- Wireless charging
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic
- MP4/DviX/XviD/H.264/WMV player
- MP3/WAV/FLAC/eAAC+/WMA player
- Photo viewer/editor
- Document viewer
- Voice memo/dial/commands
With
the LG G3, we saw a brand release a phone ahead of time in order to
grab a foothold in an industry that could be spiralling away from its
grasp. It's an odd thing to say considering we're talking
about a manufacturer that launched one of the critically acclaimed
phones of 2013, with the LG G2 impressing far more than most expected. But
that was last year, and LG realised that with Samsung, Sony and HTC all
bringing out far superior models it couldn't wait until later in the
year to catch up, so it's tried to race to the front of the pack with a
previously-unseen step forward in screen technology. It's also going to be one of the first that's going to launch with Android 5.0 Lollipop which will be launching before 2015, which shows LG is really pushing hard on this flagship. If
you need more evidence that this is a phone that LG has accelerated to
launch, check out the changes it's made: removable battery, microSD
slot, metallic frame and new, mature interface; in short, everything
that was wrong with last year's model in the eyes of many. So with that in mind, is the LG G3 the perfect smartphone?
Key features
There
are a number of key features that LG is touting as new and improved
this year with the G3, but none sticks out as prominently as the QHD
screen. Some might think that this is four times the pixel count of an
HD screen, and you'd be right to a degree. But only if
you're talking about 720p screens – if you're comparing the G3 to
something like the Galaxy S5, that packs in two million pixels to the
G3's 3.6 million. It's a lot sharper, sure, but anyone thinking it's
going to be mindblowing will be disappointed.
The
big question here with the screen is: why do it? The official reason LG
told me was it had done some research and had realised that Steve Jobs
was wrong. While it agreed he was right there was a
limit to what the human eye can see in terms of sharpness, LG reckons
that the way sight works means the Retina display isn't the top end.
That's obvious anyway; the display on the Samsung Galaxy S5 or HTC One M8 is significantly sharper than that on the iPhone 5S or iPhone 6, so there is more headroom. But apparently there's another level still
to attack, and that's just what it's done with the QHD screen. Where
Samsung's offering 440ppi sharpness, the G3 has 538ppi, which is
equivalent to high end glossy art books, which LG used as the benchmark
of sharpness to aim at. Dr RamChan Woo, head of
smartphone planning for LG, told me that the idea was you need pixels to
fill in the space between lines, to make something that sorts out the
'dead space', which is why it went for the upper limit to make
everything look premium. Now, here's the quandary: the
screen is brilliant, no question. Internet browsing, looking at
pictures, watching high-end video, is all awesome. But that's the exact
same feeling I had with the G2, which also had a simply stunning screen. It
feels like the QHD screen is great to look at because LG knows how to
make an amazing display, rather than offering a next level of sharpness
that blows me away. I didn't feel that I was looking at something
superior to the G2 in terms of screen quality, and with the larger heft
and hit on battery life, I believe LG has gone too early with the
technology just to make an impact. Or possibly its not
even early. Perhaps we just don't need QHD screens in our phones. The
display isn't without problems either: tilt it left or right and the
brightness drops off sharply, which makes sense when you consider how
many pixels are packed in there. It's unfair to criticise
the QHD screen on the G3 – there's no doubt all high end smartphones
will be using this technology in a year or so and in the months since
the G3 launched Samsung's joined the club with the Galaxy Note 4.
But as a headline spec, it doesn't seem to add a huge amount to the G3,
which is a shame as I was hoping to be looking at the next generation
of picture quality on a phone.
New interface
When
it came to listing the criticisms of the LG G2, the biggest problem was
the interface. It was so cluttered that if you had the remote activated
and received a message you had to scroll down to see it. Compare
that to the HTC One M8, and you've got nothing but the missive to
check. On top of that, the G2 went for a really garish and cartoony look
too, meaning it was hard to evangelise on a phone that was otherwise
brilliant.
The
new interface on the LG G3 is a big improvement. Gone is the
skeumorphism in favour of a new flat tile look. The icons are
redesigned. The different applications have their own colour scheme for
easy recognition and the colour palette is more muted than before.It's
a much more fluid system that shows LG has grown up, taking the
problems of before and making it into a more intuitive way of navigating
through the handset. LG has definitely taken touches
from HTC, Samsung and Apple with the new interface. The home screen
features a separate section for the pedometer and tips videos (where
Samsung's pointless magazine option is on the Galaxy S5), the colours
are very similar to HTC's on the M8 and the flatter design owes more
than a tip of the hat to Apple. The interface is still a little cluttered, but overall it's a tick for LG updating something that sorely needed a new look.
