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LG G3 32GB (Software coming soon)

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Introduction

 

After selling my Sony Xperia L I was ready for the next step in android phones. I wanted something Big because after using the Galaxy Note 3 for a week I really liked that big size. My first instinct was to go with the OnePlus One as it is one of the best android phones for the price. After a month of looking for an invite I decided to gave up and I went looking for something else. I made a list consisting of:

  • Oppo Find 7
  • LG G3
  • Samsung Galaxy Note 4

After some research I found that I pretty much liked the Note the best, mainly because of the build and the S-Pen. And I was going to go for this phone if I had not received an amazing deal. The LG G3 32GB for a price of €325. Of course I couldn't resist the deal and went for it.

 

Hardware

 

After unboxing the G3 and holding it in my hand for the first time, my first reaction was pretty much this: HOLY S**T that is lightweight. When LG said lightweight they were serious about it. After putting in the battery the phone felt solid in the hand and the weight was normal.
 

Battery

 

Nothing special here, it's a 3000mAh and does the job. Yes it is not the greatest but it certainly is not bad either. I get about 5 Hours of screen on time when the screen is at 50% Brightness ( Auto enabled.) And 4 Hours at 100%. The stand-by time is ridiculous, Basically the phone will drain 3-4% overnight which is awesome for an android phone. The phone lasts all day with medium use. When playing intensive games and heavy multitasking I'm pretty sure you can kill the battery within 3 hours. With light use you possibly get two days but that's more impossible than possible.

 

Extra Information:

 

After the android Lolipop update the battery life has actually become a bit better, I would say about 5-10% better. 

http://imgur.com/ooOF5Bs

http://imgur.com/mh3LEiZ
http://imgur.com/A0zU0Ik
http://imgur.com/L3W1AwC

 

Screen

 

In one word: Awesome. I find the colors accurate and satisfying and I love that it's AH-IPS making for a really broad color range. It's not as punchy as AMOLED and blacks aren't as black but the colors pop and the screen gets really bright. I rarely need it to be at 100% because that's just super bright. As for the resolution, I do notice it, I'm blessed with pretty awesome eyesight and I can tell the difference between it and a 1080 screen. I feel like more phone reviewers should think this way instead of saying that 1440P is always overkill, it all depends on your eyesight in my opinion, if your eyesight is not the best 1080P is plenty. Whites are a little bit cream but at normal brightness you do not notice this and frankly, when not comparing it to other phones I think you'd have a hard time noticing it altogether.

 

Call Quality

 

Normally I don't make a big deal about this but there is something about the G3's microphone that I don't like. It is not as accurate as other devices IMO ( Especially with OK Google Hotword recognition) and when taking video it can be a little on the quiet side i found. Is this a big deal? No. But it certainly isn't something to write home about. If I had to rate it I would rate it 7.5/10.

 

Build

 

Not much to say here, it's sturdy and made of poly-carbonate ( Yes that's a fancy word for plastic but it sounds more expensive). The only flaw I have faced is that the paint on this portion:
 

w0UJ7uC.png

It's pretty much fading, this could be a manufacturers fault. Is this a big deal, Not at all.

 

Camera

 

The camera is actually good, especially the front facing one is IMO really good. I will do some photographs soon and post them here. Basically It's like all smartphone cameras, it's great when there is plenty of light it's great and there is much detail. In dark conditions it tends to be noisy and loses a lot of details. It's nothing special but it isn't bad at all. What I will say tho is that the camera app is too simple IMO. I understand why LG did this but at least give us the option to control it manually. There should be something like ''Expert mode'' . The front facing camera has a beauty mode and it works ( yes ladies it hides those pimples, and dudes too, I don't discriminate haha).
Samples coming soon!

 

Speaker

 

Nothing special at all here, It is louder than most becuase it's 1W but the HTC One M8 speakers are still better. And the placement is on the back which is always not as good as on the front.

