10 reasons I missed my LGG4

I’m sure most of you have heard me moaning like a little girl about the death of my LGG4 followed by the long wait for it to be repaired & returned and some of you may possibly wondering why I keep banging on about the phone. Well yes partly I am a bit of a phone obsessed geek but the phone itself is genuinely the best phone I’ve had the pleasure of owning so far! So much so I decided to share with you 10 reasons I love it so much!

 

  1. Screen size – The LGG4 has a 5.5 inch Quantum 2K IPS (2560 × 1440 resolution 534 PPI) display. Something I never thought would bother me was screen size (considering I once had the Virgin Lobster 485 teeny tiny phone) but after using the G4 for 8 months then reverting back to smaller screen size for a month I seriously appreciate having a larger screen again. The images are so crisp and clear on the G4 anything smaller just doesn’t compare!
  2.  Memory – In this day and age with so many apps and games you need a decent amount of memory on most phones and 2GB really didn’t cut it. I could just about download facebook, twitter, instagram & wordpress but then couldn’t receive emails unless i deleted them constantly at least on the G4 with 32GB I never run out of memory & if I did there is a Micro SD slot to expand the memory further.
  3. Camera quality! – OK I may not be great at taking photo’s but I honestly love taking them and having them to look back on especially with the girls constantly growing and learning. Whilst I’m still learning my way around camera’s it really is noticeable how amazing the G4 camera is all round! Izzy was as pleased as me as she absolutely loves the front camera to take a good selfie!LGG4
  4. Signal quality – The LGG4 picks up my wifi 11 floors down and a good few yards away in the college opposite us yet my old HTC One X and even the Samsung Galaxy Young I have used over the last month I can barely get a wifi signal in my own kitchen! As for calls and texts my signal rarely fails on the G4 which eases a lot of my anxieties whereas the galaxy young rarely had signal.
  5. Phoning the fish! – I turned off my Smart Hub whilst I was without the G4 as I just didn’t have the memory to install it on the galaxy young and since the Mr’s phone is dying a slow death it literally takes hours to download anything even using wifi (his signal is pants!) I genuinely couldn’t be bothered to set it up on his phone. Now the G4 is back I plugged it all back in so we could continue phoning the fish. With the added Power Outlet I won the fish tank light and pump are now both using a power outlet and I even got round to installing the app on the Mr’s phone too.
  6. Google apps – Although the galaxy young also had Google apps and the capability to sync ONE Google account and the lack of memory meant it didn’t sync regularly or receive notifications properly. I have 3 Gmail accounts I like to keep on top of so only being able to sync one account was hell especially as I wasn’t able to sync my blogging Gmail account meaning I was late replying to a few emails! Now I have all my accounts synced up and get notifications again I can keep on top of it all much better. I can also use the calendar again which is extremely important for me to have since I forget EVERYTHING!
  7. Blogging tools – With the G4 I have the space to keep a range of apps including WordPress and Quick memo+ meaning I can write out posts as they come to me and save them to go back and edit them later. I can check all my social accounts regularly and chat to other bloggers again although admittedly I’ve done very little of this so far as I’ve been busy filling the phone up with apps and syncing my accounts when I’m not busy with life.
  8. Gaming – Oh how I missed playing games in moments of boredom! With lack of space, a tiny screen and awful signal I couldn’t play a single game. The graphics are amazing on the G4 and I am loving playing games such as reckless racing 3, crack attack and word dash again!
  9. Music – The G4 sound quality is great and I love listening to music when I’m on public transport or walking somewhere alone and I couldn’t wait to download all my favourite songs again ready for a moment of freedom 😉 haha!
  10. Youtube – I never realised just how much I relied on youtube until it was unusable on the galaxy young. Eva asks a ton of questions and some times the easiest way to explain things to her is by showing her educational videos and I missed being able to quickly show her a video. My crochet has been neglected slightly too as I was using my phone to watch tutorials.

So there are ten reasons why I missed my LGG4 (and hated the Samsung Galaxy Young). If your phone was damaged what would you miss most?

