Review : LG G3
Review LG G3 - LG has introduced its newest flagship, with the tagline '' Simple is the New Smart '', LG G3 is a phone that prioritizes simplicity in use, but still powerful. Using a 5.5-inch IPS screen size, LG bring very high resolution that Quad HD (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) resulting density of 538ppi screen. The other great thing of the LG G3 is Laser Autofocus. With laser shots to object, autofocus speed is claimed to be faster than using the mode Phase Detection autofocus.
Design
In terms of design, in the shape or silhouette, LG G3 inherit what is obtained from G2, complete with the lock / power eccentric at the rear cover. The lock button design somewhat modified, so it looks more integrated with the design of the rear LG G3. The front of the LG G3 dual tone sweetened with a touch of color, as well as circular patterns on the bottom, which is coated again with plastic material.
To feel grip, different from G2 G3. If G2 using glossy plastic material that is smooth and easily soiled with sweat, then G3 using better materials, namely polycarbonate with matte finish and a mixture of 15 percent metal, and paint that makes the finish to be made of '' brushed metal ''.
Screen
LG G3 is the first smartphone in Indonesia, which comes with a Quad HD resolution screen. Talk of the screen, you might wonder why the G3 reaches 5.5 inch screen at a time when other vendors flagship only 5 and 5.2 inches. Is not the world has entered the 5.5-inch phablet, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2? The answer is a super slim bezel, a trend that started since the LG Optimus G Pro and LG G2. 76.4 per cent of the front of the G3 is allocated to the screen, so that the ratio of the screen to the body greater than most other smartphones, even LG G2 alone. You can see in the photo, the size of the Sony Xperia Z2 and LG G3 or less the same, even G3 looks shorter because the curved corners on the top and bottom. Whereas G3 screen measuring 5.5 inches, while the Xperia Z2 is only 5.2 inches. The difference of 0.3 inches should have a significant, but still a 5.5-inch screen used this phablet not make LG G3 be a great phablet. The use of one hand is still possible, although for typing of course another matter.
That new wide-screen affair, what with its quality, considering QuadHD screen is one of the main selling LG G3? If the screen to Full HD 720p sharp difference was not significant but still can be felt, then to screen 2K aka Quad HD, to be honest, we did not feel a significant difference with 1080p display of sharpness. Nonetheless we compare it with the 1080p screen on a smaller field of G3, which is 5.2 inches on the Xperia Z2. Hence, compared to 5.5-inch phablet up with Full HD resolution, sharpness difference may be felt.
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To be sure, as usual flagship smartphone from LG is always equipped with a high-quality IPS screen. Both in terms of sharpness, brightness viewing angle, contrast and black level, everything is ok. The screen itself characterized by warm and natural as well as in most of the IPS screen LG smartphone. Although the natural character, but still vibrant and exciting to be stared at. One more characteristic of the LG screen, exactly G2, which carried over to the LG G3 is the level of sharpness of the display that was a bit excessive. Not because the pixels are more tightly, but it seems like the level of sharpness is enhanced again, look at the small print that looks sharp. However, this is not too intrusive, it may be the average user will be happy with this, because reading the text so it is more convenient.
We remembered with the term '' Hyper-glazed '' on the Samsung Galaxy S3, but with better material. In terms of ergonomics, grip becomes better because the phone is not slippery, especially the rear curved ensure the comfort of your hand when holding the phone with a 5.5-inch jumbo screen. Thus, LG intends to strike a balance between metal-look that impressed exclusive, lightweight plastic material, but with a comfortable grip and not easily soiled.
Interface
In terms of user interface, simple impression reinforced back, with an interface that is more flat, like a trend that began in iOS 7, and features intelligent assistance. For example, Smart Buyer (intelligent notification as personal assistant), Adjustable Keyboard, Smart Security with Conten Lock and Kill Switch that functions when the phone is stolen, as well as the previously existing features in G2, such as Knock Code and Guest Mode. In addition to the flat interface, use the tone colors are also emphasized, but LG does not use light colors are bright and colorful, but rather use the old color is more mature, but still reflects the simplicity, powerful concepts embedded in the LG G3 own.
