Newsletter 
LG’s G2 has received some serious fanfare since its announcement in early August, and for good reason. It’s powered by the same Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor that so many phones this Fall are powered by, meaning it smokes all older phones in performance on every level. It’s also packed with features and an interesting new hardware design, giving users plenty of reason to pick it over other smartphones in the market. LG has released an official feature overview of the G2 providing us with some visual cues on how many of the key features work in day-to-day. The video opens with the unique double-knock-to-wake feature which allows you to wake your phone without pressing any buttons. Since the home button is now history and LG is using software buttons, the only viable way to wake the phone would be to press the power button. Since the power button and volume buttons are located around the back of the device, it’s actually impossible to turn the phone on any other way when it’s sitting on a flat surface. Thus begins the excellent software design choices of LG in the G2.
Next up LG goes over some basic specs, including showing how the super thin bezels on the G2 allow them to pack a 5.2-inch screen into the same sized phone as the “competition” as they put it. Since we all know the “competition” really means Galaxy S4, it’s pretty obvious why they chose to show a 5.0-inch screen first and then moved into a 5.2-inch screen without increasing the size of the phone. LG also highlights the Quick Window case, which comes in quite an array of colors, and also includes functionality beyond just a convenient way to tell the time without opening the flip case. Then there’s the rear-facing volume and power keys and the many functions that can be performed with them, such as taking a picture. LG also highlights that sapphire glass is used on the camera lens, which considerably helps with scratch resistance.
Audio is a big deal in phones these days, and LG shows that they aren’t playing around when it comes to quality. LG’s own Quadbeat 2 headphones are being packed in with every G2 sold, and are supposed to be an improvement on the company’s previous Quadbeat headphones. LG also shows off the Plug & Pop feature that shows a quick launch bar full of favorite audio apps when you insert headphones into the jack. They follow-up the audio section by highlighting that the G2 features HiFi sound via 24-bit 192kHz audio, which is considerably higher quality audio than the Galaxy S4’s 16-bit 44.1kHz. While this is an excellent hardware decision, unless the audio you are listening to is encoded at this higher bitrate you won’t be able to tell the difference unfortunately.
LG continues to highlight all the new software features including multitasking via a 3-finger swipe gesture, a guest mode feature which allows you to hand your phone to other people without the possibility of them seeing private information, and a text link feature that brings up shortcuts to apps that can use relevant information via any highlighted text. Some of the other popular features in smartphones lately are TV remote control, which the G2 also features, and “Voice Mate” as LG is calling it, which is a personal voice assistant. Why LG felt the need to include functionality beyond what Google Now offers is questionable, especially considering the obvious Samsung’s S-Voice inspiration, but it is what it is unfortunately.
Lastly LG highlights improvements in the camera, including that the G2 features a 13 megapixel camera with multi-point autofocus as well as optical image stabilization. If you are watching the video in HD you’ll get a nice representation of how optical image stabilization, or OIS, works. Finally there’s “Audio Zoom” which is supposed to help grab specific audio from where you are zoomed into rather than grabbing audio from the whole room or area you are in. We’ll have to see just how well this works in person before forming an opinion, but once again it’s a rather interesting, unique feature packed into a phone that’s full of rather interesting, unique features. Check out the video below to see everything in action for yourself. It’s a nice little 3 minute video that gives you a good idea of how this phone works and feels. LG will be launching the G2 on September 18th.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oOfIobmBYY