Revival and Return Of The LGG4

I wrote about the death of the LGG4 previously on the blog. After writing the post I messaged LG to double check if the phone was under warranty. I was over the moon to hear that it was infact still under warranty and a repair was quickly booked in by Ben from LG’s customer service. The phone was collected on the 3rd of February and taken away by DPD

I have had to borrow a phone so I can still contact people and I wont lie, it is absolutely driving me insane! I miss my daily selfies with Izzy, actually recieving notifications, being able to use the internet without waiting 6 months for a single page to load.. oh and it turns itself off and on about 30 times a day. Rather helpful.. not!

I received an email on the 6th titled ‘Repair to ASC’ but the rest of the email didn’t translate to much, I recieved another one of these email’s on the 12th and began to wonder when/if the phone was coming back and messaged LG again and was asked to forward the email’s I had recieved on the 15th as several other customer’s said the same thing. I got an automated response on the 16th to say they had received my forwarded emails and then heard nothing until the 20th when I recieved a text message from LG letting me know DPD will be delivering my parcel by the 23rd!!

Return of the LGG4

I was so damn relieved after having to put up with the tiny Samsung Young I had borrowed for over a month that restarts, doesn’t give notifications, rejects the SD card and is generally slower than me first thing in the morning! I couldn’t wait until the 23rd and was so happy when I got a text giving me an hours window for the delivery.

I spent a while checking out the window for a DPD van and when I finally saw it arrived I may have squeeled and bounced a bit, even Izzy get excited and we bounced down the hall to wait for the buzzer where a bit more bouncing happened. Yes I did end up hurting myself as I forgot my balance is so off lately but I am a bit of a geek and get over excited haha!

As soon as I got my lovely phone back I plugged it straight in to charge and got it booted up, instantly relieved to see it worked and turned on..YAY!!! I read the slip inside which stated the mains board had been faulty and had been replaced. I’m so happy it was under warranty and I was able to get it repaired and cant wait to get back into blogging properly (it’s much easier to do EVERYTHING on the G4) and get chatting with other blogs too!

Overcoming a bad patch

I’m pretty sure I am not alone in saying January was mostly awful!
I’ve been trying to overcome a bad patch. The cold weather made it miserable and made my whole body hurt so much I had to keep myself fairly dosed up, something I generally avoid doing as much as possible as I really don’t like taking any kind of medication and dealing with the side effects.

As you may have read my LGG4 died leaving me without a phone and almost camera-less.. I say almost because I do in fact own a real camera, I have a Fujifilm finepix S1500 but I misplaced the rechargeable batteries and hunted through the flat huffing and sulking for a good few days until I eventually found them.

Just as I thought I was winning I managed to take a few shots and went to put them on my laptop only I couldn’t find the USB lead! So of course I spent another few days tearing apart the flat like a madwoman.

The Mr  then suggested asking our tech geek if he had a spare. Turns out we went through all this when I got the camera (second hand) and tech geek had given me a memory card reader to use instead.

Of course this was sat in my kitchen junk draw staring at me for the entire week whilst I searched the draw for the batteries (which were actually in there too!?) and the non-existent USB lead.

Normally it wouldn’t bother me so much but I needed the pictures for our Weekend Box review and the Mr found a local photography group a few weeks back and I was hoping to brave it and try going to hopefully learn to take much better photo’s and to give me a break as well as meeting new people in the area.

I also started on the mission of cleaning my brother’s flat leaving me exhausted and well behind on my own housework. Obviously I don’t mind doing it as it really is needed and I am the only person he trusts to go through his stuff and sort it but I am suffering for it.

Both girl’s have been ill on and off throughout January too which obviously makes it even harder to get thing’s done or catch a moment to myself. Add to that the Issue’s we have been having with Eva’s school it has been a hectic, stressful and lonely month!

Overcoming a bad patch

So all in all January was a bit crap to be honest. I know to most people all these little things seem so silly but for me it just felt like one thing after another was going wrong and this caused my depression and anxiety to spiral out of control a little. Luckily February seems to be going fairly well minus a poorly Eva and issue[s with her school.

Reviewing the Weekend box really perked both Eva and myself up and gave us something to do whilst Izzy slept over the weekend.

