In recent years, there’s been less and less to separate smartphones apart, and that’s especially true at the top end. The Apple iPhone 6s and LG G4 represent the flagship handsets of two of the best smartphone manufacturers around, so every little detail counts.
We’ve seen the iPhone 6s take on the Sony Xperia Z5 and go toe to toe with the Samsung Galaxy S6, and now it’s time for the LG G4. If you’re torn between the two, here’s our breakdown of the metrics that really matter. It’s Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: bring it on.
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Design
The first thing that strikes you about the two handsets is the different sizes. While Apple has made its iPhones bigger in recent years to adapt to public tastes for larger handsets, the standard iPhone 6s is still just 4.7in, ensuring that it’s dwarfed by the 5.5in LG G4.
Aside from that, there’s very little to choose between the handsets, lookswise: both have large, bright screens, though the iPhone 6s has a physical button to the G4’s on-screen only ones.
Flipping them over, the iPhone 6S is gently curved, but mostly flat. The LG G4 breaks convention from standard smartphone style here to offer a series of replaceable back covers – the most stylish (and expensive) of these is in soft leather.
From a personal perspective, I prefer the style of the iPhone 6s, but there’s not much in it, and you can feel free to tilt this one in the G4’s favour if you disagree.
Winner: iPhone 6s
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Display
The first thing to say about the two phones’ displays is that the iPhone 6s has a markedly lower resolution than the LG G4: while the G4’s 5in screen is set to 1,440 x 2,560 – higher than plenty of HD flat screen TV sets – the iPhone 6s is 720 x 1334. Of course, the smaller display means that it doesn’t need the same resolution as the G4, but even taking that into account the LG G4 wins hands down with 538 pixels per inch (ppi) to the iPhone 6s’ 326.
Elsewhere, the iPhone 6s does manage a higher brightness, with our tests revealing a score of 572 cd/m2 to the G4’s 476cd/m2, but it’s back to a LG win in terms of the sRGB colour space covered: 97.9% to the iPhone’s 95%. A comfortable win for the G4, unless brightness is really important to you.
Winner: LG G4
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Features
This is where things get a little subjective. Both handsets have features of which the other should (or at least could) feel pretty jealous.
Let’s start with the iPhone 6s. The biggest new addition to Apple’s flagship is 3D touch: a kind of ‘right-click’ for the phone. Pressing the screen in with differing pressure brings up varying functions, allowing you to peek inside emails or load app functions without booting up through the menu. It’s a little limited for now, but is open to third party developers, so things should get a lot more interesting in time.
Which brings me to the second big ‘feature’ of every iPhone since the 3GS: the App Store. Google Play has come along in strides, but the iPhone app store is still a huge selling point, and the less fragmented nature of Apple’s smartphones means that there’s more chance of apps working without hiccups.
On top of this, the iPhone 6s has a fingerprint reader, which works a charm in conjunction with Apple Pay. Contactless payments from the smartphone is a big selling point – and one that the LG G4 can’t match.
In a slightly odd way, the LG G4’s killer features feel like a throwback to older smartphones. That’s not meant pejoratively at all, it’s just that while many flagships have ditched useful functionality for form factor and style, LG has done an excellent job of keeping both. To this end, the LG G4 has a removable battery and a microSD card slot – neither of which the iPhone 6s has.
Again, your mileage may vary, depending on the importance each item carries for you, but for me the modern 3d touch and fingerprint reader give the iPhone 6s the edge. It’s not that the microSD and replaceable battery aren’t extremely welcome – it’s just that most flagship phones decided they weren’t important enough, so I’m going to go with consensus here.
Winner: iPhone 6s
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Specifications and Performance
The LG G4 is powered by a 1.8GHz six-core Snapdragon 808 processor, backed up by 3GB RAM. The iPhone 6s has just the 2GB Ram and a processor said to be running at 1.8GHz too.
As Apple uses its own processor (in this case, the Apple A9) and operating system, it gets a little tough to compare like for like, so we like to let the benchmarks do the talking. Here’s how the two compare:
| Benchmark | iPhone 6s | LG G4 |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 3 single-core | 2,534 | 1,134 |
| Geekbench 3 multi-core | 4,423 | 3,501 |
| Gfxbench 3.1 T-Rex HD | 59.1fps | 25fps |
| Gfxbench 3.1 Manhattan | 56.3fps | 9fps |
No contest, really.
Winner: iPhone 6s
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Battery
A comfortable win for the LG G4. We do a couple of real-world battery tests on our handsets. First we stream a podcast over 4G with the screen off, then we watch a 720p movie with the screen brightness set to 120cd/m2 to ensure parity.
There’s not too much in it, but it is a marked difference. While both handsets lost 3.6% of their battery per hour through audio streaming, the LG G4 slipped just 6.3% per hour for the movie, to the iPhone 6s’ 7.2%.
On paper, that may not sound too much and it has been reported that iPhone 6s’ perform differently depending on which model you have, but even taking this into account, the LG G4 allows you to change the battery, making it the stamina-lover’s choice.
Winner: LG G4
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Camera
The LG G4’s camera is excellent. It’s a 16 megapixel snapper with an aperture of f/1.8. The pictures are some of the best in the game, even in tricky low-light conditions. As a rule, images are crisp and well exposed, giving results you can most definitely be happy with.
The iPhone 6s’ camera is a 12 megapixel affair, and offers excellent images in its own right, but no optical image stabilisation (the larger iPhone 6s Plus does, for what it’s worth).
Amateur photographers would be happy with either in truth, but for us, the LG G4 wins the day here by providing one of the best cameras around.
Winner: LG G4
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Price
No surprise which handset is going to get the nod here. iPhones are many things, but cheap isn’t one of them. At the time of writing, you’re looking at £539 – and even that monster outlay will just get you the slightly stingy 16GB model. Turning to contract, you could get one for around £34 per month, but even then you’re looking at an additional upfront cost of £50.
The LG G4, on the other hand, has really plummeted in price since its release back in April. Where once the handset cost £500, it can now be had for as little as £300. That’s something of a bargain. On contract, you could get it for around £20 per month, but with minimum terms being two years in length, it makes financial sense to buy outright if you can.
However you paint it, it’s the clear winner here though.
Winner: LG G4
Apple iPhone 6s vs LG G4: Verdict
If you’ve been keeping track of each category with a checklist, you’ll notice that the final score is 4-3 to the LG G4. That, however, doesn’t quite tell the full story.
If you’re determined to see the best in the LG G4, you could point out that two of the points Apple won were for the most subjective rounds: design and features. That’s fair: horses for courses, and all that.
However there’s also something important to be said about the one remaining category: performance. And holy cow, did the iPhone 6s blow the LG G4 out of the water on that score. Apple die-hards could equally fairly point out that this is the only metric that matters, even making the cost discrepancy between the two a moot point.
How you want to read this is up to you. Both handsets are excellent, and a lot of this comes down to whether you feel more comfortable with iOS or Android. That’s not a decision I can make for you, but hopefully the points above will help highlight each handset’s strengths and weaknesses.
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