Everything you need to know about the LG G4

Ahead of tomorrow’s eagerly awaited LG G4 release date, the flagship phone has leaked in full as LG continues to tease its future handset’s key features.

A device tipped to pair a subtly curved form with new premium materials, the LG G4 has been shown to sport a seamed leather back in a variety of colours. Although not expected to adopt a full LG G Flex 2 echoing curved panel, it has been suggested the Samsung Galaxy S6 rival will feature a slightly arched display similar to the mid-range LG Spirit.

Having re-established itself as a serious smartphone player on the back of its partnership with Google on the Nexus 4 and Nexus 5, the 2014 released LG G3 further cemented the Korean manufacturer’s position as a rival to the leading smartphone players.

Now, despite the LG G3 continuing to make waves, attention has already turned to what’s next. With the handset having failed to debut alongside the HTC One M9 at MWC 2015, LG has now confirmed the phone will touch down at a dedicated launch event later this month.

Thanks to formal invites issued to the media – including us here at TrustedReviews – we know that the LG G4 will be the focus of a dedicated launch event tomorrow, April 28. Reports have claimed the LG G4 release date will be held anywhere between a day and a month later.

According to the latest G4 leaks, LG’s next flagship phone will ship with a Snapdragon 810 chip and a 16-megapixel camera – a bump on the G3’s Snapdragon 801 and 13-megapixel shooter.

LG has even got in on the act, officially confirming the phone’s 5.5-inch, QHD display panel and 8-megapixel forward-facing camera ahead of the handset’s official unveiling. This specs collection should see the device go head-to-head with the likes of the iPhone 6 and the upcoming Sony Xperia Z4.

Taking a slight step left field, futher reports have hinted the G4 will firmly adopt its phablet-sized dimensions and come packing its own stylus. While this would see the handset go head-to-head with the likes of the Galaxy Note 4, it would be a serious step away from the company’s past efforts. What’s more likely, is that reports of a spin-off LG G4 Note following its standard sibling to launch will be realised.

We’ll continue to update this page with all the latest LG G4 release date news and rumours moving forward. Bookmark it now to keep on top of all things G4.

LG G4 Release Date

Unlike many of its rivals, LG doesn’t currently have any regimented launch cycles for its flagship phones. Given that LG’s smartphones have fallen between the cracks in recent years. accurately predicting when the G4 would land proved difficult.

Fortunately, LG has now revealed plans for an April 28 G4 launch event,

ending the speculation surrounding the phone’s upcoming arrival.

Continuing the company’s sub 1-year product cycle – the LG G3 was unveiled in May ahead of a June release – the G4’s big reveal will likely precede an in-store release the following month.

Issuing formal invites to members of the media LG has confirmed plans to launch the handset simultaneously across six global cities.

Joining the event here in London, LG has revealed it will debut its G3 follow-on at separate events in Paris, Seoul, New York, Singapore and Istanbul.

Not only mentioning the phone by name – ending any speculation of a potential branding change – the invite has confirmed the phone will play host to a wide aperture primary camera, ideal for shots in low light.

The grand unveil will kick off at 4pm BST sharp. Stay tuned to TrustedReviews for all the latest live from the event.

Leaked LG documents in Korea have even offered hints as to when the handset will be commercially available. It has been suggested the phone will be made available for purchase, at least in the company’s homeland, the day after launch, April 29.

If you simply can’t wait that extra day to trial the device, LG has confirmed plans to let 4,000 prospective punters trial the G4 prior to release.

“We’re putting the success of LG G4 in the hands of consumers before the launch because we believe they are the best judge of a great user experience, beyond just benchmarks and speed tests,” Juno Cho, LG Mobile’s President and CEO said.

You can register you interest in sampling the phone for 30 days through LG’s region specific websites.

Read More: Samsung Galaxy Note 5 Release Date, Rumours, News, Specs and Price

LG G4 News



Removing much of the mystery, the LG G4 has been leaked in full prior to launch. The culprit of this premature slip? LG itself.

The manufacturer accidentally published full details on its upcoming phone on a dedicated micro-site. This was promptly spotted by renowned tech tipster Evan Blass before being hastily removed.

Prior to the site’s demise, however, a series of LG G4 images were snaffled, offering a comprehensive look at the leather-bound phone.

According to the leaked snaps, the G4 will feature a leather rear, with a selection of cowhide colours to chose between – from the traditional tan and black to blue and yellow.

For those not keen on the animal skin look, a selection of plastic backed designs have also been spotted.

While there are questions over whether Apple’s next handset will be dubbed the iPhone 6S or the iPhone 7, there’s no such confusion surrounding LG’s future flagships.

Having previoulsy name dropped the handset in an exclusive chat with TrustedReviews, LG has now openly confirmed the phone’s G4 branding through a number of tease imgaes and invites.