 

''Quality''

 

I feel like people don't talk about this alot but the overall quality of the device. Basically this is the only reason the iPhone sells so well. In other words: Is what your getting good quality. I have some mixed feelings about this. The buttons for example are really good IMO, they are clicky ( Still not as meaty as the iPhone buttons tho.) and the OS is responsive. But when it comes to other things I feel like in the LG factories they must have though this ''Well we can save a couple of bucks and people wont really notice the difference'' In reality ,at least I do. Example: the microphone, I feel like its lower quality than it should have been and also little things. The camera lens for example scratches a little bit ( Nothing major.) Why not use sapphire glass for this? And also the laser auto focus protection scratches. The dual tone flash however is a prove of good quality ( Yes, it is more expensive than two regular LED's, this is why the one plus one and other cheaper phones aren't equipped with it. So overall if I had to rate it, The Quality would be around a 7/10 which is nice.

 

Other things

 

Some little things I have noticed when using the phone as my daily driver for quiet a while is some little things. The display driver ( Or software IDK) tends to overharpen everything. There is a fix for this on XDA but i'm going to wait for lolipop and see if LG has fixed it. Also sometimes the notification LED tends to not work or something but this is probably some software thing. Also the phone could be a little thinner for the battery it provides IMO and the plastic part that I mentioned should be metal. This is because when you are using the phone on a flat surface and you are typing for example this is pretty much where the phone rests on. If this were to been metal it should at least feel a lot more reliable and less prone to damage.

 

Software

 

Lag

 

The lag is bearable but I am dissatisfied after the lollipop update, it scores lower in all benchmarks excluding the android run-time one because there aren't that many apps that use ART in a good manner yet. I am not going to go in-depth on this because this will most likely get better overtime. To be honest, the lag is really not that bad but the fact that there is lag is what disappointed me, the lag is basically the same as with 4.4 Kitkat so it did not become worse or anything but after a major software update you'd expect lag and stability to be improved

 

Stability

 

The stability of the phone is unfortunately worse on lolipop than it was on kitkat. I blame the switch from Dalvik to ART for this, some old apps which I still use ( My school uses a rather old app, it basiclly does not work anymore, for some weird reason there is no text rendered anymore.). Also I face a lot more force closes than before, this is mainly because lolipop is just so new that everything has to mature a bit, just like ICS 4.0 matured to 4.4, 4.4 is one of the most stable OS's I have encountered yet on a mobile phone. To put this into perspective, when using the phone with kitkat ( For about a month) I did only face One force close. Using lolipop for a few days has already brought me 2 force closes.

 

Software Experience:

 

This basically will be my impressions of android 5.0 with an LG skin on top of it using as much of google as possible ( Google Now launcher , Gaps instead of lg apps etc.)

 

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UI

 

The user interface has changed quiet a bit, everywhere there is this ''material'' design that should give you a more animated, layared and more flat look than ever before. If I had to describe it in one word: Great. Why not amazing or superb. Even though Google says that this is the biggest change to android yet I don't particularly think that it's the way to go yet. Yes it is beautiful and yes the animations are eye candy but on the other hand the theme is more of a style upgrade rather than a complete new experience. it is still really android so people who think that it's a radical departure from the android style, you will be dissapointed.

 

 

 

 

-Pictures should be coming soon.
-Quickcirle case section coming soon.

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Nice overview, if it were not for the battery this would be a compelling phone. 

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Nice overview, if it were not for the battery this would be a compelling phone. 

Honestly the only procuct signifigantly better is the iPhone 6+. It's pretty much as good as almost all modern phones and when it comes to stand-by time much better.

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You don't prefer the note 4's fast charge and slightly larger capacity. 

According to reviews the screen is also better, only the pricing lets it down. 

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You don't prefer the note 4's fast charge and slightly larger capacity.

According to reviews the screen is also better, only the pricing lets it down.

Are you sure thay you've read the review? In the introduction i clearly say why ive chosen the g3.

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Are you sure thay you've read the review? In the introduction i clearly say why ive chosen the g3.

I was not talking about your review, other reviews

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Where's the performance? Does it lags? Slow application launching times? Is it worth it over OPPO N3?

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I've had mine for about a month now and really like it.  The custom ROM community is pretty active, and growing rather quickly.  I'm running SlimKat on my d851 (TMobile) and it's great.  There are some 5.0 ROMs that have started popping up, so I'll probably give one of them a shot soon.