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There are several kinds of interesting effects that can be selected when making a swipe at the lockscreen: Light particle, circle vector, mosaic and soda. You can add shortcuts or widgets on the lockscreen screen. LG G3 also features Knock On, you can tap the screen twice to turn on the display of standby. Additionally, you can enable the feature Knock Code. This feature protects smartphones from the possibility of unauthorized access from other parties by utilizing a combination of finger tapping on the screen. In Knock Code, the smartphone screen is divided into four quadrants are invisible. Access security with user-generated creative combination of two to eight times a knock on the quadrant in a particular order.
Turning to the Home Screen, there is a fundamental difference compared to the LG G2 interface, namely the Smart Bulletin, which provides information about the post LG Health applications, and smart tips so that you can maximize the use of your G3 LG phone. This feature can be disabled if you do not like it. In addition, the Smart Notice intelligently provide tips for you, is actually somewhat similar to Google Now. Suppose in a cloudy day, the phone sends notice form '' will rain during the day, so maybe you want to take an umbrella. '' And other types of notification.
To edit homescreen, you need to do is just do a pinch inward against the homescreen. You can change the settings of the virtual keys (Home Touch Buttons) with some combination of back, home, recent apps as well as a choice of dual windows, notifications, quick memo, as well as the color and degree of transparency. In addition, other customization is to change the type and size of letters and Themes.
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For ease of use, you can choose Easy Home, with large letters that prioritizes functionality and appearance. If you press the Recent Apps button, here there is an option to clear all the currently active application. In addition, there are features that true Dual Window existing in previous LG flagship phone.
The main menu is composed of 5x5 icons as icon, but as with any LG phone, the size of the icons can be enlarged, so that only fit 4x5 icons alone. Notification bar has access quick settings (quick toggle) to activate Quick Memo, Qslide, sound, data, and so on (very many options for quick set there). Then there is the brightness level settings and setting the sound level as well as a shortcut to access the settings menu.
You might imagine, the difficulty of typing on a widescreen phones like LG G3. It is true, with a standard keyboard, typing by using one hand difficult. Try not to worry, LG buried a lot of features on typing. For example, you can set the keyboard height, or enable separate keyboard mode, and features one-handed operation, which position the keyboard at the end position (right or left) only. Or maybe like Path Input assistance options (like Swype), suggestion, auto-correct, spell checker, and so on.
Using super high resolution like QuadHD the G3 will slow down the performance of the phone if it is not supported innards qualified. LG cope with a pin 801 Snapdragon processor with 2.5 GHz clock. 2GB of RAM is used to support multitasking in a large screen smartphone and this sharp. As a result, the performance of the LG G3 has very qualified to carry out your daily activities, such as what you get in other flagship smartphone. But some times we encounter lag on both the homescreen interface and app drawer. This is due to the possibility that our review is still a prototype, or because the software is still simmering until completely cooked. If the cause of this, LG will soon be expected to fix it in the next software update, or in the final product to the consumer later. Please see the video below for more details about the LG G3 interface.
Camera
On the camera, such as current trends LG favor the front camera to photograph selfie, equipped with a 2.1MP front camera and pinned a large aperture of f / 2.0. Suppose features a fist to activate the timer. 5 Stretch your fingers and make a fist, then the timer will automatically turn on, more details see in the video. The other is to make your face brighter the screen lit while selfie.
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For the rear camera of LG also not kidding. Resolution 13-megapixel main camera with a fixed aperture of f / 2.4, but some improved features, such as dual LED flash, and OIS +, which claimed 20 percent more stable than the OIS on LG G2. However, the most innovative is the Laser Autofocus. With laser shots to object, autofocus speed is claimed to be faster than using the mode Phase Detection autofocus. Here, back to the G3 Simple theme is emphasized. To take pictures of objects, simply touch any object on the screen. Autofocus with a laser so fast will make your photos directly photographed shortly after the touch screen, no need to wait for the camera looking focus. When tested, it is with this method of shooting is faster than the phone in general. + OIS (Optical Image Stabilization +) itself was very helpful when you are in a state of shooting with one hand, for example.
Simple concept brought G3 carry over well to the camera feature, which is not as much as its predecessor. There are only Auto mode, Magic Focus (by taking multiple images at once, you can determine the focus after the photo was taken), panorama, and Dual (photographed with front and rear cameras simultaneously). There are also features HDR, which is useful for photographing objects to the source of light, to make it more visible. Additionally, features include setting resolution assistance (photos and video), Cheese Shutter (photographed using a voice command such as cheese, smile, whiskey, kimchi, LG), a timer and stripes help to facilitate your set composition.
