The Lucid brand is exclusive to LG and Verizon, this is the third iteration of the mid-ranger, and it just keeps getting better and better. I checked out the Lucid 2 last year, in fact it was my first LG smartphone I had ever used – aside from the Nexus 4 – and I actually really liked it. The battery life on that one was pretty amazing as well. Now LG and Verizon have teamed up again to bring us the LG Lucid 3. Right Now, Verizon is Selling the Lucid 3 for free on a new two-year contract or $12.49/month on Verizon EDGE, which is their early upgrade program.
As far as the specs go for the Lucid 3, we’re looking at a 4.7-inch qHD display – that’s 960×540 resolution – along with a quad-core 1.2GHz processor (likely the Snapdragon 400, but it’s not known at this time), along with 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot that supports up to 64GB, 5-megapixel camera on the back, with a VGA front-facing shooter, Android 4.4.2 and a 2440mAh battery inside. For those interested in the dimensions, here we go 131.6 x 66 x 9.9 mm. Now the battery is removable, but you probably won’t need to remove it as it does last all day long and then some. That’s almost the same size battery as some of these flagships with more pixels and bigger displays, so it’s expected that the Lucid 3 would last all day long. But we’ll talk more about that in the battery section below.
Hardware
The hardware on the LG Lucid 3 is about what you’d expect from a mid-range device, especially from LG. It is made of glossy plastic, but it reminds me a lot of the original Optimus G Pro, just smaller obviously. On the front, we have our physical home button – which again taken from the Optimus G Pro, the notification light is part of the home button – we also have capacitive back and menu buttons. Then we have our 4.7-inch qHD display, along with our VGA camera up top and a couple of logos. Now on the back we have our 5MP camera with flash along with a Verizon logo and a speaker down at the bottom. On the right side is the volume rocker, left side is the power button. Up top is your 3.5mm headphone jack and on the bottom is the microUSB port to charge your Lucid 3.
This is probably everyone’s biggest question, what about the display. Yes it’s a qHD display, not the 2560×1440 resolution that’s on the LG G3, but a 960×540 resolution. Typically, we always hated qHD displays, as you could see the pixels. With the Lucid 3, it’s a bit difficult to see the individual pixels, but in certain apps you can see them, if you look hard enough. Otherwise, it’s a pretty decent display, given that this is a mid-range device. Now the build quality isn’t the best, but you gotta remember that this phone is free on contract, so you’re not gong to get something made out of metal like the HTC One M8.
As far as performance goes, this is a quad-core 1.2GHz processor here with a gigabyte of RAM. So it’s not going to out-power devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5, or the LG G2/G3, etc., but it definitely can hold it’s own. I played a couple of games like Asphalt 8 on here with no issues at all. I did not notice any lag either, which is always a good thing.
Software
If you’ve used any of LG’s recent smartphones, the software on the Lucid 3 is going to seem very familiar. It is running KitKat, so you do have the white status bar icons. Also the launcher is exactly the same, although there is a new weather widget. It’s a 4×1 weather widget that shows you today, tomorrow and the next day’s weather as well as the time. Of course, it’s provided by AccuWeather. The app drawer is your typical LG app drawer, we have all your apps there and there are four folders. There’s Amazon, Google, Tools, and Verizon. Back with the HTC DROID DNA, Amazon and Verizon began a partnership which brought a few more Amazon apps pre-installed on your Verizon device. That includes their AppStore, Audible, IMDb, Amazon Kindle, Amazon and Amazon MP3. Now in the Google folder it’s all your Google apps obviously. Although Google Maps and Chrome are not in the folder. Tools just houses the calculator, Downloads, File Manager, POLARIS Viewer 5, Richnote, Videos, Voice Command and Voice Recorder. Finally the Verizon folder has all of Verizon’s apps. There are 13 of them. We won’t go through them all, but if you don’t care about them, that’s where they are.
As far as some of the other features go, the Lucid 3 does have Knock ON, which is one of my favorite features that debuted on the LG G2. It does have Knock Code, which is a pretty cool feature that LG introduced with the G Pro 2 earlier this year. You can basically setup a pattern by tapping in four regions of your screen to unlock your device. It works really well as well. LG also has Smart Screen and Smart Video on the Lucid 3. Which basically allows the phone to detect if you’re still looking at the display and Smart Video will pause a video when you look away from it.
Battery Life
The battery on the LG Lucid 3 is quite impressive. Now I wasn’t able to really test it well on 4G LTE (well XLTE), since I get pretty crappy signal at home, but being on WiFi all day I was able to get around 16-20 hours of use, with about 3 hours on screen time. Which is quite good for a mid-range phone, I think.
Camera
The LG Lucid 3 does have a 5-megapixel camera on the back, which can take adequate shots, but they aren’t the best out there. You can check out the images in the gallery down below.
Final Thoughts
I actually really like the LG Lucid 3, sure there are a few things I had to get used to, like the power and volume rocker being on the sides instead of the back, and having a physical home button. But for a mid-range device, it’s definitely a great choice. Right now there are plenty of good choices for mid-range devices, but if you’re on Verizon (and don’t want the Moto G since it doesn’t support LTE), this is probably the best choice available right now.