Review of the LG G4 smartphone

Good day, this is the Angry Systems Administrator. Two weeks ago we replaced the old Samsung S3 smartphone the Angry Webmaster has been using for the last few years with an LG G4 phone.

Originally I had intended to replace the S3 with one of the new S6 models that just came out. However, in a fit of utter stupidity, Samsung decided that the S6 won’t have a replaceable battery or space for an SD card. This was a deal killer for me. Having a replaceable battery is a requirement as far as I’m, and apparently a lot of other people are concerned.

Because of this, I started researching other phones. My first thought was getting a Samsung Galaxy S5, but those are starting to be phased out now. Then I saw the LG G4. It’s slightly larger than the S3, but unlike the S6 it has both a replaceable battery and a slot for an SD card. The replaceable battery turned out to be a good thing too.

Once I had the phone I started setting it up for the Angry Webmaster and getting it configured for our preferred service, Ting. One of the good things about Ting of late, is they have added a GSM network to their system. They now use Tmobile as well as Sprint for their backbone providers. I’ve always preferred a GSM network to a CDMA network so getting the Tmobile version of the phone was a no brainer.

The only problem I had with the initially was getting the phone. Ting didn’t have any in stock. Since they used Tmobile, I figured I would just buy one there and have them unlock it. Yeah, that didn’t work out quite the way I expected. I bought the phone, paying full price as I expected, but I also had to pay for three months of prepaid service.

Tmobile also said that we had to use the phone for 30 days before they would unlock it.

Still, the total cost was less than buying a Galaxy S6 so I went ahead with the purchase. I contacted Ting and they sent out a SIM card for their service, and I also got a 64GB SD card. Once everything came in, I reconfigured the phone for Ting, inserted the SD card and successfully connected.

Everything seemed to be working fine for the first day or so, then the phone started overheating badly. After a couple of days I took the phone back to Tmobile. (After removing the SD Card and replacing the Ting SIM with the original Tmobile SIM) The tech ran some diagnostics and found one possible problem app. We removed that and I took the phone back with the understanding that if overheating continued, the phone would be replaced.

Things seemed to calm down, but the next day the phone nearly went up in flames, it became so hot. I had to shut it down and take it apart to let it cool off. Back to Tmobile, and this time I spoke with the manager. They weren’t able to recreate the issue and were going to slap me with a $50 restocking fee. (With no intent on putting this phone back on the shelf) We came up with the idea of just swapping out the battery first to see if that would fix the problem.

It seems that it has. Since the battery was replaced a week ago, we haven’t seen a recurrence of the overheating problem. In fact, the phone seems to be holding on to a charge a lot better now. Just last night, as a test, I left it off the charger. After 26 hours, with some usage, the phone still had a 20% charge in it. Obviously, the original battery was defective.

This is the primary reason I, and many other people, like having a replaceable battery. If this had been the S6 or Iphone, the entire unit would have had to be replaced at a significant cost to Tmobile and the manufacturer. Instead, a simple battery change corrected the problem.

The batteries used today are Lithium and they can be very volatile if they are defective. In some cases, they can catch fire or even explode. It doesn’t take much to set them off. A very slight defect that may not become apparent until the battery has been recharged a few times can be all that it takes for an “Earth Shattering Kaboom!” I have no doubt that there will be a few Samsung phones with fixed batteries that will have to be replaced due to bad batteries.

Now as to the phone itself, I like it. It is a bit bulkier then the S3, but it’s also slimmer. You won’t notice that since I always wrap smartphones in “armor” in case the Angry Webmaster drops it. It’s a lot more responsive then the S3 and the camera is a heck of a lot better. I’ll be turning it over to the Angry Webmaster later today, and then I think I’ll buy one for myself. Next month, I’ll have Tmobile unlock the phone so we can put any SIM in it we like.

Thank you