Pretty impressed with the G2 so far

[Garemlin]

Ok so I went into Best Buy Mobile this morning. I had previously tried out the Moto X but returned it. Wanted to try the Droid Maxx but they didn't have any in stock yet. So I planned to go in and pick up a G2 to give it a whirl. Ironically while I was there they cracked open some inbound boxes and there were four Droid Maxx's. LOL

I gotta say I am pretty impressed with this phone. My first concern was reception and signal strength. Well I took a few calls and it was clear as a bell. Data reception is pretty close to my Motorola devices. Maybe even a little better because I am getting 4G more than I was with my Maxx. The G2 also has plenty of bells and whistles without looking like fluff like Touchwiz. It has many features and customization options. You really don't need to use another launcher like Nova or Apex. The SMS app has some nice stock features too like pop-ups and message count. Stock keyboard is easy to use with swype feature and an actual numeric row at the top. Plus more emoticons than anyone could ever care to have. One little corny feature I liked was the ability to create your own vibration patterns for calls and notifications. Though I don't use vibrate it is neat just the same. Screen is gorgeous. Even with the onscreen buttons, which I will also add are customizable as well, you still get a full 5" of usable screen real estate. There are many many other features that I have not dug into yet. You could spend hours playing with the different features so I will leave that up to you. Just wanted to note a few.

But with all of these added features one of my biggest concerns is long delays for updates. Not sure if I wanna chance holding on to it and having to wait forever for updates. I do like it though I have to admit. Even though I hate to admit liking anything with LG on it. Gonna play with it for few days before I make my final decision. My other option is to go with the Droid Maxx. Or I could wait it out a bit longer to see if the rumored Nexus 5 comes out.

 

[Garemlin]

As I dig deeper I am finding the lack of need for many apps that I used before. One big one is Wifi Explorer Pro. Wireless storage is built in. This is a very feature rich phone without getting cluttered like the S4.

 

[JKZ]

Ok so I went into Best Buy Mobile this morning. I had previously tried out the Moto X but returned it. Wanted to try the Droid Maxx but they didn't have any in stock yet. So I planned to go in and pick up a G2 to give it a whirl. Ironically while I was there they cracked open some inbound boxes and there were four Droid Maxx's. LOL

I gotta say I am pretty impressed with this phone. My first concern was reception and signal strength. Well I took a few calls and it was clear as a bell. Data reception is pretty close to my Motorola devices. Maybe even a little better because I am getting 4G more than I was with my Maxx. The G2 also has plenty of bells and whistles without looking like fluff like Touchwiz. It has many features and customization options. You really don't need to use another launcher like Nova or Apex. The SMS app has some nice stock features too like pop-ups and message count. Stock keyboard is easy to use with swype feature and an actual numeric row at the top. Plus more emoticons than anyone could ever care to have. One little corny feature I liked was the ability to create your own vibration patterns for calls and notifications. Though I don't use vibrate it is neat just the same. Screen is gorgeous. Even with the onscreen buttons, which I will also add are customizable as well, you still get a full 5" of usable screen real estate. There are many many other features that I have not dug into yet. You could spend hours playing with the different features so I will leave that up to you. Just wanted to note a few.

But with all of these added features one of my biggest concerns is long delays for updates. Not sure if I wanna chance holding on to it and having to wait forever for updates. I do like it though I have to admit. Even though I hate to admit liking anything with LG on it. Gonna play with it for few days before I make my final decision. My other option is to go with the Droid Maxx. Or I could wait it out a bit longer to see if the rumored Nexus 5 comes out.

I gotta say I agree with you on all of this. I've had the phone for almost two weeks now. I too thought I'd just try it out and see what I thought, not sure if I was going to keep it. After using it for awhile though, there is no way I'm taking it back. This is easily the best phone I've owned and I was pretty skeptical initially. I'm really surprised there isn't a lot more talk and hype about this phone. The signal quality and battery life are outstanding, it blows the S4 out of the water. It's such a nice change from everything else I've owned in the past.

I'm a little worried about updates in the future too, but I guess it works so well the way it is now, it won't kill me if I don't get them right away. The way I look at it, I've always got my Nexus 7 tablet to try out immediate Android updates and play if I want to. LG actually built some really great features into their software here. Granted, there are a few things that are a bit of a gimmick and useless in my opinion, but nothing is perfect I guess. I really don't even feel the need to root the G2 right now. I've never said that about any other phone I've owned.

 

[leeshor]

Hey bud. Is that the WiFi "File" Explorer?

 

[bkdodger]

Good stuff G ...how are you my friend? Great to see ya pop in for a review...I was impressed with my short testing on the G2 ...it's got all the bells and whistles...I was not a fan of the cover but nothing a good case would do the trick...

