LG G3 Review & Surprise
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2015-05-07
·
2,128 words · ~10 min read
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the G3 from LG is the first of their phones I've reviewed so it's actually my
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first experience with their particular flavor of Android it's got the usual
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topof the range spec Snapdragon 801 quad core 3 gigs of RAM on my Korean model
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well this is unusual actually a 5.5 in
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display with a 2560x1440 16x9 aspect ratio LCD display
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that is a stunning 530 plus pixels per
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inch
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with its Factory tuning and data center DNA an Intel 730 series SSD is an
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amazing choice for gamers and performance enthusiasts physically the
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phone floats my boat mostly the top features an IR blaster and a noise
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cancelling microphone Port the bottom has a micro USB charging port the main
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microphone and a 3 and 12 mm Jack and here on the sides we have well actually
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not a whole lot of anything I've been asking someone on the Android side to
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create a phone without side buttons that are POS position such that I constantly
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mash them by accident for a while and I I guess LG's solution is to completely
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remove them like the G2 the g3s buttons are on the back and this ergonomic shift
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while a little jarring at first was something that I actually got used to
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fairly quickly and if it enables thinner bezels then I like the decision the
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buttons back here are a lock button and volume up and down that you can use to
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quick launch the camera or Q memo if you long press them also on the back we find
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a laser distance finder for the camera the 13 megapixel camera itself a
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two-tone Flash and a speaker port with one watt amplified speaker or something
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like that anyway that might have impressed me if it was mounted on the front of the phone it's loud enough but
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nothing can sound quite right pointed away from your ears this seems like as
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good a time as any to mention that I think LG nailed it with the backing
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material on the phone though it looks great it's lighter it's more difficult
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to stain and it can be removed and replaced unlike most metal designs on
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top of that the phone is still very solidly built it doesn't it doesn't feel
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like a compromised brushed plastic for to win mang under it there's a user
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replaceable 3,000 milliamp battery whose performance I can't really comment on
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because my Korean unit doesn't work for cellular data here there's a Sim slot a
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micr SD slot and contacts for optional accessories like a wireless charging
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compatible back plate which brings us to the front of the phone aside from an LG
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logo 2.1 mapel selfie camera and a
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dimmer than I would like RGB LED
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indicator this is one clean design the
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bezels are slim it's nearly completely symmetrical with a very small chin and
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it is very obvious that LG wants the experience of using this phone to be all
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about that 5.5 in Quad HD IPS screen
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unfortunately the screen didn't really float my boat it's got a lot of pixels
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and I'm a major advocate of pushing the envelope technologically but there's
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much more to a great screen than res resolution the G3 screen has a warm
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yellowish cast that I don't find pleasing and a noticeably worse contrast
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ratio than the 1 M8 that makes it less
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Pleasant to use than my current daily driver especially Outdoors now I've been
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informed by others that to fully take advantage of it I need highres content
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like 1440p wallpapers but I don't really care about wallpapers and neither do a
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lot of people so the only practical benefit for me is that text is ever so
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slightly sharper when it's extremely small something that LG seemed to pretty
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much design their stock keyboard to take advantage of with its tiny symbol
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indicators when it comes to moving pictures though whether we're talking
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about games or shows I can hardly tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at
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this screen size anyway so 1440p feels
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unnecessary when other things could have been improved about the screen instead
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which leads us to the software we got off to a rough start here prompting me
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during setup to enter a backup contact phone number that sits on my lock screen
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is genius but the hardcore Ula that I had to sign made me super uncomfortable
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and it's not all bad though LG skin has an attractive flat appearance that
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differs in subtle ways from stock Android but didn't require a crazy
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learning curve to get the hang of one thing that impressed me was that it
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offers a great degree of customizability for a stock skin you can change the home
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screen switching animations change screen off Fade Out effects you can
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tailor make your own power saving schemes adjust vibration ation strength
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choose between a bajillion different unlock methods my personal favorite of
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which is not code where you just tap certain parts of the screen and then
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finally and this one's a killer you can customize the functions and locations of
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the bottom buttons and even choose whether they are hidden or persistent it
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feels like a great balance between a vanilla interface and the tricked out
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ones that Android Geeks tend to use the included keyboard is also surprisingly
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solid you can tweak a couple of buttons and alter the autocorrect aggressiveness
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and backspacing one undo auto correct swift key are you listening but there
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are still a few issues keeping me away like lack of a customizable long press
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duration being able to adjust the size though is great especially with the very
