Gadgetory

there was a time here in the States when LG's brand was kind of a punch line or an afterthought at best but then came the Optimus G in 2012 a pleasant surprise with its elegant hardware and responsive software that was followed by last year's g2 an aesthetic wash but a powerful contender and then the curved self-healing G flex a device we called the smartphone of the future the message was clear LG was no longer content simply to keep up it wanted to astound with its latest flagship the company looks to achieve that through the power of simplicity paired with super specifications I'm Michael Fisher with PocketNow and let's see if LG succeeded with our video review of the LG g3 here's what everyone's talking about when it comes to the g3 the earth-shatteringly sharp 5.5 inch quad HD display here's what everyone should be talking about everything else look it's not that the screen isn't impressive it is it stretches across nearly the whole face of the phone there's almost no bezels it's amazing and with 538 pixels every inch you can fit an awful lot of sharp text onto the canvas and the colors are beautiful but you can say the same about a lot of screens on the market these days 1080p screens that don't require as much power to operate and which shine a lot brighter in broad daylight the g3 screen isn't unusable in the Sun but it definitely wouldn't be our first choice for outdoors people and we don't think the bump to 2k will be noticeable for the majority of buyers out there so let's call it what it is a speck stunted the thing is once you take your focus off the display you start to see what else is great about this build its wing-like chassis is angular in a very sleek very modern way but it's also very comfortable to hold it's lightweight but not too lightweight it's thin enough to slide easily into a pocket and thick enough in the middle that it's comfortable to type on the rear keys have been re-engineered there now click ear and easier to find by feel and the back covers matte finish protects the faux metallic layer from fingerprints even if it offers no such protection from scratches dents and wear and tear it's a shame LG couldn't incorporate the self-healing coating from the G flex here as this is a slippery phone that's pretty easy to drop you'll almost certainly need a case to protect this soft plastic or you can just stock up on back covers because the stock one is removable along with the battery kudos LG the hardware powering the g3 software experience is not soft it's top of the line on our 32 gig South Korean version here that means the software is fluid even though the phone has to push a lot of pixels and even though LG still allows more customization than anyone else in terms of animations fonts and effects but thankfully that kind of tweaking isn't as necessary on the g3 because LG has finally built an interface that's both attractive and easy to use you can still wake the phone up with a double tap on the screen and knock code is a fun way to provide a modicum of security the LG health suite stands ready to help you track your activity the settings menu is as dense as it is on other phones but LG has arranged its tabs intelligently which is nice and the ability to define your own home keys down below including a toggle for the notification shade so you don't have to reach up to the top of the screen all the time is just brilliant you can also install a shortcut to trigger the split-screen multitasking to make the most of the big display even the new color scheme which we thought dingy and dull at LG's announcement looks pretty good in person now all the cruft and chrome that we complained about last year is still here it's just been rearranged the multitasking screen is crowded and swiping cards off to the side to close them is not as intuitive custom LG shortcuts now reside in the Google now swipe up and while queue memo actually does come in handy sometimes we don't see why LG is pushing its own voice assistant when Google's excellent voice interface is a available through the same gesture and we have the same question about the smart notice feature which has a lot of theoretical functionality but in practice it usually doesn't do much more than give us a verbose weather report who which is usually wrong fortunately for LG the good more than outweighs the bad here typing on the new keyboard is a real pleasure it's resizable intelligent and it's one of the only stock keyboards we don't immediately want to replace out of the box we've also warmed up to LG's floating window notifications for SMS sometimes it's even more convenient than the notification shade because you can reply faster with fewer taps this is just a taste of the smart cool stuff you can find scattered throughout the UI it's also gotten much easier to take a photo on the g3 instead of the big thumbnail grid of yesteryear the g3 s viewfinder is Spartan almost bare-bones a lot of faith is placed in the automatic mode there is no dedicated night setting or anything like that really the fancy stuff is confined to a voice-activated shutter which is supposed to have a few trigger words but which we could only get to respond to one kimchee and a hand recognizer that snaps a shot when you make a fist all things being equal we'd rather have a hardware shutter key you can long press the volume button to launch the camera from standby but it's slow and it doesn't work if you're listening to audio while you're trying to take a picture the camera fortunately doesn't seem to need much manual optimization at least not in favourable lighting even shooting in the default 10 megapixel setting resolution is sharp enough to give you room to zoom and the software seems to favor vibrance and saturation / authenticity now listen that's not a complaint for one that added bit of pop makes for a very pretty photo but also it's quite common many modern smartphones do exactly the same thing that added color is particularly welcomed within LG's HDR mode which does a good job of bringing out the detail in the shadows without applying much artificial halo or imparting graininess the cameras new hardware works well the laser usually does a good job of quickly setting a focus point and the hardware stabilization provides a steady viewfinder image the optical image stabilization also helps out in video which we tested in 1080p it's fine in daylight with great color and smooth shooting even while walking and even while walking backwards for that matter or being jostled around by the wind and the waves it's in low-light where performance suffers and you'll notice this follows through two still shots as well anywhere there's a bright light in a low-light scene the g3 tends to overexpose and also while color is exaggerated in daylight settings it's washed out in low-light and of course there's a lot of digital noise as well none of this is unique to the g3 but this average low-light performance is disappointing considering some of the great night shooting abilities we've seen from Sony HTC and Nokia among others also typical of other smart phones on the market is the g3 s rear mounted speaker but LG is quick to point out its 1 watt power output with a dedicated amplifier whose added oomph is welcomed and the phone is just as loud lying on its back as on its front voice calls and loudspeaker mode would be easier with a front firing speaker but the earpiece is plenty loud for private calls and reception has been solid on AT&T in the week that we've tested the device this being the Korean version not optimized for American carriers we're withholding judgment on network performance and battery life until we can test a US carrier version none of that effects gaming though which the g3 sample Hardware handles with a plum even if it does heat up a bit more than we're used to the g3 is the perfect example of what's possible with clever iteration it combines the best elements of each of its predecessors into one very compelling device it's not likely to redefine the way people think about smart phones and once again we're not convinced that the sacrifice is made to accommodate the 2k display will turn out to be worth it in the long run but the g3 does serve as a more intriguing alternative than ever to the same old contenders if there's something you think we missed before you leave a comment here head on over to our full review available June 14th and linked in the description below also be sure to check out our comparisons features and explorations of the g3 here on YouTube and at pocketnow.com and make sure you subscribe if you enjoyed this video until next time this has been michael fisher with PocketNow thanks for watching and we'll see you on the next one