Android By Russell Holly May. 27, 2014 3:45 pm
The big London reveal for LG’s G3 has just wrapped up, and so far it looks like this phone has got some real promise. There’s a couple of unique things about this phone that will make it compelling for smartphone enthusiasts out there, but during the presentation LG walked a dangerous line between misleading and flat out lying in regards to one feature in particular on this flagship phone.
So far it looks like the LG G3 is everything we’ve seen in the leaks and more. The plastic casing with a metallic finish is a little disappointing when you compare it to the hairline finish of the nearly all-metal HTC One M8, but you get wireless charging and a removable battery out of the deal so it’s hard to fault LG. The phone is not at all lacking when it comes to specs, and it looks like LG has finally gotten their act together with their Android UI variant. So far we know it is coming to AT&T an T-Mobile, and that there’s a possibility that there will be some versions of the phone that only have 2GB of RAM instead of three, but those details will likely clear themselves up over the next day or so.
In the mean time, here’s the three huge things the G3 Brings to the table and the one thing that LG*really should have handled better during the announcement.
[h=3]Knock Code[/h]The smartphone manufacturer that made knocking on your phone (you know, to wake it up) is back with the natural evolution of the feature. Knock Code lets you set up a secure pattern to unlock your phone with a series of taps on a blank screen, and when you complete those knocks it sends you straight to the home screen. For those of us who use lock screens with security measures in place (which you should all be doing and you know it) this is the next best thing to a functional fingerprint scanner to waking your phone. It looks like it will be quick, and LG claims it will be customizeable with hundreds of different options. It’s a great move from LG, and a feature that will set them apart for discerning smartphone buyers.
[h=3]A fantastic camera[/h]LG’s smartphone cameras for the last couple of generations have been good, but not necessarily great. LG*needed something to set it*apart, and it looks like Laser Autofocus and a new camera UI are going to be those things. LG’s demonstrations of the camera UI revealed a truly minimalist layout that encourages you to tap anywhere on the screen to take a photo, while the LaserAF promises to keep up with you as the phone moves around.
Coupled with an enhancement on what was already a great image stabilizer to the new OIS+ system, it looks like LG’s camera for the G3 will be a force to be reckoned with. Then again, the problem with LG’s cameras in the past has always been how LG*handle things like color accuracy. We’ll probably need to pit it against the current heavyweights before pinning any medals on the LG camera team.
[h=3]Software[/h]This got briefly mentioned above but since it’s easily the most improved part of the LG G3 this feature, rather the connection of features, needs some additional focus. The UI has been beautifully overhauled, the virtual keyboard that LG includes with the phone is significantly improved over the messy swype-alikes we’ve seen from other OEMs recently, and the ability to clench your fist to activate the front facing camera when the app is loaded are all little polishes that make this phone seem incredibly compelling.
Almost none of the design language from the previous LG software is present on the G3, and that is absolutely a good thing. The company has clearly optimized for Android 4.4 when it comes to performance and UI, and that’s going to be a big deal when it comes time to compare this phone to the rest of the pack.
[h=3]The display:*We all know better[/h]Ever since it was hinted that there would be a Quad HD display in the G3, there’s been an increasingly growing conversation about whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s practically no content out there to take advantage of that display yet, and power consumption is a serious concern when your phone is constantly forced to draw against all of those pixels.
LG did a great job addressing the power concerns by explaining the software tweaks that were made to manage frame rate when appropriate and increasing the size of the battery in the phone. Unfortunately, LG*then tried to explain why the pixel density was going to make everything look more real.
The notion that the human eye can only see 300ppi has been dispelled by several different professionals in several different ways. We know that the human eye can tell the difference between 300ppi and 400ppi on a tiny screen, especially having spent the last year and a half watching as the display density on smartphones crept up the 1080p scale to greater and greater ppi counts. The 2560×1440 resolution display on the LG G3 has a staggering 538 ppi, which is just shy of 100 ppi greater than the HTC One M8.
LG demonstrated this during their presentation by showing what the difference looked like on the huge presentation display at their event, a display that couldn’t possibly be the same or greater pixel density than the display they were touting. The end result was a graphic that falsely tried to demonstrate what the phone would look like when compared to the rest of the superphones out there.
The LG G3 looks like a great phone so far, and I have no doubt that the display will look absolutely stunning. I know this because the displays on the HTC One M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 already look absolutely stunning, and LG’s displays are always top notch. To suggest that the added pixel density from 441 to 538 ppi will be as visible as LG*claimed during the presentation is disingenuous at best and, at worst, was a flat out lie to make themselves look better than they needed to.