The camera is quite good, especially its HDR mode draw between the shadow and the light source, and still natural, not like HDR on other phones that sometimes too natural, or sometimes even not felt. However, the lack of arrangements such as ISO quite unfortunate, limit your creativity. In the room noise is not too intrusive, but this is because the software automatically process images and reduce noise, so the detail is sacrificed, no brush effects.
There are four modes of video recording, the UHD (3840x2160 pixels), FHD (1920x1080 pixels), HD (1280x720 pixels), and Slow Motion (1280x720 pixels 120fps). At first a little confused to find a resolution setting, it turns out there are in-Resolution Settings option. Video settings and the camera turns together so for the first time maybe you confused.
Other
LG G3 using Gallery features that generally exist in the current Android devices, where you can see the entire photo or video files in the phone storage, or view by folder (album) only. Screen zooming feature is also present here, so you can vary the size of thumbnail images with pinch to zoom. You can rename files, rotate photos, make cropping, perform simple editing and displays considerable detail images such as camera model, focal length, ISO settings and others. Photos can directly be shared through Bluetooth, email, social networks and others.
Unlike G2, G3 LG does not have a special application to play the video. So, to watch the video you need to use the Gallery app. However, its still abundant. For example, .srt subtitle formats can be displayed, complete with the subtitle search manually, synchronization as well as the size, font, background and other letters. As the application of MX Video Player, you can adjust the brightness of the screen when watching a video, with a vertical sweep motion. The touch screen can also be locked when playing video.
Certainly, G3 default video player is very powerful, both of the type of video that can be played, as well as video bitrate that can be played. We tried to play a .mp4 video with a resolution of 4K Ultra HD (3840x2160 pixels) with a bitrate of 60Mbps, so the generated files of 252MB for video lasted 42 seconds. The video can be played without any problems. Similarly, a video mp4 other heavyweight, with a size of 552MB for a duration of 2 minutes 18 seconds. Thanks to the super-sharp screen resolution of 2K, 4K and 2K video look sharper, than if played at 1080p screen mobile. The file format that can be played alone, among others: mp4, mkv and avi.
Not only MP3 files can be played on LG G3. This smartphone is also able to play .flac with HiFi quality (24 bit, 192kHz). HiFi quality LG claimed more original, pure, natural and certainly more qualified to approach the original recording of the song that is playing. In addition, the music player split existing songs by Songs, Albums, Artists and genres. Songs that there could even be seen by folder. You can compile a list of playlists and favorite.
There are two web browser application on LG G3 namely the Internet and Google Chrome. There is an interesting feature in the default browser (Internet) that capture plus (capture and save a page in an image format). In opening the full site with lots of content faster performance, almost no wait time loading content (assuming fast internet use) and smooth, well when scrolling, pinch and zoom and others. The features and settings that are certainly not inferior to other phones, namely: incognito window, the Find, share, Bookmarks, an option to always open the desktop site, save for offline reading and setting the screen brightness. Also of course there is the standard setting the cache, cookies, form data, javascript, zoom, page content, accessibility and others.
Connectivity
- Quadband GSM / HSDPA
- Wi-Fi 802.11 a / b / g / n
- Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP
- MicroUSB port
- infrared
- NFC
- GPS with A-GPS support
Battery Life
Test Screenshot: Within 204 minutes (3 hours 24 minutes) the battery is reduced 56 percent.
Watched Videos: 1 hour video playback Full HD .mkv format, the battery was reduced 19 percent.
Excess
- Relatively elegant design and the material used was not cheap
- Super large 5.5-inch screen with a super thin bezel
- Screen Quad HD 2560x1440 pixel resolution
- 13MP camera with OIS +
- 4K video recording
- Innovative features such as Knock Code
- removable battery
- There is a micro SD slot
Shortage
- Performance is less stable
- The position of the lock button on the back will feel strange for some users
- Some competitors are already using 3GB RAM
Conclusion
The concept of '' Simple is the new smart '' very firmly embedded in LG G3. From the interface, the camera features and so on. No doubt about it, the G3 is one of the best smartphone today. Indeed, there are still some shortcomings, but the excess was not owned by other vendors for the moment, such as 2K screen. Also do not forget, even though the incoming class flagship. Thus we can state that the LG G3 is the Best Value for Android smartphone flagship species, for the time being.
