How sharp are your eyes? I'm asking because I remember having a debate with some twentysomething who was always bothered by the PenTile displays on some smartphones, saying they made the 720p HD screens on Motorola smartphones wiggly and indistinct.
It will take that level of optical precision to truly appreciate the absolutely insane 5.5-inch, 2,560-by-1,440 screen on the new LG G3 phone. I'm pushing age 40 myself, so across the standard home screen icons, I couldn't tell the difference from last year's 1080p LG G2 screen. The difference really cropped up when I summoned a video in a little, multitasking overlay window: it was absurdly, comically sharp, with text that was small enough to give me a headache. Call up a site like cnn.com in the Web browser, and text will be distinct even if the page is completely zoomed out. It never gets fuzzy – it just gets tiny. Once again, hope you have really sharp eyes.
The LG G3 wants to top the Samsung Galaxy S5 in so many ways. LG kept not-so-subtly calling that out in its presentation: laser autofocus is better than phase detection, they said, and IPS is better than AMOLED - in both cases, the latter technology is a flagship S5 feature. And just as it did with the G2, LG thoughtfully outdid Samsung in a few interesting ways, although not without quirks.
Take that back power key. The G3 is too wide for my hand, but it's still uncommonly narrow for a 5.5-inch-screen phone, at 2.9 inches wide. It's the narrowest phone you'll get with a screen this big. To pull that trick off, like on the G2, LG had to exile the power and volume buttons to the back of the phone. I found the G2's back power button to be really difficult to use, especially on the horrid Verizon version where it's really difficult to feel; the G3's button is much bigger, rounder, and easier to find.
Otherwise, the body design feels classy and more premium than the S5. It's not quite up to the HTC One (M8)'s level of naked metal beauty, but it's getting there. The phone has tapered edges and the plastic back is coated with a matte, metallic finish; it feels cool in your hand. The back is removable, with a MicroSD card slot under it. The headphone jack is on the bottom.
Like Samsung, LG loads up its phone with extra software, and like with the S5, LG seems to have tried not to let the software get in the way this time. In general, LG's visual approach is a little less aggressive than Samsung's, but it's pretty far from stock Android 4.4.2 KitKat.
There's the QSlide multitasking feature, which pops up secondary apps in a little window on the screen. LG also really plugs its Knock Code unlock function, which wakes up the screen with a series of taps so you don't have to find the rear power button; a new keyboard, which I tried and which felt pretty accurate, although I'd need to use it much longer to see if its adaptive functions really work as advertised; and Smart Notice, which unfolds a list of tips down your home screen. I love how Smart Notice auto-suggests things to delete to save space, because I'm always running out of space on my phone.
I'm a little concerned about the effect of the G3's highly animated UI transitions on performance. Smart Notice and home screen transitions went a little more slowly than expected; I can't tell if that was timed on purpose, though, or if processing complex 4K-resolution transitions is really dragging down the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor.
I'm also cautious about the phone's vaunted laser autofocus, though. The G3 has a 13-megapixel camera which is supposed to be super-duper fast to focus. When I was handling it, though, it didn't seem to be instantaneous by any means; focusing took a noticeable time like on any "normal" smartphone. I'm hoping that gets cleared up by launch.
The LG G3 isn't coming to market in the U.S. until summer. Like with the admirable HTC One (M8), its success will be more about marketing than about product quality. The G2 was a terrific phone - we used it as our test phone in Fastest Mobile Networks this year because it has an excellent modem - but I've seen relatively few in the wild here in New York. That's where the crazy screen resolution may come in handy