Adding a metal body to the recently launched LG G3 would have made the phone $300 (£179) more expensive, the company’s lead designer has said.

The LG G3 was officially unveiled last week following months of premature teases and leaks. Despite having been widely tipped to land with a premium metal finish, the QHD display hosting handset instead touched down with a cheap plastic body, skinned with a faux-metal effect.

With this lack of a premium build having disappointed many, LG’s Vice President of Mobile Design, Chul Bae Lee has spoken out on the decision, claiming there were a number of reasons for the move – primarily cost.

“ If you could charge $300 more for the phone, maybe we could make it metal ,” Lee said speaking with TrustedReviews.

Although LG has yet to formally announce an official LG G3 price, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8 rival has already popped up on a number of pre-order sites with a fee of around £499.

Despite the addition of the 2560 x 1440p QHD display, the LG G3 looks set to hit retailers almost £100 cheaper than the launch prices of the S5 or M8.

It’s not just cost that kept the G3 from featuring a metal form though. Lee has suggested that meeting certain design requirements ruled the high-end material out.

“To maintain the compactness of this phone, there is no other choice than this material,” Lee said.

“If I had applied metal to the G3 is would be much bulkier in the bezels and in all four directions. It would be very big and very heavy. It would be really slippery as well.”

He added: “What would be the best material for this phone? I don’t think metal would be the answer for that.”

Although suggesting metal would not be the optimum choice of material, Lee has ceded that the phone could have benefited from some more high-end touches.

He told us: “In order to show off the luxurious nature of the phone maybe we could have applied some high-end metal on the side or on the back, but I don’t really agree that the entire body has to be metal.”

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