Korean consumer electronics giant LG’s new flagship smartphone, expected to be officially released on April 28th as the LG G4, suffered an ‘accidental’ leak last week when one of their site designers allegedly published an under-construction page pertaining to the device on their official site (it has since been pulled). Although the page contained many factual inaccuracies in regards to some key features such as camera technology and the Android version, some analysts are already predicting poor sales for the device based on the leaks.
The G4 is rumored to feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 SoC (System on Chip), something not confirmed as yet from any official sources. LG did however confirm, that the G4 will feature a 5.5-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display, a 16 MP rear camera with OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), a wide f/1.8 aperture, an 8 MP front-facing selfie camera and Android Lollipop with a new User-Interface. That LG is desperate for an impressive uptake of their new flagship is an understatement. The company is even offering shoppers in their home base of South Korea a free one-time screen replacement guarantee and an extra 64GB microSD card.
Today, LG came out with a promotional video showcasing the strengths of the camera. The sample images ostensibly taken by the rear camera on the G4 can be seen within the video, emphasizing the wide f/1.8 lens and professional-grade manual controls in the G4. LG has picked up a professional photographer named Colby Brown for the video (commercial) who highlights the importance of even the smallest details in camera equipment and how they can make a big impact on the outcome of the images, focusing on specific features like the LG G4’s new f/1.8 aperture lens. He claims that the G4’s camera offers superior color accuracy by automatically recognizing indoor and outdoor environments, allows the user to manually adjust the shutter speed and white balance and that the f/1.8 aperture allow for brighter, lower-noise images in low light conditions. The company also claims that it has developed a new 0.11mm infrared filter to achieve more natural colors. Quite a few sample images shot with the phone’s rear camera show off its potential, and they look bright and radiant.
The focus throughout the video was on having professional grade photography images in the palm of your hand. While a smartphone camera is unlikely to tempt a pro away from their DSLR cameras, closing the quality and feature gap between smartphone cameras and expensive, high-quality DSLRs is something that has become a virtual mission for smartphone OEMs as of today. Only time can tell by how much – if at all – LG has managed to raise the bar. Some of the images taken by the phone as seen in the promotional video can be viewed below.
