LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: Camera shoot out.

Welcome to a shoot out. I've had the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge for a few days now, and the first thing I did was do a shoot out compared to my 1 year old LG G4. The results and samples are published below. Many people say that the S7E I have was defective, so I got a second, which had the exact same results. I will not be talking about speed, battery life, or UI - this is purely from a camera perspective. Another post to be coming soon with my opinion about the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

Disclaimer & Information. The LG G4 has 16mpx camera, and the S7E has a 12mpx camera, but I tried to zoom out of the larger G4 camera to have approx. the same size for these first few shots. All shots were done with auto-mode. Also, neither Samsung nor LG sponsor me, pay me, or encourage me to do these tests. I did these of my own volition. I paid for both of these devices with my own hard earned money. Therefore, I can guarantee that no company has paid for any of these opinions.

Outdoor shots are first:

This image details that the G4 has much better color representation... I can confirm that the LG G4 does do a much better job at showing the correct colors, these were most true to life and vivid. Those blues in the graffiti and walls are the correct colors. It seems as if Samsung just washed them out or that the auto mode is just too bright to begin with.  Either way, its white balance metering is not too great.

While sitting down I decided to take a picture of my shoe. Again, not realistically captured in the S7E image, but not only that, the details are missing from the image. All you need to do is look at the button to the right of shoe shoe. The LG G4 offers a better focused, more detailed and incredibly crisp image.

LG G4 crop:

Galaxy S7 Edge crop: 

 Colors here are washed out, colors are off. Details, once again, are missing. It's as if the sky was splashed with a hint of gray along with the blue. That gray paint also got lowered into the structure as well.

Night time pictures are SUPERB on the S7E, I assume this is due to the f1.7 aperture vs the f1.8 on the G4. The G4 was set to 30 seconds, and the S7E to 10 (their respective max's). S7E produces a much more beautiful image.  Colors here are actually very good for a nighttime shot.

The sky was much bluer in the G4, which was the actual blue color - and trees were made a strange green on the S7E.

Let's do some macro and closeup shots!

Penguin:

 As we can see in this picture, from the distance, the white on the penguin is a little shot. A little too white for my taste, but details on both are very crisp --- from a distance.

 At 100% zoom, you can see that the details on the G4 are crisper than those on of the S7E, but not by much, but the S7E image is fuzzier without a doubt. Colors are also correct on the G4, once again. I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

Glass bird: (please ignore my dirty desk)

S7E wins in this case. I even tried to retake the G4 shots just to see if I had taken the picture incorrectly, and sadly, this was the best I could do. Without a doubt the S7E focuses better, faster, and takes better macro shots! Details are crisp and clear in macros.


Solar Maikos:

Once again, the S7E wins - focuses fast and correctly, whereas the G4 didn't do so well.

Results:

Generally speaking, the S7E does better with macro shots and low l. The G4 does better with indoor and outdoor shots.
S7E Wins in:

• Low light images (night time images)
• Macro shots
• Speed to shoot
• Focus speed

LG G4 wins in:

• General over all quality of images
• Clarity in outdoor images along with indoor images as well
• Color reproduction
• White balance in most situations
• Time lapse (up to 30 seconds vs the 10 seconds on the S7 Edge)

Night mode the S7E destroys the G4 with its better 1.7 aperture.

I hope you all have enjoyed this shootout!

I can't wait to get the G5 in the next week or so to be able to compare G4 and G5, and also G5 and S7E.

I think for the money, the G4 is your best bet. It's around 330 euros on Amazon and the Galaxy S7 Edge is around 800 euros. If the camera is the most important feature for quality, then the G4 is your best bet. The S7E takes very fast images and very good low light images. The S7E seems to be more of a status symbol and a feat of awesome build quality and long battery life, but its shooter isn't one of its highlights, sadly, when compared to the LG G4 in terms of quality. That doesn't mean the S7E isn't a good phone, on the contrary - it is a FANTASTIC phone. I enjoy it very much! I just think that it doesn't outdo what the G4 can do except for in a very few specific fields.

LG G4 vs LG G5 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge picture shootout (informal)

Hello everyone! I am very impatiently waiting for some new devices to get to my doorstep, so what I did was head downtown and take some pictures with the sample phones at the stores!

Disclaimer: I'd like to say that these are in no way professional pictures. I just grabbed the phones, opened the camera app and made sure they were on auto mode, and focused them and snapped the shots. I believe this is how most people will take pictures, but still - this isn't professional photography, it was just playing around!

Specifications:

LG G5 specifications 16mpx, f/1.8
LG G4 specifications 16mpx, f/1.8
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 12mpx, f/1.7

Here are the results of just pointing and shooting after focusing (as 90% of the people will do when they take a picture). All pictures were taken in auto mode:

First Test

LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

(at a distance) 

Check out these shots. They were taken side by side.

 As you can see, the G4 on the right takes a fantastic shot, but the S7 Edge takes a brighter shot. But upon double clicking on the windows default photos app on each picture in the same area you can see this:

If we take a closer look at these pictures side by side:

All of the picture as a whole is brighter, yes, but we're missing a lot of details. The G4 picture is much sharper and easier to read. Compare A and B, and then C and D.

