Anandtech lg g2: LG G2 and MSM8974 Snapdragon 800

LG G2 and MSM8974 Snapdragon 800

by Brian Klugon September 7, 2013 1:11 AM EST

  • Posted in
  • Smartphones
  • LG
  • Mobile
  • LG G2
  • Android 4.2
  • MSM8974
  • Snapdragon 800

120 Comments
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120 Comments

Introduction & Hardware ImpressionsDisplayBattery LifeCPU PerformanceGPU PerformanceNAND PerformanceCameraConclusions

The LG G2 is the spiritual successor to the Optimus G, a device that we looked at last year and eventually went on to become the Nexus 4. LG dropped the «Optimus» branding this time, but the G2 is without a doubt still LG’s flagship smartphone, and includes a number of unique LG features – stacked 3000 mAh (11.4 Whr) battery with SiO+ anode, 5.2-inch 1080p LCD from LG Display, and 13 MP rear facing camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). It’s an impressive combination of features that make the G2 a standout device. At the same time the G2 is our first chance to get a look at the 2.3 GHz bin of Snapdragon 800 inside a shipping device and get a look at performance and battery life. 

We took a quick look at the G2 at the announcement event, now we have our hands on a G2 and have been putting it through its paces, benchmarking it, and running battery life tests on it for a little under a week and wanted to share some thoughts.

Hardware Impressions

The G2 marries a curved backside shape with front glass that slightly curves at the edges and has a very narrow side bezel. The G2 also opts for on-screen buttons rather than the discrete capacitive kind or physical buttons that went out of favor a while ago. The reality is that Google does have a fair amount of input into at least this part of the Android ecosystem, and its guidance seems to be that on-screen buttons which use display real estate to draw the buttons is the recommended way to go.

The G2 does afford the ability however to add Quick Memo buttons or the notification shade pull down/pull up buttons to the bar, but oddly enough there’s no multitasking button option available. 

The G2 manages to include a large display without width that’s much different from other devices I’ve been using lately, like the HTC One. Part of getting the edge bezel small was a reduction in volume required on the sides for volume and power buttons, which are instead moved to the back of the G2, perhaps its most striking and initially even alarming design change.

Holding down the volume down button launches you into the camera, pressing the center button powers on the phone, and holding down the top button launches QuickMemo. Up and down are volume up and down otherwise. There’s a hard raised lip on both sides of the button too, so the G2 when laid backside down on a surface makes contact there instead of on the button – it won’t inadverntely turn on when pressed against a table. I found the backside buttons easy to adapt to after my first few interactions with the G2, and they actually become second nature after a day or so. The raised bump for the power button makes it easy to locate with the index finger, and I haven’t smeared or accidentally put my finger on the sapphire camera cover yet. If the power button on the back is still difficult to get used to, the G2 has a double tap to turn on feature it calls «knock knock» – double tap on the display, and the G2 will turn on, repeat the double tap on the status bar or in an empty part of the display when it’s on, and it turns off. I find myself using the double tap gesture quite a bit to turn the G2 on and off. I believe this functionality uses the sensors onboard and the DSP inside 8974 to detect when the taps occur. 

Gallery: LG G2

The G2 I was sampled is a dark blue color which has a slight pinstripe on the back as shown in the photos above. The material is however the same kind of glossy plastic I’m used to seeing out of the Korean handset makers of note, and picks up fingerprints and hand oil very quickly unfortunately. I like the shape of the device and LG’s innovations, it’s just puzzling to me that materials hasn’t picked up yet, I’d even take glass from the Optimus G over plastic. I’ll save you the huge discussion on device size as well, I’m fine with the larger smartphones that aren’t quite phablets, and the G2 for me is totally usable and I appreciate the increased display size. It definitely isn’t phablet size, but it is on the larger high-end smartphone side of things. 

