LG G4 full review

for one more among Android flagship phone launching in the first half of this year, and it just may be worth the wait.

Its standout feature is a premium design with a durable leather back for its lead model, one that's comfortable to grip compared to slippery smartphones with a cold, metal construction.

There's a more color-accurate "quantum" display that, in side-by-side comparisons, makes other phones like the Samsung Galaxy S6and iPhone 6 seem oversaturated.

LG G4's camera is 16 megapixels like Samsung's phone, but it edges out its rival ever so slightly with a faster f/1.8 lens. The Galaxy S6 camera f/stopped short with a 1.9 aperture.

Add to this list of impressive LG G4 specs a microSD card slot and removable battery, and LG may have some Galaxy defectors and earn itself a high spot in our best phones list for 2015 when we give it a full review.

Release date and price

Almost everyone waiting for LG next flagship smartphone has to wait a little bit longer. The LG G4 in the US, UK and Australia is likely happening in June.

The exception to this - which has become the rule with the LG G3 andLG G Flex 2 launches recently - is that Korea gets it first. In this case, it launched on April 29.

The LG G4 price hasn't been announced either, but it's said to be in the range of the LG G3. That means it's probably going to cost around the Galaxy S6 price of $199 on contract or $599 (£599, AU$999).

Design

Fashionable gadgets are the hot new trend among tech companies that are looking to shed their geeky personas and appeal to a broader audience.

LG G4 takes this handcrafted craze quite literally with a leather back that's hand-stitched and replaces the plastic design of the LG G3. Soft to the touch, it looks and feels elegant, and it's easy to grip.

It contrasts with the cold glass back of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge that we still like a lot, and the slippery aluminum body of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that demands a leather cover anyway.

We've seen this design before with not-so-stunning results. Moto X features a leather back among its design customizations, and as great as it looked and felt, it bruised easily - in a day.

LG says that its new smartphone uses premium leather, on par with name brand handbags found in stores on 5th Avenue in New York City and it takes three months to process.

Its vegetable tanned leather treatment is different from chemical tanned leather, which can be shoddily processed in a single day. That type of leather is found on the streets of New York too, but not on 5th Avenue or indoors.

LG G4's leather back undergoes a special treatment as part of this this three-month process, one that the company said it took three to find, that resist water stains and scratches.

Our full review will certainly test out its durability in a stuffed pocket, which the more supple leather of the Moto X failed at miserably. It's also heartening to know that LG lets you change out the back if it too fails.

Don't like cow-based leather? There are other, less exciting LG G4 colors and materials. There's a familiar metallic-coated titan black and shiny gold and a white ceramic-painted model carried over from LG G3.

All three do a good job of disguising the fact that they have a plastic base with a hammered metal pattern.

All models of the LG G4 also sport a gentle curve that isn't a dramatic as the LG G Flex 2 arc, but is said to make the phone 20% stronger in durability compared to the G3, according to LG's drop tests.

The official LG G4 dimensions give it a 148.9mm height x 76.1mm width x 6.3mm to 9.8mm depth due to that sloped curve. It feels light in the hand with a weight of 155g.

Display

LG G4's display measures out to the same 5.5 inches diagonally as the G3 and it has an IPS LCD screen, but it now it's considered a "quantum" display.

This translates into much more color accurate multimedia that considers an eye's perception instead of oversaturating photos and videos.

LG is driving toward a cinema-industry standard of color perfection known as Digital Cinema Initiatives or DCI. It touts LG G4 as 98% DCI compliant, while the S6 AMOLED is 110% compliant AMOLED, giving it that infamous - for better or worse - oversaturated look.

Samsung and iPhone's color inaccuracies were shown to be worse when it came to food. A picture of strawberries on the S6 and iPhone 6 proved more orange vs the red shown by the LG G4.

LG G4 s 20% more color rich and 25% brighter for better outdoor visibility. Its has a 50% bump in contrast, yet consumes less power thanks to negative LCD technology.