The LG G3 was announced last month with a ton of hype. After the leaks that we saw, where it had a metallic backing as well as that amazing Quad HD display, we expected a lot from LG. Especially after the LG G2 last year. And they delivered for the most part. I’d say the most disappointing thins here was the lack of a Snapdragon 805 processor, although I’d have to say that after using the device for about a week now, the LG G3 performs wonderfully on the Snapdragon 801 processor. LG also announced a bunch of features on the LG G3, and we’re going to take a look at a few now.
Display
While a lot of people have criticized LG for using a 2560×1440 resolution display on their LG G3, it is an amazing display. Although it’s not as clear or vivid as the Galaxy S5 in direct sunlight, it’s still an amazing looking display, especially with 538ppi. If you have the display at 0% brightness, you really aren’t doing it any justice. You need to turn it up to at least 20% brightness to really see how good the display is on this bad boy. Obviously turning up the display will use more battery, but as far as I can tell, you’ll still be able to get through a full day’s use with it at 50% brightness.
Battery Life
Speaking of battery life. A lot of people were worried about the battery life on the LG G3. Simply because it has the same size battery as the LG G2, and has a larger display with double the pixels. Well don’t worry guys. The battery life on the LG G3 is amazing. Just the other day, I got 6 hours of on screen time. Given this was all on WiFi, with me roaming on Canadian networks (since this is a Korean version, it’s not optimized for the US networks). So I’m willing to bet we can get around 7-8 hours on screen with the US versions, when those launch. It won’t be enough to get you through two full days, but it should be plenty to get you through a full 24 hours. Which we should be charging our phones at night anyways.
Smart Notice
A lot of the features that LG announced in the G3 had the word “smart” in them. Smart Notice is one of my more favorite features. It’s built into the weather and clock widget on the LG G3. It gives you all kinds of information like the weather “it is mostly cloudy” or “you’re going to need an umbrella”. It’ll also show you birthdays, new contact suggestions and more. However, it has not once told me about any birthdays. Not sure why that is.
Q Slide
This is a feature that made it’s return to the G3. It first launched on the G2 last year, and has gotten even better. Q Slide basically allows you to go ahead and have two apps hovering over whatever you’re doing on your phone. It’s a pretty neat idea, but I’ve never once used it on the G2, but I have used it a lot more on the G3. However that could be because I’m reviewing it right now.
Dual Window
Yes, it’s basically Multi-window from Samsung. But that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great feature. I still don’t know why Google hasn’t implemented something like this on every device yet. Basically if you hold down the back button, you’ll be able to use two apps on the same screen. Now I don’t particularly like this feature on a phone, but on a tablet it’d be much better, since you have a lot more space, at least in my opinion. One other gripe about Dual Window is the supported apps. You’re basically stuck with messaging, email, gallery, Chrome, YouTube, Maps, Hangouts, Gmail, and the File Manager.
The LG G3 has a lot of nice features. They have really improved their UI and overlay since the G2, which is great for LG. As that was probably the biggest complaint about the G2 and why it didn’t sell as well as it should have. The LG G3 should be out in Europe later this month as well as the US and about 70 other countries. How many of you are planning to grab one?