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nviz22

Cancelled
Original poster
Jun 24, 2013
5,277
3,071
I feel like this is one of the best all-around Android phones ever. Latest display quality, high RAM capacity, snappy user experience, comprehensive UI with many features, nice camera, decent battery life, sleek design, etc. I am surprised a lot of people aren't buying it after LG made two successful flagships in the G2 and G3.
 

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
I feel like this is one of the best all-around Android phones ever. Latest display quality, high RAM capacity, snappy user experience, comprehensive UI with many features, nice camera, decent battery life, sleek design, etc. I am surprised a lot of people aren't buying it after LG made two successful flagships in the G2 and G3.

A lot of people are buying it.

http://bgr.com/2014/07/24/lg-earnings-q2-2014/

Maybe try looking on an actual android forum if you want a better opinion of actual android phones are doing.

This is an Apple centric forum with the tiniest sliver of traffic and opinions related to android devices.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,370
8,952
a better place
No Love For the LG G3?

I feel like this is one of the best all-around Android phones ever. Latest display quality, high RAM capacity, snappy user experience, comprehensive UI with many features, nice camera, decent battery life, sleek design, etc. I am surprised a lot of people aren't buying it after LG made two successful flagships in the G2 and G3.


It's ok but....

High ram but only on one of its SKU's. Forcing those with no option but to buy the 16gb to make do with 2gb when the OS really requires that extra 1gb in the 32gb version is a big mistake and a big finger up to the consumer.

Snappy, but not always the smoothest experience.

Comprehensive UI ? Aren't all UI's comprehensive? Likewise the amount of needless extras buried in settings and such could be argued that it really needed de cluttering. Likewise LG need a few lessons in coherent GUI / icon design.

Battery life is poorer than the models that come before it.

Frustrating overheating and performance limitations that fear of overheating forces on the user.

Screen is not as bright as other flagships and outdoor visibility is certainly not a strong point.


In many ways LG tried too hard & made silly design choices with the G3 that actually make it less of a phone than the G2 before it. The G3 is a very good phone but certainly not the little gem that many found the G2 to be.
 

Hal~9000

macrumors 68020
Sep 13, 2014
2,184
2,183
If they would have made the screen 1080p I might have been interested. 1440p is simply a waste of battery life and processing power IMO. I understand why they did it (to try and stand out), but the tradeoff is not worth it for me.

Of course, goes without saying, I hate the LG and Samsung skins that slow down the phone and make it take longer to get updates. Wish LG would simply go the Motorola route :(
 

Fireblade

macrumors 65816
Jan 25, 2011
1,101
321
Italy
It's ok but....

High ram but only on one of its SKU's. Forcing those with no option but to buy the 16gb to make do with 2gb when the OS really requires that extra 1gb in the 32gb version is a big mistake and a big finger up to the consumer.

Snappy, but not always the smoothest experience.

Comprehensive UI ? Aren't all UI's comprehensive? Likewise the amount of needless extras buried in settings and such could be argued that it really needed de cluttering. Likewise LG need a few lessons in coherent GUI / icon design.

Battery life is poorer than the models that come before it.

Frustrating overheating and performance limitations that fear of overheating forces on the user.

Screen is not as bright as other flagships and outdoor visibility is certainly not a strong point.


In many ways LG tried too hard & made silly design choices with the G3 that actually make it less of a phone than the G2 before it. The G3 is a very good phone but certainly not the little gem that many found the G2 to be.
Absolutely agree on this, returned mine after 3 weeks.
Because of all MRU said + the display, had 3 G3 and all of them had washed out colors, a yellowish tint and light bleeding.
 

JaySoul

macrumors 68030
Jan 30, 2008
2,629
2,865
It's ok but....

High ram but only on one of its SKU's. Forcing those with no option but to buy the 16gb to make do with 2gb when the OS really requires that extra 1gb in the 32gb version is a big mistake and a big finger up to the consumer.

Snappy, but not always the smoothest experience.

Comprehensive UI ? Aren't all UI's comprehensive? Likewise the amount of needless extras buried in settings and such could be argued that it really needed de cluttering. Likewise LG need a few lessons in coherent GUI / icon design.

Battery life is poorer than the models that come before it.

Frustrating overheating and performance limitations that fear of overheating forces on the user.

Screen is not as bright as other flagships and outdoor visibility is certainly not a strong point.


In many ways LG tried too hard & made silly design choices with the G3 that actually make it less of a phone than the G2 before it. The G3 is a very good phone but certainly not the little gem that many found the G2 to be.

