Tag Archives: Android 6

Huawei P9 Lite

Huawei EMUI

EMUI is Huawei’s take on Android design, and is an alternative to the standard Android interface. EMUI is shot for Emotion UI and brings a nice clean interface compared to the Frutiger-Aero like interfaces by Samsung or LG, or the material design that Google was adopting. Whilst it looks minimal from the screenshots, Huawei have been it very customisable, with many advanced features packed away in sub menus for intermediate users.

Originally shipped with Android 6, it was updated to Android 7 in 2017. No further Android updates were released, though many apps are still supported as of 2024.

The home menu screen, after running the setup wizard. The default widget shows the time and the weather once you give it permission to access the location.

The pull down notification bar where you can quickly activate the Wifi/Bluetooth and the mobile data. This can be expanded to two rows to access more items like the torch, airplane mode and to activate Huawei Share.
You can reorganize and add more icon to this menu by dragging them.
You can also adjust the brightness from here, and a shortcut to the settings menu is also here

As this device does not contain physical navigation buttons, on-screen ones are used instead. Huawei also allowed you to adjust the order of the buttons, and even add one that quickly pulls down the notification menu which saves having to put your finger at the top of the screen

A look at the task switcher, that lets you switch back to previously opened apps. You can quickly close all recent apps by tapping the bin icon, which will also show the currently used memory in MB, sort of like the Windows Task Manager

And the lock screen, which will display your step count if this is enabled. It will also display the album art when your are listing using it’s system music app.

There is also a one-handed mode that shifts the screen to one side of the display, to make it easier for use with one hand which can be an issue with screens of a certain size

Some images of the setup wizard that runs when you first power on the device, which will guide you through setting up the handset, and to sign into your Google or Huawei account.

And the stock keyboard that comes with the phone, known as Huawei Swype that makes use of swiping gestures to facilitate keyboard input.

Preinstalled Apps

The contacts app, where you can access the phone dialler, and any synchronized contacts . You can also set certain contacts to be favourites if they are frequently used.

Phone Manager: This serves as a housekeeping tool for the phone and will let you check the device health. The cleanup tool will clean your user storage for both the internal and external SD card locations, and will advise on what you can clear. Given this handset has only 16Gb of storage, it’s a useful utility to delete and remove excess files.

There is also a memory cleanup which will remove aged apps from memory, although the Android kernel should do this automatically. I’m guessing this give the user illusion they are doing something to help with the performance of the phone but also gives it a PC vibe, that you have to routinely perform maintenance which isn’t always the case for smartphones.

You can also clear the cache for installed apps which will free up space but this can also cause a negative impact since the app will have to redownload or generate the data. Normally you should only do this if your experience technical issues with the app itself, doing it too often will negatively impact performance.

A blocklist is also offered that will block certain contacts from contacting you. A little odd place for this feature to be as it would be better suited for the privacy section of the settings menu, but at least the feature is there.

The battery power information which will show the remaining energy, and will let you activate the power saving mod, or ultra saving mode which will shut of moist of the smart function. Ideal if you really need to conserve power.
You can also reduce the resolution of the display to conserve power.

And running the optimize tool which will amend your phones settings, and will advise for settings for other apps to conserve power like disabling automatic sync.

Scanning for viruses, which is supplied by Avast.

Themes: Two themes come preloaded onto the phone. Modern and BlackLabel. Themes have the ability to change the wallpaper, app icons and the colour scheme.

The default player for songs that are stored on your phone. A song is shipped with the phone by default – Dream It possible by Delacey which is supposed to be Huawei’s national anthem, similar to Samsung’s Over The Horizon. The app comes with your standard music playback features like repeat and shuffle, and you can view the lyrics for a song if this has been provided.

In landscape view

The Health app lets you monitor your steps and log your weekly exercise. If you’re losing weight it can also log your weekly weight and amount of calories burnt, very similar to Sony’s Lifelog and Fitbit apps.

The Notes app lets you create text and multimedia notes, you can embed images within notes and add additional formatting like bullet points for lists. Notes can be tagged as either Personal, Travel, Life or Work for better organisation.

Weather app which will shows the current forecast, scrolling down will revel additional information like the Wind, Humidity and the weekly forecast. You can add additional locations.

