Flashback: LG G5 tried to wow the crowd with its Magic Slot, but failed

12 March 2023
The LG G5 was a unique modular phone that featured the first ultra wide camera pointed backwards, yet consumers largely ignored it.

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • D$0
  • 12 Mar 2023

PhoneFreak45, 12 Mar 2023I've seen many comments regarding this claiming that L... moreI thought the little g5 software was actually quite ok for its time , and I remember if I turned the phone on and it was raining outside there would be water drops on the home screen 😀, and to this day my little g5 still had faster or comparable cellular upload speed to every phone I’ve had since , and download speeds where pretty good for the day too. .
It’s a pity lgs support was lack lustre.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • D$0
    • 12 Mar 2023

    I owned the lg g5 , my unit did have the occasional gps issues , and the paint work on the case was less than good , but the phone did have a bunch of redeeming points. And to this day, some of the best photos I have ever taken came from that lg g5.
    To me however , LG let it’s customers down with a lack of software support,
    Updates were fairly thin , and by the time two years came around, the feeling owning an lg phone was like being stranded on an island , at least that’s the way it seemed.
    Meanwhile , my 3.5 year old galaxy note got a 530 meg software update.
    Not hard to see why people started buying other brand phones.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • 8N3
      • 12 Mar 2023

      Anonymous, 12 Mar 2023They sure did. They should have used the V phones for thing... moreS6 had heat issues too

        LG G5 is low-key comfortable to hold when I first got it. It is a bit too tall and wide but the more rounded shape made it feel good in my hand. I don't like the flat sides from the more recent phones like the iPhone 14 Pro Max and Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.

        LG G5: 149.4 x 73.9 x 7.7 mm, 159 g
        LG V20: 159.7 x 78.1 x 7.6 mm, 174 g

        I owned both of them and with multiple spare batteries. Their battery life didn't last long. They both had the screen ghosting that I had to use a plain black wallpaper. But my G5 felt way better in the hand than my V20 which is why I kept it even though the V20 was slightly better all-around. I prefer rounded sides for all my phones.

        I never got used to the size of the V20 which is why the S23U doesn't interest me. Any phone starts to feel uncomfortable for me if the height is over 145-150 mm and the width is over 75 mm. This is why no interest in the Razr 2022 & 2023 if width is still at 80 mm.

        The unsung hero among the S23 series is the base model. Probably one of Samsung's better mid-sized phone since their S10e.

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • atq
          • 12 Mar 2023

          blue, 12 Mar 2023The article should have had title "LG tried and failed... moreThey sure did. They should have used the V phones for things like modules and played it safe with their mainstream flagship the g series.. The g4 didn't help though because it had a snapdragon 808 which couldn't cope with the bump in resolution. The snapdragon 810 has a lot to answer for because lg chose the 808 because of the snapdragon 810 overheats. It killed htc too because they stuck with the 810 and the phone that used it performed worse than phones from a year or two before. Samsung launched their s6 with a better performing exynos and new design which helped them sell the even better s7 the year after.

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            • Lido
            • B{v
            • 12 Mar 2023

            Nope . It hadn't failed at all. That was a so nice piece of kit. The only downside was the too poor battery life caused (maybe )from snap 820.this was the only reason I had sold it...

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              • Anonymous
              • atq
              • 12 Mar 2023

              A good time for Samsung while LG and HTC were dying. What didn't help was the snapdragon 810 before the year before.. Samsung played safe with their exynos on the s6 paving the way for an even better s7 with a much better snapdragon 820. By this time most people wanted to play it safe and went with the s7. I had three phones I was interested in.. Number 1 galaxy s7, next lg g5 and finally HTC 10. I looked at the galaxy s7 and couldn't afford it plus it had no stereo speakers and I wanted a good audio flagship plus I think we only had exynos version. So I chose the HTC 10 as it had beautiful chamfered sides it really was premium build quality. It had stereo speakers, a 24bit dac which still sounds better than most of today's flagships in headphones, fairly fast 15w charging too. The G5 got left because I couldn't get on with their android skin.. It was worse than miui. Plus many reviews said it was made out of plastic and the module thing was ugly and second hand values were shocking. That said the battery on the HTC was very bad quality.. Only had it a year and the battery gave in...normally it degrades over time and you have a good few months before it packs in..this really let it down plus HTC was dying so it lost all its value just as fast as the LG g5. I had to use an old Xperia z5 for a year because the HTC packed in which wasn't pleasant..although its battery was still going strong despite having a horrible snapdragon 810. The galaxy s7 would have been the wiser choice after all.

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                • toaa
                • KiP
                • 12 Mar 2023

                ae86, 12 Mar 2023when I bought my v10 back then what I notice is how each st... morethey are being smart in selling phones

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                  • blue
                  • SXw
                  • 12 Mar 2023

                  The article should have had title "LG tried and failed". All they did was fail.

                    mukhi, 12 Mar 2023Every competent Android phone vendor is now focused on soft... moreI've seen many comments regarding this claiming that LG's OS is fundamentally flawed. While I can agree that there some things I would change that would increase the ease of use, I haven't found anything that's a deal breaker. I think this likely stems from people using older LG phones - even going back to my G8X, it's pretty slow for the hardware. However, the V60 has great software, I've never struggled to use it. The only things that are really overworked though are the camera app. Hardware wise, while it's got a better screen, better cameras, better processor, the biggest thing that I notice is the haptic feedback. Having that instant response helps it feel a lot faster than the G8X.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • 3xK
                      • 12 Mar 2023

                      AnonD-731363, 12 Mar 2023Man rollable phone just like flip and fold are nothing but ... moreLike the Wing, the Rollable phone was meant to be just an experiment, a proof-of-concept device that sold for the rumoured price of 2500 USD. So all the shortcomings you just mentioned won't matter, coz it's an experiment, not an actual phone that's meant to sell in the millions...

