The new LG G5 is now available to purchase in Canada from just about any carrier – Rogers, Bell, Telus, Eastlink, MTS, SaskTel Videotron and Wind Mobile – as well as Best Buy, The Source, Costco and Wireless Wave. The LG G5 comes in three colors – Silver, Titan and Pink – depending where you make your purchase with the average pricing about $800 no-term and $300 on a two-year contract. Also available are three of the modules or “Friends,” as LG is calling them – the LG 360 Cam, LG Cam Plus and the LG 360 VR.
First, looking at the LG G5 – it is a totally new design from its predecessor, the LG G4. The G5 is an all-aluminum design with a coating of paint to hide the antenna bars. It sports a 5.3-inch IPS LCD Quad HD always on display with 554 pixels-per-inch (PPI). The brain is the newest Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad-core processor with dual cores clocked at 1.6GHz and dual cores clocked at 2.15GHz and it uses an Adreno 530 GPU for outstanding graphics. The LG G5 comes with 4GB of DDR4 RAM and 32GB of internal memory that is expandable to 2TB with a microSD card. LG took the high scoring LG G4 16MP camera with an aperture of f/1.8 and added another 8MP wide-angle lens with a f/2.4 – it adds laser autofocus, OIS (3-axis) and LED flash – allowing for a variety of shots. It uses a large 8MP with a f/2.0 aperture camera on the front-facing camera (FFC) for selfies and video chatting.
The LG G5 has the usual suspects – WiFi, Bluetooth v4.2, GPS, NFC, an FM Radio, a built-in IR Blaster and the new Type-C reversible connector for rapid charging and data transfer. A new fingerprint sensor resides where the on/off and volume controls once were located on the back, but the fingerprint sensor does press in to act as an on/off switch while the volume controls moved to the side of the device. The LG G5 has a 2800mAh removable battery by incorporating a button on the lower side that releases the ‘chin’ of the device.
This removable ‘chin’ is where the “Friends” part comes into play – modules can slide into this slot that adds an entirely new, feel and functionality to the LG G5. There are three modules or “Friends” available today, with the promise of more coming from LG. The 360 Cam captures full 360-degree images and videos by using two identical wide-angle 13MP lenses. The LG Cam Plus is a camera accessory that adds a handgrip, shutter button, video record button, zoom dial – it makes the LG G5 feel like a point-and-shoot camera and as an added bonus, it increases your total battery capacity to 4000mAh. The third module offered is the LG 360 VR, it is LG’s first VR headset, and offers a 130-inch view from 2 meters away for 3D games or 360-degree videos. The LG 360 Cam and LG 360 VR will cost $299.99 each, and the LG Cam Plus will cost $99.99.