The sound recorder, which lets you add tags that lets you jump to sections of the recording as they are added. This is useful if you have an long recording, and you need to quickly jump to a specific section, like if you were recording a lecture. It’s a nice feature that you don’t normally encounter with smartphone voice recording apps. You can also choose to playback from the loudspeaker or the earpiece instead for better privacy.

Some screenshots of the other default apps like the calendar, clock/alarm app, etc. These aren’t really noteworthy but still interesting to see the design language and style that Huawei have adopted.

And the file manager, which looks very similar to the one that was in the Samsung Galaxy Alpha

Settings

If you’re an iOS user you might be familiar with the layout of the settings screen. Here’s Huawei’s take on the design.

The phone include dual sim card slots to allow the use of dual SIM cards.

The Wi-Fi settings page, which has an option for Wi-Fi+/ This lets you quickly switch between Wi-Fi and mobile network data, if you are in a weak or fringe Wi-Fi zone. You can also set the Wi-Fi to automatically enable when you are at your home location, rather than leave it turned on all day, similar to Wi-Fi sense on Windows Phone.

A look at the Bluetooth settings, and the mobile data screen that lets you monitor the amount of data each app has used, and to configure usage limits for when you have a limited data plan. You can also specifically set if you want an app to allow or block data access for Wi-Fi or mobile data individually.
The Bluetooth screen also has a handy shortcut for received files, as many OEM’s will just point you to the phones default file manager, typically in the downloads folder.

Changing the home screens style, you can choose the standard interface which emulated the iOS setup, where all installed apps are placed on the screen, or the Drawer interface which is closer to the Android style, where apps are placed in a drawer and only pinned apps appear on the home screen.

The display settings where you can change the wallpaper, font size and the screensaver for when the phone is charging. The eye comfort feature is similar to the NightShift feature of iOS, or the Flux/Night Light utility for Windows where is filters out the blue light to make it easier for night time use.

Sound settings for the volume and changing the ringtone, if you have dual sims you can set a ringtone for each SIM card. You can also toggle sounds off or on for individual events. .

Do Not Disturb will silence the phone notification’s for a specific amount of time, or for a fixed schedule. You can set priority interruptions for specific contacts like family members if they need to ungently contact you.

Smart Assistance, where you can enable features like Motion Control that allows you to mute the phone by turning it over when an incoming call is received. The Floating Dock will show the main navigation buttons into a widget that is drawn over other apps and can be freely moved around the screen.
Smart Headset control lets you add additional functions to the volume controls on the headset, you can double press to like song, or to enable shuffle. This only works in the Huawei music app and does not function on apps like Spotify or Deezer.
Lastly Mirror Share is the phones Miracast feature for casting your screen to a TV or supported device.

Storage information for both internal and external storage. The SD card can only be used a portable storage, Huawei has disabled the adoptable storage feature of android which limits what apps can be installed to the SD card.

System update settings, here we are running the latest build for this handset, And the system information screen

Lastly shutting down the phone

LG G3

LG EasyHome

This was a feature that make the device’s user interface much more simplified, at least for the launcher. This is meant to appeal to basic users, or users that have come from iOS or a feature phone that are new to Android smartphones. .

LG PC Sync

LG’s version of iTunes, that lets you back up the data on your phone, transfeer content to and from your PC in a user friendly manor. You can aos performs oftware updateds and enable SmartShare – where the Suite software acts as a DLNA server for over devices on your network.

Music, photo and Videos can also be transferred, though its a bit limited compared to iTunes or Windows Media Player. For one you cannot sync and convert music to a lwoer bit rate and there’s no support for smart playlist’s.

Still you can use Windows Media Player to transfer music, as long as the phone is conencted in MTP mode.

Another software update, looks like LG kepp supporting the handset until 2018.

HTC One M9

Launcher + Notifications

HTC Sense is the default user interface for the handset, You’ve got this neat home screen with customizable widgets and themes. The themes can give your phone a whole new look and feel, and if you’re into making your phone truly yours, this is a big win.
HTC Sense Home is supposed to be smart and intuitive, changing your apps based on your location and habits. It’s like your phone’s playing mind reader. It’s a cool concept, but it doesn’t always nail it. Sometimes, you just want your apps right where you put ’em, right? And having to search for them kind of defeats the purpose of it.

