It looks like LG may bring back the app drawer to the G5

The LG G5 may ship with an app drawer after all.

A recent video walkthrough of LG’s UX 5.0 interface shows the option to enable the classic app drawer. Users will be able to choose between the default “Home” layout (no app drawer), a simplified interface called “EasyHome” (which includes an app drawer), and the “Home & app drawer” option, which “provides separate layout for the Home screen and app list.”

You can spot the feature at 2:16 in the video below.

To be clear, the “Home & app drawer” layout was not present in the software we’ve seen in Barcelona at MWC. Moreover, our LG G5 test units lack it as well (LG insisted that the software on these units is not final.)

Don’t mistake this feature for the app launcher found in EasyHome, which was present right from the beginning on the G5. It appears that “Home & app drawer” was added to the UI sometime between the G5’s launch on February 21 and last week.

So, what’s going on here? Did LG react to the minor uproar created by the removal of the app drawer from the G5? We can’t tell for sure, but it definitely looks like something along those lines happened.

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There’s also a slight chance that the software running on the G5 units handed to the press lacked the feature for some unknown reason. But then why didn’t LG just come out and say it was a temporary issue?

Finally, the video itself could be wrong.

Judging from the many comments saluting the decision to bring back the classic app drawer, LG would be wise to give users their choice of layout. That’s exactly what Samsung did with the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, though the app drawer is active by default on the two Samsung flagships and disabling it requires a bit of digging through the settings.

LG said that it disabled the app drawer because it was needlessly complicated for most users. Before MWC, sources told Android Authority that Google itself was testing internally a launcher version without an app drawer.

What do you think? Are you more likely to buy the LG G5 if the app drawer returns?