Got mine for such a bargain that I don't really care about certain issues but for me personally:

16gb is fine as I have an SD card
2gb RAM makes no difference (as yet)
Agree the smoothness is intermittent
The UI is actually really nice once customised, prefer it to the GEL (never thought I'd say that)
Battery life is genuinely not poor at all, only thing that rinses it it Google Maps when driving
Never had any overheating issues at all
The screen is incredible, it's so blindingly bright that I can't put it above 80%!

I agree it could well have just been 1080 to conserve battery life even more, but it's a cracking phone. The first week I was unsure but now having lived with it for months, it's easily the best Android phone I've ever used as a daily driver.

Also LG seem to be taking it pretty seriously - there are very frequently software updates that improve it month by month. Fingers crossed for Lollipop!
 

Oohara

macrumors 68040
Jun 28, 2012
3,050
2,423
A lot of people are buying it.

http://bgr.com/2014/07/24/lg-earnings-q2-2014/

Maybe try looking on an actual android forum if you want a better opinion of actual android phones are doing.

This is an Apple centric forum with the tiniest sliver of traffic and opinions related to android devices.

Yep, and the G3 was plenty talked about here around the time of release and before. But since we don't have permanent subforums for OEM:s and phones, the discussion tends to gravitate towards the latest and greatest. With the iPhone 6 vs Note 4 release, Z3/Z3c and now Nexus 6 burying a lot of the older phone threads.

For me, the heat issue forcing a lowered max brightness was what scared me from further interest in the G3 beyond my initial testing. The design is great though. I'm hoping LG come back stronger with a G4 that can manage the demanding screen res better, no other phone has that near bezel-less 5.5" screen design.
 

severage

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2013
106
1
As for me, I'm not having any overheating or performance issues with my G3. Excellent piece of technology.
 

Twixt

macrumors 6502
May 30, 2012
471
11
As for me, I'm not having any overheating or performance issues with my G3. Excellent piece of technology.

What kind of battery experience do you have with this G3 ?
Is display screen definition set in hardware or modibly - able by software?
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,539
278
Kirkland
I sold mine and bought the Xperia Z3.

Colour quality on the G3 was terrible.
Screen wasn't very bright
If you put it to 100% to try and see it, it would overheat and drop to 90, then 80%.
UI stuttered fairly often.
International 2GB RAM option seemed to perform poorly.
I couldn't seem to have 2 chrome tabs open without them refreshing, even if chrome was the only open app, even if app manager claimed I had 500MB memory free.
4 hours screen time on average, then gone.
 

Tig Bitties

macrumors 603
Sep 6, 2012
5,517
5,692
IMO, LG should have done it differently with the G3, I think they made a mistake with the hardware.

LG should have released it in Aug / Sep, the one year anniversary of the G2, which would have allowed them to use the Snapdragon 805 instead, with the much better 420 GPU. And also kept the display at 1080p. Those two changes would have given it beast of battery life, and be a super fast performer, and not outdated until the next Spring when the S6 and M9 are released.

I really do like the the size and shape of the G3, love how they made a 5.5" sized phone in such a small footprint, is outstanding.

But I have to say my One M8 is a better phone, just for the battery life, this M8 gets AMAZING battery life, 6h On Screen time, and it rivals my old Galaxy Note 2 battery life, which was a beast on long battery life.

My HTC One M8 converted to GPE, is my fav smartphone of all time, super fast smooth, AWESOME battery life, great stereo speakers, beautiful design, etc...

The LG G3 should have kept 1080p screen resolution. Or waited till like September for the release, and kept the 1440p screen, but use the 805 chip instead, which is known to handle that high res much better, and also put a slightly bigger battery in, like a 3,200mAh.

But right now, I see zero reason to buy the G3, with better phones like the Z3, Note 4 out, Motor Droid Turbo, OnePlus One, or even the HTC One M8 GPE.
 

severage

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2013
106
1
What kind of battery experience do you have with this G3 ?
Is display screen definition set in hardware or modibly - able by software?

I think I accidentally damaged the one that shipped with it, but prior to that I was getting ~4.5 hours of screen on time. With the 3rd party batteries I got, I get ~4 hours screen on time. I usually get through the day without problem, and I do play a decent amount of gaming. Not sure what you're asking in the second question.

And I don't think a Snapdragon 805 or Adreno 420 GPU are necessary for this phone at all. It performs admirably, and just as well as other flagships in day to day usage as far as I can tell. I do think people interested in this phone should get the model with 3gb of RAM. I've heard some stories of the phone lagging more on the 2gb model, and it makes sense since my phone regularly goes over 2gb or RAM in usage (rarely more than 2.1-2.2gb or RAM used, but still over 2).
 