The lock screen with a row of shortcut icons at the bottom. YOu can swipe up from these icons to go directly to them when the phone is unlocked, allowing for easy access to the app. You can also customize the layout and which app icons appear on this screen.

Blinkfeed also makes an appearance, but I have mixed feelings about it. It’s a news aggregation feature right on your home screen. It’s nice to have all that info at your fingertips, but sometimes, I just want a clean slate when I unlock my phone. Maybe it’s my inner control freak, but I want to decide when and where I consume my news. But hey, it’s there for those who want to stay on top of things and it can be disabled.

The notification drop down, which also provided access to phone functions

List of apps that are installed on the handset.

Shows any recently open apps that you can quickly switch back to, or apps that are currently running in the background. You can choose from a card or a grid view layout as seen below. Screen pinning can also be enabled from here.

Lastly some shots of the initial setup application

Oh look, a system update for Android 7. I guess this handset hasn’t been used for a few years.

Applications

HTC had created their own set of applications for common phone functions and preinstalled a few third-party apps.

Music: A fully featured music player is included which can playback your standard music formats. There is also an option to playback from a DLNA server, provided you are connected to a Wi-Fi network. This had no problems playing back from a WDMycloud NAS, but album art was missing and it would play the same track again, there was no sequential playback unless you manually skipped to the next track.
There is also a trippy visualizer, but this only works for locally stored music files, DLNA tracks have no visualizer.
Still, HTC went to a lot of effort for their music player, though you can’t change the pitch like in the LG G4’s music player.

Kid Mode: HTC’s answer to Windows Phones’s Kid’s corner. Here you can pin specific apps to restrict access to the phone.

News Republic: A news aggregation app that used to come pre-installed on some Android devices, including some HTC smartphones. It was developed by a company called News Republic, which aimed to provide users with a comprehensive and personalized news reading experience.

HTC Print Studio: HTC Print Studio was to enable users to create physical prints of photos and images directly from their HTC device, kinda like Snapfish. In addition to standard photo prints, HTC Print Studio sometimes offered the option to order various print products, such as photo books, greeting cards, calendars, and posters.

HTC Help: This app provides troubleshooting and hardware testing to see if there are any faults with the device. You can also view the power usage of individual apps. There are also How-to guides on how to use various features of the phone.

HTC Dot View: This is a special case that’s attached to the phone that adds a protective front cover with a bunch of holes. By using the dot view app, you can customize the standby screen and patterns, which would show the current time and if there are any notifications.

Peel Smart Remote: The M9 has a built-in IR transmitter that allows the phone to control a TV or Set-top Box, similar to what the LG G4 had featured.

Photo Editor: basic editing tools such as cropping, rotating, and straightening images to adjust their composition, plus a variety of filters and effects. You can also change the brightness and colour balance.

Polaris Office 5: View and open documents and spreadsheets on the phone itself. This also has compatibility with Microsoft Office formats.

Zoe Video Editor: Zoe is a video editor and social media app created by HTC, the smartphone manufacturer. It’s designed to allow users to easily create and share short video clips with various visual effects and music. Zoe was initially introduced as a feature on some HTC smartphones and later became a standalone app available for download on various Android devices.
You can edit and enhance video clips with a range of editing tools. Users can trim, splice, and arrange clips to create a cohesive video. The app offers various visual effects and filters that can be applied to video clips. These effects can change the look and mood of the video, adding creative and artistic touches.

Voice Recorder: Simple voice recorder app that supports recording in a variety of audio formats from AMR to ACC. Most phones should support both of these formats.

HTC Power To Give: Some sort of distributed computing app that downloads small workloads to process. Very similar to Folding@Home for the PS3 and PC.

Scribble: A scrapbook-like app that allows for drawing and freehand text. You can drag with your finger, or a stylus (Which isn’t included with the phone) for more accuracy. Samsung and LG have included similar apps in their Android handsets for sharing created images.

Emergency Alerts: Displays any emergency alerts, not much to say since we hardly get any natural emergencies over here. I would imagine this would notify of any disasters or riots of peace nearby.

FM Radio: Simple FM radio that supports auto-tuning and RDS. Radio stations can be saved by tapping on the heart button for easy access.