I have every faith after today’s presentation that the G3 will be one of the great smartphones of 2014, but when it comes to the display LG*should have just stuck with how future-proof such an incredible resolution is going to be as more content comes out to support the resolution.
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So far it looks like the LG G3 is everything we’ve seen in the leaks and more. The plastic casing with a metallic finish is a little disappointing when you compare it to the hairline finish of the nearly all-metal HTC One M8, but you get wireless charging and a removable battery out of the deal so it’s hard to fault LG. The phone is not at all lacking when it comes to specs, and it looks like LG has finally gotten their act together with their Android UI variant. So far we know it is coming to AT&T an T-Mobile, and that there’s a possibility that there will be some versions of the phone that only have 2GB of RAM instead of three, but those details will likely clear themselves up over the next day or so.
In the mean time, here’s the three huge things the G3 Brings to the table and the one thing that LG*really should have handled better during the announcement.
[h=3]Knock Code[/h]The smartphone manufacturer that made knocking on your phone (you know, to wake it up) is back with the natural evolution of the feature. Knock Code lets you set up a secure pattern to unlock your phone with a series of taps on a blank screen, and when you complete those knocks it sends you straight to the home screen. For those of us who use lock screens with security measures in place (which you should all be doing and you know it) this is the next best thing to a functional fingerprint scanner to waking your phone. It looks like it will be quick, and LG claims it will be customizeable with hundreds of different options. It’s a great move from LG, and a feature that will set them apart for discerning smartphone buyers.
[h=3]A fantastic camera[/h]LG’s smartphone cameras for the last couple of generations have been good, but not necessarily great. LG*needed something to set it*apart, and it looks like Laser Autofocus and a new camera UI are going to be those things. LG’s demonstrations of the camera UI revealed a truly minimalist layout that encourages you to tap anywhere on the screen to take a photo, while the LaserAF promises to keep up with you as the phone moves around.
Coupled with an enhancement on what was already a great image stabilizer to the new OIS+ system, it looks like LG’s camera for the G3 will be a force to be reckoned with. Then again, the problem with LG’s cameras in the past has always been how LG*handle things like color accuracy. We’ll probably need to pit it against the current heavyweights before pinning any medals on the LG camera team.
[h=3]Software[/h]This got briefly mentioned above but since it’s easily the most improved part of the LG G3 this feature, rather the connection of features, needs some additional focus. The UI has been beautifully overhauled, the virtual keyboard that LG includes with the phone is significantly improved over the messy swype-alikes we’ve seen from other OEMs recently, and the ability to clench your fist to activate the front facing camera when the app is loaded are all little polishes that make this phone seem incredibly compelling.
Almost none of the design language from the previous LG software is present on the G3, and that is absolutely a good thing. The company has clearly optimized for Android 4.4 when it comes to performance and UI, and that’s going to be a big deal when it comes time to compare this phone to the rest of the pack.
[h=3]The display:*We all know better[/h]Ever since it was hinted that there would be a Quad HD display in the G3, there’s been an increasingly growing conversation about whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s practically no content out there to take advantage of that display yet, and power consumption is a serious concern when your phone is constantly forced to draw against all of those pixels.
LG did a great job addressing the power concerns by explaining the software tweaks that were made to manage frame rate when appropriate and increasing the size of the battery in the phone. Unfortunately, LG*then tried to explain why the pixel density was going to make everything look more real.
The notion that the human eye can only see 300ppi has been dispelled by several different professionals in several different ways. We know that the human eye can tell the difference between 300ppi and 400ppi on a tiny screen, especially having spent the last year and a half watching as the display density on smartphones crept up the 1080p scale to greater and greater ppi counts. The 2560×1440 resolution display on the LG G3 has a staggering 538 ppi, which is just shy of 100 ppi greater than the HTC One M8.
LG demonstrated this during their presentation by showing what the difference looked like on the huge presentation display at their event, a display that couldn’t possibly be the same or greater pixel density than the display they were touting. The end result was a graphic that falsely tried to demonstrate what the phone would look like when compared to the rest of the superphones out there.
The LG G3 looks like a great phone so far, and I have no doubt that the display will look absolutely stunning. I know this because the displays on the HTC One M8 and the Samsung Galaxy S5 already look absolutely stunning, and LG’s displays are always top notch. To suggest that the added pixel density from 441 to 538 ppi will be as visible as LG*claimed during the presentation is disingenuous at best and, at worst, was a flat out lie to make themselves look better than they needed to.
I have every faith after today’s presentation that the G3 will be one of the great smartphones of 2014, but when it comes to the display LG*should have just stuck with how future-proof such an incredible resolution is going to be as more content comes out to support the resolution.
More...