Metallic shell
As
mentioned the other big problem with the G2 was the fact it had a
really glossy plastic shell. The phone was well packaged, but still
didn't offer the same premium quality as the HTC One, iPhone or Sony
Xperia Z1. So with the LG G3, the South Korean brand has
gone for the best of both worlds. It's created a 'metallic skin' that
supposedly looks and feels premium, but offers the lower weight and
added connectivity benefits of polycarbonate.
It might look similar, but the feel in the hand is very differentThe
problem is, LG hasn't really managed this lofty goal. The G3 certainly
looks the business, bringing a more iconic look of brushed metal and
some cool colours (black, silver and gold) to make it stand out on the
shelves, which makes sense given it's mostly screen otherwise.But
the second you pick it up, the plastic nature jars with the look of the
phone, which is a disappointment. It actually feels cheaper than the G2
thanks to using a removable back, which lowers the tightness of the
packaging and makes it feel more hollow. The upside of
this is you've got a removable battery and microSD slot, both of which
are a big win for a certain section of the customer base. That said,
there are better ways of doing this, as you can easily have a slot for a
microSD card without needing to remove the back.
The battery and back cover are both removableAnd
I know a few people disagree, but a unibody phone feels better in the
hand and a portable battery pack is much more useful than being able to
swap in a new battery - it's easier to charge, for one, and 98% of users
will never swap the battery in and out anyway, so why bother when an
integrated unit can offer more capacity and better design?So again, LG has stepped forward with the G3 – but it's still not quite got all the pieces together when it comes to design.
Health chops
The
LG G3 doesn't have the heart rate monitor that the Samsung Galaxy S5
packs, which means some will see it as less of a phone for being able to
keep you on track. That's not true though, as it
features a fairly in depth stride sensor and some other elements to help
you maintain a healthy lifestyle. And when the Android 5 Lollipop drops, the G Watch R
will be able to automatically take your heart rate at intervals
throughout the day (as well as being able to unlock your phone through
proximity to the smartwatch) which should give you a fuller picture of
what's happening to you health-wise.
Simple camera with laser autofocus
The
13MP camera on the LG G3 is also another big talking point, both in
terms of the new look to the interface and the additional technology on
board. I'll start with the latter point: the laser auto
focus, which is designed to make it the fastest-focusing smartphone on
the market. It seems to be true at times, but I'm not sure shaving
another 100 milliseconds off makes that much of a difference when
boot-up speed is more important.. It's possibly a bit
unfair to say that the extra speed isn't warranted – if the system
worked perfectly, chances are you'd take 10-20 more high quality
pictures that capture the moment compared to the competition, but
without being able to fully test the system it's hard to comment. The
laser works by sending out a conical infra-red signal (using technology
nabbed from a robo-vacuum cleaner from LG's home appliances division)
and absorbs information from the surroundings to create an instant and
clear picture for the camera to use. This means it doesn't have to look for contrast shifts like before, and offers a sharper image. The
interface is really scaled back too: it's nothing more than a back
button, a menu icon and the viewfinder. Tap the screen and it focuses
and takes the picture, designed to be simple and effective.
It
also doesn't let you focus to check the shot composition before taking
the photo, which would be nice – but then again, tap that menu icon and
you get all you need in terms of shutter, options and video recording.The G3 is all about simplification, and this kind of technology really works. It's a little too scaled back for the camera, but it's the right idea. The
front 2.1MP camera is now cringingly called the 'selfie' camera – it
seems that dreaded word is here to stay, at least for a few years. The
lens is a wider angle, so you can get more friends into the photo (or
more actors at the Oscars) and features clever gesture recognition to
take the photo. Hold your hand out, make a fist and it'll
start the G3 self-portrait timer. It's a clever system and it works,
which is great for those moments when you can't use both hands and don't
want to tap the screen. Another cool feature is the
ability to have a front-facing flash, although it's not an LED light.
Instead, part of the screen goes white, which illuminates faces and
takes better pictures. LG has even white balanced this screen to correct
skin tone imperfections – and it really gives some nice front facing
snaps.