  LG G2
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974)
4x Krait 400 2.3 GHz, Adreno 330 GPU
Display 5.2-inch IPS-LCD 1920×1080 Full HD
RAM 2GB LPDDR3 800 MHz
WiFi 802. 11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.0
Storage 32 GB internal
I/O microUSB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone, NFC, Miracast, IR
OS Android 4.2.2
Battery 3000 mAh (11.4 Whr) 3.8V stacked battery
Size / Mass 138.5 x 70.9 x 9.14 mm
Camera 13 MP with OIS and Flash (Rear Facing)
2.1 MP Full HD (Front Facing)

 

Display
Introduction & Hardware ImpressionsDisplayBattery LifeCPU PerformanceGPU PerformanceNAND PerformanceCameraConclusions

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Hands On with the LG G2

by Brian Klugon August 7, 2013 11:50 AM EST

  • Posted in
  • Smartphones
  • G2
  • LG
  • Mobile
  • Android 4. 2
  • MSM8974

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Today LG is announcing the LG G2, there’s no Optimus this time, it’s just the LG G2. The G2 is the successor to the Optimus G, the phone that also became the Nexus 4, and makes a number of improvements above and beyond the Optimus G. The G2 is the flagship product that LG is putting all of its resources behind, and takes the flagship throne from the G Pro.


The G2 makes a number of interesting hardware changes in the shape, size, and button area compared to the competition. Rather than having side-mounted power and volume buttons, to minimize edge bezel, LG has moved them to the back of the device just below the camera module. The volume rocker is one solid piece with a raised power button in the center. The edge around the power button is the notification LED, which glows a white color when powered on or when things roll in.













 

LG G2

SoC

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 (MSM8974)

4x Krait 400 2.3 GHz, Adreno 330 GPU

Display

5.2-inch IPS-LCD 1920×1080 Full HD

RAM

2GB LPDDR3 800 MHz

WiFi

802.11a/b/g/n/ac, BT 4.0

Storage

32 GB internal

I/O

microUSB 2.0, 3.5mm headphone, NFC, Miracast, IR

OS

Android 4. 2.2

Battery

3000 mAh (11.4 Whr) 3.8V stacked battery

Size / Mass

138.5 x 70.9 x 9.14 mm

Camera

13 MP with OIS and Flash (Rear Facing)

2.1 MP Full HD (Front Facing)


LG believes that as devices grow in size, hand positioning has changed and putting the buttons on the side is no longer natural. I’ll admit I was initially confused about how to turn the G2 on, but after a few minutes of playing with the device, turning it on and off via the rear center power button or changing the volume seemed natural. The raised bump makes it easy to locate the buttons, and there’s another lip before your finger hits the camera front glass. Pressing the top button or bottom button for three seconds launches the memo app or camera, respectively. Inside the camera application, volume also doubles as a camera button and triggers image capture. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but putting the buttons on the back actually doesn’t feel anywhere near as awkward as I thought it would. I’ll have to spend more time with the G2 to really be able to tell how well this works in practice, but my initial subjective impressions are a lot more positive than I thought they would be. 

Gallery: LG G2 Hardware Gallery


The G2 eschews hardware buttons for the on-screen Android kind, although LG has made a number of customization options available in another settings menu.


The back of the G2 is a curved, rounded profile. LG has included a stacked battery inside the G2 that maximizes the volume of the internal space. It’s a 3.8V 3000 mAh (11.4 watt-hour) LG Chem battery. If you’ve been paying attention this was also something Motorola talked about for their Moto X (the stacked part), turns out that LG Chem is indeed a supplier for Motorola. Of course the back on the G2 is non removable, and sealed, which isn’t a surprise anymore.


The G2 comes in white and black models which are of polycarbonate construction. The materials choices aren’t anything revolutionary in a world where wood, metal, and composites seem to be the trend, but at least this time there’s no glass on the back that’s going to give people pause.




LG G2 Touch Panel (Left) LG Optimus G Touch Panel (Right)


The highlight of the G2 is of course its 5.2-inch 1920×1080 (Update: I meant 1080p, sorry, I had 1200 before on accident) IPS display, and thin bezel. Getting the bezel to be as thin as possible seems to have been LG’s main design direction for the G2, and again moving the buttons to the back side means less button intrusion into the size and a thinner bezel. The other part is moving to top and bottom fanout for the touch traces – instead of routing everything to the top or bottom, there’s a top connector and bottom connector, that means thinner edge profile.


The G2 display also includes built-in memory to enable panel self refresh. When the display contents aren’t being updated, the display GRAM holds this frame buffer and refreshes itself so the AP and display controller can go into an idle state. LG purports it gets a 26 percent reduction in power consumption from the display size using this GRAM (Graphic RAM) panel self refresh functionality.


Viewing angles on the G2 and brightness seemed great from what time I spent with a prototype model. LG Display always seems to do an awesome job with its panels, and I don’t think the G2 will stray far from that mark.


