Most important, it manages to tax the battery less than the GS7's always-on screen did. LG's approach is valuable, since it displays notifications from all your apps, not just a select few. That means the G5's entire screen is lit up (if only a little), which can make it somewhat distracting in the dark. Quick recap: The G5 uses an LCD screen, and you can't light up just part of it like you can with a Galaxy's AMOLED display.
It's impossible to dodge comparisons between the G5 and the approach Samsung took with the Galaxy S7 family, but it ultimately comes down to personal preference. The G5's screen also has an always-on mode, inspired by the secondary display on last year's V10. Hues here feel subdued and understated, but hey, that might be your thing - and for my part, I got used to them quickly enough. Images look the same here as they do on the G4, but, accuracy claims aside, colors still lack the sort of punchy, visceral appeal you'll get on rival devices. The G5's display is a little brighter too, which will certainly come in handy as we head into summer. First off, the smaller Quad HD display makes the device a little easier to hold, and it's a hair sharper as well: It has a pixel density of 554 ppi, while the G4's 5.5-inch screen had 538 pixels per inch. LG didn't rewrite the book with the 5.3-inch IPS screen on this year's G5 it just improved a few things here and there. Last year, the G4 gave us our first look at LG's so-called Quantum displays - screens that sought to portray a wider, more accurate color gamut. At least we still have some of LG's long-held niceties, like a microSD card reader (you can add on up to 2TB of additional storage) and a surprisingly handy IR blaster. LG obviously couldn't make this thing modular and waterproof, so be sure to keep the G5 away from your toilet. There's a pretty noticeable gap between the bottom of the screen and the top of the phone's chin, which doesn't exactly do much for the G5's fit and finish. The G5's modular ambitions are lofty, but there are some obvious sacrifices that had to be made to get them all working.
Beyond that, I'm frustrated that the G5 doesn't have some tiny auxiliary battery inside so that it doesn't have to restart every time you want to start using the camera grip or the audio DAC. Still, I'm curious about how long these things will last before some poor piece of plastic snaps. It took me a good 15 minutes to figure out the process, because I was so worried I'd break something, but so far I've managed to avoid destroying either of our review loaners. The best way I've found is the "removing a Band-Aid" approach - a quick, decisive jerk while holding the battery in your left hand and the module in your right. See, swapping Friends sometimes involves removing the G5's 2,800mAh battery from one module and snapping it onto another. You'll be doing this a lot if you want to swap between your G5's additional "Friend" modules, and the process can involve a certain amount of terror.
Congrats! You've found what makes the G5 such a marvelously crazy phone. Additionally, there's one more button on the G5's left edge pressing it releases a latch and frees the phone's battery/chin-piece combination. (That sensor, by the way, seems much more finicky than the one on the Nexus 5X.) Meanwhile, the signature lump on the back plays host to not one but two cameras: one for wide-angle shots and another for your more traditionally framed photos. LG broke with tradition by moving the phone's volume keys to the left side, instead of fitting them above and below the rear power button/fingerprint sensor. Peer a little closer, though, and you'll start to see key signs that not all is normal here. Throw in a Snapdragon 820 chip, 4GB of RAM, a 5.3-inch IPS LCD display running at Quad HD resolution and a USB Type-C port on the bottom and you've got yourself a solidly modern (if forgettable) phone. The device is pleasant to hold too, though I'd still give the comfort nod to the Galaxy S7, which is actually a hair thicker than the G5. Its all-metal body is softened by rounded corners and a curved glass forehead that also houses the earpiece and an 8-megapixel selfie camera. For what it's worth, I personally find the G5 kind of charming. And that's understandable physically, there's just not a lot going on here. "Boring" is the single most common adjective I've heard used in conversation to describe the phone's design. The G5 might be the most ambitious flagship I've ever used, but you probably wouldn't guess that from its looks.