Design
LG, as I've mentioned, was keen to tout a number of features
of the new design that make the LG G3 a real upgrade over the G2. One
of the big elements, and something that was seen a number of times in
the leaks leading up to the launch was the metallic skin that now adorns
the new phone. Considering the all-plastic unibody of
the G2 was one of the main issues I had with a phone that was pretty
close to 5 stars, the leaks showing a shiny metal body to the G3 got me
pretty excited. We're all friends here - I'm OK admitting that to you. But
then when the phone was displayed for the first time, it was a plastic
shell painted to look like a brushed metal case. LG was almost
apologetic about this, saying it wanted to deliver a metal phone that
felt as premium as possible, but the mechanics simply didn't allow for
it.
The shell is covered in a film to look metallicThe
result is somewhere between the two, as LG has created a special film
that takes away the plastic feel somewhat while still looking the part
in a world where consumers are crying out for a high-end design.And
to look at it on a table or on the shop shelf, it's a great-looking
phone. And LG has done something else that I was crying out for: made
the backplate removable, allowing you to swap the battery and add in a
microSD card. I'm not convinced that the world needs to
be able to remove a battery in a phone, but I always think a microSD
card is a good option to have. Despite internal storage being a better
thing in terms of phone function, the LG G3 comes in only 16GB and 32GB
options and most will buy the former, which doesn't give a huge amount
of room for all the larger apps on offer these days.
A removable battery allows the design to incorporate a microSD cardAnyway,
the fact that the battery is removable might be a big win for some, but
it comes at the cost of feel in the hand, as the LG G3 doesn't feel as
nicely packaged as the G2, which is the design sacrifice necessary when
you add in a backplate like the one here.The result is
that despite being made of a more refined material, the LG G3 actually
feels cheaper in the hand than the G2. Not by much, but enough for me to
long for this metallic plastic to be used on the older version. And
then there's the issue of the screen. Not the actual display itself,
which I've already said is excellent – but the size of it. The
term 'smartphone' is constantly evolving; where once we thought
anything over 4 inches in terms of display size was enormous, it's now
tiny. So we're now seeing phones with a 5-inch screen as a normal option
at the high end, and I get the feeling that's the limit of what's
acceptable.
Thin bezels help the screen feel less cumbersome - but not completelyActually,
perhaps that's a little harsh, as the LG G3's screen size isn't overly
cumbersome, thanks in part to packing really thin bezels around the
side, which means a large amount of the front of the phone is dominated
by the display.But 5.5-inches is just too large to be
considered a smartphone – we're definitely at the bottom end of phablet
territory here. This means it's not as fluid to navigate around the
screen with one hand, and combined with the more angular corners it's
not a great experience when using the G3 day after day. I
do like the rear buttons though. The principle gets burned into your
muscle memory much faster than you'd expect, to the point where I keep
tapping the camera on other handsets I review to turn off the screen.
The rear buttons work and are well-placedAnd
LG's upgrades here, making the power button more rounded and the volume
keys ridged, means it's even easier to operate without looking. If
you're thinking this is something that's a reason not to buy the phone,
then disregard it – it's actually a really neat feature and one that I'm
surprised hasn't been copied yet.In summary, LG has
both improved the design of its flagship phone and taken a couple of
steps backwards. The G3 certainly looks more premium, and offers the
removable battery and microSD slot some people believe they simply
cannot live without.
The rear speaker is loud and powerful, but still tinnier than the best out thereBut
in making the backplate a separate piece, the tight packaging has been
negated, and as such I found holding it less pleasant than I did with
the G2. If you're going to make a phone look metallic, then it has to have the same pleasant weight seen on the excellent HTC One M8 or iPhone 6 Plus, where this is more like the Samsung Galaxy S5 in feel, albeit with a coat of paint and no weirdly dimpled back. True,
the new design is much less drawn to fingerprints than the predecessor,
but that doesn't change the fact that those who don't want a phablet
will see the G3 as a touch too large.
Interface and performance
LG's theme for the G3 is 'Smart is the new Simple' and one
of the key factors in this is the all-new interface it's put together
for the new handset. One of my big criticisms of the LG
G2 was that the interface was simply awful: cartoon-like, hard to
understand, cluttered and simply not up to the standard the HTC One M8
and friends offer. So it's great to see that the brand
has gone back to the drawing board and made something that's more
fitting with a top-end handset. The garish colours are replaced with
more muted 'mature' hues, meaning out goes the bright yellow and purple
to be replaced with softer greens and autumnal burnt reds.
