LG G3
LG G3
A little earlier this year LG launched the LG G3, the follow up the to the hugely successful LG G2. Many in the tech world wondered if the G3 would be able to build on the success of the G2 or if the phone would simply be swept to the side by the likes of the Galaxy Note 4, the iPhone 6 Plus, and many others. I have been using the LG G3 for the last week, and I have to say that it's a very impressive smartphone, but it's not without its flaws. Is the G3 a worthy successor to the G2 or should you look elsewhere? Here is my review of LG's latest phablet.
The design
Through the years LG have produced some stunning looking phones. When looking back I can remember phones such as the G2X and the LG Optimus, and while they had their issues, the phones looked stunning, and fortunately the design team at LG have done it again with the G3.
The LG G3 is a gorgeous phone, and while it's made out of plastic, the phone does not feel cheap unlike many offerings from their South Korean rivals, Samsung. The first thing you notice about the G3 is the beautiful QHD (Quad HD) screen, it's almost the whole phone thanks to the razor thin bezels that run alongside the display. The corners are nicely rounded, and the back has a gentle curve that makes the phone fit your hand like a glove.
The G3 has an incredible minimalist design. When you look at the phone from the front there is just a small gap between the top of the screen and the edge of the phone that houses the ear piece, the front facing camera, and a notification LED. The bottom of the phone again has just a small space that houses the LG logo.
While I understand that companies want their logo's to be seen, I would have loved the LG logo to have been placed on the back of the device so that the bezels could have been even smaller around the 5.5-inch display. The LG G3 is a big phone, but it feels so wonderful in the hand, in fact I would say it is the most comfortable, easiest to hold phablet to date. The G3 is 5.76-inches tall, 2.94-inches wide, and just 0.35-inches (8.9mm) thick. The G3 weighs in at 5.25oz (149g). While it is not the lightest phone available, it does not detract from the overall feel of the device, in fact if it was any lighter I do not think the phone would feel as solid while in use.
Looking around the sides of the phone you will find absolutely no controls at all. When the LG G2 launched last year, LG introduced some new design elements, namely placing the the power button and volume rocker on the back of the phone rather than on the sides, and that has held true with this years G3.
Having the power and volume controls on the back of the phone is a feature you will either love, or hate, there simply is no in-between here. Side mounted volume rockers and power buttons are incredibly easy to reach for, even on the biggest of phones, but for me the back controls just do not work.
I continually found myself trying to contort my fingers into weird positions to try and reach them, not only that I always had to turn the phone over to hit the power button because I always struggled to find it. Just above the power and volume controls you will find the 13-megapixel camera, laser light focus, and the dual LED flash, while in the bottom left hand corner you will find the single speaker.
The very top of the phone is almost as sparse as the sides, but you will find the noise canceling microphone, and IR-Blaster (to control your TV) while on the bottom you will find the Micro-USB charging port, the 3.5mm headphone jack, and another noise canceling microphone.
Like many Samsung devices, the LG G3 features a removable back cover, and this is a feature that I absolutely love, in fact I would love to see many more phones implement this feature rather than boast claims of having a uni-body design. The back cover is easy to remove, yet the cover itself feels very rigid, and not flimsy like the covers on the Galaxy line of phones. Underneath the cover you will find the impressive 3000mAh battery, the Micro-SIM card slot, and a MicroSD card slot that can handle cards up to 128GB in size.
Overall the design of the LG G3 is wonderful. The phone is a delight to hold, it has enough weight to it to make it feel solid, and durable, while the slight curve on the back makes the phone feel like a natural fit in the hand. The rounded corners and the incredibly thin bezel that surround the 5.5-inch display make the phone look like it is all screen, and that is a wonderful thing. My only complaint in regards to the design is the positioning of the power button and the volume rocker, and while I know many find the buttons easier to use being on the back, I actually found it slightly more challenging thanks to my long digits.
LG have done an incredible job with the G3 in terms of design, and I feel that it's one of the nicest looking, and easiest to use large phones on the market. Despite the G3 being made from plastic, the phone does not feel cheap at all, which just goes to show that when it is done right, plastic casing really can work in place of more expensive aluminum frames. The G3 is available in black, white, and in certain markets red and violet. If design is as important to you as the internals, then the G3 is likely a phone you will want to take a closer look at. We know it looks good, but what's under the hood?
Under the hood
Like many flagship devices on the market right now, the G3 is a powerhouse in the world of Android powered smartphones, and while it may have a slightly less powerful processor than the Galaxy Note 4, it will still outperform most other phones on the market.
