Now buy LG G5 and Friends in India for ₹52,990

Toning down on the ambition level of Google’s Project Ara, LG made a modular phone that uses “Friends” to accomplish better photography, entertainment and music among other features.

The LG G5 has a removable battery that can be replaced by the LG CAM PLUS module that claims to give it abilities to take pictures as good as a DSLR camera. (REUTERS)

Toning down on the ambition level of Google's Project Ara, LG made a modular phone that uses "Friends" to accomplish better photography, entertainment and music among other features.

The phone will be available for ₹52,990 in silver, gold, pink and titan colours with expandable memory and Qualcomm's best offering -- Snapdragon 820.

The LG G5 has a removable battery despite the metal uni-body. The bottom of the phone -- sporting the LG logo -- detaches and a battery slides out with it. At this point, you could just replace the battery or attach the LG CAM PLUS module that claims to give it abilities to take pictures as good as a DSLR camera.

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The dual lenses on the G5 give it the ability to take 135 degrees pictures. But LG didn't stop there, the 360 Cam from LG is another "Friend" in the series of accessories and as the name suggests, takes 360-degree pictures.

LG take some shots at the clunky VR headsets available on the market for being a pain in the neck and looking a bit over the top. The 360 VR is LG's addition to the nascent but booming market. The 360 VR weighs under 120 grams and provides 20% sharper images with the built-in screens. It connects with the G5 via the USB Type C port for drawing power and data. LG also claims that it won't leave you teary eyed after usage.

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For the audiophiles, LG brought in expertise from Bang & Olufsen to create the H3 earphones and Hi-Fi Plus module that make high definition audio playback possible.

But the add-on toys aren't the only feature that caught our eye. One-third of G5's screen is always on and shows information like time and notification while burning just 0.8% of the battery every hour. LG says we check our phones 150 times a day for notifications and time, and after testing the feature on LG V10, they added ito the G5 as well.

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The ecosystem that LG is building for its G5 is likely to be hereditary and following versions of the flagship might also be modular. The ecosystem of modules and accessories being built by LG is called Playground and as you may have noticed, that is where LG is excelled by partnering with companies such as Google, Snapdragon, Parrot and Bang & Olufsen.

The phone will be available in gold, silver and titan black on Flipkart and LG stores around the country at ₹52,990 while the Cam Plus module will be available at ₹6,500; VR headset at ₹18,900 and the 360-degree camera at ₹19,500.

Specifications of the LG G5

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor | 5.3-inch Quad HD IPS Display | 4 GB RAM | 32 GB internal storage (expandable by MicroSD) | 16 MP rear and 8 MP front cameras | Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS | 2,800 mAh battery