Camera on the G2 is also a step forwards from Optimus G. There’s a 13 MP rear facing module with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) this time, which means LG joins HTC and Nokia in the OIS party. The module for the G2 is considerably bigger and includes the on-package gyro you’d expect for OIS to work properly. LG tells me that the CMOS still uses the 1.1µm pixels and size shared with the original Optimus G, but is a newer, faster version that supports 1080p60 video capture. That’s right, the G2 can do Full HD at 60 FPS on video. LG also does temporal oversampling (taking multiple frames and combining them into one image) for their digital zoom, instead of just a resampling. OIS definitely works on the G2 to help stabilize videos and take longer exposures in low light for still images. 


The G2 also includes a sapphire crystal window on the back side to prevent scratching.


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 in testing.


The G2 is based on Qualcomm’s latest and greatest Snapdragon 800 SoC, MSM8974 at 2.3 GHz (the higher bin — Qualcomm is launching MSM8974 in two binned flavors at different costs, 2.2 and 2.3 GHz). This is of course the latest SoC built on TSMC’s 28nm HPm process with 4 Krait 400 CPUs inside, and Adreno 330 GPU. Alongside that the G2 includes 2 GB of LPDDR3 RAM. LG wasn’t ready for us to run benchmarks yet, as the prototypes we played with were not running stable release software with final tuning yet, but UI performance felt very speedy just in playing around on the device. Of course along with Snapdragon 800 comes LTE-A with carrier aggregation support – the banding for this international version I played with included LTE on bands 1, 3, 7, 8, and 20, and HSPA+ on 1, 2, 5, and 8, alongside Quad band EDGE. 


The software platform is Android 4.2.2, and atop that is LG’s skin. LG has added a bunch of new features to its skinned Android experience, although its visual themeing remains essentially unchanged. Double tap to turn on and off uses the built in accelerometer to wake the phone up or turn it off – you just double tap quickly on the device when it’s in an off state to turn it on, and double tap quickly on a blank part of the display or status bar to turn it off. I don’t have a problem getting my index finger to the raised power button, but this is obviously an accommodation just in case that’s difficult.


LG also is including 8 different colors of Quick Window cases with the G2, which offer a small window for getting glanceable information like the time or notifications. LG was quick to point out that it debuted this feature with the LG Spectrum 2. 


The LG G2 looks like a big step forwards from the original Optimus G and includes an impressive list of new features, and may just be the place we see Snapdragon 800 first. The LG G2 will arrive internationally and on the four major carriers in the USA with the appropriate network band support. More on availability is coming soon, but I would suspect mid September for at least the international model. 

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LG G2 specifications, photos, release date.

All photos

4. 0

  • 143 g, 8.9 mm

  • nine0007

    Android 5.1.1 Lollipop

  • 5.2″

    1080×1920

    nine0008

  • 12.98mp

  • 2GB RAM

    Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974AA

  • 3000mAh

    nine0004
    Li polymer

The

LG G2 is a high-end Android smartphone with a slim design that delivers high levels of performance and rich functionality. The smartphone is equipped with a large 5.2-inch display with Full HD resolution, which is convenient to interact with the device. The «KnockON» function is provided — by lightly tapping on the screen, you can unlock the device. Also, the device was equipped with an expanded set of communications, among which it is worth noting Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi (802.11 ac, dual band) and NFC. For optimal performance of the device with such a set of functions, it was equipped with a 4-core processor, which provides a high level of performance even in multitasking mode. The photographic abilities of the device are represented by a 13 megapixel main camera, which was supplemented with a flash, optical image stabilization, and support for Hi-Fi level sound playback. nine0037

  • Design

    • Height

      138. 5mm

    • Width

      70.9mm

    • 9000

      Plastic

  • nine0043

    Screen

    • Matrix type

      IPS

    • Diagonal

      5.2 ”

    • Resolution

      1080 x 1920

    • 9000 Aspect Ratio

      16:9

    • Screen footprint

      76%

    • Other features

      Capacitive, Multi-touch, Scratch resistant

    User rating
    (3 reviews
    )
    nine0044

    • Drop and scratch resistant?

    • nine0004 Does this phone look beautiful to you?

    • Do you find it convenient?

      nine0008

    • Can you see images on the screen clearly in bright sunlight?