The LG G3 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, which is the same silicon that can be found in the Galaxy S5 and the HTC One M8. The Snapdragon 801 which is clocked at 2.5 GHz is paired with the impressive Adreno 330 GPU, so playing intense 3D games will be easy for the G3. Alongside the processor and GPU you will find 2GB of RAM, and either 16GB or 32GB of internal storage space, which as mentioned before can be increased with the use of MicroSD cards up to 128GB in size.
The 5.5-inch, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display that the G3 utilizes is the real star of the show here. The Quad HD screen is simply stunning, and with a resolution of 2560x1440 (or 536 pixels if you prefer to judge quality that way), you will constantly find yourself picking your jaw up from the ground, it really is that good. The display is so good that no matter what you are doing everything looks razor sharp. Browsing the web and reading eBooks are more enjoyable due to the clarity of the text, and HD videos look stunning.
The rest of the phone specifications are pretty run of the mill. You will find that the G3 has both aGPS and GPS sensors, the usual accelorometers, gyroscopes, and proximity sensors. The G3 plays host to Bluetooth 4.0 (with aptx), NFC support, wireless charging (Qi), a 2-megapixel front-facing camera (which has been dubbed the selfie-camera) and a 13-megapixel rear facing camera with a new laser assisted auto-focus. The LG G3 is one heck of a phone that packs a serious punch, but how will it fare in the real world?
The road test
To start off let's talk about the software that runs on the G3. Android has always been somewhat of an untamed lion, and performance of Google's software always differs greatly between devices simply because equipment manufacturers can change Android however they please. Samsung choose to use Android with their TouchWhiz overlay which is overkill and often introduces stutter and lag because it is so hardware intensive, while HTC use a more toned down skin that is called Sense. LG have put their own spin on top of Android 4.4.2 (aka KitKat), and they are going with the moniker of “Simple is Smart" and for the most part, LG's take on Android is great.
The first thing that you will notice is that LG have used custom icons, and in all truth they look very much like the new material design that Google has introduced in Android 5.0 (aka Lollipop). Everything looks and feels flat, and it is very pleasing to the eye, and because the overlay is so simple, it's not taxing on the processor or GPU, which means that everything is silky smooth. Screen transitions are seamless, opening applications is a very fast process, and the delightful animations when swiping between screens or opening the app draw are flawless, fluid, and fast.
Aside from how the software on the G3 looks there are a couple of nice features that have been implemented here as well. The knock to unlock feature is a great addition to the G3, and it actually works very well, unlike the tap to unlock feature on the HTC One M8 which only works half the time. The knock to unlock feature is so powerful that there are roughly 80,000 combinations of knocks that can be programmed by the user to unlock their phone.
Next up is the Smart Notice feature that sits below the elegant clock and weather widget on the main home-screen. Smart Notice is LG's take on Google now, and like the knock feature, it too works well and serves a useful purpose. Every morning when I wake up, all of my important news is front and center for me, and if something happens during the day that Smart Notice thinks I need to know about, it will simple notify me that something is going on. While these features might not sound like much, you quickly find out just how much you have come to love them when you have to move back to another device that does not have them, it's the little features like this that make a phone feel like more than a phone.
The G3 is incredibly fluid, and incredibly fast. No matter what I threw at the device it simply didn't miss a beat. From a cold start the phone booted to the lock screen in just 19 seconds, and from there on out everything happens at lightning speeds. Even while playing graphically intense games such as ROTORS Extreme Landings, and EA's Real Racing 3, the phone didn't break a sweat, even while having multiple other applications open and running in the background. Web browsing (which is how I spend a lot of my time) is ridiculously fast. The included HTML5 based browser is excellent, while Chrome also seemed to work better on this phone compared to my HTC One M8, and Samsung's S5.
The glorious Quad HD IPS display simply makes using this phone a wonderful experience. Colors pop off of the screen, and images are razor sharp. While the screen is bright, the colors that are reproduced are very natural, especially when compared to the over-saturated colors that can often be found Super AMOLED screens. The Gorilla Glass 3 has held up well too, and after a week of being stuffed in my pocket along with my keys and loose change, there is not a mark on it.