The interface is much less cluttered compared to the G2 (centre)Each
core app, such as contacts and messaging, has its own colour to help
you discern where you are in the phone – if that was a confusing problem
for you – and the notifications bar has been stripped right back to
simply pack a row of quick settings and the stuff you want to know
about.By default you do have a brightness bar and the
option to control volumes (which is useful when you're using the phone
in landscape) but these can be toggled on or off, depending on your
preference, which allows for a very clean notifications zone. If
you think of it as somewhere between Samsung's new TouchWiz and native
Android 4.4, you'll be pretty close. It's not as close to standard
Android as some would have you believe, as the notifications area and
menu systems are different, but the ethos is there and it's very
similar. That closeness has allowed LG to be the first
non-Nexus brand to bring its software to a flagship phone, with the new
interface taking a lot of the visual cues already added in from the
first G3 interface iteration. The good news is this will speed up the
flagship phone even more, which should make sweeping around the home
screen a joy. The interface is visually a triumph for LG,
a new look that brings a freshness that sends a statement that the
South Korean brand is finally looking to make the step up to top-tier
manufacturer. To that end, there have been a couple of
extra features added in to help with day to day living – these include
helpful video tips that alter throughout the lifetime of the phone (so
start-up tips in the first few weeks, app tutorials for the programs
you're not using a bit later on and then telling you about new LG
products as the G3 nears the end of life).
Smart notice can be a bit foolish at times... 'friend's birthday'The
idea is clever, but one you'll not really use that often. The same can
be said of Smart Notice, a constant label that hangs beneath the weather
widget on the home screen. This is meant to be the
companion in your phone, allowing you to see the truth behind the
weather by prompting you when you'll need an umbrella or offering to
save a contact that you call multiple times but isn't in your phone
book. The thing is more often it tells you when there's a
new video to watch, or adding helpfully that when it's foggy outside
'it's very foggy'. The idea is cool, but it's more annoying than
helpful, at least in the first month of ownership. I also got a number of shipping forecast-style updates when in New York. Helpful. So,
onto the performance of the LG G3; as you can guess with the Snapdragon
801 CPU on board and up to 3GB of RAM (if you buy the 32GB iteration of
the phone) this handset performs well on standard benchmarks. However,
in day to day use it's not great. There's a definite lag under the
finger that's simply not present when using the HTC One M8 or iPhone 6,
and it's quickly noticeable. In side by side tests
opening and closing apps was markedly slower on the LG G3, and while
we're talking nanosecond differences it does all add up. I definitely
felt the G3 wasn't as slick as other handsets on trial, and the problem
didn't resolve itself between getting the European version of the
software and the pre-production Korean handset. It's not
deal-breaking, but I'm confused as to why a firm that prides itself so
much on engineering would let something like this slip through. There
were also a few freezes here and there, but nothing that you won't see
on most other smartphones. The benchmark GeekBench 3
results could give a clue as to why - the LG G3 doesn't perform as well
as the rest of the competition, which could be partly down to the extra
pixels needing to be driven. It's surprising, given LG usually bosses
these tests, but Geekbench is designed to replicate real life use as
much as possible, and the results tally with the way I found using the
phone.
While it's not as extreme as the graph looks, there is something of a lag on showApp compatibility is still an issue as well: some of the top apps simply aren't there, such as Real Racing 3,
making it hard to properly test some elements of the phone. These will
probably come in time, but be warned that if you're using the LG G3 from
launch you won't be overly happy with some of the limitations.
Knock On / Knock Code
LG's proprietary way of unlocking the phone is back for a second round – and it's as good as it was before. The
notion is simple: you tap the screen twice when turned off to unlock
the phone (if you've not got lockscreen security set up) and can then
tap the notification bar twice in quick succession, or any empty area on
the home screen, to shut it down again. It worked really
well on the LG G2 to the point where, like the rear buttons, I often
tried the same trick on other handsets. Others are coming on board now,
like the Sony Xperia Z2 or the HTC One M8, and of course it was Nokia's idea in the first place to invent the technique.
Knock code works, but it's a bit clumsy at timesBut none do it as well as LG, and it's a real boon.And
that's where the brand reached a little too far in my opinion by adding
in Knock Code. It's a clever system where you can simply tap the right
quadrants of the screen with the screen turned off and it works the same
as an unlock code or pattern. The issue I had was that
it didn't register 80% of the time. This was often down to the fact you
pick the phone up holding a portion of the screen, which seems to
register as an early tap to add into the code. This
means the screen still lights up, but prompts you once again to enter
the code. If you must have security then it's OK, but tapping the
display twice to wake it and entering the pattern is a little simpler. That
said, if you opt for the simplest pattern first and really try at it,
you'll get some joy more often than not, and when it works Knock Code is
second only to the iPhone's TouchID in terms of a simple way to open
the phone.
