LG Announces the G4: 5.5-inch QHD with Snapdragon 808

In a joint event between London and New York, LG has lifted the veil on the next iteration of its high-end smartphone, the G4. The G3’s designs largely borrows from the G3 and iterates on it with a new slightly curved screen and optional leather back covers. The camera seems to be LG’s core focus for this device, and we’ll get back on those details in just a bit.

The G4 will be the first device to officially use the Snapdragon 808, Qualcomm’s MSM8992 big.LITTLE SoC arrangement that uses two ARM A57 cores in one cluster clocked in at 1.82GHz and four ARM A53s at 1.44GHz in the other. The GPU also uses a lower end Adreno 418 clocked in at 600MHz. Qualcomm avoided LPDDR4 in the S808, and thus remaines a LPDDR3 piece likely running at up to 933MHz.

While we’re not too concerned with the resulting CPU performance and loss of two big cores, and slight frequency loss of the Snapdragon 808, it’s the GPU which should see higher impact as 3D performance suffers a tad compared to the Snapdragon 810’s Adreno 430. In our preliminary tests with the demo device, we see GFXBench Manhattan offscreen go down from 22.7fps to 15fps and T-Rex from 49fps down to 35fps when comparing the G4 to the HTC M9, which sports a FHD screen as opposed ot the QHD one we find in the LG device.

The detailed specification lists shows the iterative improvements over the G3, launched last year:

The screen size and resolution stay constant at 5.5″ and QHD, but the device has an angular element to it, similar to the LG G Flex 2 but not as pronounced: The screen is touted to be a new generation IPS Quantum display. It looks like LG is claiming 20% gamut increase. The display has  50% increased contrast over the G3, achieving a total of 1500:1 contrast ratio. The G4 reintroduces Panel Self Refresh which was unfortunately missing from the G3, and this should vastly improve battery life over its predecessor.

The screen has a 3000mm radius curve throughout the phone’s design that LG markets as “Slim Arc” design.

The phone comes in several different plastic and leather cover options. These are high-quality hand-produced genuine leather products. The plastic version sports a diamond pattern mimicking a metallic look. This also means the G4 is slightly bigger and heavier than the G3 as it comes at a increased 155g. The removable battery of the G4 remains similar to the G3 at 3000 mAh, and the SIM moves to the nano-size. The microSD slot remains an option for the G4.

The G4 gets a camera update, moving from a 13MP to a 16MP design that migrates from an F/2.4 to F/1.8, allowing for potentially better performance. We find a Sony IMX234 sensor, a unit we haven’t yet seen used in any other devices. LG were keen to point the F/1.8 over Samsung’s F/1.9 on the latest Galaxy S6. The new OIS system dubbed “OIS 2.0” now offers a 3-axis gyroscope instead of the traditional 2-axis implementations in all current OIS devices. Another first is the implementation of a colour spectrum sensor next to the flash unit, and is able to read RGB and infrared light. LG is able to vastly improve white-balance and also increase clarity for more natural pictures.

The phone now also offers full manual control, with customizable ISO, exposure, shutter speed and white balance among other things. RAW format capture is also supported. Double clicking on the rear buttons already takes a picture within a second, LG is here taking another stab at Samsung’s S6 as it only is able to open the camera app in the same time.

The front camera has been boosted to a 8MP Toshiba T4KA3 sensor and sports an improved gesture shot triggering function.

The volume rocker on the rear changes slightly, moving to a flatter central piece. The flash element of the camera in this area is a dual LED design, and we also find the microphone grille at the bottom. One of the elements LG seems to be pushing with the G4 is the design of the back cover, allowing for a replaceable leather rear while retaining the front facia that exhibits a faux carbon-fibre effect of sorts.

The device should be available this week in major markets. We’re currently waiting in line to get some hands-on time with the device, and hopefully on the list to get a sample to follow up from the LG G3 review.

The LG G4 Day Live Blog (11AM ET Start)

We’re in London for LG’s launch of the G4. The wifi / my hotspot isn’t that good, but the event starts soon. Read as much as we can post!

Apple Releases FY 2015 Q2 Earnings Results: Strong Growth In China Fuel Large Sales

Today Apple announced their earnings for their second quarter for fiscal year 2015. Once again, iPhone dominated their revenue stream, with 40% more units sold and 55% more revenue than the same period last year. Total revenue for the quarter came in at $58 billion, which is up 27% year-over-year. Gross margin for the quarter was up too, coming in at 40.8% for this quarter. Net income was $13.6 billion, which works out to $2.33 per share.

Almost 70% of Apple’s revenue came from international sales, but China was the big market for Apple this quarter. Sales in Greater China were up 71% year-over-year, to $16.8 billion for this quarter. This is even a 4% rise over Q1, which was the launch quarter for the iPhone 6 series. China is now the second biggest market for Apple, closing in on the Americas where sales this quarter were $21.3 billion.

iPhone sales kept up their torrid pace. In Q1, Apple sold almost 75 million iPhones, and while there is traditionally a drop in the quarter succeeding the launch of the phone, they still managed to sell over 61 million iPhones for Q1. Year-over-year, this is a 40% increase in devices sold and even better for Apple’s bottom line, revenue was up 55%. With Apple, there really is iPhone, and everything else. iPhone accounts for 69.4% of all of Apple’s revenue. They are top heavy in this one product, but it seems to be a product that just keeps giving returns.

Mac sales were also up, with a 10% increase in units sold as compared to Q2 2014. Revenue for Mac also increased, but only 2%. Unit sales were 4.5 million devices, which accounted for $5.6 billion in revenue. This works out to an Average Selling Price of $1230.55 per Mac computer. Macs have once again surpassed iPad sales to become the number two device at Apple. For Q1, and the launch of the new iPad Air 2, iPad sales briefly retook the lead, but Mac sales have surpassed iPad again.

iPad sales have continued to struggle. What was once thought to be the next iPhone has certainly struggled to maintain the trajectory it first had. Sales for Q2 were 12.6 million units, which is down from the 21.4 million last quarter (when the new products were launched) and also down significantly year-over-year from the 16.35 million in Q2 2014. That is a 23% decline in sales, and it resulted in a 29% reduction in revenue, with iPad now coming in at $5.4 billion.

Services however did not suffer such a fate, and at $4.996 billion in revenue, iTunes, the App Store, and other Apple services are now almost a $5 billion per quarter business. Revenue was up 4% since Q1 2015, and up 9% from a year ago.

The final segment Apple reports on is “Other Products” which include iPod, Apple TV, Beats, and accessories. Revenue for this segment was $1.69 billion, down from $1.88 billion a year ago, and $2.69 billion in Q1. This is a year-over-year decrease of 10%. Much of that would be iPod sales which only two quarters ago were still listed in their own category, but have been falling for several years now as they have been superseded by smartphones.

As part of their announcement, Apple is also expanding their capital return program. What was first going to be a $90 billion share repurchase program is now up to $140 billion. There is also going to be an 11% increase to the quarterly dividend, which will now be $0.52 per share, payable on May 14^th to all shareholders of record as of May 11^th. Since the creation of their capital return program, Apple has paid out over $112 billion to shareholders, with $80 billion of that being share repurchases.

For Q3, the forecast is revenue of $46 to 48 billion, with margins between 38.5% and 39.5%.

To a certain extent, we have become numb to the record breaking numbers every quarter, but really it is impressive that they have been able to sustain this for so long. For Q2, they once again set records for iPhone and Mac sales, and the App Store had an all-time record quarter. They have some new products in the market now with the MacBook and the Apple Watch, so it will be interesting to see the Q3 numbers.

Source: Apple Investor Relations