Gadgetory

we're at a point in the smartphone market or attention to detail makes all the difference but which manufacturer pays closest attention I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the HTC One m8 versus the LG g3 before we get started we'd like to thank our friends over at GSM nation for lending us a g3 for review if you'd like a g3 to call your own the folks over at DSM nation have pre-orders open right now pre-order at the first link in the description below since this is a battle of finer details let's start with the hardware that set these two smartphones apart from the competition the outside of the One m8 is easily one of its most distinguished features love it or hate it it's an exceptionally well-built phone and design was clearly one of HTC's priorities in making this year's one handset some feel the design of last year's m7 was prettier but we'll try to leave the subjectivity at home plain and simple this phone feels like it's worth the asking price and it looks and feels like one of the most premium handsets money can buy that's not always the case with high-end smartphones especially when they're made mostly of plastic in the past LG has been known for using slick slimy plastics even in its flagships the g3 is not one of those handsets instead it also feels great in the hand better than any LG smartphone we can remember despite the plastic build it feels solid weighty and premium most importantly LG has managed to trim an incredible amount of bezel away it's barely there and it makes the 5.5 inch phone feel as Michael Fisher said with the Moto X like you're getting away with something does the m8 feel better and more premium absolutely but it's also a bit more difficult to hold on to and we're constantly worried about scratching the brushed metal but the unique features don't end there for instance both the One m8 and g3 come with larger than normal speakers the g3 s loudspeaker positioned around back is powered by a dedicated amp and it's rated at one watt not a first in the industry but definitely a noteworthy feature the one a mate of course has us dual front-facing boomsound speakers both are exceptionally loud especially for phones the g3 speaker may be a hair louder but its rear firing and definitely sounds more muffled the m8 tends to provide a more full sound better mids and lows which also provides a more immersive multimedia experience at the other end of that multimedia experience is the display situation the one I'm AIT's SLCD three display measures five inches and bears a 1080p resolution it's easily one of the nicest smartphone displays to date the g3 is true HD IPS plus display diagonally is a half inch larger but it comes with a quad HD resolution or a density of 534 pixels per inch compared to the 441 PPI of the One m8 how noticeable is it barely but it is noticeable the thing is quad HD content is barely existent games are going to play at 1080p great wallpapers will be even harder to find and the gains are minuscule at best but the g3 s display looks fantastic even if the black levels aren't as dark as the MAS at certain angles the g3 s display also washes out and it's noticeably warmer both displays however are phenomenal things are just as impressive on the inside for both phones both are powered by the Snapdragon 801 SOC though the g3 s quad-core Krait 400 CPU is clocked at 2.5 gigahertz while the inmates is clocked at 2.3 the m8 has two gigabytes of RAM to the g3 s three gigabytes both come with 16 gigabytes of storage though the m8 has a 32 gigabyte version and both have 128 gigabyte microSD card sport and the m8 has a 2600 milliamp hour integrated battery to the g3 s 3000 milliamp hour removable battery around back the g3 has a 13 megapixel optically stabilized sensor or the m8 has just 4.1 megapixels to work with in its duo camera setup connectivity options are virtually identical as well infrared NFC Wi-Fi 802 an se and LTE however we must note that this is the Korean model of the g3 so you may or may not get LTE with your GSM carrier we've been stuck on t-mobile 3G here in the Charlotte metro area for the duration of our time with the g3 to summarize both of these smartphones are supremely high-end with gorgeous displays loudspeakers solid construction and beautiful designs on the hardware front it's difficult to go wrong with either the g3 or the m8 software is a similar story both LG and HTC took the last year to change the appearance of their custom strains of Android atop Android 4.4.2 kitkat both flattened various UI elements simplified some settings and added utility LG software certainly comes with a more full utility belt things like qslide apps allow the user to access various limited tasks without ever leaving the current application and dual window mode gives users a limited split-screen functionality if you spend enough time tinkering and tweaking settings you'll find some cool stuff like the ability to add a shortcut key to cue memo plus or the notification shade in the navigation part or change the system font we must admit we certainly like the appearance of LG's new software especially how clean it looks for how LG makes better use of the home screen real estate but the heavy customization options come with baggage in the form of an overbearing density of options and the tabbed interface of the Settings app and some things just don't make sense like the task switching menu which is still a bit disorienting HTC software is definitely more vanilla blinkfeed is one of those love or hate features aside from the appearance of a few menus and the colors it's a lot like the stock Android experience there's no true split-screen multitasking there are no native floating apps and the Settings app is definitely more digestible it makes for a more boring yet simple experience which depending on your level of expertise may be a good or bad thing neither version of software immediately turns us off which should say a lot that said a middle ground of since 6 and the g3 software would be a nice balance of everything performance is as expected great on both handsets the quad HD resolution doesn't seem to affect the g3 performance and both handsets zip through standard tasks and even graphically intense gaming side by side you may notice the occasional difference in speed switching apps load times pinch zooming in the browser etc but to harp on these minor differences is to nitpick both handsets are impressive performance machines as their synthetic benchmark scores will corroborate comparing battery life and network performance between these two models is both futile and flawed we're testing the Korean model of the g3 meaning it isn't optimized for networks here in the US we've been stuck on t-mobile 3G for the duration of a review period and battery life already had its ups and downs we were able however to reach upwards of four hours of screen on time with the g3 and the One m8 battery life has usually netted us a full day of usage though on heavier days we typically need some juice in the late afternoon especially to make it well into the night we will give the g3 points for being able to swap batteries on the fly and feature mini have come to love in light of modern day smartphone battery life the cameras of these two smartphones are of great focus but for rather different reasons HTC put a lot of effort into image sensing on the One m8 LG is d3 has optical image stabilization and laser autofocus surprisingly it isn't the landside victory we were hoping for and great lighting both take great pictures with plenty of detail though the g3 provides significantly more data to work with for cropping and post both also tend to boost saturation making photos look more lively though somewhat surreal and because g3 has oh is we expected low-light performance to be better than it was instead low-light images are extremely soft and look like oil paintings the one image dual camera is a nice parlor trick but it also comes with a lot of problems for more information on that check out our video review of the one m8 in short the g3 s images often appeared more true to life and the laser autofocus helped lock onto subjects in the blink of an eye the EM aids images had better contrast and weren't so prone to overexposing but neither camera blew us away in this comparison at the end of the day both of these smartphones are incredible their tip for tat and aside from the camera experience neither phone has a glaring flaw the user experience performance and hardware are all top-notch but we can break it down this way if you're after an over-the-top foam that has it all the g3 will not disappoint the quad HD display 3 gigabytes of RAM and removable battery all come together to make it a superior foam on paper but if you're a multimedia nut or after a phone that feels nicer in the hand the One m8 is a sure shot the boom sound speakers in higher contrast of the display boost its multimedia experience we must note that the One m8 is a little cheaper and easier to come by right now with carrier subsidies but you can pre-order the g3 through GSM nation so it's not exactly impossible to get your hands on either whichever phone you choose we're confident that you can go wrong folks thanks for watching this comparison if you enjoyed it and want to help us out click the thumbs up button below and subscribe to the channel be sure to follow us in all the usual places Twitter Facebook and Google+ at pocket now I'm Taylor Martin you can find me on twitter at casper tech and i will see you next time