 

[tkoehler]

Great updates, Garemlin! This is really helping me make my decision between this and Galaxy4. One of my problems with my Rezound, which has been few, is it heating up and battery life. So far it sounds like I dont need to worry about the battery life with the LG...how about it heating up? Any word or updates on that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again! :rockon:

 

[Garemlin]

tkoehler: IMO this phone blows the S4 out of the water. Of course I do not like Sammy phones because of lousy reception and the over-fluffed Touchwiz so I may be a little biased. I ran it pretty hard yesterday. Streaming video and audio, video chat, texting, calls and a few other things and never felt it get that warm. Just off the first charger I got over 4 hours of screen on time use.

bk: How's it going man. Yeah the back is a fingerprint magnet. But I always run a case so it doesn't matter. Picked up and Incipio feather at the VZW store since BB didn't have any yet.

Lee: How are you my friend!!! No it isn't actually Wifi Explorer Pro. But it appears to work in a similar fashion. It says you can manage files on your phone or copy files from your PC to the phone. It works the same way as WEP where you enter a URL in your browser window. For some reason I haven't got it to work yet though.

JKZ: Gotta agree right now it runs great. But as other devices get updates and apps get updated to roll with them I am a little worried that the G2 may be left behind for a while. But for now it is a beast of a phone. I think as word spreads this could be a sleeper hit.

I will say I have found a few things I do not like. While stock you can change the icons for apps, you can't change an icon for created folders. This requires the use of Apex, Nova or another launcher which creates another issue. It disables one of my favorite features. Double tap screen off. Also I have not been able to get some of the stock widgets to load with the Pro version of either Apex or Nova. It is a shame because the stock launcher has many neat features like Apex and Nova like transition effects and a few other things. I just wish there were a few more features like scrolling dock and the ability to hide app lables as well as the previously mentioned folder icon changing. Beyond that this phone is very easy to navigate and use. When you long press the home button you get recently used apps and also opens a task manager button to easily close running apps that you don't want running anymore. The camera is feature packed and takes an incredible picture even when zoomed in. And though the specs say HD video recording at 30fps, if you go into setting you can actually set it for HD 60fps too. The ability to change which toggles and the order of the toggles in the notification bar is a big plus. But it would be nice to be able to choose which apps you can use for QSlide multitasking.

Gonna give it another day and then decide if I am gonna keep it or go with my original plan of getting the Ultra or Maxx. Or even waiting it out and suffering with my aging Razr Maxx.

 

[bkdodger]

Good morning G...have you an app like Folder Organizer from the playstore ..I'm sure it can work and let ya keep the stock launcher

N2 tap'd HD

 

[Garemlin]

Good morning G...have you an app like Folder Organizer from the playstore ..I'm sure it can work and let ya keep the stock launcher

N2 tap'd HD

LOL yeah I had that one long ago before Apex and Nova existed. Just a little longer process to use. But I guess it would be a feasible option.


Oh and sorry about the edit. I clicked edit instead of quote. LOL

 

[bkdodger]

LOL yeah I had that one long ago before Apex and Nova existed. Just a little longer process to use. But I guess it would be a feasible option.


Oh and sorry about the edit. I clicked edit instead of quote. LOL

Haha I've done that plenty of times...there might be other apps easier I'm sure of it ..good time to search for a new one ...

N2 tap'd HD

 

[tkoehler]

Thanks for the info, Garemlin. I am looking into getting one now. Last quick question...are you worried about getting updates for this? I know some makers have been known to slowly get out updates for the phone. I know my Rezound took awhile to be update. Thanks again for your help!

 

[Garemlin]

Thanks for the info, Garemlin. I am looking into getting one now. Last quick question...are you worried about getting updates for this? I know some makers have been known to slowly get out updates for the phone. I know my Rezound took awhile to be update. Thanks again for your help!

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a concern. The more an OEM adds the longer it will take for updates. Guess I have gotten spoiled by Moto devices and their recent quick updates. In fact I have been the the soak test for the last to Razr updates. Nothing of course will be as fast getting updates as a Nexus device. Guess it is a matter of if I want to chance it or not. I think at the moment the Moto X will be the quickest for updates next to Nexus devices. Only because it is carried across all carriers.

Maybe someone will chime in on the speed of updates for the Galaxy line. I never keep track because I have no interest. That may be a good way to judge future updates for the G2.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Glad I talked you into it Garemlin. I can't say I feel the same way about the update process though, it doesn't concern me now that Android has been taken off the burner and left to simmer. We'll be half way though the devices life before any major change in Android is seen, and every feature I really want and need is included in the G2. Updates just aren't what they used to be due to fragmentation concerns across the board. The essential applications are all now pushed over Google Play so we'll always maintain functionality in that regard even years from now. I used to be the guy flashing ROM's to stay on the latest version of everything, with the G2 I simply don't even think about it now.

The only negative I see eventually being concerning is security, but attacks on Android have been rather slow and inefficient thus far anyway.

 

[BigCTM]

I picked one up today after owning the spectrum 2 for the last year. It was a sleeper phone and I hope the G2 is the same. I thought I was the only one who hate Samsung phones but not so based on this thread.

Sent from my VS930 4G using Tapatalk 4

 

[cloudstrife05]

I have 3 days before hi decide whether or not to keep my HTC One. You guys are making my decision difficult!