5.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty good so far. has some flaws, but worth the money!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2015
After seeing some of the comments at first about Amazon supplying unsealed, non-UK phones in past reviews, I was a little concerned about purchasing this phone from Amazon, but I'm so glad I did. I can confirm that my phone was the UK version (with documents and charger intact), and that the box was sealed on delivery.
I've been using the phone for over a month now, so I wanted to provide an update to this review.
I originally returned a Sony Xperia Z1 back to amazon (due to some very poor faults), and purchased the LG G3 as a replacement. The LG G3 looked better than the Sony Xperia Z1 on paper, and was only priced at £300, making it seem like an absolute bargain.
Unlike some recent phones like the Sony Xperia Z3 or the HTC One M8, the LG G3's casing isn't really anything special to boast about as far as material and feel is concerned. The case does look gorgeous with its metallic design, but it is only plastic. The back cover does allow the device to charge wirelessly however, as the inside of the cover does have some metal pins/plates attached. If you do want to take advantage of the wireless charging, you can purchase an official LG wireless charger. The back cover is also removable, so not only can you change it for another LG case (such as the LG QuickCircle wireless charging case), but you can access the 3000mAh removable battery, the Micro SD slot and the micro SIM slot.
The power button and volume buttons are on the back of the phone, towards the top centre of the phone. Now this is a pretty unusual design, but it is surprisingly a lot more comfortable to use than other large phones such as the Sony Xperia Z1 (which had the power button placed on the right side of the phone frame). The positioning of the buttons are perfect, and it makes using the phone in one hand just that little bit easier, whether you're right or left handed. The 35mm jack and micro USB port is located on the bottom of the phone, but neither of them are covered up like on some of the other recent smartphones. As a result, that does mean that this phone is not water resistant, which depending on your usage, may not be that big of an issue.
Now some may find that the battery doesn't need to be removable, but considering that the battery was a major problem in the Sony Xperia Z1 for me (and it is a built-in one, meaning it couldn't simply be removed and replaced), I personally think that it is a major positive. At least if the battery fails, you can simply purchase a new one and replace it without having to go through the whole warranty process, and it won't have a negative impact on the phone.
The battery life itself has been a little disappointing. It certainly isn't the worst phone for battery life out there, but it's not great either. In standby mode, the battery drain is slower than the Sony Xperia Z1, which is a positive. But when using the phone, the battery can drain very quickly. 2-3 hours seems to be the standard on-screen time for the LG G3, and that can be with the majority of the settings turned off, and with the screen right down to 0%! But for the price, it's kind of expected that something like this may occur. And it is possible to get around this by purchasing an external battery pack for use while your out, so it can be easily overlooked in some cases.
Even though the LG will come with Android 4.4 installed, LG are now sending out Android 5.0 updates, which should be accessible by now. The new OS update certainly works better than the original OS that came with the phone, however, some people have been reporting issues with the LG G3 since the update. If you do have any issues after updating, it may be worth performing a factory reset (which you can find more about with a quick search on google). Although if you do, make sure that you back up any data that's on your phone that you want to keep, as the reset wipes the data on the device.
The general performance of the phone is good. It's pretty quick on the internet, and the apps work well too. But it does suffer from lag at times, which is easy to notice in menus and in the recent apps menu. It is possible with just a couple of changes in the settings and the removal of some widgets, to improve the performance on the phone.
The only area of the phone where performance needs to improve would be with the QuickCircle menu. The case and the QuickCircle functionality is good, but even after numerous updates, trying to access some of the apps like call logs or messages from the QuickCircle menu doesn't always work as smoothly as it should. However, LG definitely deserves the applause for the QuickCircle case/functionality. Even with its issues, it is an excellent feature, allowing the use of basic features on the phone like making a call or reading a new text message without having to open the QuickCircle case up and unlock the phone.
The QuadHD screen is pretty impressive too. While there has been a few instances where the colour quality hasn't been great in some circumstances, the picture quality is pretty sharp and amazing. LG really have created an amazing screen. Now some have questioned whether the QuadHD screen is the reason for poor battery life, but the Sony Xperia Z1 had the same issue, and the screen would have taken less power. It's more likely that the software itself is the reason for battery drain, as some have used the phone with a custom launcher, and have gotten double the on-screen time.
The KnockOn and KnockCode functionality works pretty well too. KnockOn basically allows the user to double tap the screen to get the phone out of standby mode, while KnockCode allows the user to tap on four different areas of the screen in a certain sequence to unlock the phone. It's does have it's moments where it won't work as well, but it is so convenient.
I tapped my Windows tablet screen earlier on at one point trying to get it out of standby mode because I do it so often with the phone. (It took me longer than it should have to figure out why the tablet wasn't working...)
The camera has actually surprised me on the LG G3. Compared to the Sony Xperia Z1, the camera on this phone has been producing much better, sharper and clearer images. The laser focus and the flash both work very well, and the phone shoots incredibly well in night/low-light scenes. With shots like sunsets/sunrises, or even just normal landscape shots or indoor/panormaic shots, the LG G3 has been performing consistently. The only issue with the camera is the zoom. Just like the Sony Xperia Z1, when you zoom in, you lose a large amount of detail, so don't expect to get a clear picture if you try zooming in to the object you want to shoot.
The front-facing camera is pretty impressive too. When using the LG Camera app, you can have the camera smooth out any flaws before you even press the shutter. Absolutely perfect for those who can't resist taking selfies. And even when taking photos in apps like Snapchat, the detail still looks great.
As well as the Google Play store, the LG G3 features the LG SmartWorld app store. Now usually, these sort of app stores are pointless in comparison to Google Play. However, I strongly recommend that you take a look at it if you plan on using the QuickCircle functions. There are apps on the SmartWorld store that add more apps to the QuickCircle, such as QuickTorch.
So far, at the current price, I would happily recommend this phone to those looking into purchasing a new phone. The LG G3 really is a brilliant phone, without all the gimmicks like "waterproof", "dustproof", "heart-rate monitor", which can be seen in the price.
I usually wouldn't say this, but when you consider the price of the phone and the brilliant specification of this phone, as well as the additional cost of getting a good battery pack, it would actually be more worthwhile to get this phone. I personally am happy to live with that one battery issue and spend just that little extra on getting an external battery to improve it. It really is worth getting and experiencing.
P.S. These are the 2 accessories that I use with my LG G3. While the case is personal preference, I would strongly recommend that you purchase the battery pack due to the nature of the battery consumption in the LG G3.
LG G3 QuickCircle Snap On Case (Black) - http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-QuickCircle-Snap-Case-Black/dp/B00LIX14V2/
Anker 2nd Gen Astro E4 13000mAh 2-port Portable Charger - http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00BQ5KHJW/
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