The LG G5 isn't plastic, it's just a paint job

Update: LG has now released an official statement on the G5 material saga, clarifying that its flagship smartphone does sport an all-metal body.

The statement concludes "We want to reassure our customers that the uni-body of the LG G5 is advanced aluminum alloy, not plastic."

Original article...

Last week a YouTube video raised questions over the "all metal" credentials of the new LG G5, suggesting that plastic may be in play, however the South Korean firm has explained that's not the case.

YouTuber JerryRigEverything took a razor blade to the rear of a G5 and scraped what he thought was a thick layer plastic off the back of the handset. This lead to suggestions that perhaps the phone doesn't quite have an all-metal body.

However, LG's Senior Director for Global Communications, Ken Hong, has taken to the YouTube comments to clarify the G5's build materials.

"What you're seeing there is primer, not a plastic cover. As you know, primer is used to get paint to bond to aluminum, which is what we used for the G5's body. The aluminum alloy we sourced is known as LM201b (patent pending)," Hong wrote.

Primer, not plastic

"LM201b, unlike the aluminum used in other smartphones, is diecast unibody which makes it very sturdy while still maintaining lightweight properties.

"We figured out a way to integrate the antenna bands into the aluminum seamlessly so you can't feel the lines and covered the LM201b with primer and paint using a process called microdizing which means that tiny particles of metal are infused in the coating and bonded to the aluminum."

This means the G5 doesn't feel immediately like metal when it hits your palm, something we noted in our in-depth hands on review, with the paint-primer mix making for a less premium finish.

• Check out the all-metal iPhone 6S