I eventually managed to upload my pictures and finish the blog post too. I missed another photography group meet though as I have been overly anxious all week but I’m hoping to pluck up the courage to go on Tuesday.

As it turned out the LGG4 was still under warranty and although the collection was delayed by a day the G4 was collected for repair on Wednesday and should hopefully be back working within a week,
I have everything crossed it is fixable as I really do love that phone!

My brothers flat is so much cleaner and a lot more organised and his asthma has started to ease up slightly where there is less dust & mould. He is doing better in himself and on my last visit we went to ads with an unused gift card I found at his and bought him a decent saucepan, strainer and utensils and enough food to keep him going until my next visit.

Although I’ve been in a lot of pain lately we worked out wearing the Mr’s long johns helps with my leg pain where they stay warmer. Also the Mr has been making sure my wheat bags are warmed every night and he has been using a fan heater to warm the bed up each night to help too. Plus knowing I only have another month to wait until my steroid injections I am hopeful the pain may decrease a little!

To top it all the blog seems to be doing fairly ok even though I’ve struggled with posting and networking lately and I have a few more awesome reviews coming up very soon.

Over the coming month I’ll have more time to chat to other bloggers and read more posts too which I love doing! So if we haven’t spoken before please feel free to come say Hi sometime as I love discovering new blogs and having a chat.

Hopefully this coming Tuesday I will manage to make it to the Photography meet up, I just need to try not to think about it too much in the days leading up to it to keep my anxiety down. Easier said than done but I really need to try and do this for myself, give myself a bit of time out doing something I love & hopefully make some friends around here too!

Eva is booked in at the Dr’s Monday and I’m hoping we can get to the bottom of her headaches and a few other thing’s.

February is definitely looking to be a much better month already! How was your January? Do you have high hopes for February?

The death of the LGG4

I’m absolutely gutted over the death of the LGG4, my beloved phone I won!The death of the LGG4

A little while ago I mentioned I had tested the LGG4 for TheInsider’s & was lucky enough to keep the phone which honestly i was delighted with as it was a great phone, amazing camera & so easy to use.

However, on Tuesday morning I got up, used the phone as normal & left it on the side whilst I nipped to the toilet. When I came back the LG loading screen had appeared & I figured it had restarted itself. I took the battery out for a few minutes and popped it in again in the hope it had just got a bit warm or something.

Unfortunately the phone just would not go past the loading screen & just wouldn’t load the android operating system at all. After stressing myself out trying to do soft & hard reset’s and not even being able to get into the bootloader myself, I handed it over to Rich, our go to guy for any tech problem.

After quite a few attempt’s he finally managed to attempt the reset’s but each time the phone would begin restarting again without loading the android system & he believes the system has been corrupted as it kept trying to load & update then restart.

After 3 day’s of trying to even get the phone to load & not being able to retrieve any of my data I finally gave up and admitted defeat. I am gutted though If I am honest as there is no way I can afford to replace it at all it was a £500 phone!!! I was so lucky to win it but I am so damn unlucky to have lost everything that I have lost from it. I gave my old phone to my brother as he had no money & needed a new one badly to stay in contact so unfortunately I had no back up phone.

Luckily Rich had an older phone I can borrow until I can sort out a new phone some how but it mean’s I’m not going to be online as much as web pages take months to load on the phone I have borrowed.

I am gutted as I’m now so behind with blogging & I’ve just spent the last 3 days going out of my mind panicking because I can’t be contacted by anyone or contact anyone else if something goes wrong especially as the Mr managed to lose my bank card & it took us a few day’s to sort paying the internet bill so I couldn’t even talk to anyone online either.

I’m sure anyone with anxiety can understand just how awful I have felt the last few days especially with Eva in school & trying to help my brother a few miles down the road, being out & knowing you can’t be contacted if there’s an emergency with your kids is absolutely terrifying! Then to add to it all when I’m home I feel trapped unable to call out or talk to anyone high up on the 11th floor & not knowing many people around us makes it worse.

I have contacted TheInsiders & LG this morning in the hope something can done but I have very little hope.