Gallery: Where photos and videos captured by the camera reside, here you can easily edit or share, or organize into an album.

Flashlight: Turns on the LED flashlight, with a nice skeuomorphic torch on screen,

Clock: View different timezones, set an alarm or 5, and access the stopwatch or a lap/countdown timer.

Car: Enabled Car mode which allows earlier access to phone functions when you are driving

File Manager: Browse and access files on both the internal memory or the SD card.

Weather: Shots of the weather app, which uses the Accuweather API

Widgets

A few custom widgets come with the phone, many are linked to the bundled apps.

The music widget will either show the currently playing track, or any recently played tracks.
The Peel app can also be set as a widget, allowing for quick control without having to open the app.
People widgets let you set quick access contacts to easily call or send a message, similar to how contacts could be pinned to the Windows Phone home screen.
The Sense widgets will show you frequently or recently used apps that the phone will learn over time
A weather clock widget that come with a variety of clock faces, tapping on it will open the app to access the stopwatch or set an alarm. A variant of the widget will display multiple clocks for different time zones.
Data dashboard lets you quickly enable and disable certain phone features like the wifi, this is redundant since the notification bar can be used for this

Settings

A view of the main settings screen

HTC Connect lets you share content via DLNA or screen mirroring. A variety of protocols are supported including Apple’s Airplay, Chromecast, Miracast and Blackfire.

HTC Mini+ was a compact device that linked to the phone for easier access, kind of like a smartwatch. It’s marketed as an easy way to get access to the core features of the phone without having to use the actual handset, like if you wish to make a quick phone call or send a text message.

The personalize section lets you change the appearance of the phone and the notifications that it sounds. Themes can be downloaded and applied to the phone which changes the sound, wallpaper and menu fonts. Like the LG G4, the bottom navigation bar can be customized with additional icons being added in addition to the Home, Back and Tasks buttons.

The phone comes with a variety of gestures, in response to the Galaxy S4. You can enable and disable specific gestures that can be used to trigger phone functions. Glove mode increases the sensitivity of the screen to allow it to pick up input from users wearing gloves.

Lastly a look of the themes and wallpapers that shipped with the phone.

This can happen if you charge the phone whilst connected to a USB 2.0 port. The device needs more than 500mA for optimized charging.

Conclusion

Overall, the HTC One M9 was a looker, no doubt about it. It had that premium feel, it oozed style, and it was like holding a piece of art in your hand. But it did have some quirks, like the heat issue and the button placement. Nevertheless, it was a solid design for its time. HTC knew how to make a phone that was both functional and easy on the eyes.

Shutting down the One M9, done by holding the power/lock button.

Sony Xperia Z2

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The Sony Xperia Z2 was a flagship smartphone released by Sony Mobile in April 2014. It was part of Sony’s Xperia Z series and was designed to be a high-end device with a focus on water and dust resistance, camera capabilities, and premium design which set it aside from competing handsets of its time.

Competing smartphones of its time was the Samsung Galaxy S5. The HTC One M8 compared favourably but had perceived better audio quality owing to its front facing speakers.The LG G3 also beat it in the display department, offering a Quad HD display. However the Xperia offered more memory, a better camera and generally a larger display.

The Xperia Z2’s design – it’s unmistakably Sony. Glass on the front and back, sandwiched with a solid metal frame. The overall aesthetic screams premium, no doubt. But be ready to deal with some smudges and fingerprints, because this thing attracts them like a moth to a flame. One standout feature was the water and dust resistance, with the handset offering cover flaps for both the charging and card slots which set it apart from other handsets, but its glass back frame was a source of weakness, with owners reporting broken or cracked backs from minor drops. It was imperative to use a third party case, which detracted from the appearance of the phone.

The Xperia’s main menu, very close to the stock Android interface few a few Sony enhancements. Also note the Sackboy from LittleBigPlanet and what I assume is the main character from Medieval, two of Sony’s game franchises.

Still theres a distinct lack of Kratos from God Of War.

Swiping right takes you to another home screen, here you can see the clock, Google search box (which is a widget that can be changed to any search engine that you like) and shortcuts to Google’s services.