                      About the Velvet 2 Pro...
                      LG did make a mistake in pricing with the Velvet, 500 USD for an attractive looking midranger is not worth it, when you know that you can get the exact same specs on a OnePlus Nord that costed like 300 USD. If the Velvet was priced at 400 or 450 USD, it'd have been a good deal tbh.

                      The Velvet 2 Pro is different, it was meant to be a flagship phone. I mean the leaked spec sheet says it all... SD888, 120Hz OLED with punch hole etc. So if they price it 750 or 1250 USD, it won't matter, coz it's a flagship.

                      So my point stands valid. LG left the smartphone market at the wrong time. They left the market when they had devices with great potential in their planning...

                      Tho LG did launch the Wing, and that's a great phone.

                      Miss you LG...

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • T1w
                        • 12 Mar 2023

                        it was a cool idea but i think the biggest problem was that you had to turn off the phone to switch any module. A pretty big inconvenience.

                        The Moto Z series did it better, but that line didn't succeed either...

                          Ah, yes. The often maligned, but also brilliantly underrated and innovative LG G5. Check the comment section for this device and I have left many comments for it during the last 6 years.

                          I still have mine. I don't know if I should feel proud or embarrassed or maybe both. I'm actually trying to sell mine and nobody wants it for $30. Nobody wanted it for $30 even 3 years ago on OfferUp. So I guess I should feel ashamed. But another part of me loves the LG G5. Next to the LG V20, they are the last of their kind...

                          + removable battery
                          + headphone jack
                          + microSD slot
                          + FM radio (certain carrier variants)
                          + charger included
                          + easily repairable
                          + matte rear side

                          I haven't used mine since last year because the red battery I got for it completely died. Issues started happening by 2021 or 4 years after I got it in Feb & Oct 2017. For some reason, the camera quality got worse where I see red lines and the UI lags when this wasn't the case after a year. And I did get the dreaded GPS issue and screen ghosting which also plagued my V20. LG quality control just wasn't good circa 2014-2016 that it plagued the Pixel 2 XL in 2017.

                          I may just keep mine but only use it as a multimedia player. The really short battery life, overheating, and laggy UI does get annoying which is why I rarely used it the last 4 years. Snapdragon 820 just isn't as efficient compared to 835 and later. I can also see hiccups trying to emulate PSP and Dreamcast games which isn't the case by the 835 released only a year later. PSP and Dreamcast games are the easiest to emulate after the 5th generation and the 820 still lags a bit.

                          If I plan to keep my LG G5, I would need to get a new battery and perhaps get a 256 or 500 GB memory card. While battery life is horrible and as bad as my iPhone SE (2016) on iOS15 getting 2-3 hour SOT, the bottom firing speaker from the left is LOUD. Louder than my HTC One M7. LG G5 works well if you want to listen to music and store a lot of movies/TV shows locally. As a gaming device, forget about it if you want emulation beyond PS1/N64.

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                            • mukhi
                            • Kxb
                            • 12 Mar 2023

                            toaa, 12 Mar 2023they lost the marketing war, and then it became to hard to ... moreEvery competent Android phone vendor is now focused on software. The hardware offer is more or less the same; so, it's software only where a particular company may or may not excel. LG couldn't fix their OS, and lost the market.

                              The sudden death problem of the G3 G4 ! I had both, the G4 I bought died within a month, I bought another to replace the motherboard and sold it earning some of what I had lost! and I never looked at LG for phones again... that problem and downgrading the g5 in LATAM where it had a good market share ended up letting LG know

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                                • ae86
                                • vaS
                                • 12 Mar 2023

                                when I bought my v10 back then what I notice is how each stores is more into catering Samsung than other brands. despite beings a tech stores all you see are staffs wearing blue samsung polo. I even remember I was offered the S7 Active if im not mistaken.

                                might sound silly but thats how BBK particularly Oppo took over, at least here in my country. promoting using face-to-face marketing while also hiring the staffs on other tech stores. while LG did spend a LOT into marketing, All I can see back then are numerous banner with Korean actress, that's all.

                                  LG has had some wild and interesting ideas, too bad they wasn't successful, and even got out from the smart phone world. I just wish LG to come back, and this one with a better strategy!

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • 5pE
                                    • 12 Mar 2023

                                    What people didn't know is that the camera software co-developed with LG G5 is still the state of arts in 2023.
                                    Only LG's flagship can shoot and render 360 degree panorama photo natively.

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                                      • toaa
                                      • KiP
                                      • 12 Mar 2023

                                      mukhi, 12 Mar 2023LG failed because of their software, which was terrible. G4... morethey lost the marketing war, and then it became to hard to catch up. Their G2 and V20 were actually very good. well the os is not for everyone but they actually were head to head with Samsung in Korea at some time. But too bad they stop producing phones.

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                                        • toaa
                                        • KiP
                                        • 12 Mar 2023

                                        blue, 12 Mar 2023I haven't seen a HTC for ages. They are literally dead.yeah that sucks, their M7, M8, HTC10 was the best android I've ever use

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