LG G5 hands-on—LG may have made the most innovative phone of MWC

NEW YORK—If you're tired of samey smartphones that change little from year-to-year other than the obligatory internal spec bump, get a load of LG's latest flagship, the G5. Phone manufactures have been making us choose between either a plastic phone with a removable battery or a more premium feeling metal device with sealed components, but the G5 brings the best of both worlds. This is a metal phone with a removable battery, thanks to an innovative modular design.

The G5 is basically an aluminum rectangular tube with a removable bottom cap. The phone is one solid part from top of the device to the bottom of the 5.3-inch LCD. Hold down a button on the side of the phone, and you'll be able to pull off the entire bottom bezel and the attached internal battery. From there you can detach the battery from the bottom bezel of the phone and swap in a fresh one.

The bottom bezel houses the USB Type-C port, microphone, and speaker, necessitating an internal data connection with the rest of the phone. Besides replacing the battery, you can also replace the bottom bezel with something else entirely—LG plans to build several modular accessories that clip on to the bottom of the phone, replacing the stock bezel. So far LG has announced a camera grip accessory and a DAC attachment.

The G5 is also one of the first phones in a new wave of 2016 devices sporting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC. The Android hardware ecosystem is finally free from the tyranny of the Snapdragon 810, which had some heat and throttling issues that flagships had to deal with for most of 2015. Much of the heat issues in the 810 were blamed on Qualcomm switching from its custom "Krait" CPU cores to off-the-shelf ARM cores—a decision made so the Snapdragon 810 could be a 64-bit chip.

For the 820, Qualcomm's custom 64-bit CPU core, called "Kryo," is finally ready. The GPU is upgraded too—the 820 is paired with the Adreno 530, which Qualcomm says is 40 percent faster and more power efficient than the Snapdragon 810’s Adreno 430 GPU. Overall Qualcomm claims an "up to 2x" increase in performance and power efficiency vs the 810, but we'll have to wait for a review unit to put that to the test. The new SoC is built on a 14nm FinFET manufacturing process, which should save a good amount of power over the Snapdragon 810's 20nm manufacturing process.

The full spec list is a 5.3-inch, 2560×1440 LCD, a Snapdragon 820, 4GB of RAM, dual rear 16MP and 8MP cameras, an 8MP front camera, a 2800mAh battery, and 32GB of storage. All the extras you could want are here too: a microSD slot, an IR blaster, a fingerprint reader, NFC, and a USB Type C port. The only things you could really complain about are the lack of wireless charging (a no-go for metal phones) and LG's Android skin.

The G5 ships with two cameras in the rear, a weird gimmicky throwback to the days of the HTC One M8. The main camera is a 16MP sensor, augmented by an 8MP secondary camera. The only real justification LG could give for the dual cameras is a digital zoom feature. The Snapdragon 820 also supports an improved version of the depth-of-field effect that was present in the One M8, so expect to see that feature return on the G5 too. The back is packed with the same camera-assisting sensors from previous LG phones. There's a laser autofocus system and a separate color sensor.

Also on the back is a fingerprint sensor, which simultaneously serves as a power button. Rather than the touch-sensitive fingerprint sensor found on the LG-made Nexus 5X, this is actually a physical button that clicks down. You won't find LG's rear volume buttons here though; they're back in the normal spot on the side of the phone.

LG plans to release a series of accessories for the modular G5. The first is a camera grip, which replaces the bottom of the phone with a bulky backpack. Besides giving you more to hold onto for pictures, the grip adds both hardware buttons for the camera and video recorder along with a wheel used for zooming. Inside the grip is an extra 1100mAh of (non-removable) battery power. LG also had an external DAC (Digital-to-Analog Converter) on display made by Bang and Olufsen. This boost to the G5's sound system is housed in a bottom piece that is only slightly longer than stock component, and it adds a second headphone jack to the bottom of the phone along with replicating the speaker and microphone.

Removing the bottom to swap modules also pulls out the battery and kills power to the phone. Going through Android's entire boot process every time you swap modules means you won't want to do it often. Swapping bottom pieces is definitely an innovative feature, though, and LG even mentioned having some kind of open hardware ecosystem for third parties.

LG wouldn't talk pricing or US carrier support, but we did see devices with AT&T and Verizon branding at the event. The phone was also on display in dark grey, pink, silver, and gold. Mark and Sebastian are at MWC in Barcelona, where the phone is being officially unveiled, and they will hopefully report back with more info.