The lock screen, which provides shortcuts to the camera when you swipe up in that direction. A common design you will see are waves, which were similar to what was seen on the PS3 XMB and the PS4 home menu, I guess its Sony’s thing

Included Apps

Xperia Lounge: It was designed to offer Xperia users a variety of exclusive content, offers, and experiences that were tailored to their devices and interests. The app aimed to provide a unique and personalised experience for Xperia smartphone owners, offering access to a range of content and perks that were not available to users of other devices. Mainly this was ringtones, themes and wallpapers, though some offers were promoted, mainly for obscure services/products that no one would ever use like vegan chocolate.

PlayStation: Should need no introduction, this was Sony’s app to manage and view your PlayStation trophies and friends. You could also access the PSN store.

Music: Sony’s music player, though I’m a little disappointed with the lack of Walkman branding, considering at one point Sony had Walkman phones.

Music can be sorted by Artist, Album, Genres or the entire list of songs can be displayed. If album art is saved it will be displayed also. Podcasts also have their own category.

Music can also be streamed directly from Google Drive.

Album: Photo viewer, photos captured with the camera will appear here.

Camera: Both still images and videos can be captured, and Sony have offered additional customizable settings to fine-tune the image before it’s captured. Sony also offers additional apps for specific effects like panorama, timeshift video and 4K capture. Since these are separate apps you will need to go through the permissions malarky the first time you launch these apps.

The Xperia Z2 has a dedicated analog camera button that helps control the focus when capturing an image, similar to the two-stage camera button that was common on Windows Phones.

Support: A help center where users could get more information on how how to use the phone, or how to perform specific features. You can also find out detailed information of the handset itself such as memory usage, or perform hardware tests if you are experiencing issues with the handset.

You can also set an automated backup, which can use the SD card, USB storage or an online service

The STAMINA feature lets you prolong battery life by reducing power usage when the battery hits a certain threshold, very similar to the battery saver feature of Windows Phone. There is also an ultra STAMINA feature, which reduces the phone to a feature phone, ideal if you’re going on a camping trip for the weekend and need to conserve battery power. Though why not just bring a power bank?

Email: A basic email client to connect to email services that didn’t offer their own mobile app. As long as POP3/IMAP is supported, the amp and connect and synchronize with your provider. Most users would typically use either Outlook/Gmail or Yahoo Mail.

Microsoft Exchange was also supported.

Weather: Sony’s stock weather app, powered by Accuweather. Surprisingly this still works well and is able to bring up weather information from my local area.

Calendar: Your standard calander app

Newsfrom Socialife: Sony’s news app. The app aimed to curate news articles, blog posts, and other online content based on users’ interests, allowing them to stay informed about topics they cared about. The app would aggregate news articles, blog posts, and other content from various sources across the internet and present them in a personalized news feed. The content displayed would be based on the user’s selected interests and preferences.

Users could choose their favorite topics, categories, and sources to tailor their news feed to their interests. This allowed users to receive updates about subjects that mattered to them. The app also supported offline reading so that articles could be read in the event they no longer had access to date, ideal if you travel the underground subway/railway.

As of 2023 the app is now dead but was replaced by News Suite, which is still a thing on modern Xperia smartphones, at least on my Xperia 1 IV.

Calculator: Your standard calculator, appears to license some code from SGI (Silicon Graphics) which was a major workstation vendor.

Clock: Standard clock application that is similar to other apps of this type. Includes a stopwatch, alarm clock, clock that supports multiple time zones and a timer.

Lifelog: This was designed to help users track and record various aspects of their daily activities and experiences, creating a digital “lifelog” of their interactions, movements, and habits. The app aimed to provide users with insights into their daily routines and behaviors, with a focus on health, fitness & entertainment. The main features of this app were Activity Tracking, The app used sensors like the phone’s accelerometer and GPS to track physical activities, such as walking, running, and cycling. It could also monitor your movements throughout the day. Additional features were sleep tracking, health insights, goals and social integration. In many ways it was similar to the FitBit app.

Sketch: Sony’s own version of MSPaint, allows you to freehand draw using either the brush, pencil or sticker tools. Shaps can also be added and there’s various image manipulation tools like smudging

The background can also be changed to give the appearance of writing or graph paper, which can also be customized.

