LG G5: Banking on lights, camera and innovation

But a bloated interface and lack of a premium 'feel' could be its undoing

Let's get this straight. LG's latest flagship, the G5 isn't exactly Project Ara. But it is possibly the world's first modular flagship phone. I hadn't received any modules (a release from LG says they would have a camera module, an audio module and a 360° camera module) till the time of going to print, but I was curious about how it performed as a phone.

The metallic G5 is a marked change from its plastic and leather predecessor, the G4. While it feels nice in the hand, I felt its peers have a more premium feel. The G5 sports a unibody design and the phone's "chin" detaches to reveal a removable battery and take in modules; this part doesn't feel flush with the rest of the body. Every time you swap a module, the battery would need to be removed and in turn lead to several reboots. Also, the groove running round the edge felt a bit uncomfortable in sweaty hands.

That said, the power button-cum-fingerprint scanner on the back is extremely intuitive. Gently place your finger on it and the phone unlocks. A caveat: Wet fingers won't work.

Just above the power button are the twin cameras, flanking the flash and focussing laser. While one camera is a 78-degree 16-megapixel (MP) one, the other is a wide-angle 8MP snapper with a sweep of 135 degrees. I loved taking outdoor shots with the wide-angle camera, while the primary camera captured realistic pictures in well-lit conditions. It makes sense to not use the wide-angle lens in low light, as a lot of noise seeps in. The primary camera worked well in all light conditions. The 8MP selfie camera is also wide-angle, so those taking group selfies would love it. The G5 can shoot videos in 4K but I didn't shoot too many of those because the files take up a lot of space.

The G5 runs on the Android Marshmallow-based Optimus UX 5.0, which, regrettably, contains a lot of bloatware. But due to the phone's power-packed hardware, there's no hit in performance. I threw several tabs at it, with a truckload of apps running in the background, and it didn't buckle. The only pointer I got was the phone heating up slightly, which prompted me to close the apps. Besides this time, the only other time the phone heated up slightly was when I was playing Asphalt 8: Airborne.

The G5 sports a 5.3-inch curved screen which looks quite nice and has an always-on feature, despite being an IPS display. The speaker is loud but can get covered with one's hand while playing a game; the bundled earphones, however, provide a good soundstage, though the top range sounds off. With heavy usage, the battery just about lasted through a day.

At Rs 52,990, the LG G5 is for those who want a good camera phone which would stand out from the crowd. The modular aspect is a step in the right direction, but I reserve my comments till I try it out.