6 things we already know about the G4

BY GreenBot Staff

Published 27 Apr 2015

Spring times means warmer weather green grass; allergy attacks bees buzzing around everywhere; the release of the next generation of flagship smartphones from several major players in the mobile game.

Samsung HTC have already strutted their stuff, now it’s ’s turn for the spotlight. The company seems to have already revealed most of the details of its its fourth-generation flagship, the G4, though we won’t know everything about it until it’s officially revealed on April 28. Until then, here’s a quick look at what we think we do know about the G4. 

It comes dressed in leather

lg g4 leather 1 Blass

I hope you like leather, because apparently the G4 comes in six different leather shades.

How do you make a premium smartphone more premium? You slap some leather on it, of course. Motorola started the trend with the Moto X, then Samsung followed suit with faux-leather backing on the Galaxy Note 3. will continue the fad with the release of its G4 flagship—the company even published an entire post on how the leather backing is manufactured.  The G4 will come in three plastic varieties, too, for those of you not too keen on cowhide.

It has a kick-ass display

lg g4 screen preview

’s improved 5.5-inch display features technology that lets you use it even when it’s wet. 

is so proud of the display it’s packed with the G4 that it’s already showed it off. Earlier this month, the company revealed its improved QuadHD display with Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) technology, which enables the display to sense touch even when it’s wet.

also teased that even though the display features a contrast ratio that’s 50 percent higher than its competitors, it doesn’t burn through battery as quickly as you’d think. ’ll have to see about that.

Interestingly, calls this a “Quantum display.” Does it perhaps use the same quantum dot lighting technology found in its latest top-shelf TVs?

It runs a less-powerful processor

This one we’re not entirely sure about: The Korea es reported a while ago that the G4 runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor instead of a Snapdragon 810, supposedly because the latter has been under fire for apparent overheating. “Instead of using Qualcomm’s latest 810 Snapdragon processor, the G4 will use the Snapdragon 808,” said the source. “As far as I know, Qualcomm will be able to resolve overheating issues of the 810 processor chips in the latter half of this year.” 

This may be a good idea. Both the G Flex 2 One M9 suffer from quite a lot of processor throttling to avoid overheating. A slightly low-spec processor like the Snapdragon 808 might actually perform better in the long haul, if it can avoid thermal issues.

It has a better camera

’s really psyched about the G4, so much so that it showed off a video with details on what its 16-megapixel rear-facing camera can do.

The G4 has a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/1.8 aperture, as well as an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, which is perfect for selfies—everyone wants a high quality selfie. For comparison’s sake, the new Samsung Galaxy S6 features an f/1.9 aperture, while the HTC One M9 ione 6 are both equipped with an f/2.2. The Verge has a little more on the G4’s camera sensor, with ’s Colby insisting that “even a small difference of a f/0.1 aperture becomes incredibly important.”

That may be true, but it takes a lot more than just a wide aperture to make a great camera. can’t wait to take the phone out for a test drive.  

It will have an updated interface

’s never been particularly groundbreaking with its custom Android interface. were ecstatic to see some of the aesthetic changes in the move over to Material Design, but there’s still so much more that could have done to it. 

recently published a teaser video showing off all the details of its improved UX4.0 user interface. It features things like a quick camera shortcut, RingTone ID, Quick Memo+, which appears to be a loaded version of a note-taking app, a la Keep.

It will be on sale soon 

Since Samsung HTC have already thrown their hats into the ring, plans to make the G4 available for purchase on April 29, immediately after its official unveiling. You’ll find all the details you need to know on the device from us here—including whether or not to actually consider buying it—so stay tuned!