 

The screen for me is really good, but it didn't seem to have the best oliophobic coating on it.  Putting a glass screen protector really helped and did not have any noticable impact on performance.  I'm using a Spigen protector which I really like, however I did crack it after only a few weeks.  Next one will probably be a phantom glass.

 

I also picked up a ZeroLemon case/battery for it while I was on vacation.  That thing is a beast. 9000mAh is way more than enough to make it through a few days for me, though it does make it really bulky.  With the case on I'd say it is heavy enough to be used as a pretty good weapon incase I ended up in a bad area while on vacation.

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Where's the performance? Does it lags? Slow application launching times? Is it worth it over OPPO N3?

Short anwser: it does not lag whatsoever and it's pretty much one of the fastest devices. Long anwser: When lolipop is released and i've written my review, it would be silly to write a review when a major update is coming very soon.

 

I've had mine for about a month now and really like it.  The custom ROM community is pretty active, and growing rather quickly.  I'm running SlimKat on my d851 (TMobile) and it's great.  There are some 5.0 ROMs that have started popping up, so I'll probably give one of them a shot soon.

 

The screen for me is really good, but it didn't seem to have the best oliophobic coating on it.  Putting a glass screen protector really helped and did not have any noticable impact on performance.  I'm using a Spigen protector which I really like, however I did crack it after only a few weeks.  Next one will probably be a phantom glass.

 

I also picked up a ZeroLemon case/battery for it while I was on vacation.  That thing is a beast. 9000mAh is way more than enough to make it through a few days for me, though it does make it really bulky.  With the case on I'd say it is heavy enough to be used as a pretty good weapon incase I ended up in a bad area while on vacation.

I was thinking of rooting it but I'll wait till I get the Lolipop update, play with that a bit and see from there.

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Short anwser: it does not lag whatsoever and it's pretty much one of the fastest devices. Long anwser: When lolipop is released and i've written my review, it would be silly to write a review when a major update is coming very soon.

 

I was thinking of rooting it but I'll wait till I get the Lolipop update, play with that a bit and see from there.

 

You can still root now and stay with the stock ROM.  That would give you the option of using xposed and other root requiring apps while waiting for official 5.0.  If you do root (and stay stock/stock based) I'd highly recomemend G3Tweaksbox, which is an xposed module that really gives a lot more customizability.

 

Edit: Hah, just realized we had almost the exact same conversation a week or so ago in another thread.

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Ive had my phone for just over 2 months now. I agree with pretty much everything you have mentioned. Software is good but not exceptional. Thats my main complaint. At times it seems unresponsive and slow. It even downright doesnt work sometimes and I have to restart my phone. So far all the changes I have made to my phone are

 

-Phantom Glass

-Dbrand Skin

-Nova launcher

-TWRP recovery

 

At this point Im just waiting for official 5.0 or for some more custom ROMs

 

 

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Ive had my phone for just over 2 months now. I agree with pretty much everything you have mentioned. Software is good but not exceptional. Thats my main complaint. At times it seems unresponsive and slow. It even downright doesnt work sometimes and I have to restart my phone. So far all the changes I have made to my phone are

 

-Phantom Glass

-Dbrand Skin

-Nova launcher

-TWRP recovery

 

At this point Im just waiting for official 5.0 or for some more custom ROMs

I have a Dbrand skin on my M7 and they're nice I must say. I kind of want to get a Phantom Glass screen protector for it right now, but I'm more irritated by the wifi just kind of losing connection and needing a reboot on my M7... :/

I must say, this is a nice review.

 

Spoiler

Senor Shiny: Main- CPU Intel i7 6700k 4.7GHz @1.42v | RAM G.Skill TridentZ CL16 3200 | GPU Asus Strix GTX 1070 (2100/2152) | Motherboard ASRock Z170 OC Formula | HDD Seagate 1TB x2 | SSD 850 EVO 120GB | CASE NZXT S340 (Black) | PSU Supernova G2 750W  | Cooling NZXT Kraken X62 w/Vardars
Secondary (Plex): CPU Intel Xeon E3-1230 v3 @1.099v | RAM Samsun Wonder 16GB CL9 1600 (sadly no oc) | GPU Asus GTX 680 4GB DCII | Motherboard ASRock H97M-Pro4 | HDDs Seagate 1TB, WD Blue 1TB, WD Blue 3TB | Case Corsair Air 240 (Black) | PSU EVGA 600B | Cooling GeminII S524

