So I read all the reviews I could find on the G3 both here and anywhere else I could find a good hit on a Google search. Most of them said the same things - it's really small for a 5.5" phone, the screen is good but not overwhelming, performance is hit and miss and QHD isn't quite what the hype would lead you to believe. OK, well to me the QHD was tempting since it seems like it would benefit what I stare at the screen most for - reading. The rest sounded acceptable so I took a shot. Note in some areas I will compare to the HTC One M8 since I have one. Performance of the M8 s going to be really hard to beat. But we'll see.
First the basics. The phone is big. It's shorter than the M8 but wider. The plastic body feels just fine. LG did a nice job on it and it sits in the hand very well. The screen seems huge - your first impression is the phone is all screen. Very cool. Speaker sound is good. It's not overwhelmingly loud. I'm going to say it's about as loud as the M8. Slightly tinnier, but very good.
Performance does stutter. Scrolling lots of images stutters. Scrolling lots of text stutters. I disabled a ton of stuff. It still stutters. I loaded Nova launcher - still stutters. I left Nova on because even now we are STUCK WITH A 16 SLOT ICON GRID. Oh, come ON Google. Get out of the 90s already. But really the stutter isn't much of a problem. the phone catches up painting the screen very fast and the stutters are small fractions of a second. They don't slow anything down, they are just annoying.
But, the screen is awesome. Yes, it's better than the M8, even displaying the same content. Using it for reading is incredible, Text is visibly sharper and easier to read. Oddly, I streamed a movie off Netflix and performance was perfect. No stutter, no missed frames. Looked great and sounded good. So as a media gadget, THIS is your new toy.
Things I don't like - the base dialer and control panels are a rather nasty collection of colors. I'd really prefer the option for dark themes. I think I am going to swap out the dialer to something I can stand to look at. Control panel is WAAAAAAAY better than the G2. G2 was a hot mess. The G3 fixed it, mostly. Default launcher, aside from the pathetic grid, is nice and clean. The phone isn't M8 or Droid clean, but it's not a clutterfest like it used to be. Screen size is nicely compensated for in the dialer, where you can set it up to work one handed.
Overall I really like it. I hated the G2 just because the UI was *so* messy. This one is a vast improvement. The size is great. Where phones like the Note are just a bit too big for me to like carrying them, this one is fine - a good place between 5" and huge, helped by those narrow bezels.
If, like me, you were leery of the performance complaints, take this away from my experience. Yeah, there are some issues with performance in some cases. But like most things they are overblown by the tech blogs. True, there is some stutter. True, compared to the M8 performance isn't super smooth. But the thing is, while it's there it doesn't slow things down and when you are in an app everything seems OK. I haven't played any graphics intensive games (not my thing) but performance on streaming media is fine. I'm keeping this one. Love that screen. It's a thing of beauty. The phone just plain looks great. LG did a nice job here.
First the basics. The phone is big. It's shorter than the M8 but wider. The plastic body feels just fine. LG did a nice job on it and it sits in the hand very well. The screen seems huge - your first impression is the phone is all screen. Very cool. Speaker sound is good. It's not overwhelmingly loud. I'm going to say it's about as loud as the M8. Slightly tinnier, but very good.
Performance does stutter. Scrolling lots of images stutters. Scrolling lots of text stutters. I disabled a ton of stuff. It still stutters. I loaded Nova launcher - still stutters. I left Nova on because even now we are STUCK WITH A 16 SLOT ICON GRID. Oh, come ON Google. Get out of the 90s already. But really the stutter isn't much of a problem. the phone catches up painting the screen very fast and the stutters are small fractions of a second. They don't slow anything down, they are just annoying.
But, the screen is awesome. Yes, it's better than the M8, even displaying the same content. Using it for reading is incredible, Text is visibly sharper and easier to read. Oddly, I streamed a movie off Netflix and performance was perfect. No stutter, no missed frames. Looked great and sounded good. So as a media gadget, THIS is your new toy.
Things I don't like - the base dialer and control panels are a rather nasty collection of colors. I'd really prefer the option for dark themes. I think I am going to swap out the dialer to something I can stand to look at. Control panel is WAAAAAAAY better than the G2. G2 was a hot mess. The G3 fixed it, mostly. Default launcher, aside from the pathetic grid, is nice and clean. The phone isn't M8 or Droid clean, but it's not a clutterfest like it used to be. Screen size is nicely compensated for in the dialer, where you can set it up to work one handed.
Overall I really like it. I hated the G2 just because the UI was *so* messy. This one is a vast improvement. The size is great. Where phones like the Note are just a bit too big for me to like carrying them, this one is fine - a good place between 5" and huge, helped by those narrow bezels.
If, like me, you were leery of the performance complaints, take this away from my experience. Yeah, there are some issues with performance in some cases. But like most things they are overblown by the tech blogs. True, there is some stutter. True, compared to the M8 performance isn't super smooth. But the thing is, while it's there it doesn't slow things down and when you are in an app everything seems OK. I haven't played any graphics intensive games (not my thing) but performance on streaming media is fine. I'm keeping this one. Love that screen. It's a thing of beauty. The phone just plain looks great. LG did a nice job here.
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