Making calls on the phone is also good experience, and the radio's included in the G3 (EDGE/2G, 3G, HSPA+ and LTE) work flawlessly. As I have mentioned in previous reviews, I live in rural Oklahoma, and the AT&T network coverage is wonderful, but without good radio's, that is a mute point. The G3 is the only phone I have used out here in rural Oklahoma that gets me a full strength AT&T LTE signal, and to me that is very impressive. Data speeds have been fast and have I consistently clocked them at 21mbps while out of the Oklahoma City Metro area, and while in Oklahoma City, the G3 would register closer to 40mbps, and that is super fast any way you slice it.
Call quality has been outstanding, and the earpiece and noise canceling microphones have performed admirably. While making calls I would purposely place myself in noisy situations, but the recipient of the call had no issues hearing me, and repeatedly told me that they could hear me loud and clear, and it was much the same story for me too. Voices came through the earpiece loudly, and clearly with little to no background noise. The speaker on the back of the phone is pretty good too, and during hands free calls the volume produced by the speaker was more than acceptable. While the speaker is certainly not the best sounding speaker to ever be put in a phone, it gets the job done well, and again even in noisy environments, you can easily hear what is being played.
Battery life is another good point for the LG G3. I am a moderate to heavy user and I was easily able to get through the day without requiring a top up. An average day would see me checking email, watching YouTube, playing games, sending hundreds of texts, and countless emails. I was concerned that the 3000mAh battery would expire quickly due to the stunning display, but making it the whole day is easily achievable, especially with the battery saver turned on.
For every day use The LG G3 has become my new favorite phone. The design is wonderful, it feels incredible in the hand, the weight is just right, the screen is glorious, and the performance while playing games, browsing the web, making calls or completing office tasks is simply flawless. In summary the LG G3 is simply hard to beat, even when compared to newer devices like the Note 4.
The cameras
The LG G3 so far seems to be a great phone, but one thing I have not mentioned yet is the camera. LG have tried something new with the G3 in regards to how the camera focuses, so I felt the need to expand a little more on the 13-megapixel shooter.
Cameras on smartphones are as important to users as anything else, in fact if you ask anyone what feature that want more than anything you will be told that a great camera is essential, and this is why many manufacturers are trying to innovate when it comes to smartphone cameras.
The LG G3 features a new infrared laser auto-focusing system, which according to LG is the first of its kind to be featured on any camera in the world. The laser used on the G3 can focus in on any object in just 220ms (for comparisons sake the M8 and S5 take 300ms). The camera does indeed focus very fast, and almost as soon as you tap the screen to take a picture, the camera has already snapped what you were looking at.
The G3 (like many other smartphone cameras) is capable of taking some great pictures, excellent pictures actually. When compared to it's competition the G3 really stomps over other Android based phones such as the Note 3, Note 4, Galaxy S5, and the HTC One M8. The LG G3 does not have the highest megapixel density, but it does have a wonderful sensor, and optical image stabilization. Pictures are clear, sharp, and always in focus thanks to the fast laser assisted auto-focus. Colors are represented well and are very natural looking, especially skin and flesh tones. Low light photography is very good as well thanks to the OIS. During my time with the camera I experienced a little white-washing, but nothing compared to some other camera phones on the market.
The camera software is easy to use, and in it's auto mode all you have to do is tap the screen to take a shot. In line with LG's 'Simple is Better' mantra the camera modes have been cut from a staggering 14 to just 4 (dual, panorama, auto and magic focus), and those who like to tinker with settings will be disappointed as the amount of options in the menu system has shrunk considerably, so do not expect to see option to change white balance or ISO. That being said though, I really did not miss being able to tinker with options because the camera really does a fine job all by itself.
The front facing 'selfie camera' is a pretty run of the mill affair, but LG opted to use larger pixels so that the selfie camera could perform better in low light situations. The front shooter does a good job, and it is perfect for the average selfie taker, and it more than acceptable for video chatting too.
The rear camera is capable of recording video in 4K at 30 frames per second (fps), 1080p at 30fps, and 720p at 60fps. Video quality was really quite good, and the optical image stabilization really helps in terms of both reducing camera shake, and in low light situations. Overall the camera's on the G3 are impressive, and they feature a new auto-focusing system that does not seem to be a fad. If you like snapping pictures, then you will more than likely be happy with the performance of the LG G3.
Conclusion
The LG G3 is available from AT&T for just $199 with a two year contract, $19.34 per month if you would like to chose the NEXT program. You can also purchase the G3 off contract for $579.99.
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Suggested Links
- Samsung Galaxy Alpha review: A beautiful phone with flawed performance
- Samsung Galaxy S5 review: A solid phone that misses a few beats
- The SkyLink SK-200 alarm review: Home automation and security in a box
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