Spoiler

(Deceased) DangerousNotDell- CPU AMD AMD FX 8120 @4.8GHz 1.42v | GPU Asus GTX 680 4GB DCII | RAM Samsung Wonder 8GB (CL9 2133MHz 1.6v) | Motherboard Asus Crosshair V Formula-Z | Cooling EVO 212 | Case Rosewill Redbone | PSU EVGA 600B | HDD Seagate 1TB

DangerousNotDell New Parts For Main Rig Build Log, Señor Shiny  I am a beautiful person. The comments for your help. I have to be a good book. I have to be a good book. I have to be a good book.

 

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I LOVE my LG G3. The screen is absolutely gorgeous. I'm getting a 9,000 mAh extended battery from ZeroLemon so battery life will not be an issue for me whatsoever. 

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Ive had my phone for just over 2 months now. I agree with pretty much everything you have mentioned. Software is good but not exceptional. Thats my main complaint. At times it seems unresponsive and slow. It even downright doesnt work sometimes and I have to restart my phone. So far all the changes I have made to my phone are

-Phantom Glass

-Dbrand Skin

-Nova launcher

-TWRP recovery

At this point Im just waiting for official 5.0 or for some more custom ROMs

If only shipping to the netherlands was cheaper for phantom glass and the skin...

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You can still root now and stay with the stock ROM. That would give you the option of using xposed and other root requiring apps while waiting for official 5.0. If you do root (and stay stock/stock based) I'd highly recomemend G3Tweaksbox, which is an xposed module that really gives a lot more customizability.

Edit: Hah, just realized we had almost the exact same conversation a week or so ago in another thread.

Is the tweakbox really worth it? I heard its awesome but havent got time to check on the featuers it adds yet. Also i woll probably root it after the 5.0 update to make sure the recovery is matched for 5.0. I know that ot doesn't matter but i dont want to softbrick it and fix it.

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Is the tweakbox really worth it? I heard its awesome but havent got time to check on the featuers it adds yet. Also i woll probably root it after the 5.0 update to make sure the recovery is matched for 5.0. I know that ot doesn't matter but i dont want to softbrick it and fix it.

 

I honestly don't remember too much what tweaksbox had in it, I've been running non stock roms for most of the time I've had the phone.  It definitely gave a lot more control over the phone, but you would have to look it up or talk to someone else to get much more detail than that.

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Cool, this review was very nice to read, nice to see your enjoying your phone!

Computer Specifications:

AMD Ryzen 5 3600  Gigabyte B550M Aorus Elite | ADATA XPG SPECTRIX D50 32 GB 3600 MHz | Asus RTX 3060 KO Edition CoolerMaster Silencio S400 Klevv Cras C700 M.2 SSD 256GB 

1TB Crucial MX500 | 1 TB SanDisk SSD Corsair RM650W

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Camera Bodies: 

Olympus Pen-F Panasonic GH3 (Retired)

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Cool, this review was very nice to read, nice to see your enjoying your phone!

Tyvm. Stay tuned, Lolipop should arrive soon and then I will do the full software and battery life review!.

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Nice review. I had my G3 since August. I've already rooted it and unlocked it via Bump! Then flashed CM12 on it using TWRP. 

 

Is the tweakbox really worth it? I heard its awesome but havent got time to check on the featuers it adds yet. Also i woll probably root it after the 5.0 update to make sure the recovery is matched for 5.0. I know that ot doesn't matter but i dont want to softbrick it and fix it.

 

If you're on stock ROM, it's definitely worth it. Also, flashing isn't difficult at all. If you can read instructions on xda and be patient you should do fine. Though make sure you have a backup of LG's stock ROM so you can restore it if you brick. 

 

Tyvm. Stay tuned, Lolipop should arrive soon and then I will do the full software and battery life review!.

