LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S6 edge

Introduction

LG and Samsung have been in constant competition against one another for the last several years, but if we’re to strictly base their success on sales figures, it would arguably be Samsung who would claim bragging rights. Seriously, there’s nothing wrong coming in second place, but when it happens time after time, it really begins to eat at you – and it doesn’t help when you’re always in Samsung’s shadow either. More recently, too, the results haven’t changed a bit, as LG’s efforts have been in vain.

Clearly, these two phones are rich in specs and powerful with their performances, but which of the two can be proclaimed as the superior handset? Let’s find out! 

Design

With the new dramatic design the Galaxy S6 edge’s design to be more attractive, partly because of the cool and unique aesthetics brought on by its dual-curved display. In the smartphone realm, it’s a very different looking handset, which is complemented by the premium construction of the phone – one that’s comprised out of glass surfaces and a metal trim bezel keeping the entire frame intact. Also, the Galaxy S6 edge is the more compact, lighter, and the skinnier of the two, offering up easier handling with one hand.

Visually,LG G4  there are miniscule changes to the overall design of the phone, which is still at heart a plastic constructed thing – so yeah, it doesn’t have the same premium quality as the Galaxy S6. However, the design is elevated a little bit more if you happen to go with the vegetable tanned leather casing, instead of the 3D patterned plastic ones. Impressively, it gives the phone a sophisticated look thanks to its smooth finish, durable feel, and the accenting Gütermann Mara style stitching.

The main difference is S6 lack of external storage and user replacable battary while LG G4 have it.

Display

the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge jumps into new territory with its 5.1-inch 1440 x 2560 (Quad-HD) Super AMOLED Display. To LG’s credit, though, quad-HD resolution is nothing new, as the G3 became one of the first smartphones to offer the pixel crunching resolution, but the G4 follows suit with a brand new 5.5-inch 1440 x 2560 IPS Quantum Display.

Details are plentiful, naturally, thanks in part to their impeccable resolution – though, it’s the Galaxy S6 edge that offers the better pixel density of 577 ppi, versus the 538 ppi tally of the G4. The difference is miniscule, honestly, just because it’s pretty tough to gauge them both from near and close views.

In the past, AMOLED screens had this reputation of being over-saturated in color tone – whereas with IPS-LCD based screens, they tend to be more realistic and natural. Oh my how things have change! Seriously, though, it’s the complete opposite thing here, seeing that the Galaxy S6 edge’s display produce the better color temperature and reproduction.

AMOLED screens have closed the gap in this area – more so when it had a reputation of being underpowered. In this comparison, the Galaxy S6 edge shines brilliantly at 553 nits, which is aided mostly aided by its high-contrast mode. Meanwhile, the G4 doesn’t lag too far behind at 454 nits, so the two screens are more than visible outdoors.

Interface and Functionality

Samsung honestly started the trend of offering a diversified experience with TouchWiz, one that has evolved from exhaustive offering of the Galaxy S4, to its modest and streamlined approach with its latest incarnation in the Galaxy S6 edge. LG, similarly, followed the same path with its own custom Android experience – where it’s now toned down to offer more useful features, as opposed to throwing several that were sometimes deemed as redundant. Thankfully, the two custom experiences are both running on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Visually, we prefer the neater and flatter style of the new LG UX 4.0 experience – one that makes use of Google’s Material Design by offering bright colors with the interface. Despite the update, TouchWiz on the Galaxy S6 edge doesn’t change enough of the visual aesthetics to detach it from the cartoony style it’s been known for. Yes, it’s more streamlined and simpler than before, but LG’s styling is more tastefu.l

 TouchWiz and LG UX 4.0 both succeed in bringing simple, meaningful functionality to the lucky user. But although we like the LG UX 4.0 offering for being so straightforward, we find it somewhat bland and underdeveloped compared to TouchWiz, which has grown into a cohesive, aesthetically pleasing, and feature-rich platform. For example, there’s more app support with TouchWiz’s Multi-Window feature, there’s a useful one-handed mode too, and visual changes are made to other areas of the UI when selecting themes.

