The Korean manufacturer LG, announced its new flagship, the giant LG G3 yesterday at a press event simultaneously in London, New York and San Fransisco. The phone will be Available as LG G3 D850/D855 for Europe and LG G3 LS990 for Sprint. The much-awaited phone’s specialty lies in its screen, which is of a QHD resolution, though its other specs are also quite high as expected. With the tag line of ‘Simple is the New Smart’, the phone will be available in South Korea from today, following to be released worldwide very soon.
The LG G3 has a True HD-IPS + LCD capacitive touchscreen 5.5″ display of 1440 x 2560 pixels resolution (~534 ppi pixel density), with 16M colors, which is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It supports a single micro-sim (GSM/CDMA), with LTE support on all models. Regarding the memory, the phone will be available in two versions of internal memory- 32 GB (with 3 GB RAM) and 16 GB (with 2 GB RAM), while both will have a micro-SD card slot of expandable memory upto 128 GB. The phone has NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Infrared, port and Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac for connections. The phone will have a 13 MP primary camera of 1/3” sensor size, simultaneous video and image recording of upto 2160p @ 30fps, and a 2.1 MP secondary camera having video recording of 1080p @30fps.
All these will be processed by a Qualcomm MSM8975AC Snapdragon 801 Quad-core 2.5 GHz Krait 400 CPU, while the graphical properties will be controlled by an Adreno 330 GPU. The phone will have a Li-Ion 3000 mAh battery, and its talktime is not revealed yet.
On the software side, the phone will have Android 4.4.2 KitKat out-of box.The South Korean giant is also boasting of a new custom UI developed for the LG G3, calling it a ‘simple flat GUI’, using minimalistic designs, with light typesetting and circular motifs that pervade the whole UI from the icons to the QuickCircle notification area. The multitasking UI has also been given a tweak, with app grouping and symbols to help differentiate when switching. The company is also touting three ‘smart’ features on the LG G3’s UI, namely Smart Keyboard, Smart Notice, and Smart Security. The Smart Keyboard tries to minimise hand (thumb) and eye movement, with the keyboard able to slide up and down when required, and more. It also features adaptive touch and predictive typing. Smart Notice is the company’s virtual assistant, that provides the ‘right notifications at the right time’, based on the phone’s usage and status. Smart Security comprises Content Lock, Knock Code, and Kill Switch remote features.
It will be available in Metallic Black, Silk White, Shine Gold, Moon Violet, Burgundy Red color options, while physically it will measure 146.3 x 74.6 x 8.9 mm (5.76 x 2.94 x 0.35 in), weighing 149g. Its other features will include Dolby mobile sound enhancement, USB On-the-go, Java MIDP emulator, Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, phase detection/laser autofocus, optical image and video stabilization, dual-LED (dual tone) flash etc.
Price
The LG G3 is availaable for pre-order in the UK for £499, in Singapore for S$868 (16 GB) and S$ 928 (32 GB), in Australia for around AU$799 (16 GB).
Availability
While those living in South Korea will naturally get their hands first on the LG G3 on May 28, customers in Singapore will have to wait for a month — June 28, to be exact. But this is still earlier than if you were in the UK, where the the phone will only go on sale on July 1, or in the US, where no dates have been confirmed.
Overview
The LG G3 will face a strong competition in the smartphone market with other flagships, notably the iPhone 5S, Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 3, Google Nexus 5, Sony Xperia Z2 and OnePlus One. While LG has a small but steady market share in the smartphones, the LG G3 is also expected to sell in its own way. It’s a good phone indeed, and it has moved further the war of the screen resolution of the flagships, with its Quad HD Display.