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small chin on the G3 it made more of a difference than I expected to get it
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tuned just right the settings menu where all of these tweaks reside actually
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annoyed me at first it's inefficient use of all that screen real estate even at
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the smallest font size felt very TouchWiz like but then I found out you
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can switch to a completely different view in list mode I actually found it quite efficient to navigate so thumbs up
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there but not everything about the UI is
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fast and whether it's the high resolution or something else
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multitasking is very noticeably slower
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than the 1 M8 and it makes the device feel considerably slower for me given
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how often I switch between recent Windows I also really dislike the way it
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puts your most recently used application in the top left corner it should be the
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opposite because the fastest part of a smartphone screen to act access for
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right-handed users is the bottom right it's not all bad though you can zoom in
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and out unlike sense it allows more than nine items and compared to stock Android
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it's much faster to find things that are buried deeper in the list uh other
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complaint time now I guess uh LG health
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and smart tips about using the phone are a complete waste of an entire home
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screen I turned that off right away adding extra stuff with overlapping
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functionality to the Google Now swipe up is a big no no and managing apps is
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really weird instead of hold dragging to
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delete within the app tray that does absolutely nothing as far as I can tell
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instead you go through the top right menu where you can change icon size and
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hide or uninstall apps from there but
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there's more good stuff too dual window seems crazy useful if you chat while
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watching videos the multi-item clipboard is a freaking godsend if you do a lot of
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copy pasting and replying to incoming texts without having to minimize the
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current APP is a big time time saer and and I mean the stunning number of user
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accessibility options make sense look stupid invert colors change colors for
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higher contrast send a custom message for hearing impaired users change
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headphone output so that one side is unbalanced for folks who hear better in
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one ear flash alerts for hearing impaired and I guess I guess easy home
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is the kind of thing I would enable for my grandpa if I thought he needed a top-of-the-line phone in the first place
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and I wanted to hide all the functionality from him for some reason
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okay that last one didn't make a ton of sense but the other stuff is great onto
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the camera the laser focus does seem to deliver very fast autofocusing Auto HDR
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actually was pretty pleasing to use for me um and aside from the unlabeled
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settings button I found the app quite easy and more importantly fast to use
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dedicated photo and video buttons without needing to switch modes is great
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that's something that drives me bananas about the M8 it is so slow to switch
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modes and all of the usual topof the line nice to have modes are here so you
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got the 13 megapixel still camera 4K video capture and 120 FPS 720p but while
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it's cool that the slow-mo on the camera records sound unfortunately the
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recording quality is noticeably worse than the One M8 for video lots of
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jaggies it's not a huge issue but one to be aware of if you love taking slow
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motion videos of your cats what are you going to do what are you going to do I
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vacuumed your tail which leads me to the
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conclusion some overheating issues aside I didn't encounter them here in the
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great white North By the way but it's fairly well documented on the web the G3
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is a solid Contender LG delivered a phone that looks beautiful and feels
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solid but still managed to deliver optional wireless charging a Micro SD
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slot and a high-capacity removable battery the hardware spec is up there
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with other Flagship devices and even though I'd probably prefer a more
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vanilla Android experience personally LG's skin really does feel like a solid
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Middle Ground between stock Android and those tricked out custom launcher custom
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everything Android setups that some people use all of that said the G3
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didn't quite win me over it's not really LG's fault but in spite of the very sexy
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very thin bezels the phone is still a touch too wide for me to use comfortably
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it's just too big for me to handle if you know what I mean but that doesn't
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mean it won't be perfect for you and wouldn't you know it we've got an
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opportunity for you to own your very own to try it out and find out if it's any
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good LG is giving us not one not two not three not four not five but
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25 LG G3 phones to give a away to our
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audience yes 25 now there are some caveats they are pre-production Korean
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units which means that unless you're on AT&T or in the US or a number of other
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carriers worldwide you won't be able to get certain aspects of the phone working
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so maybe you won't get cellular data for example and you'll only be able to use
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it on Wi-Fi and to make phone calls which is what I can do with mine on the
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Bell network but it's still an LG G3
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it's still the Real Deal fully-fledged phone and you get to keep it so check
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out the link in the video description on linest Tech tips.com for full details
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about how you can get one of those sent to you pretty freaking cool anyway guys
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like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a comment in
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