    • nine0011

    • Operating system

      • OS

        Android

      • Operating system (OS)

        Android 5. 1.1 Lollipop, Android 4.4 KitKat, Android 5.0 Lollipop, Android 4.2

      How often do updates come?
      (3 reviews
      )

    • nine0007

      Processor Specifications

      • Processor (CPU)

        Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 MSM8974AA

      • Technological process

        28NM

      • Type of processor kernel

        KRAIT 400 9000

        004 Dispersed processor

        32bit

      • Architecture of the team of commands

        ARMV7

      • CASH-PAMMIT (L1)

        16 KB + 16 KB

      • Pamemy of the second level (L2)

        2048KB

      • The processor nuclei

        4

      • Tact frequency of the processor

        2260 MHz

      • 003

      • COOLICTION OF THE CARCHIC CCLUMER

        4

      • CLASS FACT FACK

        450 MHz

      • RAM

        2 GB

      • 9000

      • Number of RAM channels

        Dual channel

      • RAM frequency

        800MHz

      • nine0011

        User rating
        (3 reviews
        )

        • nine0004 Does it work well with daily use?

        • How does he handle demanding games?

          nine0008

        • Does it sound good?

        • nine0011

        • Built-in memory

        • nine0007

          Main camera

          • Lighted

            F/2. 4

          • Video

            1080p

          • 003

            Sony IMX135 Exmor RS

          • Sensor type

            CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor)

          • Sensor size

            4.69 x 3.52
            mm

          • Pixel size

            1.127
            MKM

          • Cryster

            7.38

          • ISO (photosensitivity)

            100 — 800

          • 0003

            LED

          • Image resolution

            12.98MP

          • Camera options HDR, Panorama, Geotagging, Burst, Autofocus

          nine0008

        • Additional camera

          • Video resolution

            1080p

          • Video recording rate (frame rate)

            30 fps (frames per second)

          • Image resolution

            0003

            2. 07MP

          User rating
          (3 reviews
          )

          • nine0004 Daytime photo quality

          • Night photo quality

            nine0008

          • Selfie photo quality

          • nine0007

            Does it have a powerful flash?

            nine0011

          • WiFi

            • Wi-Fi

              802. 11ac, 802.11n 5GHz, 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b, 802.11a, Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, Dual band

            • nine0011

            • Bluetooth

              • Bluetooth

                4.0

              • Features

                A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile), LE (Low Energy), AVRCP (Audio/Visual Remote Control Profile), HID (Human Interface Profile), OPP (Object Push Profile), FTP (File Transfer Profile), HFP (Hands-Free Profile), PBAP/PAB (Phone Book Access Profile)

            • Technologies and Data Rates

              • Mobile technologies

                HSPA+ (HSUPA 21 Mbps , HSDPA 42 Mbps ), GPRS Class 12 (32-48 kbit/s , 32-48 kbit/s ), EDGE Class 12 (118. 4 kbit/s , 192-296 kbit/s s ), EV-DO Rev. A (1.8 Mbit/s , 3.1 Mbit/s ), LTE Cat 4 (51.0 Mbit/s , 150.8 Mbit/s ), UMTS (384 kbit/s )

              User rating
              (3 reviews
              )
              nine0044

            • Battery

              • Type

                Li-polymer

              • Capacity

                3000mAh

              • Features

                Non -removable

              • 9000

              How long does a battery charge last?
              (3 reviews
              )
              nine0044

                • Less than half a day

                • nine0004 Less than a day

                • One day

                • nine0007

                  Day and more

                • Two days or more

                • nine0011

              • nine0043

                Sensors

                • Sensors

                  Proximity Sensor, Light Sensor, Accelerometer, Compass, Gyroscope

              • nine0007

              LG g2 OLED evo Gallery Edition 97-inch TV set to debut | Digital World Magazine

              LG strengthens its position as the market leader in premium TVs with a wide range of large screen TVs featuring the latest displays.

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              According to a recent market research report 2 , OLED TVs in Europe will account for 55% of premium models this year and 66% by 2023. The report also predicts that global shipments of TVs over 70 inches will reach approximately 14.9 in 2022.million units, and next year will increase to almost 17.1 million units. By expanding its range of large and extra-large OLED TVs, LG is well positioned to maintain its dominant position in the premium TV segment both in Europe and worldwide.

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              Also on display in Berlin will be a huge 136-inch 4K Micro LED display (3840 x 2160) from LG. This innovative home solution delivers first-class image quality in an impressive size thanks to self-illuminating micropixels and a modular design.

              Attendees at IFA 2022 (September 2-6) will be able to view all of LG’s latest flagship TVs, including the world’s first 9-inch OLED TV.