The company is keen to ensure its leading handset line retains the same simplistic branding for years to come, too. Securing the naming rights to future phones, the Korean manufacturer has already trademarked the names of its next six flagship phones – now that’s planning for the future.

Taking the ‘G’ line-up to the year 2020, LG has patented the LG G4 name, as well as securing the rights to the LG G5, G6, G7, G8 and, yep, you guessed it, LG G9.

So, with the name sorted, what else can we expect from the future phone? Well, LG has taken an unusual approach and already unveiled a number of key components set to feature on the upcoming device.

The company has formally showcased its next flagship phone display, a 5.5-inch near bezel-free panel with a 2560 x 1440 pixel QHD resolution (above).

While this might sound like the same display found on the G3, there are a few subtle differences to kick things on. In fact, LG has claimed the new panel represents a “quantum jump” in key features like colour gamut, brightness, contrast ratio, touch function, power consumption and thinness.

Detailing how, the company has revealed that the LG G4’s screen will sport a a 120 percent colour gamut, which exceeds the 100 percent gamut on other displays. This has been achieved by combining a blue LED chip with red and green phosphors, when other panels combine the blue LED chip with a yellow phosphor – simple.

Again looking beyond the G4, LG has been keen to show off its advancements around Plastic OLED (P-OLED) screens, recently unveiling a detailed roadmap (above) of how it will adopt these technologies within its key product lines moving forward.

Joining rollable TVs and foldable tablets (both tipped for 2017) on this list was a bendable smartphone destined for a 2015 release. Having introduced the world’s first curved-screen smartphone back in 2013 – the LG G Flex – LG is looking to build on this P-OLED technology in increasingly mainstream ways.

“LG Display is devoting its energy and resources to respond quickly to fast growing market and consumers’ needs in order to develop Plastic OLED to become the key OLED application technology in the future,” an official LG spokesperson said of the screen technology and its potential in the mobile market.

They added: “It seems that Plastic OLED will play an important role in people’s everyday lives in the future.”

While curves might be the future, don’t expect them to make a flagship appearance this time around.

Speaking recently with TrustedReviews LG’s Head of Smartphone Planning, Dr Ramchan Woo, stressed that while foldable phones are ‘already a possible technology’, there are ‘a lot of barriers’, and LG is not sure ‘which method is right for daily use.’

Although bendy screens aren’t coming just yet, an integrated fingerprint scanner just might be.

“LG Electronics has recently decided to deploy a fingerprint sensor on its next flagship smartphone and the scanner will be placed at the back of the device,” an unnamed insider reportedly told the KoreanHerald.

An additional source added: “LG has been left behind in the race for fintech as it has continued to postpone the adoption of fingerprint technology.

“With more global smartphone-makers incorporating a fingerprint reader, which is a security measure for mobile payments, LG may have had few options left but to deploy the authentication sensor for its next marquee smartphone.”



Read More: Sony Xperia Z4 Release Date, Rumours, News, Specs and Price

LG G4 Rumours

One LG G4 rumour which keeps resurfacing, is the suggestion that the handset will come packing a stylus. Yep, Note 4 style.

Although LG has launched a stylus-hosting spin-off to the G3, forcing the peripheral on its flagship handset seems like an unusual, and unlikely move. According to Korean sources, however, the G4 will come bunded with a stylus to allow users to make better use of the phone’s sizeable screen.

Leaked images (below) have also appeared, seemingly showing off LG’s as yet unconfirmed handset with a pen-like peripheral in tow.

LG itself has added fuel to the fire, patenting the term LG G Pen – presumably related to a stylus – such an introduction would seemingly add bulk to the handset’s mimimalist frame – a feature LG has worked hard to keep down in recent years.

It is currently unclear, however, if the teased stylus will feature on the standard, flagship G4, or be limited to its mooted big brother, the LG G4 Note.

On to design, and aesthetics is one area where LG is widely expected to improve its next flagship phone. With the company’s design heads having previously expressed remorse at not bestowing the G3 with a premium metal finish, the G4 is expected to adopt more high-end materials.

“ In order to show off the luxurious nature of the phone, maybe we could have applied some high-end metal on the side or on the back ,” Chul Bae Lee, LG’s Vice President of Mobile Design, said when speaking about the LG G3 with TrustedReviews earlier in the year.

Those hoping for a fully metal device à la the HTC One M8, however, might be left a little disappointed.

Lee added: “I don’t really agree that the entire body has to be metal… If you could charge $300 more for the phone, maybe we could make it metal.”

What’s more, all of LG’s G4-themed promo materials have suggested that the handset will be adorned with a less common lether finish. Here’s hoping its a bit more convincing than the dire leather-effect rear of the Galaxy Note 3.

