The LG G3 hits the UK with it's flagship feature being the 5.5 inch screen with a resolution LG call quad HD, offering four times the pixel count you would get on a 720p HD screen.
More about that incredible screen later, but what else does LG's latest premium handset have to offer? Well first of all this is what we're not going to get. Rumours of a £399 price tag to match the launch price of the LG G2 have crashed to earth, with a price of £499 having been decided. Fingerprint recognition isn't here either, just like it didn't arrive on the Samsung Galaxy S5.
Nor does it have a 20 megapixel camera like the Nokia Lumia 930, but the same superb 13 megapixel camera as the G2 sported has been carried across to the G3, and with improvements.
Stunning good looks!
First impressions are certainly good. In fact the G3 looks fantastic. Close inspection reveals that the rear panel is in fact not metal but polycarbonate with a brushed metal overlay which adds strength as well as enhancing the look, and it does look much more like the premium finish of the HTC One M8 rather than the cheaper plasticky finish of the S5.
Unique button placement
The rear panel is similarly curved to the HTC too, and the size has been deliberately kept down by LG so that, in their words, it feels more like a 5 inch screened handset. It works too, and feels very pleasing to hold.
The power and volume buttons remain uniquely on the back, below the camera, but have been completely redesigned and now feel more comfortable. The 8.9mm depth is just about right while the phone actually looks wider than it is, from the front anyway, with the screen stretching almost to the edges thanks to LG's efforts to reel in the overall size but it is still a big phone.
Scratch resistant glass screen
A Gorilla Glass screen is almost a given now with even entry level handsets such as the Motorola MOTO E adding this as a standard feature, so it is no surprise to find one adorning the G3.
Beneath that shatterproof glass is that five and a half inch screen which has a stunning resolution of 2560 x 1440, which gives it a pixel density of 538 pixels per inch. This is a True HD screen, the first in the world in fact offering 4x the resolution of a 720p HD screen. And it's simply stunning.
Here's how the top 5 Android smartphones stack up in terms of screen size and pixels per inch:
The G3 is way above any of it's nearest rivals then, and it is this above anything else which LG hope will tempt you. There is no doubting the sharpness and clarity of the screen, and you certainly cannot see any pixels with the naked eye but it is also worth bearing in mind that we have now probably gone beyond the level which the eye can detect individual pixels once you go beyond the 400 PPI limit.
It is also worth bearing in mind that streaming and downloaded videos and so on are likely to be a maximum resolution of 1080p HD anyway, at least for a few years yet.
I certainly cannot detect individual pixels on any of the phones mentioned above. Remember Apple claim that their Retina display is at that "can't tell" level and the iPhone 5s only totes a PPI level of 326 PPI.
So it's really down to how big a screen you want, and there is no getting away from the fact that this is a big screen. To be fair, at least LG haven't overpriced this handset compared with several of those other flagship models which cost even more
Camera still 13 megapixels, but much improved
Not to be outdone by that superb screen, the 13 megapixel camera, although effectively the same one you saw on the LG G2, has now been improved with even better optical image stabilisation.
That's some feat because we didn't think there was anything wrong with it to begin with. Better focusing is the order of the day here with what LG refer to as laser autofocus which the Korean firm used a version of on their robotic vacuum cleaners.
This allows you to focus on your subject, and according to reports, it works too. Taking your photo is as simple as tapping the screen, and together with improved optical image stabilisation worries about blurry pictures and missed action shots now become a thing of the past.
Amazing 4K Ultra HD video recording
Video is superb too, in 2160p 4K Ultra HD of course and recorded at a super smooth 60 frames per second with stereo sound and image stabilisation, although just to bring us back down to earth the front facing video camera for your selfies is a mere 2.1 megapixels
The best of the rest
The remaining spec is pretty much the expected premium smartphone fare, with every form of connectivity you can imagine:
- Dual band Wi-Fi
- Wi-Fi Hotspot
- Wi-Fi Direct
- Infra Red remote control
- Stereo Bluetooth V4.0 LE
- NFC as used for contactless payments
- USB with USB Host
- Dolby Mobile sound enhancement
- Micro SD card slot accepting cards up to 128GB
- DLNA - View content on your TV via Wi-Fi
- GPS with A-GPS and GLONASS support
- FM stereo radio
Take a look at some of the features highlighted at the LG G3 London launch event:
All this is powered along by a quad core 2.5 GHz processor which will ensure the most powerful apps and games run smoothly. This is helped by 2GB of RAM memory on the 16GB version while the 32GB version has 3GB of RAM.
Our summary
LG are hoping to take a decent slice of the premium smartphone market with this handset and stand a very good chance of doing so. There is little to fault it for although it could be argued that the screen doesn't really look any better than the rest, even if the tech specs say it is.
But it is superb, there is no getting away from that. The camera is also fabulous, and the rest of the package is as good as anything else on the market. The inclusion of a memory card slot always wins points from 1st Mobile too.
But...
If there is a "but" it is the fact that LG have chosen to go with a plastic case rather than a full metal one as Sony and HTC have done, but it at least looks the part and feels like a premium product. There's no waterproofing here either but most of you won't worry about that.
Our number one is still the HTC One M8 but if you decide to go with the LG G3 there is nothing not to like here and we guarantee you will be extremely satisfied with your choice
