LG G4 vs One M9

We see which smartphone merits your attention

Apple and Samsung have undeniably dominated the Western smartphone market over the past couple of years, and the release of their latest phones always sends ripples through the technology industry.

This remained true in 2014 when Samsung unveiled the Galaxy S6, a handset that almost immediately sparked a frenzy of reports and arguments about how it compared with the iPhone 6.

The media blitz around the devices has meant that many people have forgotten to check out LG's and HTC's respective G4 and One M9 handsets.

This is a little sad as, while the handsets don't appear to be big upgrades compared with their 2014 predecessors, the G4 and One M9 come with a number of subtle upgrades that make them seriously impressive smartphones in their own right.

Design and build
Visually the G4 has a more atypical design than the One M9. It has the same button placement as the G3, with the physical controls on the rear, and has a slightly curved chassis similar to LG's G Flex handsets.

This makes it look slightly more distinctive than the One M9, which merges elements of HTC's One M7 and One M8 handsets.

Specifically the One M9 features a rounded metal back that wraps around to the Gorilla Glass front, along with 'Boom Sound' speakers and right-hand power and volume controls.

While this makes the G4 sound like the more exciting handset from a design perspective, we favoured the One M9 when using the two smartphones. This is mainly thanks to the M9's use of metal as opposed to plastic.

Comparing the metal One M9 with our review G4 unit, which has a smooth finish, removable polycarbonate backplate, we found the HTC phone noticeably more top end and solidly built.

Despite LG's atypical button placement and supposedly ergonomic curve, the G4 and One M9 are equivalently comfortable to hold, largely owing to their similar size and weight.

The G4 measures 149x76x6.3-9.8mm from its narrowest to deepest curved part, and weighs 155g. By comparison the One M9 measures 145x70x9.6mm and weighs 157g.

Winner: The One M9

Display
The One M9 and G4 don't feature radically different displays to their 2014 predecessors. LG has loaded its handset with a 5.5in, 1440x2560, 538ppi, Quantum IPS LCD screen and HTC has used a 5in, 1920x1080 pixel, 441ppi Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen.

By comparison the G3 featured a 5.5in, 1440x2560, 534ppi True HD-IPS+ (in-plane switching) LCD capacitive touchscreen display and the One M8 a 5in, 1080x1920, 441ppi, Super LCD3 capacitive touchscreen.

However, testing the two we found the LG G4's screen a radical improvement that easily outclasses its predecessor and the One M9.

The G4's display is noticeably sharper, largely down to LG's new Quantum tech and use of the Digital Cinema Initiative (DCI) display standards.

According to LG, the Quantum tech gives the G4's screen 20 percent greater colour reproduction, 25 percent more brightness and 50 percent better contrast than the G3.

The DCI colour gamut was set up by a group of film companies and is designed to replace the traditional sRGB gamut used by most companies. It improves colour quality by using a wider range of colours to create more realistic images than sRGB.

Comparing the G4 with the One M9, we found the LG phone's display noticeably brighter and with better calibrated colours than the One M9, which has a 'cooler', slightly blue feel.

That said, it's important to note that the One M9's display is far from terrible and is generally more than fit for purpose.

While not as bright as the G4 screen, the One M9 screen never looks dim in its automatic setting and is easily sharp enough. Colour levels, while slightly cool, are not oversaturated and are still reasonably impressive.

Winner: The G4

Next: Operating system and performance

LG G4 vs One M9

We see which smartphone merits your attention

Operating system and software
The G4 runs the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop version overlaid with LG's Optimus UX 4.0 UI skin, while the One M9 runs the older Android 5.0.2 Lollipop overlaid with HTC's custom Sense 7.0 skin.

HTC has confirmed that the One M9 will be updated to Android 5.1, but has yet to give a firm date when this will happen.

The lack of 5.1 is a little disappointing as, while not a milestone update, it does add a few useful features.

These include stability and performance improvements, and a customer Device Protection security service that makes it easier to lock and unlock lost phones using a Google account. This gives the G4, for the moment, a lead on the One M9.

Moving on to the skins, Optimus UX and Sense are reasonably good by Android standards and bring some useful extras.

With the G4, LG has focused on adding better management and productivity tools to Android, the best of which are Dual-Window support, Knock Code, Content Lock and a portfolio of system management applications.

The Dual-Window feature lets you have two applications open and displaying on the G4's screen at the same time, kind of like the multi-window support on Samsung's Galaxy range.

Knock Code is an anti-theft feature that unlocks the phone only when the owner taps a certain sequence into the screen.

By comparison, Sense 7.0 continues HTC's ongoing bid to improve Android's push update services using Sense Home and BlinkFeed.

Sense Home is a customisable feature that adjusts the applications and services that appear on the home screen depending on the user's location. It can be configured for 'out', 'home' and 'work'.