Processor and Memory

Samsung famously equipped the Galaxy S6 edge with a homemade SoC, the Exynos 7420. It's a 64-bit octa-core CPU built on a 14-nm process, and so far, we've been impressed by its performance. It employs four Cortex-A57 cores running at 2.0GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores pushed to 1.5GHz, arranged in a true octa-core configuration (all eight cores can be utilized simultaneously). This performance beast is paired with a very capable Mali-T760 graphics unit and 3 gigabytes of fast LPDDR4 RAM. This configuration has been destroying benchmarks left and right, and its records in computing and 3D performance translate to everyday usage just as well.

LG has opted to endow the G4 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 808 SoC – rather than going with the Snapdragon 810, which when we look at it from the totem pole, is widely regarded as the premier chip. Nevertheless, the 64-bit based hexa-core configuration of the Snapdragon 808, which breaks down to four ARM Cortex-A53 and two ARM Cortex-A57 cores, still proves to be an effective system for every day normal operations. Paired with 3GB of RAM and the Adreno 418 GPU, it’s decent performing too with graphical processing – though, it’s not quite as fluid in comparison to the S6 edge’s performance.

Camera

Galaxy S6 edge, its main camera resolution is 16 megapixels, and the sizeable Sony IMX240 cam sensor with 1/2.6" pixels and a wide f/1.9 aperture lens, comes with goodies such as optical image stabilization, real-time HDR, infrared white balance, and tracking auto-focus for the video camera. There's also a 5-megapixel front cam to please the selfie snappers. The LG G4 comes with a brand new 16-megapixel 1/2.6” camera sensor with a wide, f/1.8 aperture lens on top of that sensor, improved optical stabilization (OIS 2), the same lickety-split laser-assisted autofocus, and a 'color spectrum sensor'. Around the front, an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 aperture lens is perched ready for some serious selfies.

Entertainment

Both devices have their own separate music players for accessing local content. We really don’t gravitate to one player more than the other, as their functions and layouts are pretty conventional, but it’s pretty audible that the G4’s speaker is the stronger between the two. In fact, it emits an audio output of 79 dB – easily eclipsing the 75.4 dB mark of the Galaxy S6 edge. Without applying any audio enhancements or equalizer settings, their qualities sound a little thin and subdued.

Battery

Galaxy S6 edge houses a 2600 mAh battery – while the G4 is able to stuff an even larger 3000 mAh one. As much as we’d like to concretely say that the S6 edge is the clear winner in our battery benchmark test, where it achieved a mark of 8 hours and 11 minutes, versus the 6 hours and 6 minute tally of the G4, we can’t neglect to remember that we tested the Galaxy S6 edge with its screen brightness set to 180 nits, as opposed to the normal 200 nits.Another thing worth noting is their recharge times, which is a clear win for the Galaxy S6 edge because its rapid charging systems gets it back 100% capacity in 83 minutes. That’s exceptionally fast, especially taking notice of the G4’s tedious 120 minute charging time. And finally, the Galaxy S6 edge comes with built-in charging – whereas the G4, you’ll need to pick up the optional rear casing to gain the feature.

Last words

Samsung and LG have been at constant competition with one another to see who can outduel the other. For the better part, history has shown us that Samsung has proved to be more successful – more so when sales figures confirm the reality. With this year’s crop of flagships, the two once again don’t disappoint with their solid efforts.the LG G4 is slated to be priced at $200 on-contract for the base plastic models – while the more sophisticated leather option can easily sell up to as much as an additional $100. Conversely, the Galaxy S6 edge sells at $300 on-contract with most carriers, which would match the anticipated cost of the leather cladded G4.

In paying the extra $100 for Sammy’s offering, you get the better looking design, built-in wireless charging, rapid charging, finger print sensor, heart rate sensor, and a novel dual-curved display. Add to that, TouchWiz offers a little bit more depth.