Hands-on review: LG G3

This is a very early hands on due to limited time with the phone – we'll be updating it over the next hour to include more detail.

"We love Steve Jobs, but he was wrong."

That was the battle cry from LG's head of smartphone planning, Dr Ramchan Woo, when talking about the screen on the new LG G3, a step upwards in terms of screen resolution.

He said that Apple had got it wrong; that the average user needs 500+PPI to appreciate the sharpness, in the same way that art books offer a crispness to fully feel the pictures.

Where most phones you'll have seen are now running Full HD 1080p screens, LG has now stuffed a huge amount more pixels into the display. A 5.5-inch offering with a 2560 x 1440 resolution means a 538PPI sharpness is something you won't have seen if you haven't headed into the Chinese market recently.

But the LG G3 is more than just a new screen. It's an overhauled UI, a revamped design and a complete effort to simplify everything.

I can't state how much this was needed – the LG G2 was a powerful beast that tried to do everything at once, and it ended up in a complete mess in terms of the user interface.

The design language of the G2 was fairly muted, a glossy anonymous phone that only was differentiated from the rest of the competition by the rear-mounted power and volume buttons.

The LG G3 is a step forward in nearly every way – from the overhauled 'Floating arc' design to the updated user interface LG thinks its found a solution to a number of the problems that have prevented it being as critically acclaimed.

And the result: it's fallen somewhere in the middle. The G3 is a much better phone than anything LG has put out before, but it's still favouring function over ease of use in a number of cases.

It should be noted that the sample I was given was from the Korean pre-production line; as such the performance is not at the level LG will ship with in June.

The design is updated in a big way – the back is now a fusion between metal and plastic. LG is calling this a 'metallic skin' – a film within the polycarbonate shell that allows it to have a premium feel with the connectivity power of a plastic casing.

The G3 partly achieves this. It's a definite evolution over the G2, and it's much more premium-feeling than the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5. However, it's not in the same league as the HTC One M8 in the design stakes, and still feels as chunky and heavy in the hand, so it's only in terms of connectivity that the design is a win.

The rear-mounted buttons are something that most will need to get used to – but if you've used a G2 for any amount of time then you'll feel this is a much better design. A rounded power button and more smooth volume keys are welcome and do enhance the premium feel, but overall it's still got a slightly lightweight feel compared to the cool sensation metal offers.

The screen is definitely impressive – the QHD display is a step forward in terms of sharpness, but not to the point I was expecting. Roll out the preloaded videos included with the G3 and you can't fail to be impressed with the sharpness, clarity and brightness on offer.

But these are optimised for the display, and I got the exact same sensation with the LG G2 in terms of impressive performance.

There's no doubt the display on the G3 is a move forward, but I'm going to need to use it day to day to see if there's a real difference. Early tests show a really bright and clear screen, but not to the extent I was hoping.

LG claims that its battery will stand up next to the likes of Samsung, HTC and Sony in terms of power management, but given the QHD isn't mind-blowing I'm not sure that all the tricks used to improve the life of the 3000mAh battery (which, in fairness, is removable) were needed.

The user interface update is probably the best part of the LG G3, which has moved from a convoluted mess to a sleek, flat icon design.

The notification area has been massively stripped back with a thinner typography used (which is prevalent throughout the phone) and the icons used throughout are much nicer to look at – both as a result of the re-design and the sharper screen.

Early verdict

The LG G3 is a phone that's a real step forward and sends LG charging to the front of the pack when it comes to smartphone features – mostly because it has the most advanced screen out there with the new QHD option.

The internal specs are largely similar to the rest of the competition – nowadays this is less of an issue, as we're running with phones so powerful that the performance is impressive no matter what.

The LG G3 has a better design, uprated internals and all the things people look for in a smartphone: microSD support, a removable battery and upgraded design.

A faster camera, less of a focus on health and a better UI is exactly what we need from most phones today, and LG has offered that well in the G3.

However, it still doesn't wow as a phone in the same was as the HTC One M8 or even the Sony Xperia Z2 in terms of first impressions. That said, the raw power is there and the 'simplicity' promised looks like it will offer a phone that really does make it better to use – so here's hoping a longer amount of time spent with the phone yields a more impressive result.

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