NEW YORK—Only eight months after the release of the LG G2, LG is taking the wraps off its latest flagship, the G3. This year's model ups the ante in the screen department, moving from a 5.2-inch display on the G2 to an even larger 5.5-inch LCD. (Mainstream flagship smartphones are now larger than the original Galaxy Note.) The G3's resolution is one of the highest ever in a phone at 2560×1400, which works out to a ridiculous pixel density of 538 PPI. For comparison, remember when Apple's "Retina Display" blew minds at 326 PPI?

In person, the display is gorgeous, though we aren't sure if you'll be able to tell the difference over the roughly 400 PPI that modern 1080p screens provide. Side-by-side with the 440 PPI Nexus 5, we couldn't decipher the upgrade. Ultra-high density displays like this need to exist for things like head-mounted displays (Facebook's Oculus Rift, for example), but we aren't sure a smartphone is the best application yet. Any pixels beyond what the human eye can see at an arm's length will just drain the battery faster.

Marketing departments and spec junkies love high PPI numbers, and it's fun to play the "can you spot a pixel" game, but this kind of pixel arms race is not really necessary at the moment. We would prefer "good enough" pixel density and a focus on battery life. For what it's worth, LG says it has put a lot of work into saving the battery from being eaten up by the 2k display with things like adaptive frame rate. Still, that doesn't change the fact that these extra pixels are wasteful. (What follows are first images from a brief hands-on, but we'll have a full look at what the display does to the battery life in an upcoming full review.)

Moving past pixels, LG's continued dedication to making bezels—and by extension, the device—as small as possible should be applauded. While the HTC One M8 and Samsung Galaxy S5 seem to be going backward with larger bezels, LG is charging ahead in the quest to trim off as much fat as possible. This trend coincides with one of our new favorite smartphone specs: "screen-to-bezel ratio." The previous leader was the G2, which had 75.7 percent of the front surface area dedicated to the screen. The G3 manages to top even that, with a 76.4 percent screen-to-bezel ratio.

Ron Amadeo









LG is grossly calling the shell of the phone "metallic" despite it being 100 percent plastic. Google defines metallic as "of, relating to, or resembling metal or metals," so LG can get away with "metallic" because the plastic vaguely resembles the look of metal. It's not as high of a gloss as previous plastics from LG, and we should note that even the demo units didn't get as greasy as some of the glossier phones can.

The G3 is powered by an 2.5Ghz Snapdragon 801, a 3000 mAh removable battery, and 16 or 32GB of storage with a microSD slot. The spec sheet lists 2 or 3GB of RAM, so we'll have to wait for the carrier variants to pop up before we see what options are available in America.

The camera is a 13MP sensor with laser autofocus, which is supposed to be faster and less error prone than optical autofocus. LG says the G3 can focus on something in .276 seconds. The display unit seemed fast, but this is something we really couldn't test in such a limited environment.

LG's trademark rear buttons are back. The volume and power buttons sit on the back of the phone around where your index finger falls. The power button is easy enough to hit, but the good news is that you will never need it since tap-to-wake functionality is built into the device. Double-tap on the screen and it wakes up.

While the hardware design looks great, the manufacturer skin is always a major point of concern with Android phones. LG has reskinned its UI to be as trendy-flat as possible, but, like with the G2, there are still over-the-top GPU-powered transformations. The first widget we touched needed to transition to a full-screen UI, so it unfolded like it was made out of paper and flopped into place on the screen, gently swaying back and forth before it settled into place. It might be due to the unfinished nature of the software, but the 2.5Ghz quad core seemed to struggle to keep up with some of these ambitious animations.

There have been some improvements, though. Like Samsung, LG has finally gotten with the program and replaced the menu button with a recent apps button. This fixes the discoverability problems we had with the G2.

LG's keyboard is now called "Smart Keyboard," and it attempts to make typing easier. Autocorrect suggestions appear in pairs, and to help minimize finger movements, the G3 lets you swipe up with your left or right thumb to pick one of the choices. LG has worked to make editing faster, too. Holding down on the space bar and moving left and right will move the cursor, saving you from having to try to poke between letters. The keyboard is even finally resizable. To change the height, just drag the top edge up or down.

"Smart Notice" will pop up Google Now style notifications on the home screen. If you decline a call from a contact and don't get back to them, it will remind you of the call after a period of time. It will also prompt you to uninstall apps you don't use and remind you to put the phone into battery saving mode when the battery is low.

"Smart Security" is another addition LG has made to its skin. This includes the returning Knock Code, which is a tap-to-wake system that requires a code to be entered made up of four quadrants on the screen. Other than that, there seems to be a few replicated features that are already part of Android, like remote wipe.







It seems that every OEM is building some kind of flip case that you can interact with, and LG is no exception. The G3 has a "QuickCircle" case, which is a flip case with a little circular window in it. Closing the case lights up on the little circle window, and it can display little mini apps like a clock, music player, or camera. It also alerts you to incoming calls and text.

The G3 will be out this summer in the US. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all signed up to carry it. Prices and release dates are up to the carriers, so we'll have to wait for that information. While we only had a limited amount of time to try out the G3, LG looks to have gone all out on the hardware this year. Until we can give it a proper review, though, we aren't so sure that the software will hold up. We'll be spending some time with the device before rendering a final verdict, so stay tuned for an in-depth look at the device closer to launch.