Battery
Battery life on the LG G3 was an area I was really
interested in checking out, as you'll have noted in the hands on review
of the handset. With its 3000mAh battery, the power pack
on the G3 is certainly big enough, but it has to fire all those extra
pixels, which could limit things. But then again, it's also got the
ultra-efficient Snapdragon 801 CPU that even made an HTC phone last
through the day without giving up the ghost. Well, let me let you wait no longer: the battery life is great. It's not quite as
impressive as other LG phones, but given the extra power that's needed
as well as other brightness controls, it's a stellar effort and one that
will easily see you through a day or so of medium to hard use. LG
has worked all its magic to get the power efficiency of the G3 to the
maximum possible, and you won't see a lot of the stuff that's going on
under the hood in day to day use.
The battery lasts OK - as long as you don't watch videoIt
all depends on what you're doing. The frame rate of the display will
slow down if not needed, as will the clock speed of the 2.5GHz quad-core
CPU, and the LCD controls themselves also adapt to your usage, and it
all works well together.The result is that I never
really noticed the phone getting overly warm either, which usually hints
at strong power efficiency. However, what's interesting here is that
the LG G3 performed very badly in our video rundown test, coming in
lower than even the HTC One (2013) which was one of the worst at running
video at a higher brightness. So while the day to day
use isn't terrible, clearly firing all those pixels is causing the G3 to
melt a little even with full HD video. This only matters if you're
constantly using the screen to look at myriad things on the phone, and
even then the G3 is intelligent enough to slow power use down when
jumping between apps. The graph below shows the G3 to
have poor battery when it comes to using the screen in our looped 90
mins HD video, with a lot more battery life lost than the competition,
proving that firing the pixels isn't a treat for the phone - although
when you're not watching video or internet browsing it's a lot more
robust.
It's
interesting to note that LG doesn't seem to have the same Ultra/Extreme
power saving mode as seen on the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 –
I've not been convinced of their need to be a headline feature, but if
you're in a pinch these modes can turn the phone down to the minimum
power drain possible.It's not needed, but such is the
synergy between what Samsung and LG do with their flagship phones I'd
have expected to see it there. It's also great to see the
LG G3 coming with wireless charging out of the box, although not all
models will have this feature. It's frustrating that it's not a standard
feature on more handsets, as it would help with the proliferation of
the method of charging a phone. LG says this wireless
charging is based on the Qi standard, and while it seems to be a little
confused over which charging pads it uses, it's ace to see it there from
the start. Overall, battery life is good enough on the
LG G3, and as something that most people look for in a new smartphone,
this is a real recommendation.
The battery is removableThere's
a small, wistful, part of me that almost wishes that the QHD screen
wasn't added into the G3 – which I appreciate borders on the
hypocritical given it's something we've been looking forward to for a
long while in a phone.But given LG's ability to eke the
most out of the battery, this could have been a record breaking phone,
especially if the battery had been sealed in. The LG G2 had a battery
that was morphed around the internal components, so if we could have
feasibly had an even larger capacity on a phone that didn't draw as much
power, meaning you genuinely wouldn't have to charge more than once
every two days. It's not fair to criticise a brand for
pushing the boundaries of technology in everyday devices, but it perhaps
hints that longer battery life would have been a better selling point
than the first QHD display, especially now that it's not even the only
phone with a QHD screen any more.
The essentials
One of the big selling points of the LG G3 is the fact the
company thinks it's sorted the onboard keyboard, making it into
something more useable and better than the wealth of third party options
out there. It's certainly taken some dramatic leaps
forward, as the keyboard is both resizable and able to learn from your
typing action, meaning it becomes more accurate the more you use it.
The keyboard doesn't quite impress enoughThe
resizing option is pretty good, although increasing the height of the
keys does limit the space you can see what you're actually typing, which
isn't great when you're trying to enter text into fields on the web
browser.Similarly shrinking it doesn't do a lot for
trying to improve the accuracy, no matter how much I used it. One of the
other elements that LG has brought in is the next word prediction, but
it's not really got the idea well. For instance, if
you're trying to type 'can't' but accidentally enter 'vant' then it will
still go with that option, rather than working out succinctly what
you're after. I always use the test of whether the
keyboard makes me want to install Swiftkey Keyboard, and sadly with the
LG that was the case after a couple of weeks' use. The
ability to change the layout to your own choices slightly is a big boon
though – having the comma key instead of settings is a real win. But
given so many good aftermarket options are so good, I can't say the new
keyboard is really a selling point; HTC's One M8 is still the only
phone I've not bothered to upgrade the typing experience on. The
call quality on the LG G3 is pretty good though, as it seemed to offer
really good connection throughout. It also comes with all the bells and
whistles you'd hope, such as being able to message straight from the
call if you so need.