There is also an option to place stickers onto your drawing, of which Panda themed stickers are included by default. At one point you could download additional sticks from Sony online, but has since been discontinued.

TrackID: Sony’s own version of Shazam, which has access to the Gracenote database. The app was designed to quickly identify the title, artist, and album of a song playing in the background, which was particularly useful for discovering new music or identifying tracks you encountered in various settings.

AVG protection: Virus protection was a thing on Android, and Xperia’s were commonly bundled with AVG which offered basic protection. With the option to upgrade to a paid version which offered better support.

Well at least it’s not McAfee or Norton.

PS Video: A video-on-demand store where you could purchase movies and TV series boxsets to own, which could then be played on the PS3 or PS4, or if you had a smart Bravia TV. Not to be confused with PlayStation Vue, which was an OTT streaming service limited to the US.

File Commander: A third-party file manager application funded with the phone, and one of the few apps that has adverts. Files can be browsed on both the internal storage, and the SD card if one is inserted. This appears to be a limited trial that requires a license to be unlocked.

Smart Connect: Lets you setup and enable certain events to trigger when you connect an accessory, like a headset or charger. For headsets you can set the phone to automatically open the music app and set it to only happen within set time period.
You can also use this for timed profiles, where you can set the phone to go on silent mode between a set time period.

Kobo eBooks: A bookstore that competes with Amazon’s Kindle, preloaded partly as Sony had discontinued their own bookstore for their eReader series.

Navigation: A rebranded Garmin client, servers as an alternative to Google Maps and makes use of the assisted GPS feature of the phone.

TV SideView: TV SideView was designed to serve as a companion app for Sony’s BRAVIA line of smart televisions. It allowed users to control and interact with their Sony smart TVs using their Xperia smartphones. It can be used as a remote control (requires the TV to be connected to the same network) a program guide powered by Gracenote, and content recommendations for upcoming TV programs. This still works with modern BRAVIA Android TV’s and will pull the current channel list along with TV listings.

Messages: Supports SMS and MMS, with custom stickers.

Notification & Launcher

Sony’s launcher is very similar to what you would find on a stock Android handset, complete with multiple home screens. The home screens can be customized with custom icons or widgets.

Xperia Keyboard, Sony would later switch to the Switfkey keyboard, additional skins can be selected to customize the keyboard

One-handed mode is a feature to make the phone easier to use.

Sony have their own set of emoji’s that can be used over the stock Android ones

The task switcher, the bar along the bottom appears to be some soft of quick launch bar. The default options are Internet Browser, Timer, Calculator and Screen capture (Which allows you to capture the window itself, like the Windows snipping tool)

Settings

The settings menu is divided into different sections for easier navigation:

Wireless & Networks: Connect to a WiFI network, Bluetooth. In the Device Connections menu, you can ‘Throw’ media onto an external display using either screen mirroring or DLNA, if the TV supports either of these. The Throw feature integrates with Sony’s media apps, giving a unified experience. There are separate options for casting and screen mirroring which are managed by Android.

This might be because screen mirroring was included as standard in later Android versions/updates, but was not at the phone’s release.

Alternatively you can set the phone to be a media server, and have your devices connect to it instead.

Another feature is the ability to pair a DualShock 4 controller, which is the standard PS4 controller. This is useful for playing games that support the Android controller API. This didn’t work on three of my controllers (CUH-ZCT2E) the first couple of attempts, but after closing and resetting the Bluetooth I eventually got it to pair, as it would attempt to pair but would then fail.

Once paired you can controller the phone via the controller and can navigate base menus.

The Device section gives you settings for personalization, such as themes, display, notifications & sound. Theme in particular can be downloaded and applied. to the phone and can change the colour scheme, icons and background wallpaper.

Lastly shutting down the Xperia Z2

LG G4

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So good, they named a boyband after it

LG’s flagship for 2015 where it competed with the HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S5 and the Lumia 920.

The LG G4 has a curved design with a slightly arched back that makes it comfortable to hold. The phone has a leather back option, which gives it a premium feel similar to the Nokia 8800 or the Vertu series of phones. The phone is also relatively lightweight and easy to use with one hand. The G4 has a 5.5-inch Quad HD IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. The display is bright and vibrant with accurate colors and good viewing angles.