Rangomango

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2012
94
2
IMO, LG should have done it differently with the G3, I think they made a mistake with the hardware.

LG should have released it in Aug / Sep, the one year anniversary of the G2, which would have allowed them to use the Snapdragon 805 instead, with the much better 420 GPU. And also kept the display at 1080p. Those two changes would have given it beast of battery life, and be a super fast performer, and not outdated until the next Spring when the S6 and M9 are released.

I really do like the the size and shape of the G3, love how they made a 5.5" sized phone in such a small footprint, is outstanding.

But I have to say my One M8 is a better phone, just for the battery life, this M8 gets AMAZING battery life, 6h On Screen time, and it rivals my old Galaxy Note 2 battery life, which was a beast on long battery life.

My HTC One M8 converted to GPE, is my fav smartphone of all time, super fast smooth, AWESOME battery life, great stereo speakers, beautiful design, etc...

The LG G3 should have kept 1080p screen resolution. Or waited till like September for the release, and kept the 1440p screen, but use the 805 chip instead, which is known to handle that high res much better, and also put a slightly bigger battery in, like a 3,200mAh.

But right now, I see zero reason to buy the G3, with better phones like the Z3, Note 4 out, Motor Droid Turbo, OnePlus One, or even the HTC One M8 GPE.

Hit the nail on the head here....

Screen is a huge disappointment and has occasional stutter (at least on my verizon variant)

The speakerphone on mine always had an echo on the other end when at full volume (went through 4 phones, all of them with the same issue). The last straw was I tried to warranty one and lg wanted me to send the phone in without any option of giving me a device with a hold on my credit card. I mean cmon, what am I supposed to do for 10 days without a phone??

I did find the camera to be decent in low light.

I think the next generation will be a massive improvement

@Tig Bitties, how is the m8 weight wise. I feel like it would get tiring holding it one hand??
 

Dmunjal

macrumors 68000
Jun 20, 2010
1,533
1,543
Coming from a Galaxy S4 GPE, this was a great upgrade for me. I was really disappointed in the S5 and the G3 hits the sweet spot in terms of size and feel in the hand. The screen brightness isn't an issue for me as I leave it at 50% and it seems fine.

I don't mind the LG skin which is much better than TouchWiz but there still is some stutter here and there. Battery life could be better but not a deal breaker.

I'm hoping to get L soon to resolve these issues or get a port to GPE or CM11.
 

Twixt

macrumors 6502
May 30, 2012
471
11
I think I accidentally damaged the one that shipped with it, but prior to that I was getting ~4.5 hours of screen on time. With the 3rd party batteries I got, I get ~4 hours screen on time. I usually get through the day without problem, and I do play a decent amount of gaming. Not sure what you're asking in the second question.

And I don't think a Snapdragon 805 or Adreno 420 GPU are necessary for this phone at all. It performs admirably, and just as well as other flagships in day to day usage as far as I can tell. I do think people interested in this phone should get the model with 3gb of RAM. I've heard some stories of the phone lagging more on the 2gb model, and it makes sense since my phone regularly goes over 2gb or RAM in usage (rarely more than 2.1-2.2gb or RAM used, but still over 2).

Thank you for this info.
I was wondering whether screen definition is something that can be downgraded by software or is it set in stone?
I got your point about 3GB model. If I remember well that is the one with 32 GB embedded.
 

severage

macrumors regular
Oct 13, 2013
106
1
Thank you for this info.
I was wondering whether screen definition is something that can be downgraded by software or is it set in stone?
I got your point about 3GB model. If I remember well that is the one with 32 GB embedded.

You are correct. If you're talking about screen resolution, I'm fairly certain it is set in stone. If you're talking about color contrast/accuracy, well you can actually change that a bit in the display option under settings. I've left mine on default as I think it has the best accuracy, saturation, and contrast.
 

Savor

Suspended
Jun 18, 2010
3,742
918
I think LG G3 have the best dimensions while offering a 5.5 inch display. I just think by LG using a 2k display, it took a hit on battery life. It was one of the most appealing devices to me this year until I realized the OnePlus One offers better value and the Sony Xperia Z3/Z3C offer longer battery. Even the Oppo Find 7a is a cheaper and excellent alternative than the LG G3 with its removable battery and 1080p display.

Every few months, our attention spans get shorter for each device since many excellent Android devices get announced or released. Alot of good phones get overlooked or become underrated.
 
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