Currently I have the LG G4 with a few extras.

The G4 has one of the best cameras, great audio, comfy to hold in the hand, replaceable and user changeable battery, expandable memory with a micro SD card up to 2TB, QHD display and so much more.

Add to the fact that I also have the black leather version, which also came with a gold back cover what more could I want. Well, I also have the ceramic white cover, which in my opinion looks better than the black leather option. Ceramic white is also likely to be more durable than leather. I also have a spare battery and battery charging cradle so there is never any wait to recharge the phone back to 100%. No matter what your views of the G4, its versatility translates into an excellent workhorse/functional phone. In conclusion it performs perfectly as a phone coupled with plenty of flexibility.

BUT.

I’m not happy and I don’t know why. Sometimes I think it is because the G4 lacks emotion when you use it. I also have had/have a Xiaomi Mi 4i and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro to review along with many others. The 4i has moved on to new pastures and Steve Litchfield from Phones Show Chat has temporarily borrowed my Mi Note Pro for a week in order to review it himself. I am looking forward to using the Mi Note Pro since there is something emotionally satisfying about using it.

For some reason I enjoyed using the Mi Note Pro more than the LG G4. The camera on the Mi Note Pro is not as good as the one on the G4, but it is pretty darn close. It doesn’t have changeable batteries or a micro SD card slot, yet it is so stunning to behold, and a monster of a powerhouse android phone with higher specs in many areas than the LG G4. I also think MIUI is more engaging. All the others specs are fantastic too. But it just looks so cool and drives some emotion in use.

This got me thinking. The Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro use the latest/newer/more advanced components than many other phones at the moment. For example both these phones have done away with micro SD card and are using a fixed internal storage. The internal storage is faster than accessing the micro SD card. One reason the Mi Note Pro camera can take 20 shots a second in burst mode. Whereas the LG G4 has still stuck with replaceable batteries and micro SD card expansion. With all this in mind I do wonder if we need better processors etc or are we better with yesterday’s tech? Then finally, I thought, if the phone has all the power and storage we need, what else drives us to get that next new shiny phone? Colour? Or something immaterial because the phone choice is so vast, we can choose to be picky about every little feature or fault?

It will be interesting to see how the next 3 months pans out with new phone releases. Maybe the next big thing with a smartphone has already happened!