LG G4 vs Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Introduction

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Interface and functionality

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.

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.

Processor and memory

the LG G4 is fitted with a 64-bit, 1.8GHz Snapdragon 808 chipset, comprising two Cortex-A57 and four Cortex-A53 cores. The chipset is not a specs monster like the Snapdragon 810, the best Qualcomm can offer at the moment, but is certainly does its job well. The G4 performs smoothly in most key areas, providing a flagship-worthy performance. However, when it comes to intense 3D gaming, the device exhibits a few hiccups or so – the Adreno 418 GPU inside the handset struggles with heftier titles a bit.

Memory-wise, we have 3GB of RAM in the G4 and 1GB of RAM in the iPhone 6 Plus. The LG flagship also comes with 32GB native storage and a microSD card slot, while the iPhone 6 Plus is available in either 16, 64, or 128GB versions.

Internet and connectivity

LG has the upper hand, as it has a display with a higher resolution. Browser-wise, the G4 is pre-loaded with Google's Chrome one, while the iPhone's default one is Safari. Of course, you can download a third-party one, but we feel that the pre-installed ones do their jobs in an impeccable way.

LG G4 supports a wide range of LTE bands thanks to the built-in X10 LTE radio inside the SoC. Among the rest of the connectivity features that grace the specs sheet of the G4 are A-GPS with Glonass, Bluetooth 4.1 BLE, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, NFC, DLNA, 4K SlimPort support, and an IR blaster. The iPhone 6 Plus is certainly not a slouch in the connectivity standard as well – it has an LTE Cat.4 modem, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-FI 802.11 a, b, g, n, n 5GHz, ac, A-GPS with Glonass, and others.

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.

Camera

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.

 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.

Multimedia

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.

Call quality

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.