Compared to other handsets the LG takes you out of the comfort zone as the volume rocker is featured at the back of the handset rather than at the left side, it’s kind of similar to the Viewty that also had the volume rocker at the back. It does take a bit of getting used to as you will often try to reach for them at the side instead of the back. The lock/power key is also featured at the back.

The G4 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and 3GB of RAM. The phone handles most tasks with ease, including multitasking and demanding apps. However, it may struggle with some of the more intensive games and apps. Even today the phone as a good chance of running most apps, though it does tend to heat up when running multimedia or gaming apps, YouTube an particular. We also have 32GB of storage with a microSD slot that can provide more storage if required.

LG User Interface

As with other Android handsets, it uses LG’s own customized user interface. Originally this was Android 5.1, but mine has been upgraded to Android 6 along with some updated apps that shipped with the handset. LG’s Android skin is one of the better ones as it retains the Google Material design whilst adding features for power users, which I will delve into later. Its clear LG intended this handset for the intermediate user who is familiar with smartphones.

Your typical homescreen layout that consists of multiple pages of icons and widgets. LG have preset some for you, and more can be added at any time.

Pulls down from the top and is used for quick access to common phone features like WiFi and Bluetooth, also lets you adjust the phones volume and brightness if not set to auto.

The quick access panel can be modified with additional options added

A look at LG’s Qslide feature that works with their preinstalled apps. You can have up to three different apps running on the same screen, two in a window with a regular app in the background. The windowed apps need to be Qslide aware which is mostly LG’s own applications, but the background app can be any native Android app. As you can see, it gets a little cramped. A practical use for this would be running a Youtube video in the background whilst answering an SMS message.

A similar feature is the split screen mode (sometimes called Dual Window), this is actually more beneficial though you suffer from a cramped screen, here you can split apps into two areas of the screen, allowing both to run simultaneously. This is actually a good feature and one I use heavily on my Sony Xperia 1 IV, its especially useful for phones with a larger screen.

Not all apps play nicely with this, and some that do work function a bit awkwardly. Most modern apps however do work well, but back when the phone was released the lack of split-screen support for apps would have been an issue, limiting its functionality.

I should also mention the onscreen buttons can be customized, instead of having the regular three buttons for Back, Home & Recent Apps, you can add the Qshare and splitscreen buttons directly.

Panning to the left of the home screen reveals the Smart Bulletin screen, which shows highlighted information from the LG apps. Its very similar to the live tiles that were a mainstay in Windows Phone. This seems limited to the LG apps, so its less versatile and you cannot add your own widgets, unless you pan to another home screen.

Installed Apps

Most of LG’s apps use QSlide which allows apps to run in a window, facilitating a crude way of multitasking as seen on desktop operating systems.

LG have also developed or adapted their deign language as such, which is showcase through their applications. At the top are categories that you can scroll, which is very similar to the Windows Phone 7 / Zune interface. This is in contrast to Apple who put their category/Tabs at the bottom of the phone screen, with Samsung following suit.

Camera: The LG G4 has a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilization (OIS) and laser autofocus. The camera takes excellent photos with good detail and accurate colors. The OIS helps to reduce blur in low-light conditions, and the laser autofocus ensures fast and accurate focusing. The camera app also includes manual controls for advanced users.

A unique feature I’ve not seen is the ability to capture photos by saying a phrase, typically Cheese or Whisky. It’s a little goofy and does not always work, but adds to the charm and fun of the phone, also useful when capturing a group photo.

Cell Broadcast: A dedicated app to receive broadcast alerts from the cellular network. Not sure why this has its own dedicated app since its typically integrated with SMS apps

Clock: Your standard clock app with the LG design, provided functionality to set an alarm, timer, world clock and a stopwatch

Calendar: Displays the calendar and can sync with other accounts that are set up. You can also set agendas, reminders and any holidays. A nice touch is the icon will change to reflect the current date.

Calculator: Just your regular calculator, which functions a regular and a scientific calculator.

Contacts & Phone: Lists contacts from accounts synchronized on the phone, commonly Google. This is integrated into the phone app and you can dial directly from that application.

Downloads: Shows any file that has been downloaded through the phone web browser, and from some third-party browsers.

