LG's phone return sees us focusing on its rear

LG is hoping you'll be glad to see the back of the LG G2 

We always worry when firms start chucking words like "paradigm" around: it's often misused to describe a device with slightly rounder corners. LG reckons it's done something much more dramatic, though: on the brand new LG G2, the volume buttons aren't on the side. Oh no. They're on the back.
The device formerly known as the LG Optimus G2 has a 2.26GHz Snapdragon 800 processor, a choice of 16GB or 32GB internal storage, 2GB of RAM and a full HD 5.2-inch display. It looks good on paper, but what about the reality?
Time to unleash smartphone guru Gareth Beavis: it's "insanely powerful", the screen is "huge" and that fast processor "makes the phone tick along quite nicely" while delivering all-day battery life.
The on-board audio is "highly impressive" on headphones, although the headphone jack has been moved to the bottom of the device to annoy you.
Overall, Beavis says, it's a bit of a mixed bag: while the specs are great "the design is middling, the implementation of Android 4.2 only so-so, and there's nothing here that will really claim the headlines."

Floptimus?

We know what you're thinking. How does it compare to the Samsung Galaxy S4, the HTC One and the iPhone 5? James Rogerson has the answer. It's good, but "we're not sure it's any better" than its rivals. LG "is likely to have a hard time convincing consumers [that] they should buy it."
Never mind specs: can smartphones have souls? Marc Flores thinks so - but he doesn't think you'll find one in the G2. "The LG G2 is probably everything you could possibly want an Android smartphone to be, at least in terms of hardware," he says, but "it doesn't leap out at us or cause any stir or excitement."

Buttons on the back? Controversial

The rest of the TechRadar team agree. "Nothing jumps out at me," says our US mobile devices editor, Marc Flores. UK editor in chief Patrick Goss is "not convinced it 'shifts the paradigm in smartphone design' as LG suggests", while news editor Kate Solomon is "worried about this buttons-on-the-back nonsense".
The buttons are "a terrific gimmick," but "no more than a gimmick... it makes little sense," says associate editor Dan Grabham, but global editor in chief Paul Douglas begs to differ: "I'm forever switching the screen off by accident when taking a photo or nearly dropping my phone while trying to change the volume during a call, [so this] seems like a smart idea."

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