I have to say the phone whilst working was an absolutely amazing phone but the fact this has happened with no damage, no dodgy download’s etc I definitely won’t be attempting to get an LGG4 again as I have lost so many photo’s, note’s, documents etc as I hardly thought the phone would die after just 8 months. Considering my last 2 phone’s were a HTC one X and a HTC wildfire which both lasted 2 1/2 year’s before selling on with plenty of life left I think when I can afford it I will be going back to a HTC phone of some sort.

If anyone has any phone recommendations please let me know, I will be attempting to scrape together £100 for a second hand phone in the next few months and want something that I can use for blogging & social media with a decent camera. Feel free to share any product reviews in the comments!

 

My Favourite product tests so far this year

I’m sharing my favourite product tests so far this year as it’s quite nice to see what is possible. The world of product testing and reviews is huge and I’m so glad to be a part of it.

My Favourite product tests:

LGG4

As I mentioned previously TheInsiders sent me my lovely LGG4 along with the LG Tone Infinim Bluetooth headphones back in may which was a lovely surprise as I entered the Campaign unsure if the site was legit or not even after doing some research.


Luckily for me TheInsiders really are legit and I was able to test both items. For the campaign I had to enter a photo competition which unfortunately I didn’t win as I was stuck indoors with a teething baby most of the time, I also had to write a review for them and was then allowed to keep the phone and headset. I have really come to love the phone as it covers the main things I look for in a phone, Good camera, good battery & speedy with good connectivity. 

The LGG4 has an amazing 16MP Camera as well as an 8MP front facing camera which is used daily by myself and both my daughters who now love a good selfie haha! The battery in comparison to my HTC ONE X I previously owned is impressive even with my overuse. The system keeps up with me at least 98% of the time even with my photo gallery overflowing and killing the memory.

I had a lot of problems with the ONE X when it came to wifi however with the LGG4 I’m not only able to connect via wifi anywhere in my flat but also approx 100-150m range from my home! Rather handy for friends with no credit/data to let us know they are here haha! All in all a perfect phone for me and one I would most definitely recommend!

Relentless

My second favourite isn’t technically a product test of my own but my Mr’s, He completed a survey and we received a 4 pack of relentless which just so happens to be my favourite drink 😉

Jacobs Cracker Crisps

Doing a campaign for Bzzagent I received a box containing Jacobs cracker crisps in all 3 varieties, Thai sweet chilli, Sea salt & balsamic vinegar and Cream& chive along with a few vouchers to hand out. I like the Thai sweet chilli but I can’t eat too many at once, Sea salt & Balsamic vinegar isn’t a flavour for me at all, however, the Cream and chive were absolute heaven! I could (and did!) eat a whole bag to myself, they are so moreish and lovely dipped in Philadelphia, these are going to become a regular snack for me.

Garnier Ultimate Blends

Another Campaign run by Bzzagent was the Garnier Ultimate blends nourishing repairer collection, In the box, I received a lovely big bottle of Shampoo, Conditioner and 2x 1-minute hair treatment. After testing them for a few weeks and having impressive result’s I have swapped to the range but I am currently trying out The marvellous transformer collection and again I am pleased with the results and has even made me make time to straighten my hair regularly. There is a wide range of collections available to suit every hair type I would most definitely recommend finding the right collection for you and trying it out for yourself!

Pretty flowers On The Way To Physio

I spotted these pretty flowers on my walk to physio last week. They really stood out so I had to take photo! I love seeing bursts of colourful flowers dotted around, it makes such a difference.

Pretty Flowers 

Pretty Flowers

Since winning my LGG4 I am really enjoying taking photo’s of everything. Last month a took a shot of my stretch marks which I’m quite proud of too. I love how you can capture the beauty of everything with a camera handy.

Do you enjoy taking photo’s 

Stretch Marks

My stretch marks after having my 2 beautiful daughters. Taken with the LGG4 I won!

Stretch marks

I used to hate my body before children and it’s been a learning curve since. One thing I have learnt to love is my stretch marks. They remind me my body has been useful enough to carry two healthy girls into this world. It might not be ‘pretty’ but these stretch marks tell a story.