The contacts list is pretty standardThe
one issue I did note is that the LG G3 sometimes struggled to get a
signal where other phones managed it just fine – it wasn't that the
signal was weak, or the reception from the phone poor, it just was stuck
searching to find any reception, meaning a restart or putting it in and
out of airplane mode to sort.However, it was decent at flipping in and out of Wi-Fi and 4G – while it doesn't have the download booster of the Samsung Galaxy S5, when it gets a fast connection it didn't let it go. The
internet browsing, as a result, was super slick and speedy whether
using the onboard browser or Chrome – the latter isn't obvious, but now
that Google's managed to get its mobile internet app up to speed I can't
see why you'd use LG's option.
The two onboard browsers are almost identicalIt's
not that it's bad, but it harks back to an older era where the clever
notions were from the manufacturers and Google's Chrome offered nothing
more than a desktop sync – but that advantage has been eroded now.
Camera
The camera on the LG G3 is a pretty good affair, despite
being largely similar in spec to the LG G2. This means the same 13MP
sensor, enhanced optical image stabilisation (OIS+) and the same efforts
to overly-disguise noisy photos by smoothing them with software
algorithms. But on the software side, LG has stripped things right back to make one of the most streamlined UIs for a phone yet.
Turn
on the camera and you'll be greeted with just a back button and small
set of dots to signify more features, should you want them. Simply tap
the screen to focus where you want, and the phone takes the shot
quickly.
The camera interface is super-simple, but too feature poorIf
you want to just take speedy snaps, this is a great method (and the
camera is activated by holding the down volume button in standby mode,
and can be used as a shutter button too.If you want a
few more options (and I do when taking a photo) then intriguingly the G3
doesn't have much more to play with. You can toggle the HDR mode on or
off (it's on by default), enter dual capture, panorama or 'Magic Focus'
which is the same re-focus feature that's become popular with all
high-end phones. There's no way to change the ISO
settings, exposure or contrast… it's a camera with minimal interaction.
It's not a bad thing, but I would like to see a touch more control, even
if it's buried down through the menus. Nokia, Samsung
and even HTC have done a great job in starting the education process of
how to get great snaps by playing with settings, but it seems LG is more
interested in doing the same as Apple and not getting in the way of
your pictures. The actual picture quality is pretty good,
with well-lit scenes giving really clear, sharp and well-defined snaps.
In lower light the G3 is good, if not as fast at taking snaps, although
that image smoothing easily goes over the top – like the One M8, if
you're thinking of zooming in or cropping your photos, some will look a
bit muddy on the G3. But the general pictures gained from
day to day photography are up there with the best on the LG G3, and
it's a real recommendation from me. The autofocus needs a
mention here again – the laser shooting out a conical beam to check out
the room leads to blistering autofocus, and does notably out-do the
Samsung Galaxy S5 in terms of going from a standing start and snapping
the picture..
The
S5 struggles to wake from sleep mode as fast as the G3, and the speed
of the shutter is so impressive with the latter – check out the snaps
below to see.The other big change is the front facing
camera (and I refuse to use the S-word that LG has named it with) by
increasing the angle of the snap, so you can fit more in. You can also
open and close your hand to start the countdown, which means if you've
framed the photo well you won't knock it out of shot by tapping the
screen. The beauty slider is present too, meaning the
photo is smoothed out to make a weird soft-focus on your face
(especially weird for men with beards, as they end up looking like a
sooty smudge). I do like the addition of the 'flash' on
the front. As I mentioned, this sees the front camera image shrink down
and the surrounding area go a skin-friendly white tone, meaning in
darker scenes I got much better pics.
Camera samples
In bright light the G3 is simply excellent
However, despite having an Auto HDR mode, mixed conditions don't always look as good.
The optical image stabilisation is amazing. These two pictures were captured while jogging The quick autofocus doesn't impress. This is a carefully focused shot This is the same one shot with a quick movement back and forth The G3 struggles badly in low light. The software smudges the picture to compensate for the darkness, which looks muddy Indoor shots have the same problem Making effort with pictures can yield good results - but the same was said of phones from last year The automatic macro mode is impressive However, trying the same thing with the simple 'tap to take' mode enabled means focusing is almost impossible
Media
Media on the LG G3 is predictably excellent for a number of reasons: the screen and audio experience being two of them. The
QHD screen is something that has to be seen to be believed – the
criticisms of it earlier aren't that it's a bad screen (quite the
opposite, it's stunning) but more that the effect isn't that much better
than a Full HD screen. It is better though, and
even average movies look a touch sharper than they would do otherwise –
plus you've got a much bigger display to look at.
