Now more than ever, the marketplace for Android devices is incredibly competitive. LG still lags behind major OEMs like Samsung, and with up-and-comers like Huawei and the reinvigorated Motorola biting at its heels, the company needed to impress with its flagship this year.

And it has. The LG G4 is by far the best device the company has ever made, with some very strong attributes and only a few half-baked aspects holding it back. After a couple weeks with an AT&T-supplied LG G4, here's an in-depth look at how it handles.

Design

The LG G4 clearly owes a lot of its design to its recent ancestors, last year's LG G3 and the LG G Flex 2. LG combined the best elements of the two -- and thankfully left the rest -- to make this year's flagship smartphone.

For example, the LG G4 has a slight, almost unnoticeable curve to its screen and body, lifted and toned down from the ostentatious LG G Flex 2. The curve, while not as showy as the LG G Flex 2, actually has a practical benefit, as it makes the LG G4's 5.5-inch screen feel smaller and more manageable. At no point did I have a problem reaching far edges of the screen with one hand, but of course, your mileage may vary.

Also lifted from previous LG models is the "rear key," LG's name for the back placement of its physical button. This has been taken and improved upon from the LG G2 and LG G3.

Now, the power button, though small, is raised and clearly distinguishable from the volume rockers on either side -- though if you prefer your buttons on the side, this is still a drawback. If you're adaptable though, it's something you'll get used to quickly.

Slim bezels on the sides and top of the screen help make this an easy one-hander, although LG still insists on keeping a large bottom bezel that has no utility other than to prominently display its logo. A second front-facing speaker would have been the better choice.

The device as a whole feels pretty thin, even though it really isn't compared to the latest iPhones and many rival Android flagships. But a horizontally curved back, which fits the G4 comfortably in the palm of your hand, helps create the illusion of slimness.

Speaking of the back of the phone, it's removable. And the device is mostly made of plastic. That's pretty old school, considering Samsung finally gave up plastic construction on its flagships this yea. But for Android fans, the ability to switch out batteries and throw in a microSD card (up to 128GB to supplement the 32GB standard internal memory) is a welcome upside to the plastic compromise.

You can also switch out the back panels to customize your device, and the LG G4 that I used had black stitched leather. The leather back options have received rave feedback because LG decided to use genuine leather -- and because it's the only "premium" bit of the LG G4 in this premium materials-obsessed market.

(Photo : Robert Schoon)

Honestly, the leather felt fine, but I could take it or leave it; at least I have that option, thanks to LG sticking with a removable, replaceable back.

Performance 

The LG G4 comes with a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 system on a chip clocked at 1.8GHz, with an Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB RAM. LG, like Motorola and other OEMs, went the safe route and avoided using the troublesome, but more powerful, octa-core Snapdragon 810 because of its reputation for overheating.

That said, I didn't feel any hiccups or lag with the Snapdragon 808, but it did seem to heat up more after just an hour browsing the web than other 2015 Android phones. When it comes to utility, you won't find the LG G4 as capable as, say, a Samsung Galaxy 6s for graphics-intense gaming or future applications like VR. But from now into the foreseeable future, the G4 is indistinguishable from the biggest powerhouses in daily use.

Especially compared to previous LG phones, the G4 is much snappier. Part of that may be the UI, which has always been a bloated, awkward performance-killer in LG smartphones, but is thankfully scaled back this year. But more on that later.

Battery life for the phone was pretty decent, though not what I'd expect from a 3000 mAh juice pack. It'll last the day, but not much more, and unfortunately one standard premium smartphone feature LG is lagging behind in is the lack of quick charging technology. The LG G4 uses Quick Charge 2.0, but the stock charger that comes with it doesn't. And even using a Motorola turbo charger, the phone took much longer than others to get to a usable level.

Of course, the batteries are replaceable, so that's a workaround for heavy users.

Display

A big reason the battery life is middle-of-the-road, despite having a battery on the upper end of the scale for the current market, is the display. At 5.5-inches of power-hungry Quad HD graphics, this display is bright and clear -- and one of the best features of the LG G4.

The display is an IPS+ LCD covered in Gorilla Glass 3, with 1440 x 2560p resolution, yielding over 530 pixels per inch. LG calls it the "Quantum Display" because it uses Quantum Dot technology for fine-tuned, rich colors and high luminescence efficiency.

(Photo : LG.com)

But more importantly, that makes for great techie marketing. I can understand the company's desire to call attention to this brilliant screen. 

Camera

The other critically applauded selling point of the LG G4 is the camera. Though it's "only" 16-megapixels, experienced smartphone buyers (and iPhone users) know that huge megapixel counts do not automatically translate into good cameras.

The LG G4 has a great camera, thanks to the other important features like laser autofocus and optical image stabilization. The pictures it took were brilliantly detailed, and -- thank goodness -- it took them quickly and with snappy focus in auto mode. The focusing problem is something a lot of other Android OEMs are still trying to surmount, and LG has happily pushed ahead of them.

Low light shots, on the other hand, are not quite as fluid or easy to achieve with good results, but that's where the LG G4's "manual" camera mode comes in (the other two, "Simple" and "Auto" are nearly identical).

Put simply, the ability to manually adjust every facet of your smartphone's camera that can be adjusted -- not just flash and HDR, but ISO level, exposure, focal length, etc. -- should be an option for every smartphone and every camera app.