Gadgetory

longtime fans of Andhra Authority might remember that my first phone review was of the lg optimus G not only do I have fond memories of it because of that very reason it was also a pretty solid phone and then LG changed the game with the g2 by putting the button layout on the back and again despite the glossy plastic everyone pretty much agreed that it was a solid phone and now we have the third iteration in the LG g3 which again tries to change the game this time by sporting a 2k screen so does it live up to the hype and is the third time the charm for LG well let's find out because it's Josh Booher from Android authority and this is the LG g3 let's take a moment real quick and either a plot or lament LG for basically tricking us on the material all the renders looks like a metal finish but in reality it was always going to be plastic don't get it twisted though that plastic has been treated to provide that brush design and it is only one aspect to a overall a very attractive device you can't talk about the g3 without talking about that screen but before we get to the display quality the bezels should be equally as applauded for being so thin you'll pretty much get nothing else but screen there and it makes for a device that is simultaneously minimal and large due to that 5.5 inch display now the sides literally have nothing to them and why because that rear button layout returns once again in this third iteration I remember having some reservations after seeing the renders because it looked like they were going for an overly alveolar shape to pretty much every button on there but in the end when especially when you look at it in person it looks very nice and blends in beautifully with the overall design aspect of this phone they are very meaty and have a very satisfying click to them far louder than the ones found on the lg g2 and of course integrated into the button layout is the camera unit flanked by the flash diode and the new laser focusing system the headphone jack and the microUSB charging port are both on the bottom while an antenna in this Korean Edition comes out of the top corner with us return to the back cover made of a high-quality polycarbonate that has been treated to have a brushed look it's as if LG knew to go for the best of both worlds the attractive brush bill removes the issue of fingerprints but keeping things plastic allows for a removable cover even if it is supposed to be tempered however it is far from impervious from the occasional scratch and ding access underneath the cover gets you the replaceable battery and the micro SD card slot even with that large screen reaching the other side of the display is almost shockingly easy and with an overall size that comes in smaller than most other 5.5 inch screen devices easily keeping a grip on the LG g3 is to me the marquee feature in design and obviously the other marquee feature is the display coming in at 5.5 inches this behemoth of a screen is as I've already stated surprisingly easy to handle but the resolution of 2560 by 1440 resolution and the pixel density of 534 pixels per inch make for an experience unlike any other in a smartphone that's not to say that a higher resolution is really leaps and bounds better than 1080p displays though the bump up is noticeable when you're really looking for it in comparison to them as a master of panels LG puts in the high quality IPS screen with the pleasing color production that keeps from being oversaturated while remaining pretty easy on the eyes some extra processing happens behind the scenes too as LG has catered the screens to selectively lower performance in certain situations and spots to help with battery life it's a feature that I did end up noticing in one main instance scrolling through basically any text-based application like google play music playlists or reddit lists basically any place where I noticed that the text did look somewhat less than stellar it may be hard to reproduce through the lens that you're seeing here but it's something I noticed and due to the gray battery life of the g3 I ultimately appreciate it in the end you have a display on the LG g3 that is for the most part one of a kind especially considering that this is the only phone that will be widely available currently with this kind of screen and it happens to be a damn good performer now powering the large screen is the Snapdragon 801 our current reigning king of processing packages with 2.5 gigahertz of speed on top the Drina 330 and in this case three gigabytes of RAM this is a package we've seen time and again by now and its power should be without question long periods of playing in justice brought few issues and the only other place I noticed slowdown was in the recent apps screen but it has to do with how the screen is structured than the actual loading times of the apps browsing Google now and subsequent websites was also a breeze as was using GPS and navigation which I will admit was a big issue of mine in the g2 so retaining good speed throughout in a large high-resolution display is always noticeable and in the LG g3 it certainly does not disappoint in either work or play what as last year's flagship devices all took liberties with the extra features added in we have a return of some of the fundamentals in this year's phones and the LG g3 is no exception the biggest change from the previous iteration is the inclusion of a removable back cover that gives you access to the battery and also the microSD card slot and while there is going to be an antenna in this version of the Korean phone and pretty much nowhere else you do also have all of the connectivity options that you need available including NFC and of course an IR blaster for controlling your TVs despite using an international version of the phone I was thankfully able to still access LTE networks on AT&T though we can't expect this phone to make it to all the major carriers in the States when it does come out call quality was a bright spot here as clarity was had in either direction of the call but in some instances I actually had to turn down the speaker volume because it can get pretty loud and the same can somewhat be said for the rear-facing speaker which gets very loud despite having the same limitations of small grill speakers on the back pretty tinny and it's not particularly rich all around and finally we have the battery which has a pretty standard capacity of 3000 milliamp hours considering the overall size of the phone while the higher resolution screen could mean trouble for power that actually was pretty far from the truth as battery life was simply great one day in particular of usage included moderate to very heavy usage in spurts and I did notice that the very good standby time helped the phone endure in the downtime