Samsung’s turn in the spotlight seems to be over now, as LG’s newly-launched G5 is making some noise of its own now. While the G5 was announced at the same time as the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, it took LG a little longer to get their flagship device to market, ultimately launching on April 1st last weekend. When the G5 was announced during Mobile World Congress, the South Korean giant was pretty pleased that they managed to make a device that offered a removable battery and other extra features like the camera and audio modules while also offering a device made out of metal. However, when infamous YouTuber “JerryRigEverything” got his hands on one, it seemed as though the device might not be all that metallic after all. In the teardown video that JerryRigEverything has become known for, a knife seems to scrape off a thin layer of plastic. Now however, someone from LG has responded.
In the comments section below the video, Ken Hong from LG responds to the video and challenges the YouTuber’s claim that the device shouldn’t be sold as an all metal phone. The aluminum alloy used for the G5 is LM201b, developed by the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology for use in cars and aircraft, and that the thin layer of “plastic” is actually a primer. As the LM201b is a lightweight yet strong alloy, Hong tells the comment section that the antennas were fitted into the diecast unibody itself. The primer is of course used to get the colored paint to bond to the metal construction of the device, and is just the same as painting a car or aircraft at the end of the day.
For LG, the G5 has been something of a rocky launch, at least compared to Samsung’s earlier launch of the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge. Units appear to be sent out to people with varying degrees of fit and finish and no matter what LG says about the primer or paint situation some customers will no doubt be thinking twice about the G5 after seeing reports of varying quality control issues and watching videos like these. The original video is embedded below, and the comments section is where you’ll see Ken Hong’s comment.