The IT Nerd

When I reviewed the LG G2 last year, I thought it would be competitive with the top smartphones out there. But it did have a few shortcomings with the camera being at the top of the list. But that was last October. Today we have the LG G3 which was supplied to me by Rogers. which as far as I am concerned is a big improvement over the G2.

LG has a absolutely beautiful phone in the form of the G3. It’s thin and light and has a stunningly gorgeous 5.5″ 2560 x 1440 IPS display. Having said that, it is very prone to attracting fingerprints though so you’ll need to keep a microfiber cloth handy. It also tends to wash out in sunlight. The back is removable and so is the battery which is a good thing. It feels very solid in your hand and is easy to hold. It may fit into your pants pocket, but I would suggest that you carry it in something such as a man purse or put it into a coat pocket. The rear volume/power button combination has returned on the G3. It works because your finger land naturally on them. They’ve tweaked the design though as each button has a more defined feel which is welcome by yours truly.

Here’s a quick look at the specs:

• LG customized Android 4.4.2 KitKat
• 5.5″ 2560×1440 pixel IPS display
• 2.5Ghz quad core processor
• 3GB RAM
• 32GB internal storage expandable via a microSD slot up to 128GB
• 13MP rear camera w/ Laser Auto Focus + dual-tone flash
• 2.1MP front-facing camera
• 4K video capture

One of the cool things that LG has done is come up with a cool way to unlock your phone which is included in LG KnockOn. It allows users to use a combination of taps to unlock the phone with a PIN as a backup option. It’s cool once you get the hang of it. It also allows you to double-tap anywhere on the screen to cycle power, and on the status bar at any time to turn it off, even when in third-party apps. I’ll also give LG credit for having a flat (as in iOS 7) look for their implementation of Android. A couple of Quick-branded apps make an appearance such as QuickMemo+ and QuickRemote, are present. There are other tweaks as well that I think that you’ll like that Rogers has supplied. They’ve brought apps for Rogers One Number, City TV, My Rogers, Anyplace TV among other apps to the G3. One thing that you’ll notice is that this phone is quick. It is easily on par with the Samsung Galaxy S5 when it comes to opening apps and moving between them. Another area that you’ll notice the speed is on Rogers LTE network. It clocked in at an average of 56.07 Mbps downstream and 11.58 Mbps upstream which means that you will not be starved for speed when surfing.

The camera is improved over the G2 that I reviewed last October. On that phone, the phone auto-focused constantly when I tested the video functions. That’s gone on the G3 for the most part. But I am getting ahead of myself. I should show you what the still pictures at 13MP looks like. As usual, I took a trip down to Pearson Airport to take pictures and videos of planes landing. Click on the pictures to see them at full resolution:

The quality is very good and I will note that it has an autofocus function that is easily on par with the Samsung Galaxy S5. In other words, it was quick to focus. Very quick. Now the video was shot at 4K resolution. So you want to set the video to full screen and set it to 4K to see how good the video quality is.

Now I will note that there was some autofocusing, but it was not even close to being as bad as the G2 because it autofocuses very, very quickly. Kudos to LG for improving that. I should note a couple of things about the camera. First, the user interface for the camera is very simple and straightforward. Anyone can use that interface to tweak the camera to suit their needs. Second, if you’re into taking selfies, the G3 has a neat feature that allows you to take a selfie by using gestures.

Finally, there’s battery life. I got just over a day and a half of battery life before I had to recharge. The G3 does have a few tricks like screen dimming that will help to stretch this which is a good thing. But the bottom line is that the battery life on the G3 is right up there with the class leaders.

What’s my bottom line? The G3 is certainly an improvement over the G2. It’s got a great screen, good battery life, an improved camera, and lots of speed. It’s $79.99 on a 2 year plan or $599 outright at Rogers. That’s very competitive with most of its competition. Speaking of competition, the only competition that I can see for the G3 is the Samsung Galaxy S5. If you’re considering the S5, you need to take a look the LG G3 as well and you very well may end up going home with it.