 

CM12 is basically Lollipop under Cyanogenmod, but there's other variants as well on xda. Sadly that might be difficult to review as CM12 does nightlies, meaning they release a patch every night or every other night. When you speak of bugs on one build, the newer build will have probably fixed it. Fortunately for the most part it's still Lollipop so you can give a bit of an insight if Lollipop is worth flashing. I can add some points since I've been using CM12 for a few weeks now:

 

- Lollipop absolutely flies on this phone. There is no lag whatsoever, minus some hiccups when multitasking. Well-worth flashing CM12 for this reason alone IMO 

- Subjective but I like the Material Design more than LG's design. 

- Everything works as it should: WiFi, 4G... though some builds might mess connection a bit but the devs usually push out a fix quickly.

- Connection gets spotty sometimes but it shouldn't be noticeable. 

- Battery life is good, but not the best. Mostly because I use Xposed to manage battery usage, but it doesn't support ART yet.

- On average I get 4-5 hrs SoT.

- Expect bugs and crashes. Though none of them for me were deal-breakers 

- Expect losing some camera fidelity and features. Still operates fine though 

 

BTW you mention the oversharpening. CM12 and many other ROMs already provide the fix in their kernels. 

 

You can choose to wait for LG's version of Lollipop too. It would be nice to compare it to CM12. 

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Nice review. I had my G3 since August. I've already rooted it and unlocked it via Bump! Then flashed CM12 on it using TWRP. 

 

 

If you're on stock ROM, it's definitely worth it. Also, flashing isn't difficult at all. If you can read instructions on xda and be patient you should do fine. Though make sure you have a backup of LG's stock ROM so you can restore it if you brick. 

 

 

CM12 is basically Lollipop under Cyanogenmod, but there's other variants as well on xda. Sadly that might be difficult to review as CM12 does nightlies, meaning they release a patch every night or every other night. When you speak of bugs on one build, the newer build will have probably fixed it. Fortunately for the most part it's still Lollipop so you can give a bit of an insight if Lollipop is worth flashing. I can add some points since I've been using CM12 for a few weeks now:

 

- Lollipop absolutely flies on this phone. There is no lag whatsoever, minus some hiccups when multitasking. Well-worth flashing CM12 for this reason alone IMO 

- Subjective but I like the Material Design more than LG's design. 

- Everything works as it should: WiFi, 4G... though some builds might mess connection a bit but the devs usually push out a fix quickly.

- Connection gets spotty sometimes but it shouldn't be noticeable. 

- Battery life is good, but not the best. Mostly because I use Xposed to manage battery usage, but it doesn't support ART yet.

- On average I get 4-5 hrs SoT.

- Expect bugs and crashes. Though none of them for me were deal-breakers 

- Expect losing some camera fidelity and features. Still operates fine though 

 

BTW you mention the oversharpening. CM12 and many other ROMs already provide the fix in their kernels. 

 

You can choose to wait for LG's version of Lollipop too. It would be nice to compare it to CM12. 

I really want to keep it as stock as possible. I may root it soon tho. The problem I have with CM12 and all vanilla android builds is that there is no dual-window multitasking, I use it all the time and for me it's a big deal. I already have a rooted asus TF300T to play with and my old xperia L was rooted and was running CM11, even on that quite underpowered hardware it was pretty nice and snappy.

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I really want to keep it as stock as possible. I may root it soon tho. The problem I have with CM12 and all vanilla android builds is that there is no dual-window multitasking, I use it all the time and for me it's a big deal. I already have a rooted asus TF300T to play with and my old xperia L was rooted and was running CM11, even on that quite underpowered hardware it was pretty nice and snappy.

 

I don't use dual-window much but yes, that is a trade-off with going with these ROMs. I'm not sure if LG's version will match CM12 in terms of performance. Hopefully it does since the G3 really benefits from it. 

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I don't use dual-window much but yes, that is a trade-off with going with these ROMs. I'm not sure if LG's version will match CM12 in terms of performance. Hopefully it does since the G3 really benefits from it. 

Probably not. But we'll see.

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Just got the lolipop update, software section coming soon.

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I was thinking of switching to this phone from my Galaxy S5. Thanks for posting your review!

Dont! Wait for the next gen of phones that will sport a snapdragon 810. They should come out in a month or two (htc one m9 galaxy s6 , lg g4 etc.)

Thanks for the compliment though.

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