File Manager: Browse files saved on the phone, or a memory card if one is inserted. This also integrates with cloud storage services like Dropbox, OneDrive or Box.

Gallery: Like the file manager but orientated towards multimedia like photos and videos. Images taken with the phone’s camera will show here.

Internet: A chrome based internet browser, appears to be based on Chrome 38

LG Backup:

Intended to transfer data from another device and can backup existing data to the inserted SD card

Music: Plays music files stored on the phone or the microSD card. A nice feature is it can lookup the song title on Youtube to locate the music video, its not 100% accurate since it basically searches the song and artist title. Lyrics can also be displayed if they are included or embedded with the file itself.

Another nice feature is the ability to adjust the vocal pitch and the track speed of the song, allowing you to create nightcore remixes directly just by playing the file. There is also an equalizer that has a few pre-sets included.

Tasks: Lets you create and set single or recurring tasks which serve as reminders. This can also sync with either your Google or LG account.

Voice Recorder: A simple voice recorder that recording using the internal microphone, recordings can be paused and resumed at any time, keeping it as a single file. Audio is encoded in the MP4 format and is saved in the 3GP container, likely for backward compatibility with older handsets when sharing the file.

Weather: Shows weather information from your local area, or a location/city that you have manually selected. Weather information is pulled from Accuweather

FM Radio: Plays the FM radio if a set of wired headphones are connected. Visually the app emulated a radio dial which is used to manually scan through the different frequency, but you can also set the phone to automatically scan and store radio stations that can be listened to. Weak or poor signals are ignored. Up to 12 pre-sets can be saved of your favorite radio stations. The app can all decode RDS data and display additional information if this is supported by the station.

It’s worth noting FM radio is currently on the way out in the UK and is being replaced by DAB+ radio, though internet radio is becoming popular.

LG SmartWorld – This is a kind-of application store by LG where exclusive apps can be downloaded. Themes, wallpapers and ringtones could also be downloaded from here. This no longer appears to work which results in network connection errors, I am able to get to the main screen share it shows a couple of themes to download, but any attempt to sign in results in an error message. As LG are no longer in the smartphone market, they might be withdrawing support.

QuickRemote: Turns your phone into a universal remote that can control a TV, set-top box, an audio system or the air conditioner. You can designate the remote for different rooms of your household and can choose from a list of various different manufacturers, and will list the most common ones first. You can also search by typing in the manufacturer or service provider of your equipment.

QuickMemo+: A text editor of sorts that you can either type text, or freehand draw. You can also insert pictures, audio or video clips. Its kind of like Microsoft OneNote in that sense. Files can be exported in either the QuickMemo+ (iqm) or as a PDF file.

LG Health: A fitness app like Fitbit where you provide details regarding your body height and weight, along with your age. It will then calculate your BMI and your ideal weight. It can also be used to track exercises and the number of steps done within a day, assuming you keep your phone on you at all times. It has the ability to sync with Google Fit, but not much else.

RemoteCall Service: I think this is some sort of technical support app that allows LG customer service representatives to remotely access and control an LG device for the purpose of troubleshooting and resolving technical issues. The feature works by establishing a secure connection between the LG device and the customer service representative’s computer, which enables the representative to diagnose and solve problems on the device remotely. Kind of like Teamviewer or Remote Assist for Windows.

VoiceMate: LG’s own version of a voice assistant, think of it as an alternative to Cortana, Alexa or Bixby. Sadly this no longer functions and only responds with an error message about a natural language processing server.

Lastly there is Evernote, a popular note and referencing app

The volume control, with separate sliders for calls, notifications and multimedia.

Settings Menu

The settings menu which is split into different sections of Networks, Sound & Notifications Display and General

LG have bundled in their own ringtones, and have not included the stock Android ringtones.

Customising the wallpaer background and the lock screen

LG also allow you to set different fonts that are used throughout the phone’s menus, however many apps will neglect to use them in favor of their own font.

Conclusion

So LG pretty much went all out with the software on this one which makes it standout from other Android phones that use the stock launcher and software. LG also didn’t skimp on the hardware either with its stunning screen and design which showcases a premium luxury feel.

Even today the phone is semi usable, with essential Android apps still being supported, although that amount is starting to reduce and the OS ages.