The video player is hidden, but impressesFor
instance, I was browsing through some video files I had on a spare SD
card, and came across one that was shot in QHD resolution. Well, that
was what I thought when watching it back… it was actually a 720p file
when I checked it out, which was amazing given the flawless detail on
offer.The preloaded stuff from LG is obviously the most
amazing thing, and nobody that I showed off the starry night scenes to
wasn't gobsmacked by the detail on show. However, it was the same
reaction that I saw with the G2, and with the G3 you'll need to be ready
to put up with that larger screen.
The player is feature-packedI
do wish the Video player was still a separate app, as it's still in
there (as the option to use it comes up when you start a video for the
first time) as rooting the Gallery isn't that much fun.
Music
The
music player on the LG G3 is both simple and sophisticated at the same
time. It can handle really high quality audio (LG had to rewrite some of
the core code of Android to facilitate this last year) and the new
phone has a built in amplifier to make music sound louder and clearer
with less distortion. This means if you're properly into
your tunes, then 50MB FLAC files will be noted with a small 'Hi-Fi' icon
next to them, and sound really rather nice. But even the tunes you've
ripped in low quality from a CD sound OK – nothing amazing, but team the
LG G3 with a decent pair of headphones and you've got a brilliant sound
system. There's not a lot more to say about the music
player though, as like with many high end smartphones it's more out of
the way than in your face. You can control the tunes from
the notifications bar, or the dedicated widget on the home screen. The
Android 4.4 trick of having full screen album art on the lockscreen is
there too – it looks awesome and it annoys me it's on every top Android
phone bar the HTC One M8. The speaker on the rear of the
phone isn't as good as the competition though. I've come to adore front
facing speakers on both the One M8 and Sony Xperia Z2, not to mention the Sony Xperia Z3
and to not have it here is a failure. It's loud, that's for sure, and
the internal amplification means it doesn't distort too much, but it's
only OK.
The competition
The LG G3 is entering a really rather packed smartphone
market, and these are the big phones you'll probably be considering over
the South Korean's big hitter – take a look to see how it stacks up
against the best the competition has to offer.
Samsung Galaxy S5
Samsung's
had a little bit of a swing and a miss with the Galaxy S5, as while
it's a great phone with a lot of power, it still pushes too hard on the
gimmicks with a low-quality chassis compared to the rest.The
screen quality is high thanks to the Super AMOLED on show, but I'd say
LG still shades it with the higher resolution, if not the brightness or
contrast. If you want the best of both then you can always hold out for
the Galaxy Note 4. In terms of design the LG G3 is ahead,
especially when it comes to looks, and the brushed metal effect doesn't
feel too bad in the hand – plus there's no faux chrome. LG's
simplicity trumps Samsung's efforts with things like the heart rate
monitor – I get the feeling Samsung is going nail the health market in
the future, although not with this phone. The S5 is also waterproof,
which is much less of a gimmick, and something it's interesting LG opted
not to do.
iPhone 6 Plus
Apple's
out the gates with its first phablet and it's got an LG G3-matching
5.5-inch display. It's a strong first attempt too, with a 401 pixel per
inch 1080p screen, sporting impressive viewing angles, great contrast
and bright colours. I'd argue that it's not quite a match for the LG G3's display though, thanks to that phone's crystal clear QHD resolution. The
iPhone 6 Plus certainly trumps the LG G3 when it comes to looks though,
with a truly premium body and it also gives the LG G3's camera a run
for its money. But despite its high-end appearance, the
design of the iPhone 6 Plus makes it more awkward to use one-handed than
the LG G3, as it's both taller and wider. Its biggest problem though is
its price tag, because with a starting price of £619 it makes the LG
G3, which can now be found for under £400, look positively cheap and
it's hard to justify the extra expenditure.
