LG G5 review: Evening the odds

Performance

Update, Apr 04: We recently received a retail G5 review unit and we've updated all test results on this page accordingly. The good news is that there were almost no differences compared to our pre-production unit so all initial review conclusions are still valid.

LG G5 is powered by the most recent Qualcomm chipset - the Snapdragon 820 - and the chip maker promises up to 2x higher performance than the Snapdragon 810. The 820 SoC has a quad-core Kryo processor (2x 2.15GHz, 2x 1.6GHz) by a new custom proprietary design plus an Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB RAM.

The single-core performance is where the Kryo CPU shines. It did better than any other Android competitor, including the Galaxy S7 Exynos's Mongoose core, and it indeed doubled the performance of its predecessor (the Cortex-A57 within the Meizu Pro 5). The Kryo is just short of Apple's Twister core, the best performer on the market right now.

GeekBench 3 (single-core)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2527
• LG G5
  2328
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  2305
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  2170
• Meizu Pro 5
  1545
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  1363

The multi-core performance is better than the Snapdragon 810 chips (Nexus 6P) and matches the Exynos 7420 octa-core processor inside the Galaxy S6 edge+ and Meizu Pro 5. It is also far ahead of what LG G3 and G4 could offer. The latest Exynos models of the Galaxy S7 series are doing better than the Snapdragon 820 chip, though, but don't forget they have additional four Cortex-A53 cores.

GeekBench 3 (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S7
  6360
• Meizu Pro 5
  5578
• LG G5
  5362
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  5358
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  5215
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  4539
• OnePlus 2
  4429
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  4413
• Sony Xperia Z5
  4017
• LG G4
  3509
• LG G3
  2370

AnTuTu 6 is a compound test that gauges CPU, GPU, RAM, and UX multi-tasking capabilities. The LG G5 aced the test and edged the Galaxy S7. Don't forget the AnTuTu benchmark has an onscreen 3D test which runs at Quad HD resolution on the LG G5 and the Galaxy S7 while the Xiaomi Mi 5 has it on a 1080p display.

AnTuTu 6

Higher is better

• LG G5
  134541
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  132084
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  131758
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  89345
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  79038
• Meizu Pro 5
  67531
• LG G4
  60858

The BaseMark OS II 2.0 is another compound test, which in addition to CPU, GPU, RAM, and OS, also takes into consideration the browser performance. The LG G5 did great here, on par with the Galaxy S7.

Basemark OS 2.0

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  2261
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  2180
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  2128
• LG G5
  2065
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  2040
• Meizu Pro 5
  1837
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1674
• OnePlus 2
  1622
• LG G4
  1584
• Sony Xperia Z5
  1482
• LG G3
  1189

Now, let's check the graphics out. The offscreen GFX Benchmark 3.0 and 3.1 Manhattan tests put the Adreno 530 (Mi 5) on par with the Mali-T880MP12 (Galaxy S7) and it's twice as good as the GPU inside the Galaxy S6 series.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G5
  47
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  45
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  39.5
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  38
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  25
• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• Sony Xperia Z5
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• OnePlus 2
  22
• LG G4
  14.9
• LG G3
  11

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• LG G5
  30
• Xiaomi Mi 5
  30
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  28
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  27.9
• Sony Xperia Z5
  18
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• OnePlus 2
  16
• Meizu Pro 5
  14

The Quad HD resolution of the LG G5 takes its toll on the onscreen tests and halves the scores compared to the 1080p Xiaomi Mi 5, which has the same GPU. Still, you can consider these scores as flagship-grade nevertheless.

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  43
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  38.6
• LG G5
  28
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  27
• Sony Xperia Z5
  25
• Meizu Pro 5
  25
• OnePlus 2
  22
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• LG G4
  9.4
• LG G3
  7.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  29
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  27.9
• Sony Xperia Z5
  19
• OnePlus 2
  16
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  15
• LG G5
  15
• Meizu Pro 5
  14
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  11

Finally, the BaseMark X test outed a rather unimpressive score if we are to compare it with others, but the Quad HD resolution may have been in play here, too.

Basemark X

Higher is better

• Xiaomi Mi 5
  33110
• Samsung Galaxy S7
  32345
• LG G5
  29456
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  27169
• Sony Xperia Z5
  23923
• Huawei Nexus 6P
  22825
• OnePlus 2
  21937
• Meizu Pro 5
  20038
• LG G4
  15090
• LG G3
  10580

The LG G5 performance is flagship-grade, capable of handling anything anytime, and it doesn't heat the shell much. We ran lots of benchmarks, one after another, and the G5 chassis did get warm, but far from hot. Unfortunately, we noticed some minor GPU throttling in the GPU benchmarks once the G5 gets warm, but nothing you could notice in real life. Oddly, the pre-production unit we had was cooler than the retail one and did not throttle at all.