what ended up happening is I've blasted past that 12 hour mark with plenty of battery life left and that whole day included long spurts of gaming quite a bit of music playing and then of course some camera usage speaking of the camera we can pretty safely say that LG has brought everything they possibly can to their latest and greatest foe 13 megapixels are further powered by OS plus even more superior version of the cool image stabilization recently found on the LG G pro 2 as we start with the app what is striking is it starts out with the most minimalistic interface ever just tap to focus and shoot it is when you hit the loan menu button that all the elements fall into place where there once was a slew of different modes available you now have a few key ones panorama magic focus and dual dual shot works the way you would expect giving you a picture and picture photo using both cameras and panorama is familiar and pretty simple to use auto mode is what you'll use most of all as you are not able to change many settings at all leaving the phone to effectively cater the shot itself but it does manage to do a good job especially with the laser based focusing system the marquee feature of this camera is how fast it goes from prone to focus to capture because of it as such taking pictures with this camera proves to be one of the most enjoyable experiences in this year's flagships so it's even better than the picture quality holds up my camera shootout showed that consistently great photos are possible with the g3 with only the low land performance providing the real big hole pictures are generally nice and detailed though the noise reduction does make for too much softness in some photos color production isn't bad at all though many of the photos taken a warmer overall tone which is something I personally like but I can see people nitpicking on and in low-light the noise really makes itself prevalent making it clear that os+ isn't just a magic pill and the flash will be necessary from time to time stabilization helped with video as well which was also quite good 4k recording was easy and went along with little incident though it is possible to overload the processing with too much movements as you can see in this shot of the waves crashing on the shores of Corona del Mar while saying a phone has the best camera is highly subjective we can pretty safely say this though this is the best camera experience that LG has thus far achieved now refinements on the outside have more or less been put into the software experience which has been streamlined itself to have a flatter look all around and to better hide the elements that used to clutter the interface in general shades of the previous GUI iterations are here but key elements like circles in the notification drop-down and a better put together Settings menu look great previous LG features like the Q slide apps are definitely here hit behind a shade activated by a quick Settings button and even the brightness and volume toggles can be hidden for an even cleaner drop-down customization has always been LG's Forte over other OEM interfaces and it continues with aspects like even changing the soft key layout LG tends to try too hard with its interface really shoving its abilities in your face but this time around they're mostly easy on the eyes and useful like the call and text pop-ups that proved very helpful so the main additions are in the smart software ranging from quite useful to only somewhat smart keyboard brings the ability to shrink or elongate the keyboard for easier typing smart cleaner while we won't yet see its recommendations for apps not used in over a month for obvious reasons monitors the temporary files at the very least that can be deleted to save space and finally we have the smart notice which amounted to little more than a nicely worded weather report right under an already functioning weather widget and it simply needs to be expanded in order to become more useful as has become the trend with plenty of other aspects of this phone the software is yet another example that LG has achieved the best in this the third iteration of their flagship smartphone while we don't yet have a full handle on the unlocked device price for the LG g3 we can't expect the phone to come to major carriers for the premium prices on their contracts this basically puts the g3 up against every major flagship phone that has already been released this year and while we will be doing full comparisons with them to find out how the LG flagship fares we will say this a larger screen on a more or less conventionally sized body high-resolution power and a good shooter on the back make this package hard to resist and so there you have it the LG g3 as I've said multiple times already in this review it's not hard to see that the g3 shows the best LG has to offer high resolution screen might not make for an ultimately different experience over the already available 1080p screens but there is so much else offered in the g3 that makes it compelling a good camera that is faster than most shooters in its class performance that is where anyone would need it to be and despite its larger screen this one's battery life that is not just on par but it's capable of going beyond not to mention a great suite of first-party accessories on the way if there was ever a time to buy into the LG ecosystem great smartphone certainly deserves the title of flagship to light your way does it outshine the other flagships already available well that is up to you and what you want but the g3 tries to offer more than the rest and in a number of ways it succeeds allowing you to receive our newly established Editors Choice Award only given to the top crop of smartphones of which the LG g3 certainly belongs near the top of that list it looks like the third time was the charm for LG as the evolution of the G line of flagship smartphones certainly has reached its peak thus far in the LG g3 as always thank you guys very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this review of the LG g3 while we do have a great slew of smart phones here this year the LG g3 is the newest of the bunch and you know what it happened to be one of the most fun devices that I had while using it on the daily so keep it tuned to Android authority for future coverage of the LG g3 including all of the comparisons we're going to do between it and those other flagship devices also stay tuned for more coverage from my colleagues in Android Joe J is Kevin the tech ninja and of course LAN wine so keep it tuned to Android thority and drop us some likes because we'd love to see those thumbs up subscribe to our channel if you haven't already and remember to head on over to Andrew authority comm because we are your source for all things Android