According to recent reports, LG had planned to bestow the G4 with a metallic coating but was forced to put its plans on hold until later in the year due to manufacturering issues.

As such, it appears the G4 will miss out on a metallic finish while the upcoming LG G4 Note will make the move. This metallic move appears to suggest that the leaked G4 images we’ve seen – which show a metal-effect finish – are actually pictures of the spin-off G4 Note.

Another area where the LG G4 design looks set to be boosted is by moving to even slimmer bezels. It was one of the key selling points of the G3, and LG looks set to make its next flagship phone even closer to being completely bezel-bereft.

The company has recently unveiled a 5.3-inch Full HD screen that features bezels a mere 0.8mm thick. Although not the exact panel set to feature on the G4 – we’re expecting a QHD panel at least 5.5 inches in size – that announcement shows a sign of what’s to come. The near-frame-free screen has been achieved though the use of a new ‘Neo Edge’ module processing technology.

“With the growing trend for large-screen smartphones, customer demand for displays with a narrow bezel is increasing, because it enables users to enjoy the maximum use of screen area without compromising excellent grip and design,” Byeong-koo Kim, President and Head of IT/Mobile Development Group at LG Display said recently.

He added: “With this innovative product having many advantages, ranging from its narrow 0.8mm bezel and high-resolution picture quality to its slim design and touch-embedded solutions, LG Display will continue to lead the growing market for large screen smartphones, meeting the expectations of customers and users by enhancing the quality of devices.”

Read More: Samsung Galaxy S6 Release Date, Rumours, News, Specs and Price

LG G4 Specs

Qualcomm provides the chipsets for most flagship Android and Windows Phone handsets currently doing the rounds, but this could be about to change. Samsung has long been adding its own Exynos chips to iterations of its flagship phones, and now it appears LG could be bringing its chip supply in-house, too.

The manufacturer recently announced its first mobile application processor dubbed the Nuclun. The octa-core chip pairs four 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A15 cores with four 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A7 cores. The result: plenty of power.

With the Nuclun adding Cat 6 LTE connectivity support – compatible only in certain territories – we don’t anticipate this model will be introduced to the UK, however. What we’re likely to get here in Britain is far more traditional.

With the LG G4 all but certain to run Google’s latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS, a 64-bit Snapdragon processor is seemingly set to be on the handset’s features list.

The era of the Snapdragon 805 is already firmly underway, so expect the G4 to run the same Snapdragon 810 chip as we expect to see in the Sony Xperia Z4.

The Snapdragon 810 brings with it 64-bit architecture, Cat. 9 LTE support, improved battery life, Adreno 430 graphics, and a built-in killswitch for added security.

At a recent benchmarking event at Qualcomm’s San Diego HQ, we recorded record-breaking AnTuTu benchmark results with the 810 notching up a score of 61,499.

This score far outstrips the 49,136 and 42,334 results recorded by the Note 4’s 805 and Z3’s 801 chips.

Although the phone’s power unit is still shrouded in mystery, other components have been officially confirmed.

One such set-in-stone addition is the phone’s upcoming 16-megapixel rear-facing shooter – that’s a jump upwards from the 13-megapixel sensor that appeared on the G3.

Prior to launch the company has confirmed the G4 will benefit from a 16-megapixel primary camera with a wide f/1.8 aperture for improved low-light photography. This will be partnered with an 8-megapixel secondary snapper for selfie lovers.

The front-facing camera features a 0.11mm thin IR filter for more natural and accurate colours.

Away from power, and although LG might have promised a bendable phone for 2015, some reports have suggested this innovative technology won’t be bestowed on the G4. Instead, it’s been claimed that the flagship phone will offer some impressive screen tech all of its own – namely a sapphire crystal display.

Previously rumoured for the iPhone 6 Plus, this toughened panel would see the G4 become more resistant to scuffs and scratches. It’s also been suggested that the handset could follow the Xperia Z3 and Samsung Galaxy S5 in adopting a water- and dust-resistant coating.

Further LG G4 specs are currently unclear. We anticipate the phone will retain the G3’s laser-focused camera and rear-mounted volume and power controls, though.

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LG G4 Price

While LG’s recent flagship phones have stood out for their specs and performance, it’s pricing and value which have really helped them grab consumers’ attentions. We’d expect the LG G4 to follow in a similar vein.

At launch, the LG G3 was pushing the £500 mark. Although this has subsequently tumbled to around £400, this is still highly competitive given the phone’s QHD panel and powerful CPU.

We’d expect the LG G4 price to be in a similar ballpark at launch. As you might expect, however, there’s currently no official word on the matter.

This has been backed up by recent leaks, with a German retailer prematurely listing the handset alongside a €729 asking price. This equates to about £520.

What features would you like to see LG bestow upon the G4? Let us know via the comments section below and bookmark this page for all the latest on the LG G4 as new details emerge.