In the meantime, the LG G4 comes with a much more saturated display that offers more vibrant and “eye-catching” colors, undoubtedly an intentional move by LG.

The iPhone 6 Plus also has a superior white-point temperature – at 7318K, it's much closer to the ideal reference point of 6500K. The display of LG's new pride and glory clocked in at 8031K, which means that it gives white colors a noticeable blueish tint.

In terms of gamma, both displays perform in a similar manner. At low brightness levels, both reproduce the various gray shades slightly darker than intended. Yet, at higher brightness levels, the iPhone 6 Plus has the upper hand in terms of overall accuracy, as its readings are closer to the curve that represents the ideal gamma measurement.

Speaking of brightness, we should also mention that the LG G4 achieves lower maximum one than its iOS rival – 454 nits for the G4 at best versus 574 nits for the iPhone 6 Plus. But how low can they go? In terms of minimum brightness, the G4 has the upper hand: 2 nits for the G4 vs 4 nits for the iPhone 6 Plus.

The clash between the LG G4 and the iPhone 6 Plus gives us yet another shot at the ever-going rivalry between Android and iOS. On the LG G4, we have Android 5.1 Lollipop with LG's new UX 4.0 on top. It's a more streamlined, flatter, and cleaner than the one that arrived along with the LG G3, though it does not differ much in terms of features and functionalities. Hence, it comes with some familiar UI features, like Dual Window, a multi-tasking solution, Knock On/Code, which allows you to unlock the screen by tapping on it, QSlide, Smart Notices, multi-user support, and many others.

In the meantime, the iPhone 6 Plus runs on iOS 8.3, which is the most feature-packed rendition of Apple's mobile platform ever. However, this can't put it on par with what LG offers with the G4. Still, the iPhone 6 Plus undoubtedly provides the more user-friendly, easy-to-use combination between a mobile platform and user interface, as well as a more premium app ecosystem.

It's also worth mentioning that the LG G4 doesn't have a fingerprint scanner of any kind, whereas the iPhone 6 Plus is equipped with a touch-based one, fitted in its home button.

Camera

It goes without a doubt that one of the highlights of the LG G4 is its rear camera. Even the specs of the unit sound pretty exciting – we have a 16MP, 1/2.6” sensor that is sporting a lens with an aperture of f/1.8. Improved optical image stabilization, a laser-assisted auto-focus, and a color-spectrum sensor (which adjusts the white balance according to the lighting situation) further make the LG G4 an enticing phone. On the other hand, we have an 8MP iSight camera that boasts a 1/3” sensor and a lens with an f/2.2 aperture inside the iPhone 6 Plus, complemented by a “Focus Pixels” phase detection auto-focus, optical image stabilization, and a dual-tone LED flash.

Feature-wise, the G4 comes with a surplus of different shooting modes. One of the most important ones is the manual one, which gives you a pretty good control over your G4's camera, allowing you to adjust the ISO, shutter speed (up to 30 seconds), white balance, exposure compensation, etc. The iPhone 6 Plus provides a more limited set of shooting modes (slo-mo, time-lapse, panorama, etc.).



In terms of quality under bright daylight, the LG G4 naturally produces way more detailed images than the iPhone 6 Plus thanks to its larger sensor. Not that the iPhone 6 Plus is disappointing in this regard, but it certainly can't keep up with the amount of details the G4 brings to the table. Color reproduction is quite accurate and natural. Still, it's worth mentioning that the iPhone 6 Plus tends to produce slightly warmer-looking photos. In the other camp, the G4 sometimes over-saturates colors a bit. Exposure-wise, both phones are pretty tied. In some of the scenes we shot, the iPhone 6 Plus had the upper-hand as the G4 had either slightly over- or under-exposed the final image.

Flick the lights off and the G4 will rise and shine. Under low-light conditions, each camera's arch-enemy, the G4 performs top-notch. It produces well-exposed and strikingly-detailed images, mostly devoid of noise. The iPhone 6 is also a good performer in low-light conditions, yet it simply can't hold water to the LG G4. However, when it comes to low-light flash performance, the iPhone 6 Plus fares better – the flash of the LG G4 tends to add a slight greenish tint over the final image, which is pretty noticeable when you put samples from both phones one next to the other.



The LG G4 shoots 4K, 1080p, and 720p, 60fps slo-mo videos; regardless of the resolution, the clips usually turn out with an ample amount of detail, correct color reproduction, and accurate exposure. The lack of continuous auto-focus is a pretty serious con. The quality of the audio in the recorded videos is acceptable, though not impressive. The iPhone 6 Plus shoots 1080p and 720p, up to 240fps slo-mo videos. It has a strikingly-fast continuous auto-focus and produces well-exposed videos with natural-looking colors, with no visible rolling shutter effect. However, the largest iPhone ever is certainly lagging behind in terms of audio quality – we were slightly disappointed with the muffled, artificial sounds it captured.



As a whole, it's hard not to like the LG G4, though the iPhone 6 Plus also gives us a few reasons to pick it over the Android warrior.

Multimedia

With such large, pixel-dense displays up front, both the LG G4 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus are phones that will make you enjoy multimedia. You can easily spend a few hours watching videos or movies on both devices, as both are pretty fit for the job. We slightly favor the saturated display of the G4 more in this regard – the more vivid colors simply makes videos stand out.


When it comes to audio-reproduction, it's worth-mentioning that the LG G4 has a much louder loudspeaker than the iPhone 6 Plus – 79 dB versus 71.6 dB. While this is not indicative for better quality: we found out that the G4 sounds a bit flat and bland, while the iPhone treats our ears to rich and “vibrant” tunes.

Call quality

We won't beat about the bush – the iPhone 6 Plus is the better phone in the most basic meaning of the term. The earpiece of the G4 ever so slightly distorts the voices it reproduces, making them sound a bit synthetic. Meanwhile, the iPhone 6 Plus comes with a more natural voice reproduction.

On the other end of the line, things are pretty much on par, with both the LG G4 and the iPhone 6 Plus performing pretty well. There are hardly any hisses or unacceptable distortions.

Battery

Equipped with a 3,000mAh user-replaceable battery, the LG G4 performs slightly worse than its predecessor. In our benchmark test, the battery of the new LG flagship kept the lights on for as long as 6 hours and 6 minutes. The phone gets fully charged from 0% to 100% in 127 minutes.

In this area, the iPhone 6 Plus with its slightly smaller 2,915mAh battery takes a jab at the G4, achieving 6 hours and 32 minutes in our test. However, it also takes significantly more to get charged – 171 minutes.

Conclusion

In the clash between the LG G4 and the iPhone 6 Plus, it's virtually impossible to determine a clear winner. Both handsets have their strengths and weaknesses, and picking one over the other will eventually narrow down to personal preferences. The G4, in particular, is a pretty good example of what a smartphone maker might come up with after it's taken its time to perfect a winning formula – the G4 is a surprisingly good all-around device that will most certainly cope with the majority of everyday tasks you might throw at it. Not that the iPhone 6 Plus does not belong to the same breed, no – it's definitely a well-bodied performer that can easily grow on you and become your favorite smartphone. It'd be mostly a matter of choosing between Android and iOS. Yet, at the end of the day, we are more than certain that whichever you go for, you will hardly get disappointed – both the LG G4 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus will remain among the better devices you can get in the following months.