LG G3

Available now
27th May 2014

Last year's LG G2 was undoubtedly one of the best handsets of the year, and the new LG G3 seeks to build on that by being bigger, better and faster than ever. But has the ever-increasing size of LG's flagship handset pushed the G3 beyond what is actually comfortable to use?

On the front of the G3 is a large 1440 x 2560 pixel display which boasts an awesome 538 pixels per inch. Inside is a fast quad-core 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU with either 2GB or 3GB of RAM (depending on market, we guess), 16 or 32GB of onboard flash plus a microSD slot (which is an improvement over the G2).

There is a 13 megapixel primary camera with optical image stabilisation and laser focus, plus a 2.1 megapixel secondary one for selfies. The LG G3 has a 3000 mAh removable battery, supports LTE high-speed data, NFC, Qi wireless charging plus all the usual smartphone features and it runs Android 4.4.2.

All of these specifications are a significant improvement over the G2 which wasn't exactly a slouch. But the 5.5" screen does make the G3 bigger than the G2. But how much bigger? In fact it is only about 11% bigger than the G2 and 6% bigger than the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5. The G3 is a lot lighter than the HTC and only marginally heavier than the G2 and Galaxy S5 as well. Cheaper rivals such as the lightweight Huawei Ascend P7 cannot compete on features, and the OnePlus One isn't as space-efficient as the LG. Overall the LG G3 is no more than 4mm wider than its HTC and Samsung competition.

In most cases the LG G3 beats the best of the rest quite comfortably, and it certainly seems at least a generation or two beyond the iPhone 5S as well.

The software has also been enhanced with various LG add-ons to make it smarter but while still retaining a minimalistic approach, including enhanced security features and an intelligent keyboard, and there's also a smart case that allows access to basic functions without removing the phone from the holder. Like the G2, the G3 has a control button on the back of the phone underneath the camera.

It's a bit more interesting to look at than the rather dull G2, although the LG G3 certainly lacks the wow factor of the HTC. Available colours are black, white, gold, violet and red (not all colours may be available in all markets) which is more choice than you get with most manufacturers.

Initial pricing for the LG G3 seems to be coming in at around £500 / €620 in Europe which makes the LG a bit cheaper than the Samsung or HTC alternatives, but a lot more expensive than the OnePlus or Huawei. LG say that the G3 should start to ship in Korea from the end of May and projected availability in Europe seems to be June or July.

It's hard to see where LG can fail with a device like this, but the G2 didn't quite make the impact it could have done in the market, and LG must surely be hoping for better things with the G3.