Each can be activated automatically when the user is at a specific location registered on the device via GPS.

For example, moving from home to the office the One M9 enters the 'work' mode and pushes productivity applications like email and calendar to the front of the UI.

BlinkFeed is a news aggregation service that uses information stored on the user's Google and social media accounts to push updates from various news outlets and contacts that it thinks will be of interest via a custom tiled interface.

Winner: The G4

Performance
The G4 is powered by a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor that combines dual-core 1.82GHz Cortex-A57 and quad-core 1.44GHz Cortex-A53 parts, along with an Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB RAM.

By comparison, the One M9 uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 that combines power-efficient quad-core 1.5GHz Cortex-A53 and high-performance quad-core 2GHz Cortex-A57 components, along with an Adreno 430 GPU and 3GB RAM.

There's been a lot of speculation about why LG didn't opt for the Snapdragon 810. Rumours suggested that LG chose the 808 owing to overheating problems with the 810.

This also reared its head when Samsung chose to load the Galaxy S6 with an Exynos processor rather than the 810. LG has constantly denied these rumours.

Benchmarking the two phones on Antutu, Geekbench and 3DMark, the pair were fairly evenly matched.

The HTC One M9 scored 52,954 on Antutu, 753 single-core and 2,935 multi-core on Geekbench, and 21,873 on 3DMark.

The G4 scored 49,208 on Antutu, 1,132 single-core and 3,518 multi-core on Geekbench, and 18,528 on 3DMark.

With real world use, we didn't notice a major disparity in performance between the two phones. Both are fast and proved capable of opening applications and web pages in milliseconds.

Intensive applications, such as 3D games and video editing, also ran hassle free and in general we didn't notice any performance problems on the G4 or One M9.

Winner: Tie

Next: Camera, battery, storage, price and conclusion

LG G4 vs One M9

We see which smartphone merits your attention

Camera
HTC has always struggled with camera technology, and this continued in 2014 on the One M8 which featured a 4MP Ultrapixel camera.

Ultrapixel is a custom technology debuted on the One M7 that improves picture quality by creating larger pixels that can capture "300 percent more light than those of a regular camera sensor", according to the firm.

Taken on the G4

It's cool on paper but we found in practice that, while Ultrapixel can improve contrast levels and boost shutter speeds, the low megapixel counts are a problem, particularly when photos are blown up.

HTC fixed the problem on the M9 and pushed the 4MP Ultrapixel camera to the front of the handset and added a 20.7MP, 5376x3752 pixel with autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash camera on the back.

If megapixels were the only factor to go by in picture quality, this would make the One M9 slightly better than the G4, which features a 16MP, 5312x2988 pixels with laser autofocus, Optical Image Stabilisation, LED flash and a 1/2.6in lens rear camera.

However, as any camera professional will tell you, megapixel counts are far from being the most important factor, and testing the two phones we found the G4 better at taking photos than the One M9.

Taken on the One M9

This is down to the G4's improved colour sensor and laser auto-focus technology. The sensor is designed to improve the 16MP camera's colour balance levels. Laser auto-focus is a similar technology to that used by police radar guns and is designed to improve the phone's data capture and autofocus speeds.

The combination of technologies means that the G4 features better shutter speeds than the One M9 and shoots photos with better colour balance and contrast levels.

Winner: The G4

Battery
The G4 is powered by a removable 3000mAh battery, while the One M9 uses a Li-Po 2840mAh non-removable power pack.

Battery burning the two phones by constantly looping a video file stored on them, the G4 had an edge on the One M9 and lasted between seven hours 30 minutes and eight hours 30 minutes, which is reasonable for a phone of its size.

The One M9 lasted between seven hours 30 minutes and seven hours 50 minutes.

The battery burns rang true and, with average everyday use, we got an extra two to three hours out of the G4.

Regular use entailed listening to music on the way to and from work, taking and making a few calls, playing the odd game of Xcom and regularly checking our email and social media feeds.

Both phones also have Qualcomm quick charge technology making it easy to top up the batteries.

Winner: The G4

Storage
The LG G4 and HTC One M9 come with 32GB of in-built storage and microSD card slots. Both phones' microSD slots also support a whopping 2TB upgrade limit, meaning they are evenly matched when it comes to storage space.

Winner: Tie

Price
Price is another area in which the LG phone beats the One M9. The G4 currently retails SIM-free for £500, making it a full £80 cheaper than the HTC handset.

Winner: The G4

Overall winner: The LG G4
Featuring a better display, infinitely superior camera, longer battery life and costing £80 less, the LG G4 is the clear winner of this vs review.

That said, it's worth noting that the One M9 is still far from terrible and features a more premium, robust metal design.