I was very impressed with the build quality of the S7E, but not at all with the picture quality... Low light, yes, but picture quality as a whole no.

Second Test

LG G4 vs Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge

(Closer up) 

Then I decided to check out some closer up pictures (not macro).

Once again, we can see the S7E picture is brighter, which is now expected. 

Both take good pictures, but once again, details are missing from the S7E! 

Look at A and B, and then the S part of the sign, in D it is smoother, while in C you can see it is slightly blurred.

Third Test

LG G4 vs LG G5

I took a picture of a door... Hmm... Sorry!

They both look great.

Zoomed in

The white balance is nicer and more correct on the G5. Take a look at A and B, detail is almost identical, and colors are better on A than B (more true to life).

Since this picture didn't produce any winners or losers, even though G5 was a little better in colors, I took the SAME picture but didn't focus on what I clicked to focus! But rather in the corner.

G5 clearly has clearer words. Winner :)

Fourth Test

LG G4 vs LG G5

Colors are CLEARLY better on the G5

Let's zoom on on those letters :)

Specifically that "a" (for example).

In A, that "a" is clearly more in focus and less fuzzy than in B.

Fifth Test

LG G4 vs LG G5

My partner just got a G4 on Amazon to replace the aging Xperia Z Ultra. I asked to use it and placed it on the table. I took these pictures, I know... from different angles, but what we're looking for is the different quality in shots! I took 3 pictures from each (3 from the G4, and then 3 from the G5, but one was with the second camera). These were the best of the two:

Zoom in.

WOW!

The G4 takes AWESOME shots, but look at the difference in detail! 

A - in focus

B - is not in focus

C - in focus

D - is not in focus

E - you can see the G4 is brand new with the sticker on the volume rocker

F - You can't even see it! 

I really would like to say that I was expecting the S7E to take much better pictures than it did, sadly. Regardless, I'm very happy to say that the LG G4 is a FANTASTIC shooter. 1 year old, slower processor, less memory, a couple of updates later and it's still rocking a very good camera. As of right now the LG G4 costs around 350€ on Amazon Spain, and the LG G5 is on pre-order for 700€. Maybe these prices will change, but for now that's what they are. I'd say the G5 is superior, of course, but is it double the price superior? Well, that's up to you! 

Winner is the G5 without a doubt.
Followed by the G4
S7E is great, but not as good as the other 2! (surprising, right?)

Thanks everyone for reading and looking :) Remember, this was just for fun! ;) Enjoy your devices :)

Urban Armor Gear for LG G4 (UAG Case)

Here's a review that I have decided to republish:

The LG G4 Urban Armor Gear case

This is a fantastic case that's very styling. It's very easy to put on and take off, but it does have its cons as well. For example, if you are using a leather case, then it's a bit more difficult to take off - well, let me explain. The actual case is easy to take off, but it usually rips off the leather back case as well.

The edges have drop protection, the case is very well made. I can honestly say that this is probably one of the BEST cases you can ever find if you're looking for something that protects your device. It has lips in every direction so you know that your phone will never get scratched if you leave it on a table face down or face up, which is important if you're also worried about scratching the screen or the camera.

The actual design is actually quite nice. It looks very modern. This isn't the case you'd probably give your grandma or take into an office meeting. I think UAG is going for a modern younger look. Of course with words like GEAR and ARMOR, you're not going to get those shiny mirror cases from other brands, or the bland styling of another case that you can get off of AliExpress or eBay for a fraction of the case. I mean, just look at the faux screws in there! They don't really do anything, but add a nice flare of armor and military design.

I have access to many of the leather and ceramic and plastic backs from LG, all official. So I thought I'd take some pictures with each case so that you could see what it looks like.

The current backs that I have access to are:

• Leather black
• Leather mint
• Gold
• White

I'd say the best backs are the plastic ones. This is good because if you're using a leather back, and try to remove the case, the case removes the back with it and this is actually somewhat problematic since it's sometimes harder to remove the leather back from the case than removing the actual case! - Then again, it's not such a big deal. While that might be one of the negative points, I must add how UAG has made every cut out absolutely perfect. The IR blaster has a perfect cut out, the micro USB charging port is large enough to accommodate every single charger I own. The headphone port fits every pair of headphones I own, too - but that's not hard, I often use the smaller headed headphones. Every microphone is open and allows sound to travel through with ease. All the buttons are accessible as well (power, volume up and down). The camera opening is more than enough and, more importantly, the flash isn't messed with by the edges of the case - a very common issue with a lot of cases that are cheaper (I can't tell you how many times a flash has destroyed a picture when it bounces off a case and this totally ruins the moment!) Good job UAG :)

The case offers fantastic protection, just as we have come to expect from UAG. On the other hand, it does make the device noticeably fatter. If you don't mind the looks of a fatter device, then you can rest assure knowing that UAG has your LG covered!

Pros:

+Very durable

+Stylish

+Protects device from drops, scratches from the table and lifts it with slight lips on the table.
+A lot of attention is paid to the design of these cases

Cons:

-Price could be cheaper, but with all the design and engineering behind the case, I'd say it's justified if you value your device.

-It makes your device heftier and thicker.

Enjoy the picture gallery!

LG G4 UAG case