HTC One M8
The best phone on the market doesn't have anything to worry about from LG – but it's not miles and miles ahead. The
metal construction, mature overlay and focus on the key elements of
sound and general user friendliness abound with this powerhouse of the
phone world, albeit not a status that's matched by sales. That's
not to say the LG isn't without charm and plus points: the battery life
is superior and the pictures that it spits out are of slightly higher
quality. The design doesn't hold a candle to HTC, and the
user interface isn't as powerful, but if you value power and specs over
a more balanced phone, the LG G3 isn't a bad choice.
iPhone 5S
The
difference between the iPhone 5S and the G3 is stark – one is compact,
the other massive. LG reckons that the Retina display has had its time
in the sun, and it has found the ultimate screen resolution – yet Apple
stuck with Retina HD for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.The
iPhone 5S probably has a more robust camera that's a little simpler to
use and handle, and the app selection is improved. But everything from a
faster OS to a better screen and improved audio experience swings
things in LG's favour.
Sony Xperia Z2
It's
a tricky one to decide whether to recommend the Sony over the G3, as
both are rather large handsets with the same powerful innards.The
screen quality on the Z2 is appreciably better than Sony's efforts in
2013, and the user interface matches LG's in terms of simplicity. The
cameras go toe to toe as well, although Sony's odd predilection for
noise in lower light snaps is still a conundrum I'm trying to work out –
the company drafted its camera team to improve the sensor, so to have
that miss is odd. In terms of design the Z2 is definitely
superior – it's slightly more compact in the hand (although it is tall)
and the glass / aluminium casing feels really nice too. This
is a tricky one to call – I'd suggest trying both out if you're torn or
hold out for our Sony Xperia Z3 review and consider that instead.
Verdict The LG G3 is a phone that shows the South Korean brand knew
it needed something better than the G2 to compete with the best Samsung,
Sony and HTC have to offer, which is why it arrived less than a year
after the G2.
It's
supremely powerful and addresses nearly all the issues I had with its
predecessor – so has LG suddenly created the ultimate smartphone?
We liked
The
screen on the LG G3, when used properly to display high-resolution
content, is immense… LG knew that, and has been rightly making a big
deal about it. The overall design of the phone is vastly
improved too, with the faux-metal cover not necessarily feeling great
but certainly looks the part when laid on a table. The
camera is powerful too, leading to some great snaps and not letting me
down when I wanted to just capture the moment here and there. The size
of the phone makes some shots slightly harder, but overall it's a good
sensor to pack on there. I really like the new interface
LG has created – it's clean, flat and really shows a maturity from a
brand that erred far too much on the side of 'fun' rather than making me
feel like I had a phone that was worthy of a significant chunk of
change each month. The battery life is also really
impressive – sure, it only matches the competition, but given it has so
much more to do with the QHD screen it's a revelation really.
We disliked
So
how can a phone that's improved in nearly every area have any flaws?
Well, there are a few areas where LG has made compromises that haven't
quite worked – and dropped the ball in others. For
instance, the lag in the interface is really irritating – that beat
between launching apps and jumping back to the home screen is annoying. The
fact that it's not optimised for some apps isn't cool either – I'm not
sure whether it's the screen (although they should scale) or some
internal jiggery-pokery… but it's a flaw, no doubt.
The
QHD screen is also a drawback – I know what you're going to say, so let
me explain. Yes, it looks great in perfect conditions, but a good
smartphone is about balance. There's no point having technology for the
sake of it, and that's what the QHD screen feels like right now.Internet
browsing, watching videos and generally using apps looks a bit better,
but nothing massive. If you weren't looking for it, you'd just think it
was a decent screen, and I've had the same feeling from the likes of the
Samsung Galaxy S5, the LG G2 and the HTC One M8. Without
the screen, which does lose brightness when viewed from anything other
than straight on, the battery would last longer, the lag might have been
removed and the LG G3 could be made to sit in the palm better. I'm all for advancement, but the screen on the G3 feels like a headline spec rather than something that enriches a great phone. The
camera needs to perform much better in low light too - it's too heavy
on the smudges as the software tries to cover up a slight inability to
perform in the dark. We've all been there.
Verdict
The
LG G3 is a great smartphone – like its predecessor, if you're after
power and precision, perhaps over design and form, then this is a
winner. The camera and battery combo is sure to win some
hearts, and the improved user interface both will attract new users and
give relief to those that were put off by the clutter on the G2. However,
I think something was lost in design in making the backplate removable –
I feel that unibody designs just feel better in the hand thanks to
being more solid, and I miss that from the G2. The
plastic / metal doesn't feel great in the hand either, and the
dimensions are very much small phablet rather than big smartphone, which
you'll need to take into consideration if you're thinking of buying the
LG G3. If that doesn't bother you then the G3 is a
really impressive, very accomplished smartphone that drops the gimmicks
to create one of the most powerful and impressive handsets you can buy
right now.
