The now unveiled LG G3 is the talk of the town today now that the phone is truly official, and with good reason. LG’s latest flagship manages to stay close to specs of fellow flagship competitors like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One - which is good enough - but obviously not the crushing blow that I originally thought the smartphone would have struck against the competition initially.
I do think that if the G3 had some of the specs that were initially predicted by some (octa-core processor and a 16-megapixel camera were among them, both of which aren’t true) that it would have done LG a favor. While LG hasn’t been making shabby phones lately, they’re still not as widely praised and talked about as others these days. I think if they had come out with something a little more spectacular than just yet another increase in display quality (which I think matters very little these days) then they really could have had a phone worth talking about.
It’s also a shame that the G3 doesn’t seem to feature any sort of waterproof or dust-proof capabilities, something that I think all smartphones should be aiming to include these days. In that aspect, the Galaxy S5 and the Sony Xperia Z2 would be better options.
But the G3 does manage to include a removable battery, something that is somewhat of a rarity these days in flagship phones (or really smartphones at all). The G3 also includes a microSD card slot that supports up to 128GB of memory, which puts it on par with the S5 and slightly above the One (M8) given that the M8 doesn’t have the option of having a removable battery. The G3 also supports wireless charging and has that all-alluring aluminum back-housing, so that’s two more things that it has going for (or possibly against) it. Of course, they also have those strange, yet oddly purposeful, back buttons.
In short, I suppose the phone came in at exactly where it should have been. This means that it’s still a solid phone, but at the same time it doesn’t really have that spark that makes me want to run out and buy the phone. It’s good enough, but aside from a fantastic display (which I think is only proper to talk about on paper; my eyes can only see so much detail, and I believe I stopped caring too much about display sometime back in 2012) and a couple of features that every phone should have the G3 is just another flagship.
The thing about smartphones these days is that sometimes they just seem so underwhelming, like everything has been done before; but then you have phones like the M8 that have front-facing speakers, and it seems to make the phone stand out. Or you have the Galaxy S5 or the iPhone 5s that feature fingerprint sensors, and that’s kind of cool and new. The Xperia Z1 and Z2 are a couple of the most notorious waterproof and dust-proof phones on the market with some of the best cameras. Nokia phones arguably feature the best cameras. But when every single one of these phones already have bright, vibrant, clear and crisp screens, when LG comes in touting that their screen is the best I just can’t really see myself getting really excited about that.
With that being said, though, the G3 does have a couple of features that, as I mentioned before, not all flagships carry these days that make it worth looking at. With both a microSD card slot and a removable battery, not to mention a 5.5-inch display, users who might have been considering the Samsung Galaxy S5 for its removable battery now have a comparable model to look forward to choosing from. The back buttons also make this phone a contender for easier one-handed use. It also carries some of that same beauty that the HTC One is also praised for given the aluminum back of the phone.
Readers, what have your thoughts on the LG G3 been since its debut? Are you happy with the phone, or are you feeling a bit underwhelmed? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Images via BGR
